Puccini's La Dolce Vita

one of the  best italian resturant in bloomington,   we went there to celebrate one of our  freind birth day, so we orderd 7 foods and the food was so fast and quick and the pasta was excellent  ,  i had the best food of my life and the deserts was awesome, i had Tiramisu in othere italian resturants wich wasnt that great, i had Tiramisu in  there wich was great and taste! so I'd recommend it for date night and other special parties!

Like having a fine dinner in an victorian style house (fancy one at that).The cream sauce on the penne pasta was rich and flavorful. The also have an excellent and herby pesto sauce. Intimate and romantic, makes for a great place to celebrate a special occasion.

On a side note when the background music stopped playing I actually felt it necessary to whisper, because it was so deathly quiet.

Dave and I stopped in here after 1. Upland had a 40 minute wait, 2. I didn't want to go to Scotty's, and 3. Finch's was closed.  We walked down 4th St. and I've never noticed this place before, so we stopped in.  

For a Sunday night, they were absolutely dead.  Literally the Italian side of the restaurant was Dave and I and a table of 7 loud girls celebrating a birthday.  

The decorations and atmosphere are sad.  However, the waiter told us they will be undergoing some major renovations soon and will be having a grand reopening Vday weekend.  I am totally interested to see what happens.  

The food:

app: bruschetta- actually really good, considering tomatoes aren't exactly in season right now

entrees: Dave: lasagna the size of his face.  also really, really good
me: Pasta bella- a huge, bowl of vegetarian pasta.  Fettuccine noodles in a tomato-saffron sauce with olives, olive oil, artichoke, feta cheese, and spinach.  I really enjoyed this.

dessert: chocolate cake.  AMAZING cake.  not terribly sweet or heavy- just different layers of chocolate heaven.  

Our waiter was a little awkward but super attentive and nice.  I'd recommend it for date night, especially after they do the renovations