Met owners, Tom and Marna, randomly at a Home Depot a few weekends back and they were so kind we had to try their restaurant. What a WONDERFUL experience! The atmosphere was so welcoming, staff very friendly and upbeat, and the food was to die for! All homemade pasta with sauces full of flavor (recommend the artichoke/brie with squid ink fusilli). Wholesome Italian environment, perfect for a date night or family dinner.

Only been here once. Maybe a little pricey. Maybe not when you consider the quality of the food. Meal was excellent!! I like the outdoor seating but some seats put you very close to a different table. Almost felt like we were eating with the couple next to us.Would definitely go back!!

This is the best Italian restaurant in town! We love this place, the ingredients are so fresh and the ambiance of the old building and open doors in the spring and summer months is perfection. Their wine list is amazing, but my personal favorite is the dessert. Their chocolate torte is out of this world, and my husbands favorite is the key lime pie. Not to mention the servers are incredible. Highly recommend this spot for a date night or get together with friends and family!

Have dined here a great handful of times and the food is almost always a cut above the rest! The tomato bisque - outstanding flavor! Bison meatballs were moist and tasty. My dates bolognese was outstanding. My shrimp pesto gnocchi was disappointing to the point that I didnt want to eat it. It was lacking depth and a little oomph. Im surprised it was boring, as many of the other pastas Ive tried have knocked it out.

Very quaint, cute spot that takes reservations! Amazing food with solid gluten/ grain free options (can sub zoodles or spaghetti squash for pasta - hefty portion!). I had the Bolognese. I think it’s important to remember that our restaurants are having hard times right now! Yes, we did have a little confusion with the staff and our reservation but it got sorted out. The staff was genuine and cared. If you’re in a hurry, go elsewhere! We are grateful we can go out to eat and support a local place.

The spaghetti Bolognese was good, but too heavy on the wine. You shouldnt be able to taste the alcohol in a sauce.The creamy rigate was very good.

Staff was very attentive and the food was delicious. But parking sucked. Took 15 mins to do finally find a spot 1 block away!

Service was incredibly slow. The menu was odd and confusing. None of us think we even got what was on the menu.The gluten free options are spaghetti squash or zucchini noodles.If you want meat, expect to be adding like $5 to the bill.We sat on the patio, and someone turned the heat off so we froze for 30 minutes until we could finally get the attention of a server to turn the heat back on.We had high hopes but we wont be back.

This has been my first experience out since quarantine but I feel like it was still just amazing. I savored every fight and it was worth it. We have gorgonzola cheese dip with the fresh fruit and bread it was phenomenon. My boyfriend had the lasagna that had a beautiful flavor. I had the asparagus truffle pasta, it was clean and fresh and with arugula changed the flavor just slightly.

Truly authentic Italian. Service is impeccable.

Place was awesome. Server was excellent and very attentive. Was able to get my son what he wanted which was totally off menu. Food was heavenly and just 0plain awesome. Atmosphere was quiet and relaxing! Would go again!

Weve always loved Stella for their food and beautiful patio (that we hope to return to soon!). I used to always get the sausage rigate (which is always delicious and filling) but recently I have opted for the Steak Gnocchi. We also got bruschetta, the spaghetti arribiata, and Alfredo for the kiddos. Everything was well packed for plating, and delicious as usual. Check out that steak, perfectly cooked!

They make the best tomato Basil bisque I think Ive ever had. Would love to get that recipe. Also the service was top notch. I didnt get the pretty blonde girls name, but she was so nice and brought me some bruschetta to try and it was so good. As if it couldnt get any better, I had a slice of flour less chocolate cake that I had to take home for later and I am savoring every bite. One of my favorite spots in Denver.

Food was decent. Staff was friendly but that’s where it ends. We were told a 30 minute wait which turned into an hour. The first three types of wine I ordered they said they were out of. The apps came before our drinks. Chaotic place. Can’t say I’ll rush back.

Best Italian food Ive had in a while and the staff were amazing . Sweet sweet crew

Delightful, authentic Italian Restaurant in The Highlands. A unique feel of Italy in Denver! The lasagna was fresh with the sweet taste of basil coming through the layers that take your taste buds to another level! There is a difference in the texture and flavor of genuine Italian food preparation that comes through on all the dishes at Trattoria Stella. The bread is addictive and served with EVOO.The desserts are the best in Denver! Come visit this trendy community and be an integral part of the experience.

I love this little place. Its quite the find. Its a quaint Italian style house Cafe. The starters are smaller and different than chain restaurants which I like. The entrees are decent to larger portions. Try the 32nd St pasta if you like shrimp; its killer good. Parking is a bit of a challenge so get there early.

My wife and I always enjoy our dinners here. The food is always consistently excellent.

I never post reviews, but my experience was so terrible, I wanted to alert other families. This restaurant is family UN-friendly and the staff visibly cold and unattentive. I went there with two toddlers, with several open tables. I asked how long it would take to be served, because I had two hungry toddlers. They didnt bring us menus, and when I went to get some, the maitre d was annoyed, though she was clearly prepping menus to give to a party that was about to sit down. They didnt ask if we needed a booster chair. No one took our order, so after waving down a waitress multiple times, we finally got our order in. I specifically requested to go light on a sauce due to a dietary constraint. When the food came, my plate was covered in sauce like soup, and the gnocchi was actually fried tater tots that even my 4 yr old wouldnt eat (I tried to pawn them off on him since I was hoping for gnocchi, not tater tots). No one asked us if we needed anything or looked our way even once, so I finally had to get up to ask to bring more cheese for the childrens pasta with red sauce, which was too spicy for my son to eat. Why would a childrens sauce be spicy anyways? And to top it off, the waitress and maitre d didnt wait to snicker about us until we were out of eyesight when we left. I witnessed it right after I left the table. Its nights like this that make a family choose to stay in. I will not visit Trattoria Stella again.

Solid classic Italian food, great atmosphere if your eating in

Arrived solo around 8pm on a comfortable Sunday night. The hostess was busy preparing seats in an almost full house, yet I was seated within 5 minutes.The place gives off a nice hole-in-the-wall feel, very reminiscent of Bostons North End. I was able to sit toward the end of the outside patio toward the street, which was a nice way to spend my visit.The crowd was lively, and I felt at home. I ordered a glass of wine ($11) and spaghetti bolognese ($16). The wine was fantastic, while the spaghetti was sub and small portioned.The waiter was pleasant enough, although reacted poorly to my wine choice (I dont like dry wines, but whatever you want) and strangely to my food order (good, because we are out of other things). When I got my food, he said (are you good?) in an informal way, which I found strange as well.Overall, a pleasant experience and I would come back to try another meal. Good for families or couples.

Super cute open air Italian restaurant. I love that their outdoor seating is tiered so even though our table was just inside the doors it still felt like we were outside. Awesome daily specials. Pasta is mad fresh in house. Caprese salad was good. All the pasta we had was delicious. Excellent service ! And their chocolate cake was super yummy !!

Best Italian! Everything is made from scratch. Fair pricing. Servers are always nice. Small restaurant with cozy feel, great atmosphere.

We enjoyed all the aspects of our experience here including service, food, drinks, and ambience. The food portions are not large, but that is a GREAT thing in my opinion. I didn’t leave there feeling gross like I do at most Italian restaurants. Highly recommend!

Me and my partner had the absolute best dinner there during our stay in Denver. Excellent food, wine, and service - even the playlist was perfect. The gnocchi was out of this world, and I definitely recommend the brie starter. Wonderful food, wonderful staff, incredible kitchen, lovely date-night spot I hope to try again very soon!

We might be making this place our new go-to brunch place on Sundays. The food was AMAZING!! Great service as well. We can’t say enough great things.

Incredible vegetarian dish with spaghetti squash noodles...and my husbands dish of spinach noodles with asparagus and truffle oil....delish...paired with their great wines as well. We will be back!!!!

The food is incomparable! The service is wonderful and we were blown away at the quality and depth of our food. Never been to Italy, but hands down the best authentic Italian Ive ever had (for a southerner). When in Denver I highly, highly recommend eating here.

Food was good and the waiter ok. They were short on staff, so our service was affected of it. But the most important we had a good time!

One of my new favorite Italian spots! Food was incredible. Will definitely be going here a lot now!

We used to love this place. New Cook not as good as the one a couple of years ago. 😔 Although the desserts are homemade and great 👍friendly service.

Great atmosphere, friendly service. They were playing some old soul and funk music that our group really enjoyed. We will be back. The food was great also.

Trattoria Stella was one of the only places I was willing to pay restaurant prices for pasta at, so I made a reservation when I saw they were participating in Denver Restaurant Week. The Restaurant Week menu was for a 3 course meal consisting of an appetizer, a salad and an entree. The salad and the appetizer were very small and the entree was not even close to the standard that I was used to. I always get the Creamy Sausage Rigate because it is one of my favorite pasta dishes. On this occasion the pasta was over cooked and mushy. The sauce was less flavorful than I am used to and it seemed almost watered down. On top of the issues with the food, the waitress didn’t once ask us how our food was and when we offered up our concerns and asked if there was a new chef she briefly stated that the chefs alternate nights. She did not apologize or try to explain much further but rather just walked away. I hope this experience was an outlier, but it will be difficult for me to build up a craving to want to return.

Food was great and prices werent ridiculous. Staff were also really nice.

Great food and excellent service! She even gave our little dog a bowl of water. 😊

Terrific! Great atmosphere and delicious dishes!

Such hit or miss… the food is delicious but their customer service is generally terrible and they are inconsistent with portion sizes and occasionally cheap out on portions. When I asked for more they act like it’s their new way of servicing when I come her weekly and know that’s BS. Sometimes I get a good amount and sometimes I get a quarter of what I got previously. Very frustrating…

Our best dinner in Denver so far!

Very delicious & great service. No happy hour at highlands location!

Ive gone to Stella many times over the years. While I dont think the food is quite solid as it once was many years ago, I still love coming to Stella for a delicious pasta dish! I enjoy sitting on the front porch when its warm out (or when its cold-- it is very well heated!). Last week I tried brunch for the first time, where I got an avocado toast dish. While the toast wasnt toasted (a disappointment), it was a nicely put-together disk with lots of avocado!

There was a hiccup with my part of our order and they refunded the whole ticket, which is so nice and makes me feel bad. My husband loved his dish though! Thank you again for that it was beyond necessary and very appreciated.

Heaters outside, nice table arrangements, literally the best Italian meal I’ve ever had! 32nd shrimp pasta was to die for!! So glad we found this place!

Restaurant week with friends. The food was very good, the portions were great. Try it next time you ate in Highlands.

People getting their purses stolen in the restaurant, and the staff doesnt even care.

Unbelievable recipes well prepared

We were just in Italy for a month and this meal was very similar to the foods we ate over there.

Enjoyed our lunch on the patio. Large portions at a reasonable price.

The food was great, we had some of the specials for Denver restaurant week including the gorgonzola appetizer, the vodka pasta and 32nd street pasta. The atmosphere is so quaint and relaxing, with a very awesome open air feel. The chocolate moose and tiramisu are amazing! The staff was also very kind and attentive, definitely a place I felt comfortable at. Would highly recommend to anyone looking for a great meal!

Very rustic and quaint at the Highlands location. We were there at 3:15 pm on Saturday and were the only guests - perfect time to visit.

Bison meatballs with Heavenly cheese grits are AMAZING!! The cheese dip though, with that delicious bread, both of these are just in the appetizers... this is a must in Denver!!!

My family and I thoroughly enjoyed the food, atmosphere, and service. Dining here made our Denver experience 100x better.

Big portions. Great outside patio. Very relaxed.

Fantastic food and very nice owner.

The food was exceptional and most of the dishes could be made gluten free so that was a bonus. The dishes were innovative, flavorful and reasonable portions. The only reason we didnt give 5 stars is because we had such a terrible server. We sent 2 dirty glasses back and she never replaced them, she didnt check on us once during dinner, we had to ask her repeatedly for things and, quite frankly, she seemed like we were bothering her by being there. We will always support this restaurant by ordering take out but were not likely to go back & dine in.

If I could give this place less stars I would. “Bolognese “ tasted like Chef Boyardee. Ordered to go, was told 45 min wait, arrived after 45 min, was told it would be 15 min, left, came back after 15 min, then was told it would be another 10 min; all just to finally get my “Bolognese” that tasted liked canned food.

I ordered last night for restaurant week and was very disappointed with the whole experience. My online order was #129769316, and it was supposed to be ready for pickup by 8:30, when we got there it wasnt ready for another 20 minutes at 8:50. The blonde server didnt seem to know what all was included in my order even though there was a receipt, or concerned that I ordered it almost an hour ago. I live near Sloans less than 10 minutes away and when I got home all my food was cold. They gave me only a couple of ounces of soup literally the cup was only filled an inch, didnt give me the tomato brushetta, and only one little square of foccacia for the stella dip and one little slice brie that I paid for. Ive eaten at this location several times, but I dont known if I ever will again after spending almost $80 on a skimpy, bad quality take out order.

Cute little spot in a hip neighborhood. Good old fashioned Italian food. Great service. Nice modifications for the outdoor dining only Covid restrictions!

Great food, cute spot!

Delicious food at a fair price in great atmosphere!

I took my to best friends here and we loved it. Great food and atmosphere!

Great food, service and location. Definitely recommend!

Amazing restaurant. Very great food and wine list. Potato gnocchi was very yummy and brussel sprouts are amazing. Good for small and large groups.

Always a favorite!

The 32nd St. Pasta was to die for. I will definitely be back.

First time getting togo since the pandemic and service was just as good as ever. Food is amazing as always!

The ambiance and service was 5 stars, but the food was 3 stars because the pasta was under seasoned (we added a good amount of salt and red pepper flakes - necessary) and a little bland. However, the desert (we got the blueberry cheesecake) was incredibly delicious. You can tell that it’s made from scratch because it was creamy, so flavorful and fresh.

Every single thing Ive ordered has been amazing. If your looking for an extra pasta place, this is it! I recommend the 32nd street pasta and blackberry italian soda. ♥️

Love it we come all the time. The only thing is that no one ever bothers to learn our names. We been sitting in the same spot for over a yr now. Love this place but not very personal. Still we will continue to come. 👌💯

Absolutely phenomenal. Are pasta dishes are out of this world, and the desserts are extremely good. Cant wait to go again.

When I say I love Italian food I mean I could eat it daily! This is a cozy place, feels like going to an Italian Grandmas house. Food is outstanding as is the staff. Only negative I might have to say about is it was a little too dark inside n only one bathroom. But, really no complaint. Absolutely perfect for a date night!!!

My husband and I tried Trattoria Stella on date night when I finally said yes to Italian. It. Was. Great! We had the mussels for a starter and we both had pasta for dinner. Both pastas were amazingly tasty. I got the special, which was an egg spaghetti, and telling myself to stop eating to take some home was a true test of my self control. We will certainly be back and cannot wait to see what other delicious things await us on the menu!

Everything was delicious! Ingredients were very fresh and tasted so good! Highly recommend this place!

The food was awesome and the ambiance is incredible on the heated patio with the winter snow. The hostess was warm, welcoming and very kind.The service, however, was poor. Our server, Angela, was cold and totally overwhelmed. I suspect the restaurant layout with the tiered sections is to blame. Management should consider making server sections smaller so that each table can be adequately served.Angela only stopped by a few times. The first time when she took our drink order, the next time when she took our food order, and the final time to half-heartedly inquire if we wanted dessert “or just the check.” Sadly, our order was incorrect (we never received our appetizer) and she offered to remove it from our bill. She acted like she was doing us a favor by not charging for something we never received.I’ll pass on returning until they hire more servers or maybe in the future I’ll get takeout so I don’t feel obligated to tip for sub par service.

I have lived in Denver for 10 years, and Trattoria Stella is one of the best kept secrets in the city. Go there and you won’t be disappointed. Home-made pasta, great prices, amazing service, and always a wonderful experience. Don’t hesitate-go!

A really nice Italian restaurant. Nice menu, reasonable prices, good food and excellent service. In the summer they have a covered patio for outdoor dinning

Very good. Both myself and my wife enjoyed our meals. Only reason for 4 is the need to come back and try more selections. Dessert was top notch too.

Dont judge this book by its cover, it looks like a house not a restaurant. AMD that is the style of food you will get. Grandmas home made Italian food. I have been to Italy and can say that this IS SO GOOD! Great staff, and Sundays are $10 bottle of wine!!!

A great realistic replica of an Italian cafe

So happy we stumbled across this adorable restaurant! The special was absolutely amazing. Everything was amazing. It far exceeded our expectations and will be a regular stop for future trips.

Food and service was decent. Would be a 4 star however they kept cranking the heat on the patio for any guest who asked. The heat made our visit very uncomfortable. No exaggeration, the bread on our table started over cooking from the heat radiating down from their patio heaters. We asked once to have it turned down, however the next guest in said it was too cold and back to frying we went. Management needs to take control of this issue. We will be back in the summer time to give them another shot.

This is what I imagine a trattoria feeling like in italy! Homey feel, kind staff, and incredible food. Good wine & good value - our go-to place to take visitors to show them a welcoming feel

So far the best italian food.

High quality food and great service from Ruby.The shrimp gniocci is super rich and delicious. Excellent place for a nice evening on the town.

Amazing food. Lovely people that own/manage/work there.

Delicious, unique, made to order. Loved my 29th street pasta with shrimp.

You literally cant go wrong with this place. Had the spaghetti arregiatta and 32 street pasta. So different, yet so perfect! Had the prosciutto asparagus also which was amazing!

Great experience. Great food. Great environment. I ordered the steak gnocchi, with a bottle of the house rose wine. For dessert we had the tiramisu. Our waitress was this nice and pretty women named Kayla (although not spelled the same way). I would recommend her highly. Please Trattoria owners, if you see this... Sponsor me so I can have all the steak gnocchi I want. Im craving it still.

Very nice small restaurant! We ate one the patio it was awesome! The food & the service were both great....will definitely go back but recommend making a reservation !

Always a pleasure. Desserts are also delicious. Lasagna is super yummy, but not always vegetarian of that matters to you

Really good Italian food and they also have a great wine selection. We were there late and they were out of the daily special that I originally wanted. Went with the basic spaghetti Bolognese and it was anything but basic. Great flavor and perfectly cooked pasta. The wine we had was so I good I immediately went to the store to buy some!

Fabulous food and service. One of my faves!

Great service and atmosphere! I had the lunch special half lasagna and salad. The lasagna noodles are thick and chewy and I loved it! The dressing on the salad was amazing!

Pricey $20.00 spinach spaghetti

Im not sure if it was us or the food that was tasteless but there was not much of a flavor to the lasagna we got. You could taste the zuchini in it but otherwise not even the cheese had much flavor. We also got a spaghetti option and that was the same, no flavor. I know this pace has been good in the past and maybe this was an off day for them but it will be awhile before we go back.

Take review with grain of salt, covid does alter things. But service was a tad slow, but the server was very friendly, might be a bit short staffed even with covid. They serve a great variety of pastas with plenty of low calorie and vegetarian options. I had the Bolognese, it was good, but wasnt as savory and deep in flavor as Im used to with a long simmered Bolognese sauce and slightly watery. The pasta itself was perfectly Al dente and had that chewy homemade taste so well done there. Great prices for drinks and wine was good, but slightly limited in options. Overall good, just not great.

Food was excellent service was great I will definitely be back for this one.

Great food, great atmosphere (when dine in was allowed pre-covid). Had a great small restaurant feel that is classy.

Ate here for lunch today. The food was great and the young man that was our server (I believe he said his name was Josh) was amazing. He helped make our dining experience. Would recommend to anyone.

Some of the best Italian in Denver!!! Great service and welcoming environment!!! Excellent price range especially for the area!! Highly recommended

Great food, amazing service, and beautiful establishment! The menu items were so original and tasty, and we enjoyed the soups, salads, and desserts as well. The 32nd street pasta was to die for! The best dessert to get is the Tiramisu 😍