Cafe Stella Modern Italian Cuisine & Bar

Cozy downtown Flagstaff Italian with house-made pasta and a loyal following

(600)

$$$$Flagstaff, AZ

About

Cafe Stella is a cozy Italian spot tucked into an alley just off Aspen Avenue in downtown Flagstaff, about 80 miles south of the South Rim — a solid dinner stop if you're staging out of Flagstaff rather than Tusayan. With a 4.5 rating from 600 reviews, it's built a loyal following for fresh pasta made in-house and a warm, charming dining room.

What to order

Reviewers keep coming back for the same handful of dishes: sausage and mushroom pasta, chicken alfredo, mushroom ravioli, and a Tuscan salmon pasta that one diner said made the table go quiet for a minute. Start with the garlic bread or house salad, and save room for tiramisu if you like your dessert heavy on espresso. Portions run on the smaller side for the price, so this isn't the place to show up starving and expect to roll out.

Good to know

Price: $$ (moderate)
Hours: closed Mondays; otherwise dinner service most nights, with weekend brunch/lunch hours Wednesday through Sunday
Reservations: weekends fill up — one recent reviewer got shut out on a same-day try over a long weekend

The outdoor seating sits in the alley itself, which has its own scrappy charm after dark but is worth a quick look before you commit to a table there in daylight. Inside is the better bet if ambience matters more than people-watching.

Reviews (600)

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4.5

600 reviews

Google Reviews

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kathy Carmichael

in the last week

We had a reservation for a week. $20 per person if you cancel. They seated us next to the beverage service station! Why is there a table here? Ridiculous!

Fritz Porter

in the last week

I cannot recommend avoiding this place enough. We waited an unreasonably long time for our food, only for the pasta dishes to arrive completely cold. We also ordered a Caprese salad—a dish that relies on fresh ingredients—but what we received tasted completely unfresh, almost like it came from a can. We sent the pasta back to be heated up, and while we waited, I visited the restroom. To put it delicately, it was a severe biohazard. The toilet was covered in human excrement, and a trash can was overflowing with empty tampon applicators. Sickened, I immediately informed our server. He apologized, but in a strangely unsurprised, apathetic manner—as if this was a regular occurrence. We told him we were leaving immediately, but he still made sure to charge us full price for the subpar salad before we walked out the door. Terrible food, nonexistent hygiene, and poor management. Eat anywhere else.

Robin Porter

in the last week

Mike and Kath R

a week ago

This is a scratch kitchen. I cannot believe we’ve been downtown and I’ve never been in - this restaurant opened three years ago - and I can tell you right now we will be back. We want to try the pastas for dinner. The lunch portions are wonderful. We would highly recommend and they have a wonderful bar set up and cocktails.

abbey mackie

a week ago

My friend and I were seated and waited 30 minutes for a cocktail with less than 5 tables full. We ended up walking out because it was such an excessive wait. The table behind us had the wrong food brought out and the waitress said something like, “do you want it anyways, it’s like kind of the same” - I’m so glad we walked out and didn’t stay.