Cozy downtown Flagstaff Italian with house-made pasta and a loyal following
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.
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.
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.
645 reviews
3 months 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.
5 months ago
THE BEST MEAL OF OUR TRIP TO FLAGSTAFF! Cafe Stella was absolutely incredible. When I made a reservation for our anniversary dinner, they put us in a nice, quiet corner table by the window which was perfect. The service was fantastic too. And the FOOD! Oh, the food. The 300+ year old marinara sauce recipe was incredible, a great pairing with the BEST garlic bread. The bread was perfectly crispy on top but soft and delicious inside. The pasta here is made in house and is cooked to a perfect al dente. My husband loved his fennel sausage and mushroom pasta; and I thoroughly enjoyed my chicken fettuccine alfredo. I cannot recommend this place enough. In fact, I'll be dreaming of this meal for a long time to come!
3 months ago
What a gem! We came in hungry. My daughter ordered the Sausage & Mushroom Pasta. I ordered the Salmon Tuscan Pasta. We shared an order of the garlic bread just to hold us over until our meals came. The bread was delicious. Then our meals came out. To describe then in one word - Wow! So delicious. We didn't even talk for the first few minutes. Cooked to perfection. I tried hers, she tried mine. We both agreed that we could have been happy with either. We ate our fill and each took half home to enjoy the next day. We have nothing but good things to say about the meal. The 4 out of 5 was for the plastic flowers used in the outdoor display. 😏
3 weeks ago
Quaint, clean, and friendly staff! The food was out of this world. I highly recommend trying this place if you can! I had the mushroom and cheese ravioli, and a salmon salad. Every bite was worth every penny!
4 months ago
This place seems to have been many different restaurants over the years. The advertising of fresh pasta was enticing and they definitely feature the pasta which was tasty and had the right texture. The problem was the small portion of protein in the dishes. My chicken was about a 1/4 breast and there was one fresh mozzarella slice buried below the pile of pasta, I almost missed it. The other food was good and service was timely and accurate. If you are going to sit outside, check it out first as you are in an alley. We went before sunset and could see all the back alley blemishes. The inside is cozy and nice.