Bella Italia (www.bella-italia.com) has a 2.6 out of 5 rating on OK.one, based on 100 user reviews collected here. It is listed under Restaurants & Bars and its reputation is poor. 49% of reviews are 1 star, a relatively high share; The business has not yet replied to negative reviews; 27 of them were added in the last 12 months. Last updated 2026-09-05.
The restaurant is consistently good, the staff, especially Richard, are warm and friendly. They are very clued up on their menu and will 'Tweak' the dishes to your preference. The food is good and hot, never lukewarm like some. I really do love this place and it is my go to when we are in town.
Went to Burton-on-Trent branch today. My partner had a cheese burger and chips, he was happy with his meal. However I ordered mushroom risotto, not pleased at all, scimped on the mushrooms and the risotto was awful stodgy with no taste. Including salad and 2 drinks cost us nearly £50.
Some other reviewers have referenced unhappy staff at various Bella Italias but we found the manager at the one in South Kensington London just about the friendliest and happiest person you could wish to have serve you your food etc. I think his name was Alessandro (he definitely came from Napoli). The food was really good (4 stars) but the service was 6 stars (out of five) !
4 of us had a meal on a Monday evening. I ordered an Ultimate Calzone. It look unlike any Calzone I'd ever seen before. It was badly cooked and tasted terrible. The 3 pasta dishes were OK, although no effort was made with presentation. The Lasagne was a trivet of lasagne with no accompaniments, and the Spaghetti was just that - a pile of spaghetti dumped on top of the some meatballs. At least the pasta was edible. Foolishly, I did eat the Calzone which was virtually inedible, but it did take me 2 or 3 days to recover.
Service was appalling, but meal was very nice. It did appear they were short of staff but priority was given to 'Just Eat, etc ' collections, 8 collections came in within a half an hour so we had to wait over hour for our meal, no apologies for the delay. Husband ordered a second wine which came as large when he ordered medium. Saw a couple of customers come in but due to time waiting to be seated - they left!! Another table left due to time waiting to be served. Need to employ more staff for table service and chefs to prepare the meals for both 'collections and customers'
Went for a meal as a party of 3 at Salford Quays before going to see a show at the Lowry on Saturday evening. They managed to fit us in without a booking and made sure that we had time to enjoy two courses from the menu. We all chose differently from the menu choice and all thoroughly enjoyed the quality of food. We were treated to a free limoncello afterwards as well - Thank you.
Ordered the Bolognese. The worst I’ve had. It was absolutely bland and tasteless and there was hardly any sign of any bolognese. It was served warm and not hot. Also ordered garlic bread which was burnt and black at the edges. There was no offer of Parmesan cheese. The meal was served as a dump and run and as I was seated outside there was no chance of getting her back with some cheese.
Bella Italia is a joke. We went to the Telford branch and ordered a mocktail for my grandson, who is a minor, and they gave us the alcoholic cocktail instead. We only noticed as he had a headache and the back of his eyes began hurting. Oh dear. The pizza was an utter disaster too with little-to-no cheese and a tight-fisted attitude towards toppings. Most of the staff were nice, aside from one woman who was angered by our very presence, but the waiting times were hilariously long. Again, Bella Italia is a joke. We shan’t be gracing them with our presence again, and I suggest you take the same course of action. Zizzi’s is highly recommended, conveniently located opposite this monstrosity of a restaurant in Telford.
Visited Bella italia in Portsmouth, coffee was boiling milk with a pinch of coffee. Tasteless and foul. Pizza had no cheese and the barest of topping. Had better from a supermarket at £3. For 2 meals and 2 coffees over £48. The noise ( music ) was overpowering and difficult to be at ease with. Never again
Another outlet of this popular franchise...this time Trafalgar Square. Following our visit to the National Gallery and the Portrait Gallery, popped into the Bella Italia opposite the NPG, a warm welcome by Sam and served by a very friendly young lady whose name I should have written down. Food and drink arrived and thoroughly enjoyed. My friend had carbonate and I had bolognese....no photos....just eaten. Portions just enough for this extremely hot day. The manager also stopped for a chat. A lovely visit and yep, I will visit again.
At the Salford Quays restaurant we had a lovely meal of pasta and desert. The food was excellent and the service especially by Andy was first rate. And all at a very good price.
Service was really friendly and fast, the food was amazing!
Visited Bella Italia in Briggate West Yorkshire with my Goddaughter. We were early for our booking and was seated straight away. The service was good upto the point of ordering extra drinks which we had to wait ages for. The food was really good and the staff are very friendly and helpful. We had a lovely time and will definitely go back.
I visited Bella Italia Peterborough on my 14th birthday with my friend as we were celebrating our birthdays. The food was excellent as was the gluten free choices. Our waiter, Mark, looked after us very well. He was very funny and he sang happy birthday to me and my friend 🥳😂 He can sing very well and he went out of his way to make sure we had a very enjoyable time. I can highly recommend Bella Italia
Bottomless dough balls was a scam, on the terms and conditions it clearly states: unlimited dough balls with the order of any other item. Yet when we arrive we’re told that we must order a main each to qualify. Why is this not on the T&C’s?
We visited London and thought we would try as nationwide Very disappointed food was very bland & tasteless Bruschetta just thrown together loaded with tomatoes on dry bread we both had sea bass no flavouring & bland very disappointed for the price they charged the desserts were ok but expensive for what they are
Bella Italia Exeter, service amazing food amazing as always 😊 Gluten free options are brilliant. Thank you to all the staff who are so welcoming
The food has gone downhill. I ordered a pepperoni pizza, Spaghetti Bolognese and chicken fries. The Spaghetti Bolognese was the worst I've ever tasted, flavourless and watery. The pizza was edible, the chicken fries were very tasty.
My friend and I Visited Birmingham New Street restaurant today. We were shown to our table by a nice friendly waiter Marc. We had a main course and desert which were very enjoyable. The waiter Marc was very attentive throughout our meal asking if we wanted any more drinks, etc. I had a 25% discount voucher off total bill. When I arrived home and looked at the bill again, it seemed we had not been given the full discount off the bill. I phoned the restaurant and spoke to a very rude man who, for some reason, could not understand what I was saying and twice asked me to repeat it, then went silent, so I asked if there was anyone else there who I could speak to, so he transferred me to a recorded message telling me there was noone there to help me. I rang back twice and exactly the same thing happened again both times. A little later in the evening I looked at the receipt again and I realised why I thought the bill was wrong. The ink on the receipt wasn't very clear and the discount looked like £8.13 when it was actually £18.13. This is the reason why I queried it, if the receipt was printed clearly this would not have happened.
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