Bella Italia — Restaurant in Newcastle-Maitland

Having been to Bella Italia many times before to enjoy their wonderful and full vegan menu, I was amazed to realise my review, though highly rated was from before I was vegan. Appropriately nothing has changed really.

For a family week night dinner the restaurant was busy for 2 sittings though our larger booking of 7 was able to be adjusted from 5 people easily.

To begin we all shared a vegan garlic crust pizza with vegan cheese.

My sister initially turned her nose up at the ordering of "Vegan cheese". But commented later how delicious it was.

For me the gnocchi alla sorrentina was light and soft with a beautiful homemade marinara sauce. Not to dense and carefully created. The perfect meal if you want the envy of a creamy pasta dish with the variation of home made potato gnocchi and have it be completely vegan.

The family also ordered the vegan pizza zucca without realising it was vegan until I told them. They were amazed that it had no animal products.

To finish I ordered a "slab" or vegamisu, an appropriation of traditional tiramisu, and my goodness a slab wasn't enough. Yum

We all shared a bottle of the Charlish and Co Shiraz Viognier from the McLaren vale SA which was conveniently labeled as a vegan wine.

Bella Italia has a thoughtfully composed menu to suit Vegan and Omni guests alike and the vegan food skips nothing.

The customer service upon walking in and out is exceptional. This staff is one of the best and most cohesive hospitality teams...

Read the reviews prior to ordering food there seemed to be quite popular with the quality of food they serve. Sadly, no quality of food can make up for impolite staff , manners are free and if you can not treat every paying customer with respect maybe hospitality isn’t for you. Not even so much as hello as we entered just blank staring from apparently rude staff and what appeared to be the owner (hopefully not but as a quick google search reveals it was) . The food was very disappointing, especially for the price we definitely could have scored a much nicer feed for a similar price point at plenty of places in newcastle without the perceived arrogance ! As for Italian in general I would recommend heading somewhere else if that is what you’re after some very nice Italian, excellent authentic Italian places up the valley and around town ! First impressions are everything and the first impressions received from Bella italino is not a receptive one. The aesthetic of the restaurant is nice enough but can safely assume this is just to get people in the door and make up for the staff. We had 2 pizzas and spaghetti, no dish was filling nor did any have much flavour to it at all seemed rushed and of average quality. Spoke to my Italian friends and their family post visit which newcastle has quite a high population of and they share my sentiments! Would only recommend if everywhere else is closed as...

Caserecce Al Beef Brisket Fresh caserecce served with our 18 hour slow cooked beef brisket ragu and napoletana sauce

On a cool overcast day, the 18hr slow cooked beef brisket in a napoletana sauce with caserecce pasta was perfect. The rich flavoured tomato sauce was caught by the inward turned pasta and combined with the pull apart tender beef brisket, gooey cheese, this was such a delicious and hearty meal.

Gnocchetti alla nutella - fried doughnuts with nutella

Wow! A big bowl of lots of pillowike doughtnuts - I'm certainly not eating all of this, takeaway please. These doughnuts are lile nothing I've eaten before, soft pillowey, ligbt crunch on the outside but chewy on the inside and light. The sprinkled sugar gives enough sweetness before the yummy nutella kicks in. Yum!

I've eaten here a few times enjoying their lunch time specials as a takeaway option and the linguine pasta is fantastic, delicious light pizza, love the tiramisu and definitely had to get their delicious cannoli.

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