BELLA AFRIK Authentic Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Accra

The food is tasty but stay far away from their delivery service and hope you have nothing to do with customer service. After placing a scheduled delivery on their website for 5pm, the food was sent at 3pm when nobody was home. We later received messages from the restaurant saying the missed the delivery was our fault despite us purposely setting a time later in the day when we were home from work. The restaurant did not read the order at all correctly. I provided the digital receipt via messenger with the correct scheduled delivery time to the restaurant showing the delivery time error. We also attempted to call the restaurant and Whatsapp the restaurant multiple times requesting that our food be delivered correctly at 5pm. We received no response from the restaurant for over an hour though we could see that our many messages were read by someone. At 6pm a delivery driver randomly called our phone with a food delivery from the restaurant. This was drastically too late, with no communication from the restaurant, my wife and I were not going to wait around hoping that food might be delivered and ordered from somewhere else.

Increasing the ridiculousness of this situation, the delivery driver went to the wrong address. We sent a map pin to the driver to help locate our residence so we could be done with this order and try to enjoy the evening. Instead the driver did not know names of streets or landmarks for me to give directions and could not figure out how to use the Google maps pin I sent. Our residence is less than 4 minutes from the restaurant along a major artery road. The house is not hard to find. We were so frustrated with the disorganization and incompetence of every step of this process that we demanded the driver return to the restaurant and cancel our order. We want nothing to do with this restaurant after spending multiple hours hungry and frustrated. A manager from the restaurant called us a little after 6pm and apologized. Then almost immediately called us back to blame us for the driver sitting and waiting. Apparently the driver did not understand to cancel the order and did not return to the restaurant. When trying to explain that I had told the driver multiple times to cancel, instead the restaurant decided to blame the customer, and was yelled at multiple times despite the restaurants many mistakes. I had enough of this ridiculousness and hung up on them so I could enjoy what little remained of my evening, and would report the transaction with our bank later that day.

In total, Bella Afrik failed to read order tickets correctly, failed to respond for over an hour when customers reached out via message and phone about the delivery error, failed to inform the customer that replacement food was on the way, drove the delivery to the wrong location, failed to have a driver who understood how to use Google Maps and did not understand local landmarks or road names in the local area, tried to blame the customer for the multiple errors and miscommunication problems, and refused to provide a refund. We have all the messages, receipts, and message time lines to back up our claims. Avoid...

I don't understand why there is so much hype about this place. I paid 300 cedis for a bitter cocktail and mediocre pizza. The "Campari Spritz" was too heavy on the Campari (a couple of cocktail cherries and more Prosecco would have remedied this but they didn't have any cherries). The staff was very nice but not very knowledgeable. After 45 mins., my pasta dish never arrived, I spent most of my time swatting away flies with my free hand, and the loud mechanical buzzing of a rickety, jerry-rigged fan above me totally ruined my buzz and the vibe. For the prices they charge, I'd also think they could do better than a cheap shed lock on the bathroom door (chipped a nail trying to secure the lock) and really, can't they afford another bathroom? I had to wait almost 15 mins. to use the restroom. Lastly, for a review of the pizza- the reason I came!: I ordered the shredded lamb and ricotta pizza. I was really excited about it. I was disappointed that it was a "white pizza" (no tomato sauce) which no mention was made in the menu description. When I asked for marinara sauce- a simple request for a restaurant that touts it's "authentic" Italian cuisine and prides itself on its local herb and farm-to-table ingredient sourcing- I was brought a side of pureed tomatoes, not marinara sauce (which the server assured me it was with spices and everything), just literally pureed tomatoes. The ricotta was too tangy for me... maybe it was goat milk ricotta? If I am paying 240 cedis for a small pizza-, it better be covered with my choice of protein. The lamb was scant and I would have loved more basil on the pizza to make up for the lack of flavor and herbs. There were ZERO spices except for the little salt and pepper on the lamb. They tried to make me pay for the pasta dish I never received, insisting it was coming. When paying with Momo, I was left to guess which carrier the business used- maybe consider putting that info on the menu. I loved the outdoor space, the design, and branding... I would have thought the very cool logo would be in more aspects of the space. I feel like that was a missed...

On the surface it looks good. A lively decor and an interesting menu, and I have to begin this by clarifying that I am European so my expectations are probably way different to locals. This place is incredibly expensive, even to a Londoner. Cocktails were good. Food was middling but our overall experience was awful. The music was so loud that you simply couldn’t converse at all. Even the waiter couldn’t hear what we were ordering. Half way through the meal, a massively loud salsa session kicked off in the courtyard outside, so we had music coming in from outside competing with the ridiculously loud dj inside. It was literally un bearable. The oxtail pasta was so small that my son had finished it before I even got my food. The steak was also minuscule and they don’t do potato chips, only sweet potato, which didn’t suit autistic teenager. Pizza was good. I had aubergine parmigiana, which was excessively salty and for some reason it was ‘in carozza’, ie covered in breadcrumbs, which detracted from the flavour and made it way too filling. This dish should be all about the aubergine and there wasn’t enough aubergine in it. The lobster went down well but at £45 a head it damn well should do. Wine overpriced as well. Loads of staff and half of them just hanging around posing, as are the majority of the clientele. This is a place to show off and be seen, not a place to socialise or even just eat. The most expensive meal we have had in Ghana and we had to take the kids to KFC on the way home. If would seriously not...