Ristorante da Nello al Montegrappa — Restaurant in Bologna

What’s unreasonable? A 70minute wait for the entree? Not getting what you order? Waiting another 50 minutes for mains? Expecting mains to arrive at the same time? Five weeks into a 7 week trip through Italy, we have eaten out at least once and usually twice every day. We have not had a bad meal and up to this meal our service has always been great. Being Mother’s Day in Australia we booked a Bologna top 10 restaurant to celebrate. The start was pretty smooth, table bread water & wine, order placed. We had arrived in Bologna that morning and had a terrific day walking the city. I refilled our wine glasses and realised we had been there 45 mins and no entrees had arrived. We started to take more notice of others to see if we had been forgotten. Starting to think we had done something wrong, at an hour my wife started to enquire ... and I have never heard ‘your food is coming’ delivered so rudely. At 70 minutes the fried zucchini flowers, fried mushrooms (we had ordered grilled) and steamed asparagus arrived. All very nice. 50 minutes later my grilled scampi arrived. Quite nice. I finished these and was well into my lukewarm but otherwise nice vegetables when my wife’s veal fungi arrived. After she finished the veal, her side of spinach arrived, it would have been nice with the veal but was quite bland on its own. Thankfully the bill was delivered quickly as we chose not to have dessert. At €115- including wine of €48- it was neither expensive or cheap. We left after 2.5 hours which in itself was not a long time but the timing of most parts was all wrong. In our travels we have queued for an hour to get into a restaurant to try the best pizza in Naples, we have enjoyed a 3.5 hour degustation and most things in between. We have not had a bad meal, still haven’t, but we have had one bad experience. If you have read this far and still go to da Nello, we hope our experience was an aberration and you have a much better evening than us. My first restaurant...

This place came highly recommended by our AirBnB host. Without a phone travelling internationally we were unable to make a reservation, which was recommended. So when we initially arrived they were full and could try returning in about an hour. About 90 minutes later we came back and were able to get a table. We went into the downstairs dining area which had a bustling, joyous vibe to it. It felt like we were entering a wine cellar.

To start we ask for a recommendation of a full-bodied dry red wine. The waiter suggested the valpolicella ripasso called "La Casetta." This was one of the best wines I've ever had and the best one this far in our trip to Italy. It had the dryness on the front end with a silky, sweetish finish. The table also had some hard bread sticks and a few pieces of bread to hold us over.

For the food we got the asparagus risotto to share. Phenomenal flavor but the risotto was sort of al-dente which I wasn't used to. Seeing as we were in the home country of pasta I assumed this was the right way to do it. My wife got the taglietelle ragù and I ordered the tortellini alla panna (a cream sauce). The taglietelle was very good with a delicious Bolognese sauce on top. However, my tortellini was spectacular! Such a rich, creamy sauce and also a small amount of Bolognese sauce on top which was nice and salty and hearty. I would highly recommend getting it.

That alone filled us so we had no room for dessert. Service was very good, especially compared to other restaurants we have been to. Prices are a little steeper compared to other restaurants in Italy but you certainly get what you pay for. Overall, a wonderful place...

The best restaurant in Bologna! The food is amazing (HUGE portions!), the service is fantastic (very friendly and fun), and the restaurant itself is adorable (large and very clean).

We’ve been to this restaurant several times during our week-long stay in Bologna and have never had the same thing twice. The menu is huge, filled with everything could possibly want, and it changes seasonally. The portions are large and the prices are very reasonable. A meal for two with appetizers, salad, pasta/meat, wine with each course, and a dessert is around 100€…but you don’t have to spend/eat that much!

We’ve had: •Zucchini flowers/blossoms (amazingly light and perfectly crisp) •mixed salad •fried mushrooms (seasonal on the summer - they’re huge) •tortellini (tiny, meat filled pasta) with Parmesan cream sauce and ragu = rich and delicious •tortelloni (large ricotta-filled pasta) with creamy tomato sauce) = so good! •lasagna verdi alla bolognese = green noodle lasagna layered with bolognese and béchamel •fresh mushroom salad with shaved truffles • spaghetti vongole (fresh and delicious!) •fiordipanna dessert

Everything is amazing!

The service is super friendly and just fabulous. Marco is the best (so fun) and Ricky is wonderful (he’ll be running the place soon enough!). The owner, Ricardo, is delightfully friendly…just the perfect host.

The food comes out quickly, plates are cleared quickly, courses are timed perfectly…it’s just a great experience from...