Bella Storia — Restaurant in Amsterdam

This place completely lost what made it special. I considered bella storia a bastion of excellent food, service and quality. Was back there a couple of weeks ago with two friends and the experience i had was less than satisfactory. Let me state that i am italian, and i considered bella storia to serve food that tasted better than what you would find back home. It also had a very nice athmosphere, with the menu being on a chalkboard which was read out to you. It combined quality and experience to a level where i didnt mind paying close to 100 euro for a proper dinner for two, it was the "italian experience". Now all of this has gone. No more chalkboard but ugly menus citing legal obligations to inform about allergens. Then contents of the menu have been decimated. Gone is the fish, the bottarega, the main courses. Only a paltry selection of pastas and some pizzas, as well as some antipasti, but nothing overly special, with the exception of the burrata perhaps. The food we got served was a catastrophe: 3 courses ordered and two were wrong. Sent back, and got back a pizza with unproperly cooked salsiccia and the pasta dish was still wrong, but gave up and didnt complain any more to not humiliate the waiter and to not have the cook do god knows what to the dish.

I dont know what happened, but the place is no longer what it used to be. Ill have to find a better...

We reserved a table for the early evening on a weekday, and were quickly seated. Very attentive staff, and incredibly quick service - we had our drinks within 5 minutes and our main meal within 10-15 minutes of ordering.

The fresh tomato base for our pizza was delicious, and the creamy sauce for our carbonara was delightful. However, the pasta was al dente which is against my personal preference, so I recommend to ask the waiter if you prefer your pasta a little bit softer. The render from the guanciale may have been essential in flavouring the carbonara sauce, thankfully the rest of the flavours overshadowed actual guanciale strips which were closer to charred than crispy in both taste and texture. Nonetheless, the dishes were enjoyable and filling.

The pistachio cheesecake was incredible with a perfect balance of flavours that didn't overwhelm each other, and the tiramisu, once you get through the thicker dusting of cacao powder overlaying the fluffy and delicate cream, was lovely.

Overall, a very...

Absolutely one of the - if not THE - best pizzas in Amsterdam (coming from and Italian). My partner and I used to order via Uber Eats Bella Storia’s pizzas for delivery and every time the pizza was amazing, so we decided to visit the place in person. The restaurant is very small, which represents the only point of weakness in my opinion, as you might find yourself a little bit constricted. Given this premise, the food is D E L I C I O U S and tastes amazing, with the most high-quality local ingredients from Italy. We tried the bruschette as starter, and then 2 pizzas (in the picture you can see the salsiccia and friarielli, which is my favourite, and which also shows the abundance of ingredients). Totally recommended for something typical Italian On top of this, we ordered once via Uber Eats also rigatoni alla carbonara which came still hot and with a delicious creamy sauce - you...