Bella Ischia — Restaurant in Basildon

Worst restaurant experience ever. If there was an option to give zero stars I would. Waited 10 minutes at the door to even be acknowledged before being seated while a large queue formed behind us. Waited half an hour before being asked if we wanted a drink so placed food order at the same time. Was then never asked again if we wanted any more drinks for the whole time of being there. Waited over 2 hours for main course to arrive for it to be cold. Took another 10 minutes to get the attention of a waitress when I told her it was cold her reply was ‘well it was brought out quite a few minutes ago’ then said sorry and walked off! I was in shock so managed to call over the waiter told him the situation and he asked if I would like it reheated in which I said no it’s not wise to reheat meat! He then said sorry and that was that off he went. Clearly the staff didn’t care and came across rude and abrupt. Didn’t even offer to replace it. My friends dishes were luke warm and bland too. After sitting with plates of food that hadn’t been taken away we asked for the bill which took another half an hour. We asked a waitress to speak to the manager however she had no interest in coming over so left the waitress to deal with it. She continued to explain they were just busy and they don’t usually get complaints and made it out like it was us! However after the table next to us over heard they told us they found a hair in their food and also waited 2 hours for their dinner and got given the wrong bill! Eventually our waitress took one of the mains off the bill then once we had paid and about to leave at 10.15pm we got offered a pizza to take away. By this time it was too late so politely declined. We understood they were busy being a Saturday night but they were under staffed and extremely rude. The food very bland, cold and mains expensive. Service non existent and staff’s attitude appalling so won’t be recommending or returning...

I rarely give low reviews. And I hate for it to be a local establishment. This place has not changed decor since the previous 'Brunch and Bottle'. Which makes me think it's just a rebrand...

The white wine came in a bucket of a few ice cubes...no water, so the wine sat on ice cubes not cooling, instead of being immersed in ice-cooled water like every establishment I've ever been to. Skill issue perhaps. When I asked the waitress to add water to the bucket she asked if I wanted a glass. She didn't realise I was asking for water to be added to the bucket until I made it clear. She came back with a dash of water in the bucket. The wine still wasn't immersed in ice-cooled water. Still sat on the cubes.

The zucchini needed salt. The olives were too salty, I suspect they were canned. My pasta meal, Amatriciana, was too salty. I like salt a lot and use it fairly heavily but the salt was not at all subtle in this dish.

The carbonara had bacon,not guanciale, not pancetta. I wouldn't expect to find bacon in a meal costing over £10. It's a cheap choice. Also, onion which isn't traditional but not too big of a deal.

I wanted to give an extra star to the staff because they were so good. They moved all seven of us to the other side of the restaurant away from a loud stag group (...who books a restaurant for a stag?? 😅)

The affogato was nice, as were the large size of the portions of...

The happy friendly attentive waitress, quickly seated us, and gave us the menu's took our drinks orders. She returned quickly with the drinks and asked if we were ready to order wanted a bit more time. Definitely needed more time I'm slow and fussy takes me a while to choose I looked at the many great sounding dishes. When returned she said that the portions were generous we ordered ordered A rosemary flatbread and asked to have it to share as a starter. I then ordered Spaghetti picannti with added chicken and a side to share of zucchini frittas my girlfriend ordered Pasta Siciliana. The Flatbread was fantastic very tasty with a lovely sweet Balsamic vinegar. When the mains came they looked great and large portions big bowl of frittas too, I she checked if we wanted more drinks. The food was really nice well cooked and very tasty although there was a lot of food I can eat 😉 I managed to finish mine and most of the frittas too! It was too good to waste any food 😋. We ordered another drink each and as we'd enjoyed the food so much wanted to taste a dessert so we shared a portion of light Tiramisu it was nice, although I prefer more coffee n masala and some Mascapone in the cream, but I would have struggled to eat my preferred richer n heavier style of Tiramisu. The whole meal drinks and 12% service charge came to £72 I think 🤔 we were very satisfied by the quality and flavour...