La Bottega — Restaurant in Belfast

My husband and I booked in for a wee date night a couple of weeks ago. It was meant to be a nice meal out with some authentic Italian food.

From the get go, we felt that the service was a bit lacklustre. And that the menu was on the more expensive side.

But, we decided what we wanted to eat and ordered. I ordered the roast courgette secondi plate, and a side of roast potatoes with rosemary, garlic and seasalt. My husband ordered the parmigiana de Melanzaze - aubergine and tomato sauce. We also bread for the table.

To say we were disappointed would be a bit of an understatement. We could tell that the ingredients were good quality and prepared with care, but for £17 per dish we got starter portion sizes with very little flavour to make up for it.

The aubergine dish had no taste, and whilst the courgette dish did have flavour it was definitely missing elements such as the mint and the courgette jus. The roast potatoes side were not seasoned at all, with no sea salt, garlic or rosemary.

But, despite the potatoes having no flavour at least they filled us up. The main dishes were so tiny, I had what amounted to 1/3 of a courgette and a bit of sauce and half a small red onion. My husbands dish was a similar size.

These might be considered authentic Italian in their cooking process, but definitely not in their portion sizes or flavour.

Overall a very disappointing dinner experience and far too pricey for the portion sizes. If you are charging £17 for a starter portion of food, then at least spend some money on seasonings. Not a lick of salt or herbs went into any of the...

True authenticity Not being able to travel this summer for our annual Pugliese trip we visited La Bottega under recommendation from my brother in law who lived in Italy and knows authenticity when it comes to italian cuisines. Well we were blown away! Cooked from the heart by chef Francesco who hails from Bari The food isn't frilly but my word the quality, the freshness and taste brings you right back to a lively trattoria in a piazza somewhere in Italia! Frankly this place to me represents what is missing in many - authenticity. And not catering to assumed untrained palates! An example of this is the carbonara has no cream or bacon! The irish palate has now evolved so we dont need cuisines from other nations adulterated! Every 2 weeks the menu changes. Provenance is considered fully by the La Bottega owner and chef La bottega keeps it real and the palate is delighted by the food served. Well done La Bottega team The service is also second to none. I hear a pizza oven is on its way! Will be back for...

Back today for lunch(my wife is obsessed with the place) after a year. I must say that La Bottega has improved massively since the last time I was there. The food has always been absolutely delicious but I was extremely happy to see that the restaurant has upgraded their menus so now you can expect what to spend from the very start.

We had 2 pinza(s) accompanied with a great glass of wine. DELICIOUS. Tiramisù top quality too. Really impressed.

The staff was and still is very friendly and helpful. Francesco, the owner, looked after us extremely well.

Great service, great food and great staff. Definitely will be back again.

Looking forward to trying the Sunday pizza night which, from the Instagram photos, looks sublime!

Thanks again for the free coffe (Francesco didn't forget that 😜).

The only regret, not being...