Villa Italia — Restaurant in Belfast

Villa Italia is an institute in Belfast. It has been here for many many years. After the Covid unpleasantness I have revisited the restaurant 7 months ago. They did not let me down, very nice Italian atmosphere. Friendly welcoming staff, great service throughout. The food was excellent. I went back 6 weeks ago and something has changed. It was a bit chaotic. There seemed to be a lot of new staff about that did not have a clue what they were doing. The food was still excellent. So I shrucked it off and I thought it was just a one off. We never know really what is going on behind the scenes do we? Every restaurant can have a bad day. So I was very surprised when we had dinner yesterday that it seemed to be more chaotic than the previous sitting. The booked table for 18:00 wasn't ready and there was a long discussion going on where to put us. This lasted till 15 minutes past the booked time. Then two tables were shuffled together and 10 seat added and there was a very cramped table created for 10 people. Two members of staff did the table setting, but we had to ask them back several times to get everyone cutlery and glasses. Counting to 10 seemed to be too difficult. This chaos happened throughout the dinner. Starters did not arrive at the same time. Too much time between the first person getting the starter and the last getting the starter. Drinks orders went the same way. The Dinner wasn't much better. Special dietary requirements were missed and took a long time to adjust. The waitress was very pushy and rude. Did not have enough knowledge of English to understand the hospitality trade. She kept reaching over people's plates and heads to then throw plates with food on the table and when cleaning up did the same throwing the cutlery deliberately on the table to pick them up on her next round. We had to duct and dive to avoid being splattered by food when she did. The desserts where a disaster. Wrong dessert were offered and most ice creams arrived so late that they had already half defrosted into a puddle. After receiving them we had to ask again for cutlery to be able to eat the deserts. This happened at every table I noticed. There were plenty of " managers" in the place, but they did not seem to have any grip on the process. It was really really bad and I don't say that lightly, because I know how the hospitality sector suffered the last two years. I want Villa Italia to succeed, the food is amazing. I bet the kitchen will be raging that all their efforts will be destroyed by this bad service in the restaurant. I hope they get this under control soon. We will definitely NOT go back soon... Please Villa Italia take time to sort it out, you...

ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!! We booked in to take our daughter out to celebrate her first Holy communion and so many compliments flowed throughout our time here. We were greeted by a lovely staff member and the owner Tony came over upon seeing us and gave us a lovely seat by the window. Our drinks were ordered and we had Strawberry Daiquiri, a mocktail and a pineapple juice - they had no strawberries however instead of saying they couldn't make it, they sent a staff member out to Tesco to get some for our drinks. We ordered a pizza garlic bread with cheese for starters and it was truly devine, perfect with all the flavours and consistency etc. Next I had Penne Alla Conte - Oh My Goodness, this was literally THE BEST meal I have EVER tasted, it was bursting with flavour and the right amount of pasta on the plate. My daughter had Spaghetti Carbonara and had to take hers home as she'd eaten so much garlic bread she was full up. My husband had the Salmon with the yummy crust - I've forgotten the actual name of it but he said it was lovely also. For dessert I got the Sticky Toffee Pudding that was nice and light and had a swimming pool of caramel and toffee sauce surrounding it and a scoop of honeycomb ice cream on top, so so good. My husband had Pecan Nut Pie and said it was delicious, my daughter had crepes with chocolate and marshmallows - again they didn't have marshmallows so the staff member went to the shop again and got big and mini marshmallows, chef put them on the crepes and Tony came out with both bags and told my daughter to take them home with her. We have had the most amazing evening and cannot wait to...

Place fantastic food fantastic staff for the main part fantastic, my only issue is turn around of tables, we waited 20min on a table which was fair as we hadn't booked, when we got a table food and service was great, the waitress and waiter where very busy but very attentive. To our right a table cleared approx 12 person's at table it lay untouched for 8min before the Guest welcome team noticed and then started to clear, I say Guest welcome team as there seemed to be 4 people at the door entrance area, one lady with a clip board and 3 other gentlemen also looking at the Clip board, busily hugging what I can only presume was some of there well dressed wealthy looking possibly regulars! Myself and wife and three children go twice a month and for a family of five it's a fair price to account for, but once a month twice a month or once a year we are all customers and should all have the same meet and greet!!! Maybe of two of the meet and greet floor Managers!!? Where actually on the floor talking to paying young customers who will possibly become there long running regular customers!!? It would be a help, and pay someone who is in control of the Clip board to run the Clip board!!! Going back to the table 8min to be noticed 4 min to clear 3 min to separate table which made 3 tables, clearing 3 lots of waiting customers with money to spend! 15 very valuable minutes for the restaurant and for customer satisfaction. The experience we had with the kids great as usual, but did we wait 15min unnecessarily on our table!?. Our...