Bella Italia - Birmingham — Restaurant in Birmingham

So my first time at bella italia and i wont be returning. Initially service was great and i could not fault our original server as she was lovely, she welcomed us and seated us, it was hot inside so we requested to sit outside, where we ordered via qr code (no issues) Service was crap honestly, cleared our starters as mains came out, didnt ask how the food was once. Following this i found a piece of something small and white in my bolognaise. It was rock solid so i put it down to a chip of bone or grit. As service was so rubbish, no one came to check or ask how the food was, and servers rarely came outside so there was no opportunity for me to raise the issue. When a server FINALLY came to clear another table, still not addressing us! I hollared her where i raised awareness of the thing in my food and I quoted “i wanted to let you know i found this in my food” i was not looking for a refund or anything genuinely was hoping she would speak to the chef and come back to confirm it was grit or something, she said she would speak to chef and come back. Upon her return she was completely defensive and rude infact stating it was “impossible” and i emphasis “IMPOSSIBLE” that i found something in my food?? As it didn’t reflect anything in the kitchen. I said well are you telling me i made it up cause it was in there?? She continued asking why we both finished our dinner if there was an issue, I continued i did not have an issue with my food. Hence i ate it all. And following this im not coming inside to chase down a server when they should have asked how the food was?? I was absolutely disgusted in her attitude as if to dare accuse me of planting something in a mediocre averagely priced meal. She couldn’t refund it as it was ordered online, she did offer free drinks or desserts but after that vile insinuation i did not wanna be there any long and left as was. (Proving my point even more i wasnt trying to scam them out of free food!!) absolutely ruined my night and her attitude really upset me. Will not be...

Husband and I are here to try out their new menu. As usual we got excellent service and the food was delicious.

I started with the mussels italiano in white wine sauce whilst my husband had his favourite bruschetta. The mussels sauce was AMAZING! I could have had that as just a soup it was so good! It was smooth and savoury and complimented the saltiness of the mussels. It came with a nice slice of crusty bread to soak up the remaining sauce. The bruschetta was firm and crunchy with a large amount of toppings. My husband couldn't get enough of it.

We followed it up with spaghetti marinara and diavola forte pizza. The spaghetti was delish! My only comment would be they need to be careful with calamari. It could easily become over cooked (aka rubbery). Mine was just on the verge of going that way but was still tender. Problem is the heat of the pasta continues to cook the seafood and getting calamari just perfect is hard to do. My husband's pizza was perfect! I snuck a couple bites. The bread was the authentic italian flavour! The recipe was spot on! Word of warning - the sausage is very spicy and it's Cajun spicy not Asian. Totally different kind of heat which best had with a beer not milk.

For a finish we had a cioccolata mousse and a sicilian lemon cheesecake. That mousse is STRONG CHOCOLATE. Amazing and smooth as a mousse should be. The shortbread pearls gave a bit of caramel flavour to it that takes it to another level. The lemon cheesecake is TART. I love tart desserts like those lemon Herbert's so if you don't like a strong lemony tart this isn't for you. It's perfect for me tho. I loved the lemon drizzle around it and the creamy topping.

I've included photos of our meal.

All in all an amazing dinner and an exciting new menu! Thank you Bella Italia and we'll...

I have never in my life left a bad review for a restaurant but the service we experienced was so bizarre and rude. The man that served us (we assume was a manager, sounded European, brown hair) acted like we had personally insulted him by coming out to eat. When I informed him I had a nut allergy while ordering he acted like he wanted to fight me - it was strange that he had such a hostile reaction considering he works at an establishment that serves food and has a sign at the door telling customers to inform their server of any allergies. When my food arrived it didn't have any allergy safe flags etc. which are part of their allergy procedure. The food all arrived promptly and tasted fine but the waiter ruined the experience entirely. We were baffled as to how someone with such an aggressive demeanour and complete lack of manners has made a career in hospitality? Obviously it can be a very stressful and tiring job but the way he acted was objectively rude. We asked for tap water at the start of out meal, it still hadn't arrived 2 hours later - but at that point we were too scared to ask him again. He was so unbelievably rude taking our order that we actually watched him interact with the tables around us to see how they reacted, and we couldn't help but notice he was a lot more smiley, joking around with the white customers. The other members of staff seemed fine and were friendly when bringing us the bill - we can only hope for their sake that this manager is nicer to his staff than he is to his customers! Luckily we are able to laugh at how odd this dining experience was, as his behaviour was so rude it was almost comical. Fingers crossed he was just having a bad day and isn't like that...