Bella Italia - Cambridge Leisure Park — Restaurant in Cambridge

Arrived at 8pm when the resturant wasn’t busy, it had 4 or 5 waiters and then kitchen staff. We were seated quickly on a table with no cutlery or napkins and next to two tables which still had dirty plates with left over food on (these tables had been empty since entering the resturant and remaind dirty our whole visit). Once seated no waiters attend to us for drinks for approximately 20 minutes but while we waited the waiters stood and chatted and cleared empty tables over the other side of the room and sorted clean glasses out for the next day even though they didn’t shut till 11pm. After finally being served we had to wait a further 20 minutes for our drinks which had sat on the side while waiters chatted instead of serving them. Once the drinks arrived it’s was then a further 15 minutes for our food which had sat waiting on the side for so long that the chef came out of the kitchen to speak to the waiter before pointing at our table and shortly bringing the food after. We asked the waiter for some cutlery and napkins when he brought our food before he asked if we wanted extra cheese. He came over and grated the cheese and told us to enjoy but we couldn’t enjoy as we had no cutlery. We re asked for cutlery and he went away but brought us chilli sauce so we asked again if we could please have some cutlery. With this he brought one fork, we need two full sets of cutlery so I yet again explained this and he went a got two more forks and one knife. I explained we needed two knifes so he walked off and we continued to wait, he then returned to serve the table near us but still didn’t bring any knife. I had to yet again ask for a knife and he replied “we haven’t got any”. How can a resturant have no knives??? The people on the table near to us over heard and were nice enough to offer us a clean knife from their table. After the people had given us a knife the waiter returned with a steak knife after waiting about 20 minutes they finally managed to get us a knife while our food was getting cold. It’s such a shame as Bella Italia is such a lovely chain but this particular resturant was absolutely appalling and I will not be visiting...

Just awful! May 23, 2023 was the date we ordered. We are visiting from the USA and wanted some take out since we have a very small refrigerator so can't make much food in our rental.

Bella Italia was nearby so we ordered: 1 Calamari, 1 Lasagne (Layers of pasta sheets, beef ragù and creamy béchamel sauce, oven baked with melting mozzarella) and 1 Pesto Genovese (Strozzapreti pasta with courgette ribbons, peas and spring onion, tossed with pesto Genovese and fresh lemon. Finished with toasted pine nuts and pecorino cheese)

It was delivered by Uber Eats in a paper bag...meals were in some sort of cardboard bowls (bad idea since it absorbed a lot of sauce)...first thing we noticed was the bottom of the bag looked wet or greasy... Lasagne was spilled all over the bottom and the Pesto Genovese lid was off...both were cold. I scooped up some of the sauce from the Lasagne in an attempt to save some and have SOMETHING to eat!

I had to warm everything up in the microwave. The calamari was the smallest portion I had ever seen for $10.27 (US), it was cold and soggy...but we were starving so we dealt with it! The Lasagne had MAYBE ONE noodle in it, no layers as described, the sauce was watery, best part was the cheese that was supposed to be on top...It was just a blob of "food" on my plate, very unappealing!

Needless to say, we took a photo of this mess and sent it in to Uber Eats and received a refund the next day. We will NOT try this...

Upon entering we were almost immediately attended to and taken to our booked table, which was more than enough for our party size. Within minutes we had our menus and had time to decide what we wanted.

The setting was pleasant and seating and tables arranged accordingly for social distancing between customer parties. After a few minutes we had drinks ordered and was able to immediately order food once our drinks had arrived after a few minutes.

Our waitress recommended we order 4 starters between us and share for reasonable amount of food.

Our starters were well presented and didn't take too long to arrive. Not long behind our mains arrived, which were all to a great standard and offered a healthier but decent portion size for the cost.

On ordering desserts we were made aware of any sold out items and was offered being allowed to order any dessert from the menu to replace the lack of choice on the set menu that some of us had ordered. I felt appreciated that she gave us a wider choice due to lack of desserts available on the set menu making the experience worth the money.

Our desserts arrived hot and well presented and done to a great standard. We were all happy with our desserts and overall dining experience was worth the cost and time spent.

Defiantly recommend to anyone looking for a great time for a reasonable priced menu that has vegan and healthy options and presented to a great standard. As well as very kind and...