Bella Italia - Bristol Cribbs Causeway — Restaurant in England

I booked a table for two for at 7pm on a Wednesday evening, The table we were given was about 3 rows away from the kitchen area where we could feel the heat from the kitchen and were regularly wafted with smoke from the grill. We both found it almost unbearable hot at our table.

Overall, our evening started off quite poor but got a bit better as the evening went on. Our table hadn't been set, and nor did our waitress bring us any cutlery until after we had tried to persevere through our calzones with our knives and our fingers (we assumed this was the correct way the waitress was horrified when she realised she hadn't given us any forks). There was a candle in a wine bottle that hadn't been lit, and I noticed that the candles at all of the tables were not lit. If you're going to have a candle to provide atmosphere, surely it needs to be lit?

The calzones (both carne) were nice but nothing special. The meatballs were a sort of mush and there wasn't a whole lot of integrity to the filling. We ordered two salads having felt guilty for all of the calories we were about to put away, but were sorely disappointed when our salads arrived in two piping hot bowls. I couldn't eat mine as I was put off by the experience of warm, raw vegetables with my meal.

Dessert was okay, we ordered 3 scoops of gelato each with toppings (having decided to ditch the diets for one evening!). We were disappointed to be allowed to order toppings, only then to be told that there was no chocolate tagliatelle or chocolate beans. "Crushed" amaretti biscuits weren't, they were just two whole amaeretti biscuits, shoved down either side of the tub. The chocolate fudge sauce leaves much to be desired, having more resemlance to a rich, cold, chocolate custard.

The real saving grace to this place is the staff, who were very friendly. Our waitress was very patient as my husband deliberated over his dessert and they were all smiles and gratitude when we left.

An okay night over all, I might visit again if I was in the area but probably wouldn't go out of my way...

I hope people see this as a fair comment as I wasn't very impressed to start with.

Firstly the service was poor. Over 20 minutes to get someone just to take a drinks order. It wasn't really the waitresses fault. There just wasn't enough staff. After asking 3 times for someone to take the order she finally turned up.

Next was having someone to actually bring the drinks to the table as we could see them lined up on the bar. In the end I got them myself which appeared to upset the manager.

Starters was ok. We had dough balls to share and some were over cooked and some cold and some good. It gave the impression we had freshly cooked and old ones.

The mains came out at different times (lack of staff issues again) but to be fair they were all good. We had a mixture of pizzas and pasta and everyone enjoyed it. It would have been nice to have more than one pizza cutter as we had more than one pizza but hey you can't have everything.

Next came the desserts. Again delivered at different times. One person finished their dessert before we got them all. But again they were nice. I thought the gelato was really good.

My last comment is for the manager. Once he recognised I was initially unhappy having to wait, he kind of went into over the top mode. His voice was loud and was not necessary when he was stood next to me. It was as if he was trying to impress the room when all I wanted was to be served. I didn't appreciate him trying to tell me he was trying to help while I was eating as to be fair I wasn't asking for help at that point as we got served.

He did knock 10% off the bill without me asking for it which is good until I realised they added on 10% for the service automatically anyway so it was the least he could do as it was poor. But hey at that point I wasn't bothered about it. I just wanted out. Over 2 hours for a lunch time meal was a bit over the top in my opinion.

To sum up, probably a nice place to go, if quiet, as the food was good for what it was. But Saturday lunch when busy I would avoid unless you don't...

We visited the restaurant last night. We were looking forward to this meal but we were very disappointed by the end of it. We were greeted nicely and shown to our table and given time to look at the menu before we ate. The lady who took our order was initially very happy to help. Our orders were taken and the first meal came and was very nice (mushroom starter), the second meal was three pizza’s (all vegetarian) - they came but we were not offered any garnish (grated cheese or black pepper) - we asked and the lady returned with this after a minute or two. We ate our meal which was nice enough but we had finished our meal after the normal amount of time. During this time they had started to clean down the restaurant and set up for the next day. Fourty minutes AFTER finishing our meal the lady eventually returned and asked if we wished to order the deserts. We did thinking that they were now down to very few customers that there would not be any issues…no. We saw our deserts placed on to the hot tray for the waitress to collect…they were there for what seemed forever. During that time they carried on cleaning the restaurant and turning off some of the lights. Me and one of my sisters ordered the Brownie which neither had the salted caramel sauce on it. We were beyond waiting for them to return or ask if it was ok…they didn’t. At this point they started playing two different tunes on the speakers.. We went to pay and there were further issues as they stated that they did not accept Tesco Clubcard Vouchers for the meals we had ordered - no where did we see this or get advised this by any member of staff.. Eventually this was sorted by my sister and we left. Very disappointed as this had supposed to be a nice family meal which ended being a situation were we were just left in the restaurant while the staff cleaned, turned off lights and sat in the front waiting for us to leave. Meal was to sit down for 8.15pm..it wasn’t a late setting (it was by the time we left) nor were we not expected as we had reserved seats…very...