Bella Italia - Lakeside — Restaurant in England

I am writing about an incident that took place on the 6th May 2023 in the Lakeside store. I had come in for a meal with my friend and as a regular customer who has been coming for many years I was very excited as I have some issues with food and I have found Bella Italia to always cater and put my special dietary needs above all else. I have a lovely waitress who always goes the extra mile for me and this complaint is no way directed towards her or her work.

The manager however did not make me feel welcome from the moment I had arrived. We walked in very smiley and asked for a table for two, the table he took us to was right in the sun and my friend asked if we could move somewhere else which was immediately met with attitude and to be told ‘we have bookings’ despite your restaurant being almost empty apart from five tables max. I said no problem would this table be okay and he huffed and walked off. My favourite waitress came promptly for our drink order and then I explained it was my birthday and I was debating having a cocktail. I then asked if I could see the kids menu to which your waitress did not hesitate and passed me the menu and I hear instantly “they can’t have that”. Her manager decided to call her over and tell her to tell us that we could not have the kids menu because I was not twelve years of age. I understand the rules you have created and I tried to explain to your manager privately that I have an eating disorder and as it was my birthday I was going out to eat later too and really would not be able to have a large portion of food and to have an adult meal and only eat half would not sit well with me either. After explaining a few times, he then slapped his hands together and said “you are not twelve” which he then repeated three more times to me, making me feel so belittled. We felt so uncomfortable after this interaction that we left quite promptly.

I felt this manager had no sympathy or compassion for my condition and as someone who is autistic I have faced many problems when going out for food but this has really affected me. I would like the manager to know that after leaving your establishment crying that day (my birthday), I couldn’t even bring myself to write this complaint at the time, I am still extremely upset about this and I am shocked you have such a wonderful waitress working under such an hostile and callus manager.

I would also like to add that I have sent this complaint THREE times with...

Went in for a meal with my husband on 8th March 2019. Was seated very quickly, it went downhill from there. We waited so long for our server to come over we were considering leaving and going somewhere else. The server seemed to be irritated that she had to take our order. The drinks arrived fairly quickly after that but my husbands drink was cloudy, we called the waitress, there was no apology just a "oh, you'll have to have a bottled one instead then" The meal arrived not long after that, mine was ok, not the best steak I've had, should have stuck to the Marco Polo which has never been anything but lovely. My husbands meal (ribs) looked and tasted frozen, he gave up and left most of it. The waitress came over after finally attracting her attention, said are you done and as my husband said yes and started to tell her we weren't very happy, she grabbed the plates and walked off. After waiting quite some time I gave up and asked for the bill, got ignored a bit more and took myself off to the till, our waitress had to be called over to sort it out. Again absolutely no interest in dealing with us. At no point during the whole time we were there did she ask if everything was ok, if we wanted more drinks, nothing. This is the first time I have ever eaten out and not left a tip. The service was absolutely appalling. We've eaten here quite a lot over the years food has been hit and miss, more hit than miss, but the servers were always absolutely lovely until last night. There are 2 other Italian restaurants on the boardwalk which will be getting our custom...

Booked online, got to the restaurant and as no one was at the door to seat us, we walked right in and stood for a few minutes. One of the ladies at the bar said we should stand by the door and someone will see to us! (I am not walking back to the entrance, thank you very much! Why should I.

A man came, got some menus and walked towards a boot (he did not ask us to follow him so we assumed he was just fixing the tables) ....we were then seated...COMMUNICATION IS POOR!

I then asked if a window seat was vacant( the lady I asked, who answered was very abrupt and I felt as If I was bothering her. I moved table anyway..seating myself where I felt comfortable .. On top of this, it seemed as if the staff was having a FAMILY AFFAIR as conversations between them was loud and unprofessional...speaking in their dialect and at some points were a bit aggressive...all attention was payed to one of the male staff members! The lady behind the bar( the same lady that was a fit abrupt with my earlier question) then yeld to him in English! "Don't worry, we will all go to LaTasca afterwards and have a drink and talk"!

On top of all this, the food we ordered was tasteless! Compared to the one we'd visited in Southend central just days before!

3 pizzas, a starter and drinks! I will never eat at this branch again!

Very unprofessional. ...Very very unprofessional. What ever incident that took place between them, could of been dealt with in a more discreet manner.

Weather they were having a little issue, it really shouldn't affect the...