Bella Italia - Taplow — Restaurant in England

I will preface this review with that we went on a Tuesday at 7pm and the manager greeted us by apologising for the wait as they are short staffed. I think a lot of our experience was down to them being short staffed.

Walking through the restaurant to be seated we could see that a lot of tables were empty but not cleared.

After being seated for around 15 minutes we were served by the manager (assumed by the clothing), He was zapping around tables trying to cater to all the tables while another staff member seemed to be taking his time cleaning some glasses and hanging around the bar.

Our drinks arrive quite promptly after ordering but they were very watery and we thought must be a problem with the machine, we saw other customers receiving cans instead as they had complained about the quality of the soft drinks, however they only had coke zero.

About 5 minutes after order being taken I see one of our starters appear on the kitchen hot plates, and it takes another 10 minutes for the other order to appear. The kitchen rings the bell but it’s another 10 minutes before the food is delivered to our table, the first starters were cold by the time they reached us so we had to ask for a fresh starter, we saw the new starter be put back on the hot plates and the chef ring the bell multiple times, and even pointing at the member of the staff to deliver it but the other staff member still was very slow to deliver to us.

Once we had finished our starters it was another 15 minutes before our mains came out, they were hot when delivered and the quality I expect from Bella.

After our mains we paid using the QR code and left, as we had seen other tables had been waiting over 15 minutes to get their bills.

Overall the service was very poor that night, and while being short staffed is sometimes unavoidable it seemed that specific member of staff wanted an easy end of shift. It meant that we were there for just over an hour and thirty minutes and slightly regretted going to Bella...

Just walked out of there, ordered food and asked for Crayons, so my Daughter could drawn, after 10 mins I was still trying to catch someone’s eye when the place was virtually empty, my Daughter asked me where our drinks are, finally a dry pasta (Pollo Fungi) and a kids pizza arrived, I’ve never seen or had cooked pasta that dry ever, I asked the waitress if it normally comes like that, “shouldn’t it have some sauce?” I asked, she said no it comes like that and she could ask the chef to put some sauce on it, by then I had given up on it, so I asked for the menu, and it says “Mascarpone” which is normally a sauce, she said that’s how it comes, I looked at the menu and said, “ ok could I have a Carbonara instead please, “ her reply was yes, but it will come dry like that as well” I said ok can I speak to a manager, she said there was no manager but she was the supervisor, my Daughter also said her kids pizza was dry, so I just said I was going to pay for the drinks and go to Nando’s next door, she said ok but lots of people (about 5 tables of people) are here and they are having the same and haven’t complained, I said ok and bit my tounge and said we’re gonna go to Nando’s next door, funnily enough Nando’s had a 45 min wait next to an empty Italian restaurant, I have lived in Taplow for 10 years and this used to be a good...

Update: Recently revisited Bella Italia in Taplow. Whilst some things haven't changed (Looking at you Bruschetta), the duck in plum sauce pasta still remains in my opinion one of the best dishes Bella Italia have ever put out. The food is still probably a 3.5 out of 5, not worthy of an update, however I will add - the service this time was much better and i'm really glad to see Bella Italia have taken care to improve their quality of service. To the kindly older gentleman who served us, thank you! You checked in exactly as much as required, had the right amount of brevity and warm, welcoming smile. +1 Star to the review.

No one is coming here expecting amazing italian cuisine; Bella Italia is a franchise and the menu is designed as such. The food is servicable, the bruschetta was nice, but I expected at least one or two more pieces for what it cost. The main I had was nice and cooked well enough. I didn't have time for a pudding on this occasion, but I expect none of them are made in house. The thing that actually damaged the visit most of all was the service - we had to ask for drinks menus, we had to ask if we could be served, everything was slow. I'm fairly sure i'd still be there waiting to pay if I we hadn't all stood up and put our coats...