La Bella Vista — Restaurant in Hastings

This was always my go-to restaurant for a little bit of posh Italian food, with incredible flavour. I organised a birthday dinner there for my husband last night, our party was 13 guests. They’ve changed the menu, it must be very recently, as we visited a few weeks back and it wasn’t changed then. My favourite meals have been removed from the menu, a beautiful arrabiatta style pasta dish with different vegetables, genuinely beautiful. In changing the menu they’ve also removed the outstanding Italian dishes such as lasagne and spaghetti bolognaise. They don’t have a kids menu, so these items are great for children (as they were for adults!) I ordered a starter for our main, as my usual go-to meals had been removed. It didn’t say on the menu that this particular starter was tartare, but it was and it wasn’t nice at all, obviously cold and uncooked meat. I didn’t finish it. I looked on the internet for the description of this starter too before I ordered, and it didn’t say tartare. But that was what was given and to say I was disappointed was an understatement, I ate my daughter’s pizza with her instead. Their billing system leaves a lot to be desired, and it is made enormously difficult for staff to take individual payments from people for a large group. There is a deposit system (where £10 per head must be paid to secure the table) and so I paid £130 to begin with, but the way that their system works meant that we probably overpaid massively for our food. The downstairs area is so small, and also boiling hot. It made me feel quite anxious being there, and then the bill situation was so long and drawn out. I bought a birthday cake with me, for my husband’s birthday and we couldn’t even do anything with this. Mainly because it was so cramped, and our dishes weren’t taken away from our table for some time after we’d finished eating. And there’s a “cakeage” fee of £2.50 per person for eating cake there. Really disappointing. It just felt like they were not accommodating. I will say that the staff are really great, lovely and friendly, and when you get a meal that you actually enjoy - it tastes beautiful. All in all just such a shame, as this was one of my favourite restaurants in Hastings. My husband chose it, for himself obviously, but also for me because I absolutely love their food! Or I did, before they changed the menu to predominantly fish and obscure items. Would love to be able to give more stars. We unfortunately won’t be returning, especially not with a large...

Unfortunately we ate there on a night where the restaurant was struggling.

It was manically busy when we arrived for our 20.15 booking on the Sunday evening of the bank holiday weekend. Our table wasn't ready, and so we had a 15 minute wait, with our party of 4 awkwardly crammed onto a two person table downstairs.

We were eventually found a table in the upstairs dining room; a well decorated and pleasant room, with plenty of smartly dressed staff bustling around.

Unfortunately it seems the service was WAY behind. Drinks took half an hour to arrive. Starters took an hour and fifteen minutes to come, by which point it was nearing 10pm. The frustrating part is that the dishes were sat under the heat lamp within our view for fifteen minutes. It wasn't until we mentioned the delay to staff that they were finally served... COLD. Bearing in mind these were one Focaccia, one Courgette fries, and one Bruschetta they didn't require much cooking.

The wine was delightful though, and quality of service & attention of staff was excellent, albeit infrequent due to the delays.

The mains were fast to arrive after the starters, but again some of them were cold. My Lamb cutlets were cooked very well, but the beetroot puree was cold, and the roast potatoes were too. The potatoes had hardened which made them unpleasant.

Given the high price point and promise of fine dining, sadly, I was left rather disappointed.

I wasn't the only person to feel this way. One woman vocally let staff know her opinions when she came in from the outside seating area to inform of her upset. She told staff that after waiting almost two hours for a lasagne (which she pointed out was unlikely cooked from scratch) she was leaving, because at 10pm she didn't even want the dinner any longer.

Others made criticisms too, and the staff explained that bookings arriving late had caused knock on delays. I can't help but feel that taking less bookings, would have significantly reduced pressure on the kitchen, and improved the experience of guests. Two floors and an outside seating area appear a little overwhelming, and it seems the customer is the one who suffers.

The front of the menu seems to acknowledge the problems as it says words to the effect of "we are not a fast food restaurant, please be patient". Fast food it is not, but it falls short of the quality promised, which is...

I booked this restaurant as it was highly recommended by my Airbnb host, but to be honest it was clear from the reviews that this was the place to go in Hastings for a special occasion.

Thank you to the incredible and highly attentive team at Bella Vista for a sensational experience. Honestly, I haven't come across service like this in a while (even in top rated London restaurants), each staff member was detail orientated. My mum (the birthday girl) was given a sprinkle of confetti on the table and the server was also considerate enough to check if we preferred the children's food to arrive first when we placed our order as it was a busy day.

The food was really good, great portions even for the kids size and beautifully presented. They don't actually do a kids menu but offer to serve a smaller portion with a 30% off the dish which was good as my 4 year old definitely couldn't have eaten very much.

We were actually really full so did not get to enjoy desserts but what was so lovely and unexpected was the limoncello served with a beautiful message and singing from several servers. You guys really are awesome!

Would highly recommend this place for a wonderful lunch or dinner! Will definitely visit again if we come...