Bella Italia - Leeds Briggate — Restaurant in Leeds

It hasn't been easy to find an Italian place with vegan options in Leeds. I'm from São Paulo, Brazil, so I used to be spoiled for great Italian restaurants. Bella Italia was quite a find! They have one or two vegan options for every section of the menu - I just wish for a bit more variety. A margherita could easily be flourished with some mushrooms, red onions, artichokes, et voilà, lots of vegan options available! Still, the ones they do offer were pretty good. I went with my spouse and another couple and three of us chose the 3 course menu, which for £19.99 was well worth it. Portions were precise, although I personally couldn't finish the delicious dessert (cookie dough with vanilla gelato and caramel sauce (pictured), which the server was attentive enough to point out that it is in fact vegan), but I don't usually eat a lot of sweets. Service was also great! Our server was a lovely Portuguese woman who spoke to us in Portuguese when she realised that we are Brazilian and my husband still struggles with English a little bit. After a casual comment that it was my friend's birthday, she inconspicuously offered him a free cookie dough dessert - secretively talking to us in Portuguese! (My friends are Bangladeshi). She was also very knowledgeable about the food when my friends, who are observant Muslims, enquire about any alcohol in the food. Everyone left...

My wife and I pre-booked with a number of friends. Gerie ordered carbonara for main and cookie dough for dessert. I ordered a pesto pasta dish, with added ham hock, and chocolate brownie. I was torn between the spaghetti bolognese and lasagne.

The carbonara was OK (6/10), gerie says the pasta was cooked good but the sauce was similar to something you'd get in Lidl. The cookie dough with ice cream however, was immense (9/10).

Now to mine. I've posted the menu item vs what was delivered. It looks like one of those memes, this is what you get when you order from Wish! It tasted how it looked unfortunately (2/10). I so wish that I went for lasagne, limited remit to get that wrong, and 2 people reported that it was really good. The choc brownie was pretty decent (7/10)

The staff were pretty busy, yet still friendly, although, I had to go to the bar to order a 2nd drink as they hadn't noticed my empty glass / bottle for 10 minutes or so.

Another bone of contention is the menu, there is the a la carte and set menu, where if you order 2 items it comes at a set price, the restaurant needs to make how this works much clearer, as I ordered 2 items that had Bern bundled, but charged at individual item prices - to me, it should automatically default to the combined product price - very naughty!

Overall, good food generally, apart from mine, and pleasant...

This place used to be nice and as a family, we used to visit this restaurant very frequently. These days, the standard of hospitality and the quality of food have gone down unfortunately. They almost always turn you away if you are by yourself or it's just 2 of you, saying there's not enough space, it's at least 30-40 minutes wait, if not more, etc etc. Once, they even made us wait for about 15-20 minutes, before we were told there is no table available. When the same thing happens several times, then you know it's more than "just being a busy place". Even when there are dozens of empty tables, they say the same thing. And it certainly can't be that every single one of those 20 + seats are reserved. If you ask me, l personally feel it's highly unlikely....So it's either because a single person's orders won't fetch them that much money or it's my brown skin, but definitely the possible change in management is reflected in their attitude. My son and I have been turned away at least thrice and this is my 4th time. The last time l had food there, it wasn't as good as before either. So l don't think l will be going back to this unpleasant place again. So if you are going by yourself or with just one other person, especially if you are not a Caucasian, think twice before you decide to go to this restaurant. Downfall of a nice place..

Bye bye Bella...