Bella Italia - The Strand — Restaurant in London

Pre booked our visit here for after a show across the road (6pm 08/12/24)

We walked in and “checked in” by a member for staff who told us to go downstairs and another staff will take us to our table.

We went downstairs to the staff member, who was seemingly confused as to our presence, we had to tell him, we have booked a table, could you take us to it?

We were seated at our table, opposite the kitchen service window, where we had waited 15 minutes to take our order. Other tables had been seated and served in this time.

Drinks had arrived around 5 to 10 minutes later (2 pints of coke) whilst waiting for our food it became visibly clear that this restaurant was completely out of control and mismanaged. Food was constantly being returned, either wrong or cold was the common reason.

I had noted one of the waiters had returned a pizza, as the customer had said it was cold - the kitchen had then heated up the pizza and the sever had dipped it finger to test if it was hot, after having handled various other plates / cutlery/ iPad etc

At this point it had been nearly an hour waiting (6:55) all other tables had been served and eaten their meals in this time, including diners who had arrived after us.

We hear the staff who served us ask the kitchen, where’s 64? (our table) Unsurprisingly, they were not aware of our order.

Our sever asks us, “have you had your food?” No…“what did you order?” At this point we decided to stand up and leave, offering to pay for our drinks.

Our server says not to worry about the drinks. On the surface, as a gesture of good will, however, it is because he had not put this through their system, nor had he done with the food.

We leave the lower level, with the only words said by the 3 staff being - “sorry”

On leaving, the staff who had seated us said, “thank you” Which was ironic, as we then said “we waited and hour, and never got our food”

A group was entering as we were leaving and told them what had just happened with our experience, and rightfully so, they turned away.

In summary, all 4 staff who were serving that night had failed to provide any level of service that would be considered caring, attentive or even “satisfactory” The 2 kitchen also seemed to be consistently making mistakes with other customers food, although I cannot comment on our food, as we never received any.

Ignore the majority of positive reviews as the servers ask (and bribe) for positive 5 star reviews

There are plenty of food places in central London to visit, this is definitely not...

Have food allergies??? BE AWARE

My daughter is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts. When they brought out the desserts (Tiramisu), we asked if it was safe. He said it may contain nuts. I asked if there was an alternative and he said that he could bring a gluten free ice cream. When they brought the ice cream, I asked again…”is this safe? No nuts?” The Server replied yes.

20 minutes after eating the ice cream, my daughter told me that her throat felt funny and that she was itchy. Upon examining her, I noticed that she had hives around her mouth and that she was starting to be flush. Both of these are signs of an allergic reaction.

Since we had already left our table, I approached the bar and asked if someone could check the ingredients that was in the gluten-free ice cream. The man at the bar gave me a menu and told me to scan the QR code to their menu. I did so, but was having trouble locating the item. Then another man came over and asked what I needed. I explained again that she was having allergic reaction, so I needed to know what she was reacting to so that I knew what to do to treat her. He asked what she had eaten and what she was allergic to. After telling him, he said “it’s fine no nuts.” I asked again for the ingredients. He handed me the menu and said I could take it with me. As I was walking away, he called after me “it’s fine. It’s fine.”

This was very frustrating because I told him that if there were no nuts, then she wouldn’t be having a reaction. Both people were very dismissive. They did not get the ingredient list as I requested; they just kept insisting that there was no allergen present.

I was able to treat my daughter and the allergic reaction was stopped. However, it NEVER should have happened in the first place. If the server, the initial guy at the bar, or the third man who came over would have given a few minutes to talk to me…it could have been avoided or resolved more quickly.

After her symptoms started improving, and I had a chance to get my bearings I started looking for the menu item.

They served her gluten-free gelato. When you click on the information button, it clearly shows that the dish contains ALMONDS and HAZELNUT. Hazelnut is her second highest allergy. So they essentially served her a dish with the allergen and I believe that their negligence caused her reaction. If the initial server would have spoken with me instead of a 2 second response and brush off —- this ALL could have...

Very disappointed after taking my family out to lunch on the 30/08/2024 and we were accommodated in the upstairs seating area. It all started so well with a pleasant welcome by a lady who brought our menus to the table, they asked for any allergies etc the ambience was ok and the decor seemed to match an Italian feel, the food order was then taken by a gentleman again very pleasant on taking down what we wanted, we waited a couple of minutes for drinks and then we waited for the food. We saw the waiter set down 4 pizzas and a couple more dishes on a side table which sat for 5 minutes or more as he went to tend to the cleaning of another table and a check to be paid by another customer before he decided it was time to deliver these to our table and another customer also waiting for their order, this I felt was quite poor as these could have been brought up before tending to his other duties instead of leaving our £20 per head food to go cold. The attentiveness of the waiting went south from delivery of the food, there was no further table visit, no ask for another drink to add to the tab, no check in as to whether the food was adequate, the food we ate was cold and mediocre at best, we went to pay the bill after finishing to a lack lustre interaction with the gentleman who asked at the till why we didn't want dessert. We paid £90 for 4 of us, no starters just 4 mains and 4 drinks which I thought was a little more than what we should've paid looking at the prices in the menu, usually I wouldn't pick the receipt up on leaving but this time I did and was horrified to see that an optional £10 gratuity was claimed/charged for without us even knowing let alone us being asked, this is plain stealing and poor practice, if the service continued throughout and there was more attentiveness from the staff I wouldn't have batted an eyelid, just be wary of any visit you may make yo this establishment as you could be paying more than you thought for a visit in this place. Shame on you Mr gentleman waiter, you could perhaps put a little more effort into your service to reap your rewards instead of helping yourself to people's...