Bella Italia Filey - Ristorante & Pizzeria — Restaurant in London

CHICKEN SERVED TO VEGANS, RUDE WAITER, LONG WAITING TIME

We're students and Bella Italia - Uxbridge has been our favourite place until yesterday when we had lunch there. We go to that Bella Italia often so we know the staff there quite well, even though they change around a lot and suppose they know us too. To clarify, the food at Bella Italia is great and this review is about the service and some of the rude staff working there.

We decided to sit outside and the waiter warned us that the service will take longer, we agreed and went to sit outside. The tables and hairs for the outdoor seating were crammed together but it was lovely weather. The starters took more than 40mins to come (despite it wasn't busy inside) and they brought us the vegan flatbread that we had ordered with non-vegan cheese. We told them it wasn't vegan and they prepared another one. We didn't think much of it as these things usually happen but they took another 40mins to bring it along with the mains. Once the mains arrived, we were a little annoyed due to the time taken, the waiter assured us the vegan meals were vegan.

However, the dish that I ordered (that I have had on multiple occasions contained odd looking pieces of vegan chicken) unlike the ones I usually have had when I have ordered the dish before. So, I asked the waiter if my dish was vegan to triple-check, he brought me to the till machine and showed me that he had put through Vegan Pollo Pesto. I believed him so I decided to try it, as soon as I had put it in my mouth I knew it wasn't vegan meat as the taste and texture were something I hadn't tasted for a very long time. At this point I was fuming, so I went in with my plate and told our waiter that my dish was not vegan, he called the manager and I explained to him everything that had happened, the waiter, who knows us and has served us in the past, began to say that we had not asked for a vegan starter and actually said ¨next time make sure the waiter knows that it´s a vegan option¨ (at this point he was using a rude tone).

In spite of the waiters rude reaction and attitude, the manager was apologising. The waiter then said that he would ask the kitchen to remake my dish (vegan this time) but repeated to us to ¨next time make sure that we ask for vegan options.¨ At that point I had had enough of the wrong orders, rude waiter and extremely long waiting time, so we left. Very sad that we had to leave as it has been our favourite place to take...

I would not recommend this place. Yesterday we wanted to find a place for a family dinner, neighbouring wagamama and nando’s were full so we’ve decided to dine in at Bella Italia if we knew how long we would wait despite the fact it wasn’t nearly full and most people around were mostly there for drinks - we simply would not eat there and won’t in the future. First of all which immediately made us disappointed but yet still excited to have some nice italian food was the fact that the restaurant doesn’t, OFFER ANY FOOD THAT IS SUITABLE FOR DIABETES or anything in the middle, if you expect to eat wholewheat pasta you will not get that there. Secondly as we were seated and as i previously mentioned restaurant wasn’t full but still it took them 30-40 minutes to ask us for our order. And okay, we still wanted to eat - we expected starters to come soon, unfortunately not here, it took nearly an hour for them to bring them and another 20-30 minutes to get us out mains. I couldn’t complain on mushrom crostini but everything that came after were disaster. We ordered bolognese, pollo cacciatore, cheeseburger and pizza pepperoni. Portions weren’t to big I would say lesser than a standard ones. Starting from pasta - it was overcooked sauce tasted like one from sachet you get from your local tesco. Pollo cacciatore? Pasta itself was better but this time chef didn’t know how to properly prepare bacon and chicken it was simply undercook and tasted bad. When it comes to pizza I genuinely have eaten better today I bought at Lidl. Pepperoni few pepperoni slices at crusty tasteless dough stained by ketchup-tasting-like pomodore passata. Cheeseburger was let say average you could find better ones. If you headed to wagamama or nando’s nearby, and you think about coming to Bella Italia because there’s no queue(for a reason) - just don’t - save your time and money or simply wait in queue to the other places as you’re very likely to be served there quicker or in the same time than in Bella Italia. Overall conclusion if you want to visit Bella Italia just go to shop in Lidl get your products and do it at home. I will never visit this...

The person who seated us, called Beth, was irritated that we (party of 7) arrived without booking. I was going to book, but went against my better judgement because I thought it shouldn't be too busy on a Tuesday evening (my mistake). Beth made condescending comments about not booking beforehand, especially after we shared we are here to celebrate my daughter's 7th birthday and this is her favourite restaurant. Once seated Beth then tried to rush us for our drinks order and told us we need to order before the party of 15 arrive, implying she won't have time to take our orders after that. We weren't ready to order drinks as we had barely sat down. Beth then seated another 2 customers at the door with a smile. She then went to the table of 15 without returning to take our drinks order. We tried using the online ordering system to save Beth the work, but it wasn't working.

We felt so uncomfortable, unhappy and unwelcome sitting there. We kept discussing amongst us whether we should just leave or maybe speak to a manager. As we were there to celebrate my daughter's birthday I didn't want to make a big deal as that would have ruined out evening entirely. After deliberating I asked my daughter if she was happy to leave her favourite restaurant and eat somewhere else. Before leaving I did speak to Beth (who was at the Bar) and explain that we are leaving because of her rude customer service and attitude. She did not acknowledge that she was rude and unfriendly and instead feined ignorance. I would much rather she turned us away at the door and said they were understaffed. This experience broke my heart because I wanted to give my daughter a special experience on her birthday. I can't understand how Beth could be so unkind and unfriendly. I would much rather be turned away, than be seated and be made to feel bad to come to a restaurant without booking.

I can't see myself ever walking through that Bella Italia restaurant again.

(Fortunately, my daughter's second favourite restaurant (Wagamamas) is next door, they greeted us with smiles, sat us down and took our order promptly (they...