Bella Italia - Milton Keynes Stadium — Restaurant in Milton Keynes

A nice meal ruined by simply disgraceful service on 3/11/2015 - 7pm

Seated quickly and with little fuss and the waitress was quick and easy to order food from. Starters of a garlic flatbread and some olives, 4 mains, including 2 steaks and drinks were ordered.

Olives arrived promptly and around 10-15mins later flatbread arrived - after inquiring with the staff about it. Then there was a wait of around 30mins for the mains, again inquiring with the staff frequently as to where they were. Only 3 mains come out and a member of staff came to tell us they missed out one of the orders and were "putting a rush on it and it will be out in 10mins" not even offering to keep the other meals warm while the table very obviously waited for the 4th meal to arrive. At this point the staff were avoiding the table and our gaze. Finally the 4th meal came with minor apologies made and no pepper or cheese offered while the staff all scurried away as quickly as possible. When cheese was asked for, the waitress got halfway to the bar (where the cheese was kept) but then decided to clear some plates to the kitchen, she then continued to do other jobs (including having a drink at the bar!) until 5mins later when we again asked her for cheese and (deservedly) told her to "focus on her job, rather than having drinks at the bar" where we were met with a bad attitude and told "you aren't the only people in the restaurant and I have other things to do".

Finally making a complaint to the (assumed to be) manager, she offered her apologies and one of our steak meals to be free which we accepted. Then when paying, I used a voucher code to get a meal for £1, which they accepted, however when I looked at the receipt, they had made the cheapest meal £1 and had charged us full price for the rest, going against their offer of a free meal in apology. When confronted with this, they denied us the free meal as "we had used a voucher" which somehow denied us a free meal and reneged on their apology.

Overall, while the food was what you would expect from Bella Italia (by no means bad) the service was among, if not, the worst I had ever experienced and the attitude of the staff was downright disgusting. I wouldn't even mind but the restaurant wasn't what I would call busy either and we noticed diners who had walked in after us had been in, got 3 courses and got out by the time we had got mains - we were in there about an hour and 45mins overall. Didn't bother with dessert!

I will not be visiting this, or any other, Bella Italia again on principle....

Food review first: Calamari Fritti was very nice. The Bruschetta Pomodoro starter wasn't anything special and quite plain. Funghi Crema meal was really bad as the sauce was overbearing and cancelled everything else out. One of the pizzas didn't taste of much so one extreme to the other. Gelato Choux Bun was a bit bland - the chocolate choux was still partly frozen and the "warm chocolate sauce" wasn't warm although it did taste nice. Rhubarb Panna Cotta was a major letdown as it was very small and the taste didn't live up to the described ingredients.

Overall restaurant service review: One Manager (without glasses) appeared harassed even with the restaurant 70% empty - it felt as though initially I was more of a hinderance and when I asked for a booth his facial expression appeared frustrated. When showing me to the seat he placed the menu down and walked off even before I had sat down and confirmed I was happy with the table. Very odd. The other manager, although more friendly, did forget to bring the pudding menu across when we asked for it and I had to go and find a restaurant member at the front by the entrance, even though by this time there was only 1 other table in the restaurant so not rushed off their feet. Pleasant to talk to but just not very well organised which was a disappointment. Overall experience was average and I wouldn't recommend this location again. Unfortunately there were too many issues hence the score, if it was 1 or 2 they could be excused but just kept coming with issues. The food did...

My partner and I chose to eat at Bella Italia after seeing an advert for a gluten free cookie dough dessert, as my partner is coeliac she was very excited about this as it's not something she's been able to eat since being diagnosed. After ordering our desserts, the cookie dough and the ice cream cookie dough balls - both of which are labelled as gluten free on the menu - the manager came to the table. They tried to explain that the cookie dough was gf, however it contained oats. We asked if these were specifically gf oats, to which we were told no and then talked down to with an explanation that some coeliacs/ people with gluten intolerance can eat non-gf oats depending on their level of intolerance (this is not true for coeliacs, as any gluten contamination causes a flare up). We decided to leave the cookie dough, but were told that the cookie dough ice cream balls didn't contain the non-gf oats and would be fine. We ate the ice cream balls and left. Lo and behold, the ice cream balls DID contain gluten contamination, leaving my partner uncomfortable and in pain for the following week.

This mislabeling of gf items on the menu is dangerous and unacceptable, as well as the lack of knowledge by the serving staff. Bella Italia should've learned from the Pret a Manger incident a few years ago. Not...