Bella Italia - Norwich Red Lion Street — Restaurant in Norwich

I booked a table for Mother's Day, Bella Italia is one of our favourite places to eat out. We live an hour away so it's always a nice treat. We arrived at 1:00pm for a booked table. We were sat down upstairs where there was no atmosphere, in fact I've been to funerals with more atmosphere! Our food and drinks order was taken quickly after we sat down, it's such a shame they weren't so quick at getting them to us. 45 minutes later, our drinks arrived along with our starters. The calamari was over done, in fact it was so overdone it was a struggle to eat the granite like consistency, even with it oozing with fryer oil. The dough balls and Mozzarella Sticks were good. The mains arrived, my daughter had a margarita pizza, which whist looking overcooked, she said was nice. I had a mixed seafood risotto which would have been better describe as an over cooked fishy rice pudding. But the pièce de résistance is is bring out a chicken salad (Goats Cheese ordered) for my wife. Easy mistake to make in a busy kitchen I'm sure but, when she returned her meal, she was very clear to ask for a new one as she does not eat meat and did not wish for the chicken to be just scraped of the plate. Once me and my daughter had finished eating, my wife's replacement goats cheese salad arrived. Upon tucking into her meal, which she had been waiting an excessive amount of time for, she had discovered pieces of bacon lardons with in her salad which should have been clearly made made for a Vegetarian (I'm convinced the kitchen think this is some sort of joke) The manager, who was deeply sorry, was informed. He could not have done more to apologise or, try to resolve the situation for us. He told us we would not be charged for our meal, if you want to call it that. I can cook crap food at home, I don't expect to go out and eat it as well. It's the worst eating out experience we have ever had, maybe if they put as much effort into the customers sitting in the restaurant as they do the just eat and Deliveroo orders they might still have a business in a few years time. Three delivery guys were blocking the doors as we went to leave - I think you have your priorities all...

I'd like to begin by saying that the staff were really lovely and I have nothing against/ nor had a problem with any of the staff. However, me and my mum had many mistakes made with our order beginning with our drinks. My mum ordered a strawberry daiquiri but when our waiter put it on the table he said "strawberry lemonade" (there was no alcohol in this drink so she certainly didn't get the strawberry daiquiri she ordered). Not only this but on the bill they charged us for the strawberry daiquiri which is £3 more expensive than the strawberry lemonade my mum actually recieved. Our table was not cleaned or prepped before we sat down. When we asked for tap water, the waiter gave us a vase of water without glasses to put it in. He may aswell have put a flower in it because we did not get a chance to drink the water. Moving onto food... I found a black curly hair in the middle of my carbonara. Granted the waiter did take my meal off the bill and get me new dish, but, he didn't give me any cutlery to eat it with so, my mum grabbed a fork from the table set up behind her. We then waited 20 minutes for someone to come over to our table and ask about desserts. And a further half an hour for the bill to be given to us. We did not want to spend that much time in the restaurant. It really seemed as though the waiters didn't care about our table because I had to keep making eye contact with staff who were behind the bar on their phones, in order to get someones attention so me and my mum could leave. Due to how look it took for them to serve us, we very nearly just got up and left. I work in hospitality and this is not how customers should be treated, more care and effort needs to be put into serving your customers. This used to be my favourite restaurant: I'd come here every birthday or every occasion I was in Norwich so I am truly upset to say this was the worst experience I have ever had in a restaurant. I hope this review gives the workers something to think about so they know where to improve. There is no malice, I just hope to have a better experience next...

Solo diner, was sat next to a family with young children even though restaurant was half full. As the family finished their meals they were all talking loudly and a child screeching. Another solo diner who had been sat behind them asked to be moved. My food had arrived and ended up rushing it just to get finished. Trying to eat when a child is loudly saying poo is not ideal. I also had to hear the mum making negative comments about the lady who asked to be moved. As soon as I'd finished I got up to pay. The waitress was giving me an odd look as I was clearly wanting to leave. I still left a tip and just commented that the food was lovely but the family you sat me beside were quite loud. Instead of accepting that was my experience, she got in a huff and with the emphasis on actually said 'well actually I thought they were really good' I replied well you weren't sitting next to them! I was annoyed before that, I was angry after due to her attitude to me. Wish I hadn't wasted £20 for that and won't be back. If you go, bear in mind between 4-6pm kids eat for £1. If you have kids then go for it. I travel a lot, sometimes on my own and that's the worst experience...