Bella Italia - Oxford — Restaurant in Oxford

Got to Oxford today (first post-covid trip, yay!) And so many places have been closed. We wandered around for awhile until we found Bella Italia and were immediately charmed by it's warm, welcoming atmosphere, prices they've worked hard to keep as reasonable as they can in this era and food on an outdoor menu that sounded amazing.

We went in and were quickly greeted cheerfully from the back where several people were discussing something and were quickly met by our host and server, Sarah, who had us ensconced quickly with a lovely cheerful smile and welcome. She left us with our menus so we could peruse them. I am happy to say she was one of those wonderful waitresses who know exactly how much time you need because she knows to watch for when you put the menus down. Shortly after the menus closed and hit the table, she was back to take our order.

We decided to go with the set menus for both of us because it would let us get a little taste of everything and when asked our waitress was quick and helpful to give us her favourites and some highlights of several of the dishes. We made our order and settled in to wait.

Fortunately it seemed like no time at all before our appetizers came out. Both were small in size, but since we knew we were getting three courses they seemed about right. The meatballs were incredibly tender and flavorful with a marinara sauce that was definitely not out of a bottle but properly stewed and delicious. The crustini that came with them were perfectly toasted, not so hard that you felt like you would break a tooth, but definitely crunchy. The little sliced peppers added nice bursts of heat too.

The arancini came with five tiny balls that looked perfectly fried to perfection. I was a little skeptical when they came out that they would be cooked properly, but was delighted when I bit into them. Soft cheesy goodness immediately oozed out of a perfectly crunchy shell. I don't typically like mayo, but the little mayo mix they added was delicious. For the first time ever I actually ate the whole container of dipping sauce and was actually glad they had put so much in it. (I also stole a crustini and put the little bit of extra mayo on it!)

For the mains I had the Funghi Crema, which I was expecting to be very heavy but was surprisingly light. (This was good because dairy is not always my friend but I love cream sauces). The pasta was cooked al dente, for my own tastes I might have preferred maybe 5-10 more seconds so if you prefer softer pasta, keep that in mind. It was fresh made though, and thick cut, and very tasty. The star of the dish was by far the mushrooms (as it should be!), I saved them for last and used them to scoop up the remainder of the sauce.

The carbona with the extra chicken was our other main and the pancetta was perfectly crispy. When given a bite the response was, "the perfect distillation of the essence of pork". The rest of the dish disappeared so fast that I can't comment much on it, but the absolute bliss on his face as he made it disappear leaves me thinking he enjoyed every bite.

As we got the set menu with three courses (for an amazing deal price!!!!) We also had a desert each. By this point it was confirmed to us that the size of the appetizers was actually perfect for the three courses. He got the cookie al forno with a super thick caramel sauce and a scoop of gelato. Oh. My. I'm a bit skeptical of those kinds of cookies because I'm not a fan of under baked dough, but he gave me a bite and I have to say it was what all those cookies really should be. It was perfectly crisp on the outside and beautifully soft and delicious but totally baked. It was one of the best bites of cookies I've ever had, and definitely the best cookie of that style I've ever had. I would have been happy with just the cookie and the caramel sauce, though he was thrilled with the gelato addition and told me that the trio of flavours was splendid.

I had the tiramisu. It was perfect. If you're heading out to Oxford anytime soon you'll miss a delicious treat if you miss Bella Italia....

Came here for my birthday in August with 5 other friends and we were all bitterly disappointed. Felt completely ignored by staff, took 15+ minutes to take drink order and much longer to bring them over and take food order. The food was meh, bland, mediocre and very overpriced for how bad it was. My friend had carbonara and hardly ate a thing because it was so tasteless and ill tasting in all honesty. My lamb ragu dish was slightly better but everyone was very underwhelmed. We waited for at least 25 minutes to even be able to get anyone's attention for the bill, this took a further 15 mins to bring over. We are all young women so don't quite have the confidence to ask for a discount or express our disappointment (which may be why they paid our table no attention). Although it would have been too late to complain at the end as no one came to check on us throughout the meal. However by all the food left on our plates and our negative tone it was quite evident we weren't happy. I had a birthday sache and presents so it was evident it was a special event and they simply ruined it. The food was overpriced for the quality, you could go to ask italian or prezzo over the road for the same price or cheaper where the food would be much nicer. I think this must be the slowest service I've ever received, if they were busy with other tables and rushed off their feet i would understand however they were just more interested in talking to each other. The food was bland and SO disappointing. Would never come back which is such a shame as i used to love this place but something...

Really dissapointed with Oxfords Bella Italia... started off well with being seated at a great table at the front of the restaurant by one of the waitresses who was polite and friendly, unfortunately thats where the positives ended... we waited 10 minutes before someone even bothered asking us if we wanted drinks which took long enough to come as they was only a coke and a lemonade. My girlfriend ordered the Lasagne and I ordered the Scallop risotto to which we was both excited about. On a fairly quiet sunday the service was slow and considering we only wanted a main I wreckon in that time we could of walked over to ASK Italian and eat a three course meal! After the lengthy wait our food came and I was confused to see that my Risotto had no Scallops on the top as the proper way of cooking scallops is to sear them right? Well not according to Bella italia that had basically boiled and ruined a one of my favourite foods both being risotto and scallops, the scallops was mushy and tasteless and the rissoto was watery, dull and the sauce had split. The only slight silver lining was that my girlfriends lasagne was a "7/10" but considering Tescos Finest Lasagne is about the same standard it really didnt feel special. After waiting another long length of time we finally got the bill and was glad to leave. Really...