Bella Italia - Sheffield Arena — Restaurant in Sheffield

Our family travelled from Grantham, Lincoln and Gainsborough to Sheffield to attend the Young Voices at the Arena. We arranged to meet early in order to sit and have a meal together. On arriving At Bell Italia there were very few people in and we waited a few moments until a table had been set for the nine of us and a waiter came to take our drinks order whilst we decided what we would like off the menu. Our drinks arrived and after approximately 10-15 minutes the waiter took our order. As we sat chatting the restaurant began to fill up and several tables around us had their orders taken and food delivered to the table. The waiter then ask after 50 minutes of placing our order if we would like another drink, which we declined and ask politely where our food was, only to be told it was on its way in a few moments. After another 5 minutes we ask again when the food would be ready only to be told again 'in a few minutes. The waiter then came back to our table to see if we would like another drink and after a bit of badgering he agreed it would be 'on the house, his excuse for the delay was that they were busy, and yet we were one of the first to be seated.. Again we waited and after asking yet again how long our meal would be we were told in a while. In the meantime all customers around us who had come in up to 30 minutes after us had had their meals and some had left, including a table of 8 at the side of us. By this time we had been waiting for 1 hour 10 minutes from ordering and had with us a hungry 6 year old who had not eaten since his dinner break at school at 12.00 noon. After another 5 minutes waiting and no one gave us an apology or reasonable explanation so we departed and had to go find a fast food eatery as we only had 45 minutes left to eat and get to the arena and find our places before the concert started. Disgusting service and a could not care less attitude - will not be...

Not having been to this restaurant for a while we thought we'd pay a repeat visit. It's been refurbished in the past 12 months and it's now a trendy diner - think of something like an Italian Planet Hollywood... Having been quite a few times in recent years the food is always good and service is excellent. Once there were massive delays but their customer service was excellent to mitigate against a complaint. This time everything was great - service, atmosphere and the place was very busy. However, what I was shocked about were the prices on the menu. At the end of the day, this is a chain restaurant and you get the same in every one up and down the country. Staple, traditional Italian food but nothing extremely special. Gamberoni is a favourite of mine - spicy prawns in tomato sauce with spaghetti...I was surprised to see that this was £13! Looking around the menu, everything seemed to be very highly priced...cod with a salad and mash - £14. Vege burger (salad, no fries) - £10. A can of San Pelegrino - almost £3. If I was in a secluded part of the city, maybe with some live traditional music, something a little special then I'd be ok with these prices. But I was next door to a Subway and a Nando's. Over £40 for 2 people to eat in what is just a franchise, high street copy/paste restaurant....food good, prices...

Not a bad restaurant IF you have the taste card which entitles you to 2 for 1. In one pic you'll see calamari and chicken wings (starters). The calamari isn't as good as say Wagamama, for example. The batter was extremely thick and there was very little squid. The wings were bland. We went for the peri peri sauce and it was just equally bland. It was more like a marinade than a sauce. The mains are Pollo Barbecue (Pizza) and Calabrese (Pasta) in the other pic. These were really good. The pizza has the mozzarella in the crust which was very tasty and definitely made the meal more filling. The pasta was excellent. Unfortunately the service let the experience down. If we didn't have to wait approx 5-10 mins to grab someone's attention every time we wanted to order, add something or pay the bill then it would possibly be 4 star. This meal cost approx £36 with 2 for 1 on the starters, mains and dessert (not shown). Otherwise it would be approx £62. At that price it's definitely not worth it but with the discount it's a decent meal and deal. I'd recommend this with the discount but be prepared to wait a bit...