Ela Bella Restaurant — Restaurant in Tonbridge and Malling

We were in the area, not familiar with Tonbridge restaurants, but happened upon this one after a long walk, and thought it looked cute and enticing. It wasn't yet open, but we booked a table for midday and looked forward to a cosy lunch. As the first customers of the day (and the only couple for the first 40 minutes) we expected the food to be fresh and exciting, especially as my husband ordered the special of the day (pork in Calvados). I ordered the seafood pasta, a personal favourite. My seafood was cold and and added to some very over cooked, scorching hot spaghetti. (Microwaved). The shellfish was clearly not fresh but frozen - disappointing when you consider that this is one of the few towns I've been to that still has a wet fish shop in its high street, sporting an array of delicious fresh sea food. (We had passed it only moments earlier). My husbands calvados sauce had a wrinkly skin on top and the vegetables were crunchy, the potatoes over-cooked - all the signs of a pre-cooked, reheated meal. Our waiter sat directly behind us after taking our order, eating a strong smelling hard boiled egg with pickles while we were waiting for our food. A particularly unpleasant experience. It's a real shame, as we thought we were supporting a nice little family run, local business. Won't...

I loved Mamma Mia, the predecessor to Ella Bella, and visited several times for the great Italian food. So I was pleased when I assumed it was getting an overhaul and looked forward to going back.

I visited pre-Covid in January with friends and was pleased to see the place busier than I had previously but less so to see the menu radically different and considerably more expensive.

I must say that my steak Tonbridge was excellent, as it should be given the price, my guests however were less enthusiastic about their meals, so I must’ve chosen well. But what was unforgivable was the service on the evening.

There was a considerable wait for food when the restaurant wasn’t overly busy, being brought dishes we hadn’t ordered and then eventually a panicked looking waitress coming to our table and asking what we had ordered. Even then it was some time before we finally received what we had ordered.

And then there was the liberal dishing out of after meal limoncello to all tables except ours. Until that is when we asked a waiter when we were getting ours, he wasn’t impressed at being asked but we were less impressed at not being offered.

I certainly can’t complain about the steak I had, but I can about everything else and especially at the...

Me and my girlfriend was actually walking past this place and decided to pop in for some dinner.

Was greeted by a lovely man who gave us an option of some tables to sit at and gave us two menus. I decided I was going to have a glass of wine and my girlfriend(who was driving) just had a coke.

Wine was lovely and up to standard of the price.

Starters arrived promptly, I had a prawn cocktail which was delicious lovely fresh lemon to squeeze over and my girlfriend had the garlic bread which I tasted and was delicious.

Mains arrived around 10 minutes later and we both got the spaghetti carbonara and my gosh IT WAS OUT OF THIS WORLD! not joking by the time the waiter had come back to ask if everything was nice it was gone 😂

Once we finished our meal we didn’t want to get a dessert but as we was about to pay the waiter brought over a home made pudding for us to share with two little spoons. Really was a lovely touch to end the evening.

Once we had paid he decided to show us the heritage of the place! Never knew the restaurant had so much history. Will definitely be returning

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