Disappointingly average (Bella Italia in General)

Member Name: jennikitten

Product:	Bella Italia in General
Date:	06/02/09 (60 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Not cramped, versatile occasion-wise

Disadvantages: Too bland and boring

Bella Italia is an Italian restaurant usually found in city or quite urban locations. In my experience there's either more than necessary or too few - I've never seen one anywhere near the town/city I grew up in or the town I currently live but there are at least 2 in Nottingham city centre.

Bella Italia is reasonably priced for a restaurant, and this typifies what it's like generally. It has a standard pizza/pasta menu (this may be an advantage if you have fussy eaters), standard drinks, standard decor - in fact it's completely nondescript in my opinion. There's nothing to make it stand out from its competitors really. It's better than Pizza Express because it has much better service in my experience, but nowhere near as good as Zizzi's.

The only thing that can be considered different is that it seems to always have offers on - cheaper food at lunch, and lots of vouchers floating around for as much as 50% off your food bill if you're a student, which is good - but then again if you're in a city in the first place, there are going to be lots of better deals out there on buffets and the like.

The colours have changed in comparison to the picture - it's now brown and cream inside as well as out. It's not as cramped as a lot of restaurants are, although maybe that's simply because it's just not as popular.

One other advantage is that it is quite upmarket and so suitable for a range of occasions - it's good for lunch or dinner with friends or family, a date, a work meal out etc. So in this respect it has an advantage because it suits a wide range of people on a variety of occasions at moderate prices. However, unless you go with great people, you're not really going to remember it as a good time because like I said, it's the culinary definition of average.

Overall, I think Bella Italia has a lot of potential and some good groundings, but it's just lacking that x factor for me because it is just too generic. I do prefer something a little different, in terms of decor, the food itself, or the menu, and I don't feel that I get that at Bella Italia.

Summary: Make sure you go with fun people