£3.50 a pint - you've got to be kidding!?!?!? (Bella Italia in General)

Member Name: stuff10

Product:	Bella Italia in General
Date:	29/07/09 (66 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Food was good, buy one get one free voucher

Disadvantages: Expensive, service not great, uncomfortable chairs, £3.50 a pint!

We visited Bella Italia in Sheffield last night for a pre-cinema meal. It's only the 2nd time I've been to a Bella Italia (the first been around a year ago in Birmingham) and to be honest, I have mixed opinions about it.

Bella Italia is a fairly standard Italian restaurant serving almost exclusively Italian food and drinks - pizzas, pastas etc and (luckily for me) a good old fashion plate of burger and chips (I'm a fussy eater). The food and drink can't be faulted, but the service and price does leave a little to be desired.

Around the cinema (Centretainment, if you know it) are a lot of places to eat - Frankie and Benny's, Old Orleans, Bitz n Pizza, Boardwalk etc, all competing for your business. Last night, we decided to try Bella Italia for 2 reasons: 1) we'd only been once before, 2) we had a buy one get one free voucher on main meals... this was the main reason we went!

Our film started at 6 and so we got to the restaurant at about 4.45pm. First impressions weren't particularly good - it's a new unit and does look nicely decorated inside but it lacks the booths and soft seats that you get in places such as Frankie and Benny's and TGI Fridays. Instead, Bella Italia have opted for wooden chairs which to be honest, aren't particularly comfortable. The tables also seemed a little too close together, and I suspect it can get pretty claustrophobic when it's full.

Sitting at the table, we ordered our drinks which came pretty quickly - the only beer they have on tap is Birra Moretti which I'd never heard of before. However, it was pretty nice (as most Italian beers are)... until we got the bill - £3.50 a pint!!! This isn't London! This is up north!

We had to ask the waiter to actually order our food, which was pretty annoying as we were in a rush and the restaurant was deserted with only about 2 other tables occupied.

As stated above, the quality of the food was good, but the problems again lie with the prices - there weren't many items on the menu for less than £10 and £3.50 a pint outside of London is just scandalous.

It's a nice enough place, but it's highly-priced and not as good as the likes of Frankie and Benny's or TGI Friday's.

FYI, the buy one get one free offer is available Sundays-Thursdays at various times throughout the year, check out: www.thatsbella.co.uk to see if there's a voucher available.

Summary: Only go if you've got a voucher