Bella Italia

Yesterday evening was my flatmate’s birthday dinner and we ate at Bella Italia. Bella Italia is one of my favourite restaurants. One of my close friends from school had her birthday dinner there and I had my birthday dinner there too. And yesterday my flatmate celebrated her birthday there. So the restaurant brings back some wonderful memories and was a place where I had some really enjoyable evenings with my friends. It is by no means a cheap restaurant especially if you are on a student budget, with a main meal costing around £6.50 for a mozzarella pizza to £15 for a steak; but the food is really nice and the atmosphere is very traditional and romantic. The food comes in really big filling portions not like in some expensive restaurants where the plate is huge and the food takes up about an eighth of the plate and you feel really hungry afterwards.

You really feel like you are in Rome for an evening. With an interesting and quirky décor of old Victorian style photographs and wooden tables and chairs it is hard to feel like you are in 21st century England. With mood lighting and soft candles Bella Italia is a beautiful restaurant. From my experiences the waiters are all very pleasant and conversational which for me is always a delight and make your experience all the more enjoyable. As students, most of us skipped starters. I ordered a pollo E spinaci calzone for my main. A calzone - for those who have never encountered one - is like a folded pizza. The one I ordered had spinach, cheese and sliced chicken breast with garlic butter served with a chopped tomato sauce. It was not only beautiful to look at, it was absolutely delicious! I ate most of mine in almost complete silence.

For desert I ordered my favourite - cheesecake. Bella Italia makes a delicious baked cheesecake with a soft base served with blueberry and black current compote. That too was delicious! Cheesecake is all time my favourite desert and no matter which restaurant I go to I always look at the desert menu to see if they do cheesecake and if they do I usually don’t read the rest of the desert menu. Once in a while I might try something different if I was feeling adventurous!

We ended up having a really nice evening and were there for over 3 hours! I would definitely recommend going to Bella Italia. If you have a birthday or a special occasion coming up going to a nice restaurant once in a while is well worth it. Most of the time you will end up having a pleasant evening with friends and loved ones that you will remember for years to come.