Bella Mia - Ashfield

The experience at this restaurant was quite disappointing considering the price. The fact that the restaurant was empty, while other nearby restaurants were full, was a red flag. The two waitresses were polite and friendly when taking our order. The quantity of food was generous, but the quality left much to be desired. The Fritto Misto, a mix of fried fish, calamari, and prawns, was bitter and had an off taste. The Farfalle with salmon and prawns had a large portion size, but there were very few tiny prawns in the dish. The smoked salmon was acceptable, but the sauce was off. The Limoncello ice cream for dessert was disappointing, as it seemed store-bought and lacked flavor. The addition of an amaretti biscuit instead of the promised meringue was a letdown. The atmosphere was further dampened by the odd mix of music, which included Italian songs, techno, and Spanish reggaeton, making the dining experience less enjoyable.

Took my husband for a meal at the Bella Mia tonight to celebrate his birthday. We were regular visitors up until the pandemic and had not been since March 2020. However, we were seated almost immediately. My husband ordered a Peroni beer whilst we looked at the menu. First thing we noticed was that the large leather bound menus had been replaced by a piece of folded cardboard which was not in a good condition. We both order the Calamari with rocket and a garlic dip. The rocket looked as if it had been left our for a considerable time in a warm place because it had wilted. The Calamari was over cooked and very chewy. Then my husband ordered a lasagne which he said was good, but I ordered Linguini ai Gamberetti which but the prawns were very small and rubbery. The pasta was in a tomato sauce but there was not enough of it. Overall a very disappointing evening. We were offered a discount of our bill, which we accepted, but the additional discount offered from our next meal will not be collected. This is so disappointing as we had been enjoying meals at the Bella Mia for a number of years and had taken relatives, colleagues and visitors on numerous occasions.

Wouldn’t rate at all, we thought we would give them a second chance after getting food orders and ignoring food allergies, rang to book a table and the they never returned my call to confirm the table!!!!

We visit Bella Mia a couple of times a year and come here for special occasions; today we visited for my mother in law's 60th Birthday. The food was, as usual, delicious sadly, the service was really poor. The waiting staff seemed so miserable! Not one of them cracked a smile, or came over to ask how the food was. They brought us dessert menus but then never came to take our order, so we decided to leave it and eventually asked for the bill. This came straight away but they never came back to take our payment (only about 6 tables in, so not like they were run off their feet! so in the end we went up to pay and left, disappointed. It was also freezing cold in there we ate our food in our coats! It's always been great in the past, so this was a real disappointment. The staff clearly didn't want to be there and they showed it. If you don't like customer service, choose a different career?

Visited with friends and was really looking forward to a real lasagne, as had enjoyed on many previous visits. Waited an age for it to be cooked, the presentation was not good, not even served with any salad garnish and the meat was non existent. They gave us some free olives as an apology for the wait (only a couple of other diners as we went early doors) but won’t ever order lasagne there again!