Bella Italia - Hemel Hempstead

Six of our family (2 Children & 4 adults) dined at lunchtime as a birthday treat for myself. We were all very happy with the varied choices on the menu, the children's, and adults and particularly myself being a Vegan, I thoroughly enjoyed the Verde burger and Vegan cheese bread, the option of vegan cheese on the menu as a whole opened up various choices across the board. Well done Bella Italia for keeping up with the fast growing trend of veganism, I placed a very positive post on the vegan group I belong to.
The service was first class from a very friendly and accommodating waiter. We would have no hesitation in a return visit

Great service and very tasty food. Will certainly return. Staff very friendly.

I loved the Marinara pasta! Nice restaurant!

I have to say a little disappointed with the new menu as it didn’t have my favourite chicken dish on it so had to choose another. Also my favourite desert ultimate framenti had burnt brownie pieces they were rock hard. Good service though and 241 cocktails was great. Loved the limoncello and prosecco one.

Lovely restaurant with nicely decorated tables. Great menu love chicken dishes and ultimate framenti is a great dessert. Great service.

We had a lovely birthday meal for my sister (5 adults and 5 children). The waitress was very helpful bringing a jug of juice for the kids to share. The only problem was they forgot one of the children's desserts. The rest had chosen ice-cream but one chose doughnuts and we had to ask for them again when the others had almost finished. Dessert service always seems to be a disappointment which is why none of the adults ordered a dessert.

quick service, fast to find a baby chair for me.

Poor

Generally the food was pretty good but the staff on duty acted like a bunch of school kids preferring to chat to each other rather than serve the customers.

On arrival we stood and waited to be seated for what seemed an age, but in reality it was probably only 5 minutes, although 5 minutes kicking your heals by the door really can feel like a lifetime. During this time we observed the waiting staff chatting together behind the bar area taking little or no notice of us and certainly making no attempt to assist customers waiting to be seated. Once seated our server was pleasant and efficient, meanwhile the other servers continued to spend more time giggling (they were predominantly young and female) about a minor celebrity who had been in and who they'd had their photographs taken with.

The floor manager(s), there was definitely one and possibly two on duty, did nothing to make the serving staff act in a more professional manner. It was like eating dinner with a bunch of 13 year olds serving the customers, very distracting.

This all happened at an 8.30pm (pre)booking on a Saturday night.

As I said, overall the food itself was pretty good, it was the serving staff who lowered the tone of the whole experience.

Service was friendly although a bit slow. Food was very hot and freshly cooked and tasted very good.