Bella Italia - Norwich Riverside

Very disappointed. Pasta served on cold plates. Poor value for money. Plate filled with pasta. Not alot of sauce or meat. Will not visit again.

Party of 5 - we were all cold. When we asked we were told the heatiing had broken and the large window at end of building wasn't a good fit!

The food was lovely and arrived promptly.
Only issue was that after our last plate was taken away, we seemed to be forgotten about and had to wait 45 minutes for the bill.

Three of us at 1pm on matchday (3pm kick off). Cheerfully served, good food delivered after an acceptable small wait.

Pretty poor overall, the food was mediocre at best and the on duty manager was abrupt and brash. We were asked for a drinks order before we even sat down. The starters were pretty terrible, the bruschetta was a thin bit of dry toast with tasteless tomatoes, no seasoning, oil etc, the aranchi were over cooked. When asked if the starters were ok when the manager collected our plates, my husband and I looked at each other and were about to reply to say that they weren’t great and before we could he just turned around and walked away. The mains were ok, calzone was tasty and prawn pasta fine but sauce to pasta ratio didn’t balance and was nothing I couldn’t produce at home. Our waitress (Charlotte, I think) was lovely though and the only thing that was impressive. Decided not to ruin our night and complain as we were using Tesco vouchers but would have been furious if paying with cash and would have made a complaint on the night.

Lovely meal friendly staff

Always very friendly and efficient, enjoy our visits

6 members of my family and I decided to spend our Tesco Boost vouchers at Bella Italia Riverside, Norwich last Saturday rather than other restaurant options in our city. I should have perhaps known better but the venue was not my choice - it was near where my son needed to be to collect his fiancee from a Christmas celebration. The menu is not exactly inspiring and the food reflected this perfectly. I will not comment on every meal selected but will concentrate my comments mainly on my own. The selection of breads starter with waxed cardboard pots for balsamic/olive oil and another instantly forgettable dip was not a good beginning. The main that I chose was the lamb shank with potato mash and green beans and I also asked for the Mediterranean roasted vegetables as an additional side. The lamb shank was grey in colour with a watery 'jus' (tasteless), the potato looked as if it had been kept hot for and hour or so, the green beans were different shades of green indicating that they were probably a combination of today's and yesterday's vegetables re-heated and the extra side was not what I expected at all. They had never seen the inside of an oven, they were barely cooked or hot, let alone roasted and I struggled to make myself eat my meal.. (Anyone who knows me will realise it must have been bad, as I love my food). I had a sickly lemon cheesecake dessert but only two others joined me. My wife's pizza would barely cut and my son's choice of Marco Polo (pasta with duck) was sickly sweet, so our overall impression was extremely negative. The food bill was upwards of £150 and I will never repeat the experience under any circumstances. How such places survive, I don't know and if they continue to serve up this standard of meals, they surely won't.

We always enjoy our good at Bella, service good and staff very friendly

Good but AT £5 a pint ouch !