Bella Italia is a well known Italian restaurant and its creators have been in the restaurant industry for more than 25 years. They traditionally serve Italian dishes and really bring them to life by sourcing their ingredients directly from Italian family producers and more of where their ingredients are sourced can be seen on their website. The dishes served are all based on the creations of Italian chef, Vittorio Lettieri, who grew up in Southern Italy. Bella Italia are ultimately a sit down restaurant but also offer a takeaway option which is great news when working in the city centre. In addition to expanding to the takeaway option, Bella Italia now also have a home range in local supermarkets such as Tesco, where you can purchase their readymade popular dishes and desserts. 

I’ve been to Bella Italia in Piccadilly Gardens Manchester a few times and have not only eaten inside of the restaurant but have also had their takeaway option. When ordering takeaway from Bella Italia, I have never actually ordered online or via Deliveroo, Uber Eats or Just Eat, I’ve always popped into the restaurant and ordered directly, which is ideal if you are not sure what you want to eat. With more and more Bella Italia restaurants popping up around the UK, I thought now would be a great time to check out the takeaway option again and give my honest review.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

After talking about pasta and Italian food most of the morning with my work colleagues, I decided Bella Italia would be the perfect option for lunch. I took a short walk across Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester and popped into Bella Italia to place my lunchtime order. The restaurant is placed in the heart of Piccadilly Gardens, facing the water fountains, close by to the local banks, shops and other places to eat and most importantly about a 2 minute walk from the office. 

As soon as I walked into the restaurant I was met by a member of staff who raised his hand in the air from across the room to suggest to wait ‘two minutes’.. I stood at the doorway and waited over five minutes with my friend before I was finally given the takeaway menu to browse through before placing my order. I decided to order the Traditional Lasagne (£10.99) which consisted of layers of pasta, fine minced beef ragù, béchamel sauce and a mozzarella cheese. After not being able to order 2-3 options from the menu as the takeaway menu was out of date and had not been updated, my friend settled on the Sicilian Pollo Rosso (£11.39), which consisted of pasta with roast chicken, onion, red peppers and pachino tomatoes, finished with a Sicilian red pesto sauce. 

Overall, the takeaway menu is an extensive menu which has plenty of options that you can order as a take out. You can view all menus online but unfortunately they did say that the takeaway menu has not been updated and that some options listed were no longer available. Once I did place my order, I was offered to take a seat in the restaurant area and was informed it would take around 10 minutes for my food to be prepared and ready to takeaway. It was not long at all from placing my order to actually receiving my food and it did actually arrive in less than 10 minutes, which is great and very convenient for a quick lunchtime collection. It was just a shame that the menu was out of date and a shame about the service when I first entered the restaurant!

TASTE

The lasagne was tasty and I enjoyed the meaty taste of the mince beef and the hint of herbs hidden in the beef and lasagne. The béchamel sauce and mozzarella cheese complimented the dish and overall I would consider it to be a nice lasagne. Unfortunately I wouldn’t consider the lasagne on this occasion to be anything special or anything really to ‘talk about’ as it wasn’t very hot and in fact only just lukewarm. There wasn’t a lot of mozzarella cheese and the portion was quite small considering the price of a straight forward dish. My friend also commented on the fact that her food wasn’t very warm but did enjoy the taste of her Sicilian Pollo Rosso. 

COST AND VALUE

My Traditional Lasagne cost £10.99 and the Sicilian Pollo Rosso cost £11.39. The portion of my lasagne was quite small when considering the price of the food and there was very little mince or mozzarella cheese. I was also very disappointed with how the food was presented and felt like it was thrown together. You can see from the images taken as to how the food was presented and that half of the bowl was pretty much empty or simply just a thin layer of pasta. My friends Pollo Rosso on the other hand was a bigger portion and was presented nicely. 

Taking into account the portion size of my lasagne and how the food was presented, coupled up with the food only being lukewarm, I unfortunately would not consider this to be very good value for money. I would actually consider my lasagne option to be an expensive meal as there was simply just a thin layer of pasta (I would even suggest just one layer), a little bit of mince beef with a sprinkle of cheese and sauce.. it was disappointing!

OVERALL

I was really looking forward to tucking into my Traditional Lasagne and liked the fact that a takeaway option was now available at a predominantly sit down restaurant chain. The welcoming from the member of staff and service when I first entered the restaurant really set the tone for my meal and on reflection was actually a little rude. I would however give brownie points for how quick the food was prepared and ready for taking away from placing my order but was very disappointed with the food in general. 

It’s great that Bella Italia serve their takeaway food in a disposable and recyclable dish with cutlery that can also be recycled but was let down with the actual portion size, the presentation of the food and the actual lack of mince beef, pasta layers and mozzarella cheese. I’m pretty sure a lasagne has more than one layer of pasta and has a little more mince beef.. please please please bring out the true Italian taste in your lasagne Bella Italia!

Overall, I would consider my Bella Italia takeaway to be average and wasn’t really impressed. Based on my takeaway Traditional Lasagne, I would not return back to The Piccadilly Gardens restaurant but may one day consider giving another Bella Italia restaurant a try. I definitely will not be rushing back anytime soon though. 

PROS AND CONS

Pros

• Quick once ordered
• Packaging and cutlery recyclable 
• Tasty (although very little portion)

Cons

• Takeaway menu not updated
• Presentation 
• Expensive (for what I ordered)
• Food not very hot
• Service - staff uninterested 

FOODIE RATING

I give Bella Italia Takeaway in Piccadilly Gardens, Manchester a Foodie Rating of 2/5. It would have been a much higher score if they’d have had better service and if the staff would have taken an interest and had not been a little rude. My rating would also be higher if the food was hot and if the food was more presentable. It also didn’t help not having an up to date takeaway menu.

Want to know more about Bella Italia? You can check out their website here: bellaitalia.co.uk