Bella Italia Bristol Cribbs Causeway

On entry to the diner, we were greeted with a waitress telling us that one of the chefs was on break so no food orders would be taken. So for an hour, the “restaurant” wasn’t serving its purpose. Turns out the chef and waitress were smoking out the front for an hour instead of serving customers. Think the manager may need to address resourcing staff properly if one chef details an entire service.

Firstly, the kids meals were EXCELLENT. Good size, loads of inclusion, great price. My daughter got a Pepperoni pizza, and starters, salad, drink and dessert for £8! Bargain. But when our adult meals came out, they were laughable. My Pepperoni pizza was EXACTLY the same size as my daughter 's. My wife 's spaghetti was about 1/2 cup of pasta. We were both so hungry that we rushed home and cooked pasta at home! Not even joking! Given we paid full ticket for the meals, we were extremely disappointed. It 's a shame because as soon as we saw the kids meals we said we 'll definitely come here again ... Not anymore. The meals were so small I really did wonder if they made a mistake. They would have been small for kids meals. It was comical.

We had to wait very long to have our food on the table. Few dishes were lukewarm so got cold during consumption. My friend’s spoon had an old piece of food on the handle and my spoon was not clean well either. I was very disappointed with the amount of my pasta with prawns. There was not much to eat, so I left the restaurant hungry. Our firs bill included £12 voluntary service charge which no one asked as whether we would like to pay it or not. The second bill was reduced of that amount but we had to work our ourselves how much do we need to pay individually. Staff was friendly but I am not willing to go there again. Customer’s toilet not clean and without toilet roll!

We went here instead of going to the services. It took almost two hours! The food was pretty good. The garlic bread was slightly overcooked, the bruschetta was good as were my son's dough bites. My wife's meatballs we're good and my carbonara was tasty. This was let down by a wait of almost an hour between starters and mains. The service otherwise was fine.

Excellent service from friendly and helpful staff. The high standard menu is the same as other outlets, with a good range of vegetarian options, as well as offers to make it vegan on some items. The food is beautifully prepared and presented. Good choice of drinks. The menu caters well for children with child friendly options. Nice atmosphere in a clean environment. Plenty of parking space with disabled parking and access available.