The food certainly lives up to the name, with the most perfectly cooked pasta I've ever had.
Gluten free pasta is a struggle. The extra starch means that gluten free pasta is difficult to cook without it getting mushy and sticky. So my expectations weren’t set too high when I planned to eat lunch at Bella Italia in Covent Gardens.
Bella Italia is a chain of restaurants in London offering authentic Italian cuisine. To ensure this, their restaurants incorporate ingredients from Italy in their recipes. For example, the pasta served in their restaurants comes from the Gaetarelli family, who have been producing pasta by the shores of Lake Garda since 1952.
Bella Italia was remodelled in 2016 to 2017, which included changes to the design of their restaurants and a new menu, developed by Bella Italia’s executive chef, Vittorio Lettieri. Whilst incorporating some including seafood and vegan options.
The whole experience was very warm and welcoming, from the start. One of my friends is wheelchair bound and my priority was ensuring she felt comfortable. The staff at the restaurant helped my friend get in securely and sat us at the table next to the door, for our convenience.
The calming shade of blue covering the restaurant grabbed our attention and set the tone for the restaurant.
Once we were sat down, we were met by a short, stubby Italian man in his mid 50’s who had a curly grey beard. I didn’t dare to pronounce the order, in fear of offending our waiter. Instead I just pointed to the bruschetta pomodoro on the menu, for my starter. This was a toasted garlic ciabatta topped with baby plum tomatoes, bufala mozzarella, olive oil, basil, sea salt & balsamic vinegar. Although it sounded really nice, I couldn’t tell that the bread, or ciabatta had garlic in it. The bread was also very hard, and in the end I gave up on my knife and fork. Having said that, the sweetness of the tomatoes went beautifully with the tanginess of the bufala mozzarella. Who knew such a simple dish could taste so nice.
For my main meal, I had a classic pasta dish, gluten free bolognese. This included a slow cooked beef ragù served with spaghetti. I confirmed with our waiter that I could have some cheese on top, which i didn’t hold back on. The block of cheese was nearly finished by the time I told the waiter to stop. The thick and rich tomato sauce with the tender beef created a blend of deep flavours.
I used to roll my eyes at anyone who mentioned coke zero, but I’ve recently been drinking a lot more coke zero. Perhaps it's the added citric acid, but regular coke just doesn't taste the same. So I chose coke zero as my drink at Bella Italia as well.
After some convincing from the waiter, we decided to order dessert as well. I ordered a Warm chocolate brownie with white chocolate chunks, served alongside a scoop of vanilla gelato and a sprinkling of honeycomb.
Comments