Restaurant Review, Bella Italia
By Andre Holmqvist
As a student, your needs are quite simple: you look for good, cheap food.
Our mission is to help you find this. For this very first issue of the Tribe, we chose to review the well-known culinary institution Bella Italia. True to its name, the menu offers pizza, pasta and other well-known specialities from The Boot. The concept appeared to fit in to the somewhat repetitive but ever so pleasant cliché of Italian restaurant food.
Upon arriving, we were hastily assigned a table just under the spiral staircase, with yellow warning tape appropriately put up to prevent a (I must say) quite likely concussion when sitting down.
Our first impression of the restaurant was pleasant, candles burning at every table and playing cards stuck to the ceiling. After perusing the menu at length our waiter finally came to take out order and informed us of the 50% discount for students on Tuesdays. Considering there appeared to be just one waiter we were surprised it took just ten minutes for our dishes to arrive. Hurriedly, he garnished our pasta with parmesan cheese and freshly-ground pepper.
Pasta with pesto was, as anticipated, a safe bet, and for the regular price of £8.25 you might consider cooking the pasta and opening the jar of sauce yourself. Unless, of course, it is a Tuesday in which case you might as well go in for the deal. The next dish in our line-up was the rather more exciting Spaghetti Gamberi. Served with prawns both in the sauce, spicy tomato, garlic and parsley, and on a skewer it was decent. With the exception of the skewered prawns, which were dry, the dish was tasty and fresh. Lastly, there was the £9.25 Penne Zafferano with smoked salmon, cherry tomatoes in a spinach and saffron sauce. The ingredients complemented each other well, but lacked seasoning. Wine-wise, the deliciously smooth red Trevini was worth the money at £3.55 a glass or £12.95 for a bottle.
Gastronomically, we would not award Bella Italia five stars, but with the plentiful proportions, speedy service and fairly tasty food we just might be coming back. For about 8 pounds you can wine and dine here on Tuesday nights, a very reasonable deal in the otherwise rather pricy St Andrews.
By Andre Holmqvist
As a student, your needs are quite simple: you look for good, cheap food.
Our mission is to help you find this. For this very first issue of the Tribe, we chose to review the well-known culinary institution Bella Italia. True to its name, the menu offers pizza, pasta and other well-known specialities from The Boot. The concept appeared to fit in to the somewhat repetitive but ever so pleasant cliché of Italian restaurant food.
Upon arriving, we were hastily assigned a table just under the spiral staircase, with yellow warning tape appropriately put up to prevent a (I must say) quite likely concussion when sitting down.
Our first impression of the restaurant was pleasant, candles burning at every table and playing cards stuck to the ceiling. After perusing the menu at length our waiter finally came to take out order and informed us of the 50% discount for students on Tuesdays. Considering there appeared to be just one waiter we were surprised it took just ten minutes for our dishes to arrive. Hurriedly, he garnished our pasta with parmesan cheese and freshly-ground pepper.
Pasta with pesto was, as anticipated, a safe bet, and for the regular price of £8.25 you might consider cooking the pasta and opening the jar of sauce yourself. Unless, of course, it is a Tuesday in which case you might as well go in for the deal. The next dish in our line-up was the rather more exciting Spaghetti Gamberi. Served with prawns both in the sauce, spicy tomato, garlic and parsley, and on a skewer it was decent. With the exception of the skewered prawns, which were dry, the dish was tasty and fresh. Lastly, there was the £9.25 Penne Zafferano with smoked salmon, cherry tomatoes in a spinach and saffron sauce. The ingredients complemented each other well, but lacked seasoning. Wine-wise, the deliciously smooth red Trevini was worth the money at £3.55 a glass or £12.95 for a bottle.
Gastronomically, we would not award Bella Italia five stars, but with the plentiful proportions, speedy service and fairly tasty food we just might be coming back. For about 8 pounds you can wine and dine here on Tuesday nights, a very reasonable deal in the otherwise rather pricy St Andrews.