Bella Italia Restaurant, Cambridge

Bella Italia Cambridge

I should start by saying that there are 3 different Bella Italia restaurants in Cambridge: one at the Grafton Centre - next to the Vue Cinema, one at the Cambridge Leisure Park and one along the backs, near Newnham College called the Watermill.

I have visited all three restaurants, so will give a quick note about the other two before my full review which is on the Watermill Bella Italia. As they ...
...the smallest of the three Bella Italia restaurants in Cambridge, it is on the first floor of the Grafton Centre next to Vue cinema, a fast food Italian and a Burger King. In my opinion, Bella Italia’s food is much preferable to the other eateries available on this floor, but the price reflects this. If you want waitress service then opt for Bella Italia. The restaurant has a cosy feel with lots of rustic pans and a Mediterranean-feel warm orangey ... more

Bella Italia Cambridge

I should start by saying that there are 3 different Bella Italia restaurants in Cambridge: one at the Grafton Centre - next to the Vue Cinema, one at the Cambridge Leisure Park and one along the backs, near Newnham College called the Watermill.

I have visited all three restaurants, so will give a quick note about the other two before my full review which is on the Watermill Bella Italia. As they are all part of the same chain they share the same menu but the restaurants themselves are slightly different.

Grafton Centre – Possibly the smallest of the three Bella Italia restaurants in Cambridge, it is on the first floor of the Grafton Centre next to Vue cinema, a fast food Italian and a Burger King. In my opinion, Bella Italia’s food is much preferable to the other eateries available on this floor, but the price reflects this. If you want waitress service then opt for Bella Italia. The restaurant has a cosy feel with lots of rustic pans and a Mediterranean-feel warm orangey coloured décor. A nice restaurant, and handy for the Cinema and Grafton Centre shops, but not my favourite of the three restaurants.

Cambridge Leisure Park – This venue is home to the Junction, a music venue, Cineworld Cinema and Tenpin Bowling. There is also a DVD shop. It is also the site of the Cambridge Central Travelodge. In addition to this there are several restaurants: Pizza Hut, Chiquito, Frankie and Benny’s, a Chinese Restaurant, Nando’s and Bella Italia. With all that choice, I would say the main reason to visit the Bella Italia is that on a Monday they do 50% student discount with a valid student discount card, which is a massive saving and makes it an affordable treat if you are a student (like me!). The restaurant itself is less cosy than the other two Bella Italia branches; it is still very pleasant but with a more open layout. There is also a section of the restaurant that can be sectioned off with red curtains for private parties. One time when I visited for a late breakfast (the Chocolate Twist is highly recommended!), there was a children’s party going on in that section, but the kids were quite contained in that area and other than a few balloons popping was not disturbing.

The Watermill – I have visited this branch a few times but I am specifically reviewing my visit last week (May 2007) at lunchtime (around 1.30 pm).

~~ The Location ~~

The Watermill Bella Italia is situated on Newnham Road, Cambridge, CB3 9EY. It is next to the Granta Pub and India House restaurant, just past the crossroads of Silver Street/Queens Road along the backs. There is very little parking on the road outside, and you may have to park a few minutes walk away if coming by car, but by bike or on foot it is easily accessible. There is a step up to the main restaurant, as it is in an historic mill building, so wheelchair access could be tricky, although I didn’t ask about it so perhaps there is a more accessible way in.

For tourists: This is convenient if you have been visiting Clare College/Kings College and have come out onto the Backs, especially as Queens Road is a popular coach pick up point. There is also a punting company right outside Bella Italia, great fun after your lunch!

For students: This is a short walk for students of Selwyn, Clare, Kings, Newnham and Gonville & Caius Students living at Harvey Court or the new Stephen Hawking Building. Also very handy for Law/English/History/Classics etc students who have lectures at the Sidgewick site which is only a couple of minutes walk away. Although they don’t offer student discount, the lunchtime menu is good value.

~~ The Restaurant Itself ~~

The restaurant is in an old mill, situated on the river Cam. There is outdoor seating at the front of the restaurant overlooking the River, which is very pleasant if the weather is nice. The only slight problem with this is that people have to walk between the seating area and the restaurant to access a footpath leading through neighbouring fields which is a popular walk and can be quite busy. Disturbance is minimal however, and the view of people falling in whilst punting more than makes up for it!

The building is an extremely interesting one, with a square stone exterior, and a large chimney at the back. There is a board walk running round the back and side of part of the restaurant over the water. Upon entering the restaurant, you end up in the bar, which makes it a little bit confusing as to who to ask for a table, but when I visited last the bar staff seemed also to be the waiters/waitresses and I was seated straight away by a lady behind the bar. The disadvantage of the bar’s position is that it can be smoky and you can’t avoid it as you have to go through it to get to the restaurant. I assume this will no longer be a problem when the smoking ban comes in.

We were given the choice of sitting in the room which is to the left when you enter the restaurant, where the water wheel is, or the other part of the restaurant straight ahead. I have been seated in the other part before and it was nice enough, the décor being the same throughout the restaurant, but I would definitely recommend the room with the water wheel if you are given the opportunity, and that is where we chose to sit this time.

The Waterwheel Room: This is a unique place to enjoy a meal and the restaurant is worth visiting for this alone. The room has a rustic feel, with wooden flooring, chairs and tables, some nice gilded mirrors with quite fancy frames, and some palm-type plants, as well as some nice touches such as candle holders on the walls and windowsills – typical of that sort of restaurant… so what’s so special about this room?
It has an actual waterwheel in the middle of it!!!

The wheel is in working order, contained inside a glass case so you don’t get splashed. It is pretty big (probably about 2 feet wide and 5 deep) and situated in the centre of the room. It isn’t too noisy but you do get that nice moving water noise. The room isn’t particularly large, so the tables are only one deep around the edge of the wheel, meaning that wherever you are sat in the room you will be next to it.

The tables are another fab feature of this room. Apart from the 2 seater table where we were sat (which is a normal wooden table) the rest of the tables seat four, and are a sort of square box with a round wooden tabletop. I thought they looked quite weird, so being the only couple in this part of the restaurant, we went over to a nearby table to see why they were so ‘boxy’. I realised that the box base of the table is actually a sort of hollow chute, and the lid of the table is wooden around the edge but glass in the middle, so you can see down through the middle of the table to the river beneath the room! Although there isn’t much going on except flowing water it is rather cool!

The water wheel room has lots of small cottagey windows around the edge of it, so it is nice and light and lots of tables have a nice view onto the surrounding fields or in our case the boardwalk.

The toilets: Always an important part of the restaurant! The ladies toilet is easily accessible from the bar area and both parts of the restaurant, as it is in the hall area in the middle of all 3. There are only 3 cubicles and the room is small. The flush is a bit odd, a sort of curved silver button which you need to push for quite a while to operate, not ideal but hardly something to complain about. The toilets were decorated with tiles, reddy brown on the bottom half of the room and creamy-yellow on the top half. By the sinks there were a few 30s style posters and pictures. They seemed generally clean and there was plenty of soap and toilet paper, and nothing broken. All in all nothing special but perfectly adequate.

~~ The Food ~~

As we visited at lunchtime we were given both the lunchtime set menu and the main menu. There was also a specials board. The full menu is available on their website (www.bellaitalia.co.uk under ‘Bella Taste’ and then ‘Main Menu’), and as it contains such a large choice I will only give an outline here. As you have probably guessed the food is Italian, and there is a wide range of Pizzas and Pastas (9 different pizzas, as well as a long list of extra toppings available and 16 pasta dishes including some ‘al forno’ (oven) dishes for example Lasagne). They also offer Chicken and Fish dishes, and a couple of different steaks, as well as salads, a tart, 2 different paninis and a burger to cater for those who want something other than the typical Pizza or Pasta. There is also a wide selection of starters and some delicious deserts, and they offer a good value children’s menu for £4.50.

However, on this occasion, I was only going for lunch so I shall talk about the lunch menu in greater depth. The offer was that you could have any 2 courses from the lunchtime menu for £7.95, or one course for £5.95.

The starters offered were:
 Soup
 Mushrooms with dolcelatte cheese and a cream sauce
 Stuffed Peppers

Apologies for the lack of description of the other two starters (soup and stuffed peppers), but as I didn’t order them, and I think the lunchtime menu varies in what it offers I am going to just talk about what I actually had. My boyfriend and I decided to share the Mushroom starter.

It came in a very hot terracotta dish on a dinner plate, and I was also given a plate so I could share. This starter was delicious. Unfortunately, there were only 3 mushrooms, each about 8cms x 5cms big, so we probably could have done with one of these each (and now I know how nice it is I won’t be sharing next time). They each had melted dolcelatte cheese melted on them, and were soaked in a creamy cheese sauce which was divine (but fiendish on calories no doubt)!

The menu offered four or five different main courses, and as we are both vegetarian I was pleased to see that more than one was suitable for me. I opted for the Spaghetti with basil pesto sauce, and Harry for the Goats Cheese and Bell Pepper Pizza. We pinched a bit of each others so I can say that both meals were really nice. I would say that the standard was not quite as high as for the starter, but very enjoyable.

My spaghetti was cooked nicely, not too hard/soggy, and the pesto coated the spaghetti evenly and not too thickly but enough to give a rich flavour. The pizza was a typical Italian style thin crust pizza, but the base was nice and soft, which suited us as we prefer them not to be too crispy. There was plenty of the toppings on the pizza and ratio of cheese to tomato was good. The presentation was ok, quite simple, on white bowls/plates.

For desert, I intended to have the White Chocolate and Apricot Ice Cream, which was on the lunchtime menu (the only desert offered) but we were informed that there was none left. We were offered two alternative Ice Cream choices that we could have had for the set price – Pecan Brownie, or Chocolate. I opted instead to get one of the deserts from the main desert menu and share it. We had the Fondente al Cioccolato which was a chocolate sponge pudding with a melted chocolate centre served with crème inglese. This was yummy!! The cold crème inglese complemented the rich chocolate pudding, which was piping hot, well. It tasted almost like white chocolate and was perhaps my favourite part of the meal (although it is very hard to say as it was all delicious).

If I were to make any criticisms of the lunchtime menu it would be that there was only one desert offered, although I realise that at a set (and quite reasonable) price this is often the case.

~~ The Service~~

The waitress who served us was polite and attentive throughout our meal and our food arrived in a reasonable time and there were no problems. She offered us Parmesan and Black Pepper with our mains and remembered to bring us extra plates/spoons when we asked to share our starter and desert. She checked that we were enjoying our meal at one point.

The one criticism I would make was that I had to go over to ask for the bill after waiting quite a while, even though the restaurant was very quiet. However, I think this was more due to them not wanting to rush us out than being inattentive, and as there was no one else sitting in the water wheel room as we were leaving, she may not have realised that we were ready to pay.

~~ The Verdict! ~~

The Watermill Bella Italia is a very enjoyable place to enjoy lunch, and their set menu is good value and delicious. It is very unusual to find a restaurant that is part of a chain with such unique and interesting premises, and the room where we ate is certainly worth a visit. One small criticism of the layout is that a small amount of smoke did seem to waft through from the bar, although if this was a problem you could sit further into the restaurant in the other part where it would not reach you.

All in all, highly recommended. Thanks for reading, Lucy :) 

...less