Bella Notte Italian Restaurant & Bar - Rosalie
I took a leap of faith today and ate somewhere I’d been warned against. My faith was rewarded with mixed feelings, a heavy stomach, a walk uphill and a consolation coffee.
Bella Notte
Italian Restaurant & BarShop 6, 165 Baroona Rd, Rosalie
Ph: 07 3505 0990
The name Bella Notte Italian Restaurant & Bar exudes the confidence of a professional who knows their business well. Located in the Rosalie Village (and also on Park Road, Milton - within 500 hundred metres of Rosalie), the restaurant has literally placed itself among the popular, heavily-patroned restaurants that litter Rosalie’s social hub. (It is almost as if popularity is to be achieved through association.)
I was resoundingly warned off Bella Notte, for some reason or other. However, that night I couldn’t decide where I wanted to eat and when I’m indecisive, I tend to opt for Italian food or choose a really unremarkable restaurant.
There sat Bella Notte, innocently empty at 8pm on a Friday night. That should have been warning enough, but I was distracted by my concern at getting seats without a booking. The menu appeared comprehensive and the specials board demonstrated some variety. Admittedly the interior did not look particularly Italian with metal-legged outside furniture and unmemorable table settings inside.
My companion and I (ok, ok, my mother!) opted for outside seating so we could eyeball the passing menagerie. We ordered glasses of wine to start, me a moderately priced Cab-Sav, my ‘companion’ a similarly priced Merlot. To accompany this we ordered bruschetta ($6.90) from their extensive selection (ok, only 3) of bread dishes. Our waitress, an almost over-attentive but friendly girl served this quickly, announcing our ‘brusheska’ had arrived.
The ‘brusheska’ was satisfactory. I’m assuming it is hard to ruin salsa on crusty bread slices. Our wine, served alongside this was less then satisfactory. The merlot (brand omitted) was a vinegared number, sour to the tongue and producing a eye-twitching recoil. We decided it needed time – perhaps an eternity – to breathe. The cab-sav was fine… but unremarkable.
The menu offered a seemingly large array of pasta dishes which actually turned out to be a large array of boring and unadventurous dishes (choose spaghetti, fettuccine, penne, ravioli ricotta and add bolognese, napoletana, carbonara, puttanesca… am I exciting you?). I chose Penne con Pollo ($13.60) and decided to spice it up by asking for fettuccine instead. The Fettuccine con Pollo would feature a sauce of sliced chicken, mushroom, onion and seeded mustard sauce.
My companion ordered the Spiced Yoghurt Chicken Kebabs ($7.50) and Spanish Meatballs ($8.00) from the meagre tapas selection. A word of warning: When a tapas menu offers you only 7 dishes to choose from, it’s time to start looking doubtful. Tapas should be a speciality and not a tack-on as it appeared to be on this menu. In fact the entire menu had something ‘Italian’ on it, but didn’t seem to specialise in much of anything.
My Fettuccine con Pollo came out, steam rising. A quarter way through the dish I realised that I had liberally seasoned it with salt twice (this is very rare for me, I’m not a salt person). The chicken, which was too perfectly square to be fresh, was dry and unflavoured. The creamy seeded mustard sauce had no flair to it. It tasted like cream with mustard – and two rounds of the salt shaker. Just a side note here: I think when a low/no salt diner has to heavily season their dish, it’s a sign the chef/restaurant has put little effort into the food’s flavour.
My companion’s meal was the same. The chicken tasted like chicken, rolled in a satay-coloured sauce. Unfortunately the chicken did not taste as if infused with the sauce, nor did it taste as if it suited the sauce. The salad was very green with thick wedges of tomato. The meat balls tasted like meatballs, in tomato sauce. Both dishes lacked flavour; they were just different components served side-by-side.
We agreed the food tasted like take-away and, upon further perusal of the menu, we realised the restaurant did offer take away. Our ever-timely waitress reappeared and asked if we’d like the remainder of our meal packed to take away. This confirmed our suspicions.
While the food provided little entertainment, I found the service quite interesting. The waitress was sweet but lackeing experience and intuition, pre-empting us throughout the meal, offering to take our plates away before asking how were progressing (we were breathing between meatballs), offering to bring the bill as soon as we had finished chewing. I almost felt rushed, except for the fact that she was amicable, obviously meant well and was taking her work seriously.
When promptly offered the bill we promptly accepted, paid and took a lengthy walk around the block, which incidentally included a small uphill climb. After this my spaghetti had moved from the pit of my stomach and I could consider the idea of a consolation coffee – elsewhere!
By Alice B.
Related Posts:
The Italian Festival Brisbane | FestitaliaWe had the Greek festival, and now we have the Italian festival. Obviously the Italians can't have their festival in
Italian Week comes to Brisbane - June 2 –6
Where: Suncorp Piazza, Southbank Parklands Cremorne Theatre,
14 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>
January 16th, 2007 @ 3:19 pm
Haha! What a joke
I think I’ve driven past the place a few times,
with a name like that, I always expected more! thanks for the warning.
March 13th, 2007 @ 1:46 pm
This is very odd as we dined for the first time at this restaurant in January 2007. and we could not have been happier with our meals. We always love to try new Italian restaurants and have eaten at almost everyone in Brisbane and we thought Bella was fantastic and possibly the best meals we have ever had. I had the Bella Notre Scallopini and my husband had the carbonara. The staff was a little odd however we had a great time.
March 13th, 2007 @ 4:23 pm
We have just had lunch at Bella Notte in Rosalie. VERY disappointing food. (The worst lasagna I have ever had, nostly tinned tomatoes) Uncomfortable chairs. A friendly waitress does not make up for poor food… we will not be going back.
March 14th, 2007 @ 7:06 am
Yes something’s slightly off the mark at that place. I’m sure they serve out good experiences to a lot of customers, but i’ve asked friends on their opinions and i’ve received pretty negative feedback.
I just think it’s probably easy to get away with a lot when you’re dominating a place on Park Road. And a lot of people might not prioritise the same things I do when i’m eating at a restaurant.
I hope someone from Bella Notta is reading this, cos I think the place needs feedback!
April 7th, 2007 @ 10:21 pm
I’ve just returned from a quiet Easter Saturday night at Bella Notte in Rosalie with family and we are still raving about the great service, food, Coonawarra red wine and, of course, the ambience - being out on the footpath watching the world go by under a beautiful clear sky and enjoying the cool autumn breeze!
Go and make your own mind up!
I loved my simple yet delicious fettuccine carbonara and the others thoroughly enjoyed the cannelloni and the margarita pizza!
FANTASTIC service from a couple of the waitresses, though they were somewhat young and inexperienced - but, FANTASTIC nonetheless!
Again, go and make your own mind up about this little gem!
We’ll be back for sure!
April 8th, 2007 @ 5:33 pm
Maybe I’m becoming really snobby, thinking this place was pretty average and well, awful. Actually no, I know why I didn’t like this place. They showed no flair nor individuality. But Mick’s right, go there and make your own mind up. But (I can’t help it!) just don’t expect to be blown out of your chair.
April 21st, 2007 @ 6:45 pm
I’ve been there a few times, breakfast and dinner, and found things to be fine. Agreed, nothing to write home about but its inexpensive, the wait staff are friendly and the food is quite tasty. I left with a full stomach and a smile which is more than i can say for alot of places.
April 24th, 2007 @ 8:12 am
I am very disappointed.I do not get to see my son very often and after much persuasion we went to your restaurant last thursday evening. We ordered drinks and my wine was forgotten , we then ordered soup breads and our meals, after about 30 minutes our breads arrived and then our meals about 45 minutes later and then the soup arrived. The waitress took the soup away and we were told they would credit it but I am sure they did not and at the end of the meal which was disappointing we just paid and left. My son is a young 24year old who i am sure will tell his friends and my husband and I were very disappointed as we have eaten there before and enjoyed the meal, however we probably won’t be back.
April 25th, 2007 @ 12:12 am
Aha! Another bad account. This Bella Notte place is getting very mixed reviews people!!!
I wonder if we’ll get a prevailing opinion, or any consesus here. It’ll be interesting to see.
April 26th, 2007 @ 7:00 pm
Hi Alice and other reviewers,
I am also intrigued by the mixed reviews (despite my positive experience) and I’m wondering if anyone has informed the restaurant management / owners of this site. (?)
I’m just thinking that this sort of criticism could potentially be constructive (after some positive and some negative feedback).
If the owners / management knew about this site and these comments, they may be inclined to tighten some reigns (on the wait staff mainly by the sounds of it), and EVERYBODY could have a positive Bella Notte experience.
I would call the restaurant myself, but I’ve had a big day (*sigh*) and I have a bunch of delicious pasta and sauce to cook that I got from the Rosalie Deli (just down the road from Bella Notte) this arvo - YUM! .
Cheers,
Mick
June 9th, 2007 @ 11:57 pm
The worst Italian food in Brisbane! Spaghetti bolognaise was horrible! Son who eats anything couldn’t finish his pasta , it was that bad. Neither could my daughter(who loves pasta). But not the garbage dished out at this place. Entrees came out 1(yes, ONE hour) after ordering. And that was after inquiring as to what had happened to them!!. Mains them came out ONE (yes, one) minute later!. This place is a joke(The Park Road eatery). Would not recommend this place in a fit! Service slack as….
June 10th, 2007 @ 9:48 am
Wow! this is by far becoming the most controversial restuarant on this sit. Someone needs to tell them we’ve got a review and ‘feedback’ for them. Who’s willing to step up to the plate. Think I will!
June 10th, 2007 @ 1:52 pm
I’m a bit of a risk-taker, and so ventured back to Bella Notte - Rosalie about two weeks ago on a Friday evening. I thought I’d test their service again, as the food and wine was great last time, but the service was kinda ordinary - not bad, just ordinary.
This latest visit proved again that the food and wine is great (although I must admit we chose the same dishes and the same wine as last time!), but the service is not so great.
Our waitress said it was only her fourth shift, and it seemed that no other staff member had shown her the ropes (in four shifts? That’s heaps of time really!).
She had trouble answering our questions - fair enough, she’s new. But she also didn’t seem to realise that going back in to the restaurant and asking someone more experienced was quite alright.
She also brought our wine out already opened and proceeded to fill our three glasses, without offering my fiance (who ordered the wine) a taste first. No big deal really - but some people would have complained right then and there!
Next, she brought out our mains and put them in front of the wrong people. Once again, no big deal, but something she should have been shown/trained to do by other, more experienced, staff members.
So … great pasta dishes, pizza and red!
But … ordinary service!
Someone please tell the managers and/or owners of these restaurants so they can make some changes hey?!
Cheers,
Mick
June 17th, 2007 @ 12:10 am
Alice, why should anyone tell this place how terrible it is? Let then find out for themselves. It’s their problem. Would they care if your dining experience was below average? I think not!! I will add to my comment above(June 9)…we booked a week in advance(yes silly i know). We clearly asked for a table of 6 at the FRONT of the restaurant. We made it abundantly clear. When we got there, on the day, our table was available…right at the very BACK of this hopeless place! How could they get this wrong ? But they managed! Everything about our time there was way below par!! There is more but I think I have said enough!