Di Bella - Athlone

Excellent ambience, professional staff, high quality food

We ate here over the August bank holiday, Oh my God the food was delicious, the Girl waiting on our table was very professional recommended a dish to us her service as second to none, Fabulous restaurant

Food ok but service appalling. Manager refused to serve tap water and was incredibly rude. Try somewhere else for a better experience.

Honestly not a great experience. Went for dinner last night, I always wanted to give it go given the good reviews. I ended up be very disappointed: Menu: typical Italian menu modified to cater for an irish taste, which is ok considering that you have to cater for your customers and do business, but seriously not even a small choice of authentic Italian food? The only pasta dish in the menu you would find in an Italian restaurant back home (in Italy would probably be the penne alla vodka (but you would need to be able to time travel too and go back to the 80s . And no, let's not talk about the carbonara they have on the menu, the real one is a complete different recipe, I honestly do not understand why they keep using that name which refers to a completely different dish. Food quality: Subpar at best. There are many things that went wrong, but let me focus on the two that apparently should be their piece of resistance: Pasta: the Prawn and zucchini tasted simply awful, they used a cheap fish stock that overpowered every type of flavour... Pizza: the style of choice was classic (so if you expect a napoletana contemporanea, which you may have tried on your vacation in the bel paese, well that's not here . Classic style is the most famous outside italy and its absolutely gorgeous if done properly... well that was not the case. The dough looked and tasted strange, I was expecting something close to what I would get back home, but this was not the case. It is actually ironic that the best pizza in athlone town is done by a brewery (but that is another story . Price: the real price do not reflect their online page, and honestly, as mentioned in other reviews, it ends up to be really expensive. Drinks are massively overpriced. (I mean 7 euro for a 33cl Moretti, or 5 euro for water... Service: it was ok, but rushed Overall as Italian I can say that this is not an authentic Italian experience at all. Which is a shame, there are realities that are pushing for more real Italian food, because you know, even in Athlone people are travelling, discovering, and experiencing Italy and Europe in general. They are ready for the real deal! We are not in the 80s anymore... even if I get it, they had the best music

We ended up here by chance, as we needed to get lunch before driving to the Dublin airport. We were extremely satisfied with the experience. The staff were friendly, and each of us enjoyed our meals even our kids finished every last bite. Would certainly recommend!