Bella Italia - Berlin

Main dished around 5-6 Euros, good atmosphere and good service. Not a very fancy restaurant but authentic and tasty.

This restaurant is just a short distance from another in this chain which we had eaten in before. As the other restaurant was busy and there were no spare tables outside we walked across to this restaurant which did have space and of course the...menu was also the same. The food was just as good as usual from Bella Italia and the service and atmosphere were also equal to others in the chain. Good Italian food at a good price.

I ordered a pizza. It was terrible. That’s too harsh. It was like I’d bought the cheapest frozen one from the supermarket and cooked it in a microwave. First of all “pepperoni” means chilli pepper in German. Not the spicy sausage the rest of the...world knows. So that is my fault. Not theirs. But the base was a frozen pre-prepared one. No dough made here. The tomato sauce was sparse. The cheese adequate. The chilli peppers on top, gaudy. The taste. Average at best. Don’t come here. Buy a kebab like I should have done.

I have been to this restaurant on several occasions but always with a man as part of our party. This evening I went as a woman alone. I was immediately aware that I was being treated differently. When I wanted to order a beer the waiter assumed he knew what to bring me so I had to call him back and specify that I know what I want. The pizza was as always good, but I watched what was happening around me and noticed that every table got a liqueur or schnapps per person with their bill. I was looking forward to it, but when my bill came, nothing. I asked the waiter and he simply shrugged. I mentioned that I had been there often before with friends (maybe I should have told him my friend is deputy mayor) but he clearly did not believe me and shrugged again when I said I would not return. That’s sad but maybe typical here in Germany. So for single women travellers, choose carefully where you go alone.

Nice place, using italian wine for decoration... However, the food was terrible! Pizza appears to be frozen. The drinks were ok.