Tick all the boxes at busy Bella Italia (From The Bolton News)

Tick all the boxes at busy Bella Italia

11:05am Thursday 30th April 2009 in

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I was in Manchester with my nine-year-old nephew, Liam, to watch Dancing on Ice and needed somewhere to get a fairly speedy meal before we had to take our seats for the show.

A Manchester-savvy colleague suggested Bella Italia and as Liam loves Italian food we decided this would be the perfect choice.

We arrived from Bolton by train and it was just a short walk to the restaurant.

Thankfully we chose to eat as soon as we arrived in the city and were glad we made that decision as the restaurant was struggling to keep up with the number of diners on the Thursday evening we were there.

Shortly after we arrived the queue for tables reached out onto the street.

There appeared to be a problem in the kitchen as meals were not arriving.

I have to say that although service was slow — and it was very slow — the waiting staff did a marvellous job of keeping calm, smiling and giving an air of complete confidence in their chef. Full marks for professionalism!

Thankfully Liam is a very patient little boy and although it took ages for our first course to arrive he was happy chatting with other diners — well they would be diners when their food finally arrived — about the show he was going to see.

Most of the diners appeared to be either Manchester City fans looking forward to the cup match that night or theatre and Dancing on Ice audience members who had hoped for a speedy meal before heading off for their night’s entertainment.

When the meals arrived though they were excellent and well worth the wait.

We had bruschetta (ciabatta topped with tomato salsa) to start with. It was very good and not too filling.

Then came our main courses. Liam chose his favourite, spaghetti bolognese. I ordered him an adult portion as it is his favourite meal and it was a good job I did as he polished it off in fine fashion — and it was a huge portion.

I went for the giardiniera pizza which was an all vegetable pizza complete with oven roasted vegetables, tomato, mozzarella and oregano. It, too, was huge and would easily have fed two and sadly I had to leave almost half.

For dessert we chose ice creams, which had to be traditional Italian ices as they were so creamy and light. Our meals came from the menu di sera, which is served on Sunday to Thursday from 5pm and offers two courses for £8.95 or three for £11.95.

This menu consists of several pizzas and pasta dishes, two starters including minestrone soup and ice cream of tiramisu for dessert. Great value for money and excellent quality food that is perfect for families.