We went to La Bella Italia for lunch on Thursday. This is the restaurant that took over Pring’s, our favorite coffeehouse, when the new owner couldn’t make a go at it. I’d gone to Bella Italia twice before at this location, and my impressions of the food had been mixed. The non-pasta dishes had been pretty good while the pasta had been blah.
The lunch menu offers salads, pasta, pizzas and sandwhiches. When Bella Italia was at its old location, lunch there was a steal with pastas at $4 and pizzas $4-5. Prices have gone up a couple of dollars now, so that while the prices are reasonable, Bella Italia is no longer the bargain it was.
Mike had a sausage sandwich and I think he liked it, though it wouldn’t win any awards. I had the tortellini bolognese, the same dish than Mike had had in our first foray into this restaurant, and my impression was similar. It was better than the other pasta dishes we had sampled there since, it was homey and perfectly eatable, though it was more a tomato sauce with meat added than a regular bolognese sauce.
Bella Italia is owned by a Sikh family. Supposedly the owner hates Indian food, which is too bad as I love it, and if there was an Indian restaurant in San Leandro I’d go there all the time.
Here is my previous review of Bella Italia.
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