Eatalia in Bedford

Extremely dissaponted with the food, started had to be sent back. So looking forward to the pasta meal, what a complete let down, was plate of pasta shells, covered in sauce that tasted as if it was straight out if a jar, little taste and boring. Decided not to bother with a pudding and left.

Excellent food and the service is always with a smile,I will recommend it.

I recently had an amazing dining experience at Eatalia. The food was tasty and the service was excellent! Highly recommended!

This is how my “ Carbonara” came, £30 for two of these mediocre “Italian” dishes. Sauce straight from the jar, BACON was anemic, authentic carbonara doesn’t use bacon. Looks like road kill in a take away box, do yourself a favour and stay away from this circus

It is a good and cosy place for dinner, even for lunch .

I've been going to this place regularly for years, it's central to town, inexpensive and not crowded, and the food is good from a very worthwhile varied menu. The service today was better than ever, and I'll be back soon. Always plenty of room when I visit - I hope it stays viable. Terrific desserts!

Was most delicious well priced meal I’ve ever had. Hey guys it’s a no brainer go to it very reasonable and tastie

My family & I enjoyed a fabulous evening eating great food. My puttanesca was the best I have eaten. The service from our waitress was first class considering she was on her own working she did extremely well and was very attentive to our table of 8 and to the other dinners. Give the girl a raise!!! We want to thank you & will definitely visit again.

Great food, friendly service, good value. Parmigiana on the menu as well, not many restaurants serve this dish and it was perfection. Highly recommend. EDIT August 2023 - This place has gone downhill badly. Different management maybe. The parmigiana I ordered wouldn't even be considered a side portion. Bedford has some good Italian restaurants but Eatalia is no longer one of them.

Went in tonight, there were just two tables taken. Waited for the menu , but didn't get it in 20 minutes. We went out.

Avoid like the plague. Having accepted our booking we arrived to find the place in darkness & locked up. No communication whatsoever. We ended up at McDonalds as we had to find somewhere at short notice before the start of Jimmy Carr. If they aren't out of business soon, they should be!

A great little find..our of the heat and very chilled.Small but tasty menu and great service.Highly recommended

My family love this place! We came as a party of ten. Be advised that while the staff are extremely accommodating this is more of an intimate setting so best suited to smaller groups. The staff are lovely and the food is amazing. The restaurant is down some stairs off the high Street.

Good value authentic Italian restaurant

Great food,nice atmosphere, very friendly staff. Me and my friend likes to visit this place. The portions are generous,very tasty :) Highly recommend 👌

Food was delicious, fairly good value for money, though the garlic bread is just a slice of bread with garlic butter and dried herbs. We were the only patrons though it was mid week.

Went with 2 other couples and we hadn’t booked but they found a table for us and the restaurant was about half full. We were given menus but no one mentioned the specials which were written on the mirrors but we did spot them. The menu was disappointing, very limited starters and basic main meals . We asked when we ordered if any of the mains came with vegetables or salad and were told no we don’t do that anymore. We ordered garlic bread and garlic bread with cheese , this arrived and was very heavy on the garlic which was fine but the cheesy garlic bread was limp. The mains were ok , the food was ok but the whole experience was just a bit indifferent, like the passion had gone out being a restaurant. There was no complimentary bread and olives , there was no atmosphere and the service again was ok but not very engaging. I had never been here before but our friends had and they said the menu had been scaled down , it was all just a bit basic.

We had been here a few times a few years ago and decided to come back again with a booking for a table of 7 at 6pm for my birthday. We arrived at 5:55pm and the doors were locked with no sign of lights on downstairs. By 6:15pm, still no sign of life. Ended up having to go somewhere else last minute. They have my email address as I got two email confirmations of my booking, one from an android device, so I was a bit disappointed to say the least that they didn't bother to make contact if they weren't opening due to staffing issues or whatever the reason was.

Great food, great atmosphere. Portion sizes are good.

Absolutely dismal evening eating at this apology for an Italian restaurant. No atmosphere, miserable decor and very average food. Service was nice enough but the overall experience was depressing. Calamari starter was just about OK but the main pasta courses we had - calabrese and carbonara were very poor. Definitely one to avoid

Nice Italian restaurant tucked away under ground, food is delicious and service was spot on too. It was early one Saturday evening so was a little empty, probably be a nicer atmosphere when it's bustling.

Great little Italian! Food was really good with good sized portions.. More than enough and well priced!.. Service was good too.. Nice and cosy underground.. Definitely check this place out if your in bedford!

Great little Italian! Food was really good with good sized portions.. More than enough and well priced!.. Service was good too.. Nice and cosy underground.. Definitely check this place out if your in bedford!

Nice friendly staff , food as always lovely and good size portions and great service and good atmosphere. No parking on high street but plenty of car parks within 5 to 10 minutes walk and in the spring/summer you can wander down to the river and walk off your dinner definitely recommended a visit .

Love this place, brilliant food! Highly recommend

Italian restaurant in the heart of Bedford located in the basement of one of the high street buildings. The food is good and the atmosphere is very Italian. Being there i felt actually like in Italy, the restaurant, the music. it was slightly to hot for me, but it was one of the hottest days in uk, so hard to judge. after all 5/5. The service was very nice and kind. Will visit soon again…

Attended a number of times whilst on business in Bedford. Would highly recommend. Authentic Italian cuisine, central location, great value, lovely people.

Great food and service, lovely quiet and relaxed atmosphere very friendly. Throughly enjoyed our visit.

If I could give 0 stars I would......

One of my favourite places to enjoy food in the town ..

This place is amazing. Great food and service. Lost count of how many times we have been there.

Another excellent evening at Eatalia, group of 15, staff very friendly and service was great, no complaints from anyone, thank you

What a beautiful restaurant. With fantastic service. Authentic, fresh and fairly priced food. There was a great choice of wines too. We had a great evening, we were a big group and the staff couldn't have been more accommodating.

Lovely meal after quarry theatre on Sunday early evening. House red wine was excellent. Antipasto platter was good value and both pasta mains were hot and full of flavour. Thoroughly recommend this lovely little restaurant.

We had a stop over in Bedford before heading into London and called to see if we could reserve a table at 6:45, we were told we couldn’t and that it would have to be 6:30 which filled us with confidence that it would be busy and therefore a popular restaurant with the locals. We arrived and there was no one else in the restaurant! There was no atmosphere, no music, and the staff were not at all engaging. The menus arrived and upon asking about a child’s menu for our 9 year old I was told they don’t have any but can make the portions smaller. The menu was pretty underwhelming with only pasta dishes and a couple of meat dishes and so we ordered. The over seasoned garlic bread toasted slices arrived first and 45 minutes later the rather bland tasting main courses arrived! We would understand if the restaurant was busy but with only two other couples in we were very disappointed. The bill arrived and we queried the full price charge for our daughter’s half portion and they said “we don’t do kids meals” So all in all a very disappointing, overpriced meal which lacked everything you desire when you go for a meal out!

A lovely, authentic Italian restaurant. The ambience, decorations, and the charming character of the restaurant really gave the feeling of being in Italy. The food was remarkable and the service was excellent! Our waitress was attentive and efficient. Best food and service I have experienced for a while. Will come back again!

Been coming here for years and years, always delicious food and friendly staff, reasonably priced and great atmosphere

We called in for lunch today. I ordered a panini and a coffee. The coffee machine wasn't working and the panini served wasn't a panini at all, it was a stodgy white cold baguette, not at all what I ordered and not enjoyable at all. As someone who cannot eat a lot of white bread but can tolerate a panini this was disappointing and also misrepresentation. I won't return

Loved everything about the experience shared with my dad at this restaurant. The food was great, the atmosphere was brilliant and the attention to customer service was second to none. Looking forward to coming back again to try the other meals on the menu. Highly recommended!!

We enjoyed a nice meal at Eatalia whilst visiting Bedford with friends during the River Festival weekend. The restaurant is at basement level so it’s very cosy inside, but the clever use of numerous wall mirrors made the tiny interior feel more spacious. I was very surprised that the restaurant wasn’t all that busy (there were only half a dozen other diners in there when we ate on Saturday night), but we were quite thankful of that, as it was quite a hot evening and there wasn’t much air circulation inside due to the low ceilings and no air con. The portion sizes were generous and the food was nicely cooked. My friend said his Ribollita Toscana starter was the best stew he had ever tasted in an Italian restaurant. The cost of wine was also pretty reasonable for a restaurant (nice quality too), so all-in-all it was a great experience.

Heard a lot of good things about this restaurant so I decided to try it out. That was mistake number 1. Mistake number 2 was ordering the Calamari starter. The Calamari arrived and was inedible. The breadcrumb was soggy in oil and wasn't cooked. Mistake number 3 was ordering my mains which was penne pasta with sausage meat sauce. There was no more than 100 grams of pasta which was swimming in oil and the sausage meat sauce was microwaved and was hotter than the sun. How can a restaurant get the basics so wrong is beyond me. This is the first and last time I'll go to this restaurant. There will not be a mistake number 4...

Such a lovely place and food omg 😍😍 the best bolognese I've ever had 😁 and my partners sea food risotto 😍 heaven! Definitely recommend and were gonna come back again ❤️

Fab restaurant. The food was amazing and very reasonable. Excellent customer care from Diva. The place had a really friendly, cosy feel xx

OMG what a lovely little restaurant. Amazing food. If you want a traditional italian restaurant with punchy flavours then this is the place! Not an extensive menu but really good at what they do!

Great food, great service... great time

Worst food ever and way overpriced for microwave meals. Risotto was undercooked and the frozen calamari was also under cooked. I was disappointed to see that the pasta sauce was microwaved and very greasy. The place was empty I should have guessed why and just walked out. They didn't charge us for the calamari once we complained but we shouldn't have paid for the whole meal.....

Went to Bedford for work and came across this restaurant, the food was really good staff where friendly enough , had the penne and sausage with garlic bread it was a winner for me

Really disappointed by this restaurant used to come here often not been in couple years ... what's happened??? Starter was frozen in the middle Sent back ! Bolognaise pasta with meatballs ( they were tinned tiny meatballs -vile ) Mushroom risotto-cold and over salty No calami , no water , etc etc Such a shame

Lovely lunch with my daughter today! Great service and yummy food, definitely come back ! Live Italian because I’m half Italian! Bellissimo!

Lovely food. Missed an extra star as hardly any puddings available from their very limited selection.

Beautiful restaurant, hidden gem

Ordered Calamari - Was emaciated and anorexic calamari I have ever seen / Bought in bulk bag super saver option and microwave heated - Very poor Next Ordered Aubergine Melanzane Parmigiana - It was more like cut pieces of Aubergine like similar to Turkish Aubergine Meze which was also cold - Very poor

Amazing hidden place in Bedford. Delicious food and quality service. Highly recommend and will definitely come again.

What a little gem! Went for lunch and it was absolutely fabulous. Very efficient, friendly waitress and the food delicious. Can't wait to return. Can't believe we haven't found this place before. Absolutely fabulous.

Lunchtime is an absolute bargain. A plate of pasta and a glass of wine for £7.99 upwards. Right in the town centre. You won't find anywhere for better value and the quality is great.

Well use to go here at lunch time very regularly always excellent. My sun is back from Uni so decided to have an evening meal. Awful, wushu washy sauce, wrong pasta on plate than advertised and ordered. Asked the waitress to speak to chef as...

Hadn't been here for some time due to pandemic then saw the reviews...hmm. Anyway, we had a lovely time, place was packed, good atmosphere. Food was freshly cooked, piping hot, even though they were busy it flowed nicely. Such a lovely venue for a three...

Wonderful. Lunch menu from 5.99, for a main course with a glass of vino. Just had Penna Pasta Amatricino (?) for 8.99 - really good. Highly recommended. Lunch is a bargain and high quality. I'm delighted to be back after a bad couple of years. I'll be here every time I come shopping.

love this place! one of Bedford's best kept secrets. highly rated as the best Italian pasta restaurant in Bedford. Bedford is fondly known as the little Italy of the United Kingdom as stated recently by the BBC. and if you are coming to Bedford for the first time, make sure you pay this hidden gem a visit. rated on the gourmet guide also and completely well deserved. personally I have dined at this restaurant multiple times and I highly recommend the mussels for the starter and the Carbonara is just simply amazing. I normally opt in in for the large glass of house red, I've no idea what it is but it is also simply amazing.

Arrived at 6.30pm for a Valentines evening meal and drinks. On arrival we where greeted by a young foreign waitress who was pleasant enough. We where shown to our tables then by a rude what I presumed was the manager, he made no effort to...

Very nice food in a relaxed atmosphere, always enjoy this place.

Amazing place, my thirth time there and always amazing

Great Italian food in the heart of Bedford. Very reasonably priced & always delicious. I recommend the cheesy garlic bread to start & the seafood risotto & chicken pasta are both hands down winners. If you love good Italian food @ a great price don’t...

Great food and huge variety of wines to choose from. Private sitting my opinion, which I think was good.

Very impressed with the quality of food,amazing service.Fantastic vibe!!! Deffinately recommend to the people who understand quality.

Authentic Italian cuisine in a delightfully intimate setting. Friendly and efficient service and good wines.

Food brilliant and staff amazing, will definitely go again

Right in Bedford's town centre, this delightfully intimate restaurant serves authentic Italian food. An excellent choice of starter dishes, includes a notable Calamari, simply dipped in breadcrumbs then fried. Deliciously tender. Main courses include good pastas, risottos, and pizzas, plus choices of sea food, fish,...

Fabulous find in Bedford town centre, lovely intimate atmospheric restaurant. Food and wine very much enjoyed....would definitely recommend if in the area

Not a place for vegans. Very pricey for a plate of pasta with tomato sauce with way too much garlic.

Worst Italian restaurant ever!!!! Lasagna was just pasta and Luke warn Sauce with no meat and no flavor Awful. Don't waste your time or money going here, thought something was wrong when we walked in and we were the only ones there. Only good thing...

Living in another county, me and my friends decided for a day trip to Bedford. After strolling the streets in town in a day we decided for an early dinner before heading up back home and thought italian its a safe choice. Although there are...

I heard good.things about Eatalia, so a friend and I went there for a three course lunch. We had an amazing meal and the service was just as great. A really nice decor too. Good prices as well. Both me and my friends highly recommend Eatalia for a lunch or evening meal. We shall.soon be returning.

Amazing staff.... 👏 for the chef.

So disappointing. I know the industry has suffered and I don’t want to complain but my goodness this was awful. No friendly welcome, no atmosphere, the food was warm not hot, not authentic sadly and too rich. Pasta not cooked well and everything drowning in...

Eatalia has always been our go-to restaurant that we recommend to friends and visit whenever we can.... to celebrate our wedding anniversary, it was never goin to be a difficult choice where to go...but oh my god, what has happened to this gem?? Gone was...

A very relaxed atmosphere. Exceptional food and very friendly staff. I totally recommend.

Having previously written a great review for Eatalia before lockdowns, we thought we would return to sample the food once again. Unfortunately, it has changed in more ways than one. The decor that had nice high back chairs in red and black were no longer...

I popped in for lunch with a good friend. The food was lovely and a glass of wine too 😊

Today we had an abysmal customer service experience from Eatalia. The waitress got our entire order wrong, and did not apologise even when she noted 2 very hungry young children whose order she missed. Despite our complaining, no member of staff had the decency to...

Today we had an abysmal customer service experience from Eatalia. The waitress got our entire order wrong, and did not apologise even when. She noted 2 very hungry young children whose order she missed. No member of staff had the decency to apologise and they didn't even offer to take something out of the bill. Will not patronise this place again

Beautiful restaurant.staffs were so friendly.well knowledgeable about wines Food with quality and quantity Beautiful interior

Pleasantly surprised,only one in the restaurant for the first half hour.mussels for starters then the seafood pasta both very nice,would recommend

I placed an order for two this evening and ordered 2x spaghetti bolognese and 2x garlic bread using Uber Eats. As you can see my order was simple. Any home cook would be able to prepare a good spaghetti bolognese even if the source came from a jar. Unfortunately Eatalia Italian restaurant wasnt able to produce a spaghetti bolognese that was edible. The Uber Eats app allows you to track the progress of the orders you place, while I was waiting for my order the app updated and said the food had been prepared and it was ready for the Uber Eats driver to collect. A few minutes later I could track the Uber driver going to the restaurant to collect my order that had probably been ready for five minutes. The app again updated and said my order was on it's way, but it said the driver had to deliver another order on route. I followed this meandering route using the app and started to worry about just how long it would take for my order to arrive because I tend to like my food with some kind of residual heat. On arrival the uber driver explained he had another order to deliver on route, it was a Mc Donald's and said that there was also roads closed and traffic that held him up. I was right to be worried about just how warm my food was going to be. I opened the tied plastic bag to find 4x polystyrene kabab containers wrapped with cling film with the contence escaping around the edges. On opening the containers the food was completely cold ... both spaghetti bolognese orders had copious amounts of cheap ready shake parmesan cheese. The food was not only cold but looked like yesterdays leftovers and smelt of the cheap fake parmesan cheese. Suddenly I lost my appetite 🤢 I did put the food in the microwave for 5 minutes to at least try it, it might taste ok ?? It didn't.. Please dont order food from Eatalia if you plan on eating it, unless you have a tolerance for really poor food. Our meals ended up in the bin.

My partner treated me for our anniversary to a take away from Eatalia. When it came the food smelt so nice, after about three mouthfuls I noticed some thing in my food at first I thought some kind of herb, when I took it out...

Great service, weird location but never the less great food. Cheap and great portions. Good for vegetarians aswell. Kind of dated interior.

Nice menu. Good service. The food was lovely except the potatos were so hard they couldn't be cut.

Travelled to Bedford especially for this! Very very tasty food, probably the best Italian food I've ever eaten and I've been to Italy three times. Music was slightly intrusive and we couldn't pay by card which was annoying, but minor inconveniences - the waitress did turn the music down for us and I have been before when the card machine was working. Always empty when we go and I'm not sure why. Go here and try the mushroom risotto!

At Last!! Got to go back to this top notch Italian restaurant last night and wasn't disappointed! Friendly welcome and great food in this cosy atmospheric eatery.Have lived in Bedford all my life and this is my favourite restaurant in Bedford (and my wife's!)Great to be back after the lockdown break

Disappointed in this place, the food was great and couldn’t really fault it, but unfortunately the service was very poor, staff did not know how to interact with customers, food was late, overall very frustrating meal to have as the service was so poor.

Very nice Italian restaurant had spaghetti Napoli with a glass of red wine. My friend had the same would recommend very nice.friendly waitress went on 19th September.

Booked a table through the restaurant website and received an email confirming the booking this advised if there was a problem I would be contacted by telephone. No contact from the restaurant so turned up at 8pm as planned only to be told they were fully booked and no availability. I advised I had booked in their website earlier in the day. The rude staff said the website wasn’t working properly. No apology or attempt to make a table. Very disappointed and won’t be attempting to go back. Will certainly not recommend based on staff attitude!!!

I have been coming to Eatalia with friends/ my partner for years. It has always been consistently good. The service is fast and the food is very authentic Italian. However, last night I visited and was extremely disappointed. I ordered the N’duja pasta that I have ordered the last 7/8 time’s I have been there, and was absolutely gobsmacked to be served a plate of pasta and baked beans! It was as if I had bought a Heinz tin of beans and pasta out of Tesco. So so gutted. There was no sausage at all, and after separating the beans from the pasta, I was left with a plate of cold beans!!! Honestly, we all had to laugh about it. Even a friend who I had previously visited with; stated they had never so many baked beans in their life! I could have made it myself at home. We also ordered garlic bread, and received bread with a very less than generous amount of butter. Absolutely no garlic to be seen. However, we (all 3 of us) sent this back and it was replaced quickly and was definitely what I expected on the second attempt. However, I was embarrassed to explain that my main meal was less than satisfactory. I am so gutted to write that I will not be returning; as I have been visiting for years; and the service was also fabulous. But I’m not sure if the chef has been changed or the menu has been updated, but either way, the food was not up to scratch.

This is not the place to go if you're even slightly worried about covid-19. They haven't taken any measures to make the place feel safe. People were packed in like sardines, the waitresses didn't wear face coverings and the menus were dirty. The restaurant is in a basement so no airflow either. The food was average. Not a great experience at all.

The food wasn't great. Very disappointing. The lady serving us was really nice though!

Intimate venue below ground on Bedford High Street. Food was very good for all 4 of us and well served despite there being too many people for one waitress. If you feel the need for 2m social distancing at the moment this is not the place to go but not a lot can be done in this small venue and still be viable. They do need to get a more powerful air conditioning unit for summer though. Despite all that we would visit again due to the great food and service.

Have eaten here previously and enjoyed the food. Tonight, however, was a disappointment. I ordered one of the pasta dishes which was meant to include swordfish, but there were only a few tiny pieces. The two other pasta dishes were meant to be different but looked exactly the same, and my children could not tell the difference. Portions were smaller than usual. We ordered dessert which was nice, but was not then included in the half price discount under the Eat out to Help out scheme. Altogether, not the experience I expected.

Very tasty food and generous plates. Lovely staff. Will come back without hesitation!

Love the place, been there many times, and definitely will be back. Friendly staff, good food, and recently re decorated 😎

My whole family love this place, Great staff and fantastic food, good value, great menu and love the romantic setting we have been so so many times never once have we been let down and thats daytime nighttime weekends whenever parties and on our own never had a problem always been fab so im really suprised to read some of the reviews below We all love it there we are off back on wednesday this week to support them after lockdown and my son went yesterday and said its still as good as ever :) Sammy Jackson and the Jackson family