Bella Venezia, 1628 High Street, Knowle, B93 0JU
The Italian Job!
This months review sees me heading to the picturesque village of Knowle to sample the wares of Bella Venezia, a small Italian restaurant on the high street. A party of sixteen of us are slowly eating our way around the world. So far we have been to India and China and this months destination was Italy.
On eleven of the sixteen made it to this months meal which turned out to be a blessing as the restaurant itself would struggle to hold more than 32 people and with another party already booked for the same evening it was cosy to say the least!
On arrival we were welcomed by the staff all of whom spoke with suspiciously non-Italian yet decidedly foreign accents. I had booked the table for 10 people and when 11 of us arrived it caused quite a stir amongst the waiters as to how they would reconfigure the tables to squeeze us in. After a bit of shuffling around we eventually sat down to consult our menus and order.
The well laid out menus take you through from starters to pizzas, pastas, poultry, fish and meat dishes all with their own pages, and there is a daily specials board with a good selection of starters and mains.
Our choices for starters included mussels, mozzarella and tomato salad and a Minestrone which was the standout dish amongst the lot. The mozzarella salad was disappointingly bland and lacked any real Italian flavour.
Mains were a variety of pasta dishes including a simple yet fresh tomato and basil spaghetti, a succulent and tender veal dish and another disappointingly bland pizza, which even a god glug of chilli oil could not save!
Overall the meal was, for the price, poor. That is not to say the food wasn’t good, there were some highlights including a well judged rack of lamb from the daily specials board, but I would be reluctant to recommend Bella Venezia as one of the Birmingham’s greatest Italians.
Alternatives:
Cielo,6 Oozells Square, Brindleyplace, Birmingham, B1 2JB
Giovanni’s, Parkridge Court, 9-11 Main Street Dickens Heath, Solihull, B90 1UB
