Ristorante Bella Italia and its legendary Tiramisu

Hello people! I guess it's high time for a food review! :) Comfort food does not count okay... :P I went to this place called Ristorante Bella Italia a few weeks ago with a good friend. From the name itself, it's obvious that it's an Italian restaurant, and a good one at that too, I must say. This place has been around in Penang Island for as long as I can remember (well I'm not that old), and from one shop, it has expanded to another branch in Batu Feringghi as well. Business must be good for them huh?

Indeed, business is flourishing for this restaurant! We went there during a weeknight and it was fully packed! From the outside, this restaurant doesn't really look very appealing, probably due to age. Internally though, it gives you a cosy warm feeling, which is uniquely Italian. I guess the colours of the decor (white, red and green) also play an important role to bring us the Italian feeling yes?

Mixed fruit juice

For starters, of course I ordered the Garlic bread. As I mentioned before, no Italian meal would be complete without this! This is the basic dish that all Italian restaurants MUST prepare to the perfection, no excuses!

Garlic bread

I love the way they maintained the simplicity of this dish and at the same time improved the taste with sesame seeds and herbs. Most importantly, garlic bread must always be piping hot when served. I will never forgive places that serve cold garlic bread which does not have crispy crust anymore. No worries, Bella Italia did not fail on this one. *wink*

My friend also ordered this starter, the name I don't remember :(. But look at it? Doesn't it just look fabulous? It has mussels, ham, salmon and several types of vege. In fact, eating this alone would already mean a whole meal to me!

Starters

Moving on to the main courses, we ordered pasta and pizza, the two dishes that won't go wrong in an Italian restaurant. This is Spaghetti Marinara, something which I've never failed to order 80% of the times that I was there. I love tomato sauce so this is definitely working towards my advantage :) And, look at those huge prawns! They're succulent and yummy. Not to mention the other types of seafood inside, calamari rings, mussels, fish fillets... Glorious combination and wonderful sauce.

Spaghetti marinara

We also ordered Pizza Bella Italia, since it shares the same name with the restaurant. :) This pizza did not look very attractive but it tasted good! I was surprised... It has lots of mushrooms and ham... oh, and cheese too! How could I forget about cheese?

Pizza Bella Italia

Last but not least, I finally managed to try the legendary Tiramisu which is highly recommended by many of my colleagues. The last time I was there, they were actually sold out. Fortunately, luck was on my side that night... And I was not disappointed with it at all. Truth to be told, I'm not really a fan of tiramisu... I'm more of a cheesecake and chocolate cake person, not so much of tiramisu. That's why I had no expectations at all when I ordered this. Little did I know, it could taste SO amazingly good! It has loads of coffee powder on top, which is really generous of them, unlike other places where you can't even TASTE the coffee at all. And it also has a mild amount of alcohol inside, enough to make me realize there's alcohol, but not too much that it could leave a strong bitterness to the cake. Also, the texture was simply heavenly! It was smooth and soft, nothing short of melting in your mouth, I'd say. This is simply a treat to your taste buds. Tell me if you don't think I'm right! :P

Tiramisu I love you!

Oh, this cake is large enough to feed two as well, after your main course. So, what are you waiting for? Order this when you're going out with someone you like or with your loved one, so you could use this as an excuse to share a cake. :)