They say it’s my birthday

by davebarclay1954

Well, I had an unexpected turn of events yesterday. Allow me to start at the beginning and then bring you up to speed with what occurred…

I received a phone call from my estranged wife asking me if I wanted to meet her after work and go out for a meal for my birthday. I said ok that sounded good to me so I jumped in the shower and dressed before settling down to watch the Ding Junhui v Ronnie O’Sullivan snooker match. After this finished I quickly tidied up and left to go and meet up.

We went into Newcastle as she had an eye test booked in for 17:45 and then we went to do a little shopping before heading to the restaurants in Eldon Square for TGI Friday’s. We were seated quickly and spent time choosing our meals from the menu, several people were shown past us to tables and one person was shown to the table next to ours. A waiter came straight over to this person and took his drink order while we were still waiting to give our order. When his drink arrived and the waiter still ignored us we decided to leave and go elsewhere to eat.

On the way to Fridays I mentioned Bella Italia as we walked past but my wife said she wasn’t in the mood for Italian, anyway we couldn’t agree on anywhere so I said it was a nice thought, but I’d head home and see what was in the cupboard. That’s when we decided to try Bella Italia so we went and looked at the menu before going to the door. When we arrived we were quickly shown to a table and the waiter came over and took our drinks orders straight away. When he came back with the drinks we had already decided what we were having as starter and main so ordered these.

Within 15 minutes our starter arrived (caramelised red onion garlic pizza bread) and that was absolutely delicious. Our mains arrived shortly after the starter was cleared and I ordered another drink. At this point we became aware that although the restaurant was beginning to fill up there was only our waiter and the female Maitre D’ working the floor. Because of this I decided that no matter how long the drink took it would be fine, the waiter walked past our table on his way to the gelato by the door with a young girl and said he hadn’t forgotten the drink but he was really busy so it would be another few minutes would that be okay?

Little touches like that to let you know you’re not being forgotten or ignored make all the difference between good customer service and great customer service. Anyway, the drink came and we were still ploughing our way through the mains. When the waiter came to clear the table again he asked if we would like to see the dessert menu or just have coffees? We asked for the dessert menu and looked it over, there was a lot on there that I wanted to try but was too stuffed so I opted for alcoholic lemon ice cream, which was absolutely gorgeous and so light it went down in no time flat.

When the bill arrived we fought over who was paying and I paid but she tipped the waiter, from a disaster in one restaurant we ended up having a totally fantastic meal out and I for one will definitely be returning to Bella Italia again in the not too distant future to repeat the enjoyment. If you live anywhere near Newcastle upon Tyne then Bella Italia comes highly recommended by me and it’s located in the food area of Eldon Square upstairs, almost next door to Fridays.