Aqua Italia
a: 153 Whiteladies Road, Bristol BS8 2RF
t: 0117 973 3314
e: clifton@aqua-restaurant.com

The sun was shining the temperature warm and what better way to end a relaxing weekend than a spot of al fresco dining. We slowly ambled up Whiteladies road before stopping off at Aqua Italia for an early evening meal and a spot of people watching!

This local chain has restaurants on Whiteladies, Welshback and in Bath and gives a more upmarket Italian dining feel than many of the chains and independent Italians in the local area. Upmarket being the optimum word – a glass of wine was nearly £6! We spotted there was a 2-4-1 deal on Bellini cocktails however and decided that a Bellini in the sunshine sounded perfect. Whilst we had a bit of a wait on the drinks (they forgot to make them and we needed to re order) when they arrived they tasted divine.

The menu is traditional Italian and interesting to say the least, I was torn between lobster ravioli in a cream and truffle sauce and a platter of grilled fish and shellfish ‘Grigliata di pesce’. In the end I went for the lobster ravioli – it sounded just too interesting to be true and Becci settled for Vitello Milanese, bread crumbed veal escalope with tomato spaghetti

The food was, to say the least somewhat a disappointment. The ravioli was vibrant pink in colour and had big flavours to match – or at least it would have had the pasta not been drowned in the sauce. The sauce was overly creamy but bland in taste, no taste of truffle at all and really ruined what would have otherwise been a really enjoyable dish.

Becci’s veal was massive, too large if we’re honest, and similar to my sauce, her tomato pasta was bland and rather tasteless.

Whilst none of the food tasted bad, we didn’t get the satisfying, big flavoured meals advertised on the menu which was a real disappointment.

Verdict: Beautiful restaurant, nice atmosphere and a damn good Bellini. Both meals were disappointing and verging on bland however which was a shame.