A waitress setting a stone table by a tall window, the wet portico outside receding at blue hour towards a lit medieval tower

Bella

Via del Pratello · Bologna

The slow way, in a city moving fast.

Hand-rolled pasta, long-simmered ragù and a little invention at the table. Lunch and dinner, Tuesday to Sunday.

Walk in for a seat at the bar.

Taking orders now — pickup or delivery

Order for tonight · the kitchen takes orders until 14:30.

From the kitchen · 03 plates

What Bologna tastes like tonight.

A short route through the menu: one silken beginning, one morning's work, one slow Sunday idea served any night.

Bella, without the fuss

Tradition is our starting point. Curiosity gets the next word.

The truffle is shaved at the table. The ragù takes its time. Creativity sits on top — never instead.
1987
The first page
6 mornings
Pasta rolled each week
40 guests
Around the cellar table
1 bar
For the unplanned evening
Flour-dusted hands folding a sheet of fresh egg pasta on a floured steel worktable
An old handwritten recipe notebook open on a floured steel table beside a bowl of eggs and a pasta cutter, an older hand on the page
Our story · Page one · 1987

It began in Lucia's notebook.

In 1987, Bella began with Nonna Lucia's Emilian recipes: practical notes, patient methods and margins crowded with better ideas. We still follow the spirit of those pages. Make it by hand. Give it time. Change only what makes the plate sing more clearly.

A recipe is memory with instructions.

The line we keep returning to
Before the doors open

Morning begins with flour.

Every service starts at the bench. Dough is mixed, rested, rolled and cut before the first table is laid. By lunch, the first ribbons are in the pot.
  1. Two hands shaping a well of flour around five bright egg yolks on a steel bench

    01 — 06:40 · Mix

    Eggs meet flour on the steel bench; the dough is worked until it yields.

  2. Floured hands guiding a long, thin sheet of pasta out of a steel hand-cranked roller

    02 — 08:10 · Roll

    Long sheets pass through the rollers, thin enough to hold the light.

  3. A hand lifting a nest of fresh tagliatelle above rows of nests on a floured bench

    03 — 09:25 · Cut

    Tagliatelle is folded, cut and loosened into nests for the day.

Reservations

Your table, when you want it.

Choose a day and time below. For tonight, you're also welcome to walk in and ask for a seat at the bar.

  • Tables for 1 to 8 guests. For a larger party, ask about the cellar.
  • Bookings open 30 days ahead.
  • We confirm each request by email once the table is set aside.
Choose a day
Choose a time
Who is the table for?
0 of 500
The room

Come as the evening changes.

Long lunches beneath the portico light. Dinner in a room of pale plaster, steel and dark green upholstery. A few bar seats kept for decisions made late.
A pale plaster dining room with arched windows at dusk, globe lamps, bottle-green banquettes and marble tables laid with glasses
01The dining room · 19:04
Red wine poured from a dark bottle into a thin glass
02A glass at the bar
A waiter's hands carrying a steaming bowl of tagliatelle al ragù
03The bar · walk-ins welcome
A rain-slick street under long stone porticoes at blue hour, lamps glowing and a tower at its end
04Via del Pratello · after rain
Private dining · Below Bella

One long table. Your whole evening.

Our vaulted cellar seats up to 40 guests with its own menu and wine pairing. From an aperitivo for twelve to a four-course family dinner, tell us the occasion and we'll shape the night around it. Osso buco, risotto alla milanese and a tiramisu big enough to share — sharing menus are planned by conversation, so please ask.

Or write to us directly at
A vaulted brick cellar with one long table laid for dinner, dark green chairs and wine racks at the far end
The cellar, below BellaVia del Pratello 41, 40122 Bologna, Italy
Notes from the tables

“The kind of dinner where the room gets quieter when the pasta arrives.” — Elena, dinner with friends

“We came for tortellini, stayed for another glass, and let the evening choose its own pace.”
MarcoAt the bar
“Forty people around one cellar table somehow felt wonderfully intimate.”
GiuliaFamily celebration

Visit Bella

Find us under the porticoes.

Walk in for a seat at the bar, ring ahead for a table, or write to us about an evening in the cellar.

Via del Pratello 41

The map loads only when you ask.

Our hours

Lunch, dinner and a last glass.

No plan? Ask for a seat at the bar.

Open now · until 14:30

Our opening hours by day
MondayClosed
Tuesday
  • 12:0014:30
  • 19:0023:00
WednesdayToday
  • 12:0014:30
  • 19:0023:00
Thursday
  • 12:0014:30
  • 19:0023:00
Friday
  • 12:0014:30
  • 19:0023:00
Saturday
  • 12:0014:30
  • 19:0023:00
Sunday
  • 12:0014:30
  • 19:0023:00
Good to know

Before you arrive.

Yes. We keep a few seats at the bar for walk-ins; tables are easier to plan with a reservation.
A couple walking away down a wet street under the porticoes at blue hour, shop windows glowing and a tower ahead
Tonight at Bella

Meet us where the portico turns blue.

Book a table, or let dinner come to you.