Pizzeria Bella Notte Review

Pizzeria Bella Notte is a counter service restaurant at Disneyland Paris serving Italian cuisine, including pizza, pasta, and lasagna. This review features food photos from this Fantasyland restaurant, along with our thoughts on the ambiance, what we recommend ordering, whether it’s worth doing a meal here, and other random tidbits about this Disneyland Paris restaurant’s theme and history.

The restaurant features a Lady and the Tramp motif, with a variety of decor based upon the film, including murals of the movie and sculpted columns of characters. The architecture of the restaurant appears a bit hodgepodge-ish, which makes sense given Imagineer Tom Morris’ statements on Designing Disney that it’s meant to be a pastiche of Italian sites.

What’s probably most fascinating about Pizzeria Bella Notte from a thematic perspective is the way it marries real-world Italian design with caricatures of that style and nods to Lady and the Tramp. In Disneyland Paris: From Sketch to Reality (page 224), Tom Morris shares that this was exactly the idea…

“By the time we created Pizzeria Bella Notte…the restaurant inspired by the famous spaghetti scene in Lady and the Tramp, we were getting a little burned out on painstakingly rendering every building in a super-realistic way. We decided to do the inverse with Bella Notte, so we threw some of our rules out the window and adopted more of an animator’s approach to things.”

Morris goes on to share details about the animators’ techniques employed in the design of Pizzeria Bella Notte, including ‘squash and stretch,’ a visual trick to redistribute mass in an object or character to make it seem more animated. This was done with the swaying walls and dancing pillars at Pizzeria Bella Notte.

It’s an interesting look, to be sure, and gives the building a sense of motion. (Morris: “They undulate as though they are dancing a tarantella, which is the type of music we listened to as we defined the space.”)

While serious design fans often lament Disney’s decisions to “cartoon-ify” architecture, it works well here. The end result of the mash-up of real and fictional is something distinctly unique and original. This is arguably better than direct imitation, anyway.

Morris also shared that the beautiful mosaics outside the building include nods to Mary Blair, with some of its pieces being salvaged from the dismantled Star Tours mural that was created by Blair in the 1960s. Outside and in, Pizzeria Bella Notte is stunning.

We first dined here during the Christmas season, and like many other Disneyland Paris restaurants, it had decorations up that were unique to the location and thematically appropriate. Definitely a nice touch.

From the beautiful light fixtures to the tiles and brickwork, Pizzeria Bella Notte has a lot of rich texture and beauty. Like so many Disneyland Paris restaurants, you could spend hours just exploring its rich detail.

As for the food, this review of Pizzeria Bella Notte is really simple: the menu here is exactly the same as the menu at Colonel Hathi’s Pizza Outpost. If you’ve already read our Colonel Hathi’s Pizza Outpost Review to see how we feel about Pizzeria Bella Notte, you don’t need to read any further. The only differences here are the ambiance discussed above, and there are some different food photos.

Like Colonel Hathi’s, Pizzeria Bella Notte serves Royale or Three Cheese pizza. We tried the Royale here (we have pictures of the Three Cheese version in our Colonel Hathi’s Review).

Both are fairly decent options, falling somewhere between the greasy counter service pizzas and more ambitious flatbreads at Walt Disney World in terms of style and overall quality. The result is a theme park pizza that makes a good compromise between offering quality and being guilty pleasure, and the portion size is also respectable if you have an American appetite like us. It’s not going to blow your mind, but we’ve found these pizzas to be one of the more reliable options at Disneyland Paris. Certainly better than the burgers.

Above is the Lasagna Bolognese. We wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a poor option, but it’s less filling and totally forgettable on the flavor front. The pizza is a much better option, in our estimation.

In addition to the entree, you have the choice of garlic bread or a side salad. The garlic bread at Disneyland Paris can be delicious (it varies), whereas the salad is ordinary. Go with the garlic bread.

For dessert, your options are the Magnum ice cream bars, a fresh fruit cup, or tiramisu. Don’t make the mistake of trying to be healthy and getting the fruit cup. They act like grapes are a scarce natural resource in France that can only be doled out 4 at a time. (I’m exaggerating, but the fact remains that the fruit cup is underwhelming.) The other two options are pretty good.

Overall, Pizzeria Bella Notte is a solid option if you’re looking for a safe bet at Disneyland Paris that will offer a good portion size. In terms of Disneyland Paris counter service, that’s basically high praise. So, if pizza appeals to you, go to Pizzeria Bella Notte. This is especially true if the theme here appeals to you more than over at Colonel Hathi’s, since you probably won’t want to eat at both on the same trip. Unless you really love pizza. (We’re not judging.) In terms of planning the rest of your trip, we recommend consulting our Disneyland Paris Vacation Planning Guide for everything you’ll want to know. That about covers it for Pizzeria Bella Notte. Not exactly the most earth-shattering review, but hopefully it’s helpful. Now it’s your turn–share what you think of Pizzeria Bella Notte in the comments!

7 Responses to “Pizzeria Bella Notte Review”
  1. Garrison Rule February 14, 2017
  2. SAM February 13, 2017
  3. Kevin February 12, 2017
  4. Tm4k February 12, 2017
  5. David Logan February 11, 2017
    • Tom Bricker February 13, 2017
  6. Ellen February 11, 2017

Leave a Reply to Garrison Rule Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *