Bella Vita Jing’an: Solid Pizzas & Generous Grill Platters

Bella Vita is a casual Italian restaurant in Jing’an that does good, simple, and tasty Italian comfort food. Pizzas, pastas, and grilled meat platters are the highlights.

Bella Vita is a casual Italian restaurant in Jing'a, Shanghai. Photo by Rachel Gouk @ Nomfluence.

It is not to be confused with its upmarket sister restaurant Bella Vita Bistro over on Tianping Lu. Bella Vita Jing’an is much more easy-going, and is akin to a neighborhood eatery rather than a destination restaurant. Every neighborhood needs reliable, everyday restaurants, and this is one of them.

The Food: Pizzas, Pastas & Grilled Platters

I’ll admit Bella Vita caught me by surprise. The pizzas were excellent, the seafood pasta delicious, and portions generous, and it is all very reasonably priced. Expect to pay around ¥200 for dinner, or a little more if you’re hitting the premium cuts of beef.

They do two kinds of pizzas, one with a 48-hour fermented dough and the other Roman-style pizzas. Both were great, one airy and chewy, the other light and crunchy.

All pizzas are made-to-order, available as 8 or 12-inch servings. The entry-level margherita is ¥99 for a 12-inch. Bella Vita has even won some big awards for their pizza, namely the World Pizza Championship (Campionato Mondiale Della Pizza, est. 1992), China Selections, Champions from 2016 to 2018. The quality of the pizzas certainly does speak for themselves.

Here’s more from the menu:

Showmanship aside, the quality of the beef is apparent. Compared to the ribeye in the grill platter, this supersedes by a landslide. Strong beefy flavors and imbued with smoky aromas. One of four special beef cuts available.

For dessert, there’s a tiramisu (¥48) or gelato. The gelatos are made by Buonissimo, an artisanal gelateria brand under the Bella Vita group. Flavors are available by the scoop for ¥35.

Drinks, like the food, are also reasonably priced. A classic Spritz is ¥48, while non-alcoholic teas and lemonades start at ¥35. As for wine, it starts at ¥56 by the glass, ¥245 a bottle.