Bella Pizzeria

Decent pizza. Wide variety for vegans and for the non vegans. Which is rare to find and even more rare when both pizzas taste good.

They are closed indefinitely.

Nice pizza
Ordered from
I like all the choices on the menu. Always something new to try. I will return

Decent pizza — a good option if you want soy cheese! — but extremely slow service. Only go if you have time to kill. Quite honestly, there are much better pizza options nearby in Norfolk that make Bella a tough sell.

We had the Eggplant Parmesan and the ravioli. The eggplant was so overcooked and fried that they were black and my wife’s plate was saturated in oil. My wife did not eat it and brought it up to the waitress who took it back to the cook and said sorry and and still charged us. My wife had not eaten any of it. The server was inattentive after we ordered water for drinks. We will not recommend this place to any of our friends.

Vegan veg pizza was delicious and they have a decent selection of red wine to choose from as well. NOM!

As a Northern New Jersey Native that moved to VA, I’d like to remind everyone of the basics as far as ‘NY Style Pizza’ is concerned. The crust should be thin and somewhat crispy on the bottom, and if you look at your slice on the side… the dough shouldn’t look «wet.» You should also be able to fold your slice in half and take a bite, with one hand, without raising your arm 6 inches OR tilting your head 90 degrees. The sauce should not be too thick, sweet, sour or over-​seasoned; it shouldn’t taste like some heat and serve pasta sauce you can buy at the grocery store.
That being said, Bella Pizza does not offer NY style pizza, so if you want something that’s damn near close to NY style pizza, drive down Colley about 10 – 15 blocks, take a left and go to Delvecchio’s.
I gave Bella Pizza 2 stars, as opposed to 1, because they have vegan options which is a nice touch for vegan eaters… right? Then again, it IS in Ghent where it’s almost required that you have to eat vegan, have a haircut that looks like the stylist was blind, be extremely liberal and drink dark beer. JUST SAYIN’.
Don’t expect this place to be clean either. No, seriously, don’t.
So if you don’t believe me and you go to try the pizza, it’s okay. No, really, it’s okay… I made that same mistake once before.

Bella Pizza is in a great location on Colley Avenue in Norfolk. Conveniently located right next Starbucks, the AT&T store and Color Me Mine, makes it a natural pick for dining in or ordering out. They do home delivery, but my favorite delivery service of theirs is to Color Me Mine. That’s right! Color Me Mine lets you and your kids eat as you paint and have fun and Bella Pizza delivers it straight to the store! Who can ask for a better combo?
Now, I must say that to me, most of the food at Bella is good, but the most heavenly item they have is their garlic knots! OMG! I could eat those all day with marinara sauce!

I’ve been to Bella several times over the last year and can safely say that they have good quality pizza! I have never been disappointed… in fact, there were times I was very surprised at how good the pizza was! The toppings always taste fresh and the crust just tastes… good! Nothing revolutionary, but I always want more.
They have a great happy hour with wings and a pitcher of bud-​light daily, which I love. They also have coupons all the time in the mail (for locals) which coupons that you should never go in without. They also have lunch specials (2 slices and a drink for around $ 5! So cheap!).
Aside from the pizza, the wings were decent (not the best) and the salads were pretty good as well.
My main complaint here (and it’s proven extremely consistent) is the slow service. Interestingly, the waitresses have always been incredibly nice, they are just severely understaffed I think. I never get my food in less time than probably 20 – 25 minutes… which is just too long for a place that never seems to be busy. I feel bad for the waitresses who are constantly running around.
For some reason there’s somewhat of a stigma against this place from fellow students, but I’ve always been happy with it and plan to go back many times in the future! (as long as I have an hour to kill).

Norfolk has an impressive number of places to get vegan pizza. The vegan pizza at Bella’s is my favorite.

Heads up, this is a NY Style pizza reviewed by someone from Chicago…
I went last night with a large group (12) from work. We had planned on going somewhere else, but the wait was at least an hour… so we used the power of smart phones to find another pizza joint in the area with good reviews. This place came up, a coworker called ahead, and when they said «No waiting», we took off.
Atmosphere
Nice. It was brick walls, tables lining two rows, with a few of them pushed together on one side for us. Dark/​warm colors-​brick red, wood, comfy local pizza joint atmosphere. Not hipster-​y, not trying to be über fancy gourmet, but a good local vibe… that could blend into nearly any city. Like, it reminds me of a place that I went to while in college (in Chicago) that was down the street from my dorm.
Service
Great. The waitress was nice, handled our bizarro world way of splitting the checks with ease, was always there when we needed/​wanted something yet wasn’t hovering. When we arrived, there was a table they had setup for our group.
Food
I liked it. I think it qualifies as NY Style, however, unlike most NY style, I liked this. The crust had a bit of crunch to it, but was still soft inside. Sauce was slightly sweet, but not sugary. Cheese, pepperoni, etc was all good. This was more filling than other NY pizzas that I have had, so that was a major bonus. The pizza’s (we ordered 4) arrived in a timely manner.
I’ll end up going back before I’m transferred back to Chicago.

I went here after once again reading from Unilocal that they had good Vegetarian pizza and I was not disappointed in anyway. i had some of the best pizza ever. And best of all they were having spacial where any 12′ cheese was $ 5.00 plus I added pineapple for $ 1.00 more. I had to take some home. Great Deal.
When eating here all by myself I got talking to my waitress about the stigma of eating alone and I think I changed her mind about how awesome it is and not at all pathetic. She told me alot of people come in there to eat alone and now she does it.
When my pizza got delivered hot and warm I couldn’t wait and burned the top of my mouth. There is one TV in the place and the waitress noticed I was watching it and brought me the remote to choose what I wanted. I was like «FOR REAL?» It was already on the Simpson and I was happy with that. Really nice waitress. Keep the Pepsi coming. Loved that.
When I am back in town I will try and make this my first meal.

I’ve eaten at Bella in the past and was impressed with it then — but that was a LONG time ago. This latest visit, not so impressed. Although there were very few people there, the service was slow. Worse, my food was cold. Specifically, the calzone I ordered came out lukewarm to the point that the cheese on the inside hadn’t even fully melted. Add a bland tomato sauce to dip it in, and I wasn’t happy at all with my experience.

Bella’s Pizza in Ghent is a great little spot for take-​out pizza. I know they deliver, but for some reason we always call in Pizza here, I guess since it’s close. They serve excellent, NY-​style pizza, & by that I mean that the crust kinda thin, but not what you would call «thin-​crust», & you can tell it’s cooked in a real pizza oven. They’re generous on toppings, & they use decent-​quality cheese. You can tell because it’s never overrunning with grease. Single slices are around $ 2, but you get a real-​sized slice of pizza. Definitely recommended.

Let me just reiterate; the slices at Bella Pizza are HUGE. Went in last week to grab a slice or two and I was absolutely stuffed after two pieces. They also have a nice variety of seasonings that you can sprinkle on your pizza; red pepper, garlic, parm. cheese. Yum-​o! Slices are $ 2 bucks a piece, which is great considering how big they are. Service here was very nice, quick and friendly. I will definitely return!

The hardest thing about being vegan is finding soy cheese with, well, the consistency of cheese. Pizza just looses the pizazz without that stretch of mozzarella connecting your mouth to the awaiting slice.
Bella Pizza has the most fantastic impostor of the real deal. Although it’s an investment since they bake the vegan veggie pizza fresh to order and will set you back an easy twenty bucks. It’s no obstacle for me to overcome, however, since I can take it home and throw a slice in the oven at home whenever I’m in the mood for cheesy ecstasy so profound it feels illegal.

Great pizza, great people. I’ve been to Bella many times and have never been disappointed. Toppings are fresh and the dough is well-​prepared and cooked. Cold beer and good pizza… how could you go wrong?

I’m giving this place four stars because any place that serves vegan pizza is awesome in my book, however, the future is here and it is called DAIYA CHEESE. I would highly suggest that Bella consider switching to Daiya instead of Follow Your Heart cheese for their vegan pizzas. For a time Follow Your Heart was the best vegan cheese you could get, and Bella did a great job using it on their pizza, but Daiya puts FYH and every other vegan cheese to shame.

Hands down, the best NY style pizza in the Norfolk/​Virginia Beach area. In addition to the pizza, the Stromboli is to die for and their home made marinara is delicious. We rarely dine in, usually always opting for delivery or pickup. Outside of the food, fair prices and down to earth service make this pizza place shine.

To be frank, I don’t miss Norfolk. I do, however, miss Bellas.
Let’s look at the data: Norfolk, VA has a population of 234,403 ladies and gents. Los Angeles (my hometown) has a population of 9.8 million people. Estimates are that there between .2−1.3% of the US population are vegan. Norfolk is the home of the PETA headquarters, so clearly they are going to have a lot of vegans to service, however, Los Angeles is one of the biggest cities in the world. Which one is statistically more likely to have vegan pizzarias? Ready, class? Pencils down. The answer is LA, but the true answer is Norfolk?!
This review is about Bellas, so let’s get that out of the way: great job, guys, excellent pizza. Service is OK, but you’re still making some great food. Prices are also too high, but I’m willing to pay more because you’re offering something no one else is. Now back to LA…
Los Angeles. Wake up. We need more vegan pizzarias. If Norfolk can do it, so can you.