Bella Donna Italian Subs

Convenient location to my job, the food is awesome. It’s the perfect amount of everything, everything always seems so fresh and clean. I definitely recommend it!

Love love love this place. Great food at a great price with great service. The owner (I think he’s the owner) and the cook staff are friendly & fast. Food is delicious. I particularly love the Uncle Ira’s Ruben & Muffalatta (sp?). I go probably once a week.

Terrific sandwiches and fast service. The prices were really reasonable. We got a meatball sandwich and a sweet Italian sausage sandwich with small combos on each for 17 bucks. Pretty fast and simple. It’s in a funny light industrial area, but the food is awesome.

Great food, good price and fantastic people! Its a good break from the usual BBQ and texmex lunch outings. Enjoy!

I am totally rooting for these folks.
This is a plain ordinary lunch joint stuck in the industrial/​warehouse district south of Ben White and East of I-​35.
It’s lunch.
However, Bella Donna is trying to make itself into a classy «international» place.
International in this case means all the good food that the United States has that you can’t get in Central America.
Jewish style delicatessen.
East Coast style Italian subs.
Classic American sandwiches like the BLT and New York style Hot Dogs.
You can feel the sincerity of the owner’s ambitions.
There are lots of pictures of charming Parisian and Italian street scenes on the wall.
Farther back, they have hung a big American flag and another big Italian flag.
There is a map of Italy on the wall — and Bella Donna calls itself an Italian deli.
There is also a Bible on the wall, and a copy of the Ten Commandments.
There is a poster-​size long personal reaffirmation of Jesus.
They take their morality seriously at Bella Donna and
they want to let the rest of the world know how serious they are about
their commitment to the path of light.
But underneath the «lets make a great US/​Italian restaurant»
is a Central American cooking sensibility.
This leads to their own decided angle to the recipes. These angles are good ones.
I could have gotten an Italian hero, or a pastrami sandwich or an eggplant parmesan sub; those were all attractive options. But you can often tell the stuff a kitchen is made of by seeing how they handle the «other» dishes on their menu that aren’t the specialties.
They had BLT on the menu. BLT is hard to do anything special with.
Take bacon, put it on whole wheat with lettuce and tomato. What’s the big deal?
The cook found a way to put his own personal touch on to the BLT.
First, he added avocado … a good idea which totally blends with the other flavors.
Secondly, every table has both tabasco sauce and green habanero sauce.
(Not exactly what they feature at the Stage Deli or at a Natick sub shop.)
The avocado and the habanero sauce totally made the sandwich.
(The cook also provided a plastic dipping cup with Italian dressing. Not a standard item with a BLT, but this would have been good too.)
Frankly, this is EXACTLY the kind of place I like to go if I am ordering lunch every day.
There is a lot of variety on the menu, the food is good and the place has its own decided personality.
If Bella Donna were near my office, I would be a happy regular.
Thumbs up!

I have been here 3 times total in less than 2 weeks, and twice this week. The Muffalata and the Reuben sandwiches are honestly one of the best I’ve had in Austin. They are really nice here and your order always comes out fast. I love this place!

I definitely dig this place, just wish their sandwiches were bigger and they didn’t use generic store-​bought buns. Good food though and fast customer service!

What a great hole in a wall! What a tasty food! Rear find. I had Ruben and it was mouthwatering. Everything very fresh and very homemade. It’s not easy to find such well balanced flavors that goes well together. The size was great as well. I would put 10 stars if I could!

It is probably not close to where you want to be, but it is probably not that far either.
Normally, I would see this place on the map and pass… places that are not high traffic with high volume always scare me.
But, this place is ALWAYS busy… not so busy you can’t get in and out… just busy enough so that I am not worried about the freshness of their food. It is fresh… and it is SERIOUSLY good!
I’ve had the hot subs and the cold ones and they are all equally amazing!

This is my first Unilocal review. I enjoyed it. The price for the quality of food was solid. The gentlemen greeted me when I came in and were fast in getting me my food. The southwest sub was tasty and provided the right amount of spice. If im on this side of town again I will definitely be coming here again.
The only complaint I do have, and its purely benign is their napkins arent great. You need to take a solid 10 to keep them from disolving in your hands.

Great sandwich shop disguised as a hole-​in-​the-​wall. I get my corned beef fix here *so few places in Austin can do that. The Reuben is outstanding, but so is the Italian Beef, the Brooklyn Philly and Yenti’s Pastrami. Last visit I tried the Chicken Parm with eggplant on a white hoagie roll and it was out of this world. The hoagie was «lined» with cheese and thinly sliced grilled eggplant then topped with grilled chicken breast pieces and smothered with a tasty Marinara sauce. Eggplant & chicken were not breaded, perfection.
If you tell them it’s your 1^st visit they used to give you $ 1 off your combo.

My girlfriend and I eat here all the time! The food is terrific, especially for vegetarian sandwiches! Definitely not the «ordinary» choices, but amazing none the less! The staff is terrific and definitely embodies customer service to a «T»!

Bella Donna is a diamond in the rough. It is the closest «good» non-​chain restaurant near where I work so I find myself going there often. Their selection is extremely diverse, ranging from hot and cold subs, to burgers and hotdogs. Each menu item is cooked to perfection, and the staff have no problems making special orders if you want to ask them to remove or add things to your order. I have a few food allergies so this is very much appreciated for someone like me. Their order delivery is extremely fast and I’ve never waited more than 10 minutes for them to make my sandwich.
Prices are absolutely spot on. Not too high, not too low. You get what you pay for. They have many different drinks to offer, but their chips selection is a bit on the small side. Regardless it’s worth every penny.
If you want one of the best subs in this area, possibly in Austin, seek out Bella Donna for lunch — you won’t be disappointed, I guarantee it. Just be aware that the outside parking is pretty crowded around lunchtime and their space inside isn’t too big — almost always full of people. A to-​go order is recommended.

I usually try to eat outside the airport before/​after my flight. Since they only open until 4PM and closes on weekends, I didn’t try this place until today after I landed around 1PM on Monday.
The place is kind divey, about 5 miles from the airport, and right before HW35 on my way back to San Antonio.
I ordered the Southwest steak on wheat, it is messy to eat, but very delicious, and it hits the spot after a long flight. The combo (small drink and a cookie) costs about $ 8.41 and totally worth it.
I will come back, assuming they open before/​after my flight

The place doesn’t look like much on the outside and it has limited amount of parking. However Their food is awesome. I recommend the vegetarian #V. It was amazing! They serve eggplant on a bun with avocado, artichoke hearts, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, etc. It is so good!
Make sure you get the combo because you get a chewy tasty chocolate chip cookie and a bag of chips and a drink.
I will not forget this place.

I had the cheeseburger and it was plain tasting. The buns were hard to the point that my burger was uneven from the bites I would take and the bread would pull. My co-​worker had a sub and that looked good. I won’t give the burger another shot.

Very, very good burgers. I ate here a while back after several recommendations from fans and I could not be happier with the burger I received. This is not the same type of burger you get at McDonald’s. This is a REAL burger.
The only downside is that they do not serve french fries. Instead, they offer chips. I would be there much more if they put fries on the menu!

This place is fantastic. The menu has a bit of everything in the sandwich realm. I went with the grilled chicken and it was delicious. Chicken was grilled to order.
As good as the food was the service. We showed up as they were closing for the day and they reopened to make us lunch. They were friendly and helpful and were more than happy to accommodate a couple more customers.
Go here for lunch or take a sando to go.

This place is fantastic. Cheap and delicious. Their bread is out of this world, and all of the ingredients are good quality. I love their reuben!
Owner is very nice, too. :)

I’ve been coming to Bella Donna’s for many years as it’s super convenient to work, but it’s their fantasticness that keeps me coming back. A marvelous wide selection of sandwiches and burgers and all that I have tasted have been wonderfully prepared. Today I had the BLT. It comes with avocado, which honestly should come standard on all BLTs from now on. It was simply marvelous.
Their grilled cheese is also very addictive. May I suggest adding bacon? You’re welcome.
For a couple of dollars more you get a drink, chips and a chocolate chip cookie (it is a small cookie, but just perfect for that bite of sweet after your meal).
The staff is quite delightful. I’m not sure they actually remember me (I don’t come all that often), but they always act like I’m a friend who come to see them, smiling and happy to see me. I always leave with a smile.