Trattoria Roma

A nice Friday, date night experience with an intimate atmosphere, good alcohol prices and great service. The food...? Adequate-to-good.

The complimentary bread and butter (for the first batch) was pretty good. I can see why they charge for a second serving. My paper plane cocktail was, ahem, a heavy pour, and I was very appreciative. ;)

Then, not by design, we got three dishes that all used a similar marinara/meat sauce. The lasagne was the best of the three, followed by the stuffed meatball. Neither the Eggplant Parmesan nor the Angel Hair Pasta with which it was served was anything to tout.

We took a tiramisu to go which is more accurately described as two layers of dry ladyfingers with a thick layer of mascarpone cheese (almost cheese cake-ish). It didn't hit the mark.

In summary, Trattoria Roma prove that service and ambiance make a difference. Whether it's for happy hour or for a romantic dinner, you'll enjoy your experience.

We had heard good things about Trattoria Roma, a long standing neighborhood favorite when on Morse Road. It was my wife's and my anniversary so we were looking forward to a good meal.

I started with a small wedge salad, but I ask you, when have you EVER had a wedge salad that didn't have bacon included (myself, never) on this $8 salad which was quarter wedge on a very small head, about the size of a grapefruit, smoked bacon was a $3 up-charge, and only three grape tomatoes halved.

My wife had a salad, average, no complaints.

I ordered spaghetti with meatballs in an Arrabbiata sauce with meatballs and my wife (not understanding the eggplant parm came with its own sauce) ordered her eggplant parm with Arrabbiata also (it was never explained this was over a $5 up-charge)

The Arrabbiata had way too many diced onion and an odd flavor I couldn't place but neither of us liked it all. My meatballs were dense and hard and rubbery with very little flavor, my wife tasted them and agreed.

Dinner was served with dinner rolls, nothing exceptional, certainly no Italian bread you'd come for, for just the bread alone, and when that was gone with our salads, no more was offered.

After we finished (and I barely ate half my meal) we were asked if we would like anything. We declined and then we were asked how we enjoyed everything, and I had to be honest, I said I did not enjoy mine at all, I explained the sauce was not enjoyable and not at all what I expected (which by the way, I never had the chance to mention since our server didn't check in with us during the meal) I also mentioned the meatballs were small and dense and I didn't enjoy them, at which point I would have expected him to either discount a portion of the meal or the very least have the manager stop at the table, neither of which happened. It was obvious I did not enjoy my meal as I didn't want to package it up or even bother to take it home.

Feeling guilty, but without asking, our server brought us a lemon cello cake, possibly to make us feel better about the bad meal , it was okay but also not enough to smooth things over for a meal that was $63 before tip, no drinks but water.

Very Expensive and Very Disappointed.

Tonight was an evening to celebrate my birthday with a couple of friends. I've never been here before so I was excited to try someplace new.

We arrived at 6:30p. Even though we had reservations, we didn't need them. The place was almost empty. However as the night progressed the restaurant did start to fill up.

Our waiter was delightful the whole evening. He was fun, friendly and professional.

The menu was somewhat limited in my opinion, especially if you weren't in the mood for pasta. Since pasta seemed to be the main focus, I chose the Carbonara. My expectations were high for this dish since the restaurant decor screened authentic Italian and the waiter said he thought it was one of their best dishes.

Unfortunately this dish fell flat for me. The pasta was super soft soggy. The texture of the whole dish was pasty and sticky. I wouldn't get this again. My f try sends seemed to enjoy their tortellini so maybe I should try that next time.

As for sat eating my meal, I kept comparing the restaurant to Marcella's. If I want delicious, simple Italian, that is still my first pick.

Having said all of that, this little spot might just hit the spot if you're a local who doesn't want to fight the traffic yof down town.

I wasn't impressed by this establishment. My wife and I were being attended to by our waitress until there were more people who arrived after us and the service started to decline. They messed up my wife's order and applied bacon and didn't add the shrimp and then when they found out about it they brought the shrimp out but didn't offer to remake it, my wife hates bacon but she ate around it because the food already took long enough and we didn't want to want any further.
This was a first time for us and this was a poor first impression.
I don't see us returning

Location is easy to find, inside was clean with nice size dining area. We sat at a small table right at the window to see all the happenings outside.

Food; We started with the Arancini's and they were really good. My main meal, which I was so excited as I went researching top Italian Places and landed on Trattoria. I ordered the Ravioli of the Day, which sadly was not good and I am so bummed even writting this, I felt like the ravioli was sorta thrown together with some chucks of meat and this odd dark meaty sauce. It totally may have been my fault and not understood the flavors. I didn't want to send it back, as once dinner came the place was super busy. So went on to order one of my favorite desserts, I ordered the Salted Carmel creme brulee, I am not sure if it was my taste buds after my meal but tasted like salted was literally poured on top, and not just a little. While I am saddened by my review, and seeing this palce got so many good ones I will try this place again with an open mind.

Service, our server was super sweet.

My husband and I visited Trattoria Roma this past Sunday and had a wonderful server. We made a reservation for 4:00 (when they opened) but arrived a little earlier, and she was nice enough to let us in to get seated. Seems like a fairly small, family-owned restaurant as her daughter was friendly and also attended to us. Decor is nice, dim lighting, semi-romantic. Food was decent but I'll admit, bland for Italian. My favorite course was probably my Caesar salad with anchovies added for an upcharge. We also got the bruschetta and arancini (no herbs at all in the marinara sauce) as appetizers. For the entrees, he ordered the Taste of Italy trio with lasagna, chicken Parmesan and angel hair Alfredo. I got a full order of lasagna. Both of us said the same, it wasn't bad but lacked a real depth of flavor mainly because they don't seem to use any fresh herbs in their marinara. Overall ok dinner, but too many other Italian places on my list to try for me to return any time soon.

I'm confused by the bad reviews on here because my experience was absolutely amazing!

We made a reservation for 4:30pm and it was not busy at all! There were 3 other tables seated around us at the time and I few people at the bar. Our waitress was absolutely amazing and very attentive!

Pros:
- there are a lot of options on the menu! Typically this would scare me away... but they proved to know how to handle a larger menu!
- full bar! There is obviously a lot of wine options, but they also have a full bar and can make anything you would like! I ordered the coconut coffee, with coconut rum and it was amazing! They use Staufs coffee for all of their coffee drinks!
- small intimate restaurant
- dessert is amazing! I ordered the limoncello tiramisu after asking our waitress what she recommended. It was light and really hit the spot after eating chicken parm!
- everything is cooked fresh... there are a lot of reviews on here that the food either took too long or it came out cold. We didn't experience this at all. Our food came out steaming. It did take a bit longer to receive, but it was worth it!

Cons:
- it was freezing when we arrived. I think they had the AC on since it was so hot outside, but it made it almost unbearable. We all decided to drink some coffee to warm up. By the end of our appetizers the restaurant had warmed up a little bit more. We think this was due to us arriving at 4:30pm when they open at 4pm.

One of my favorite places in the city! Great food and excellent service every time. There's not a bad thing on the menu but the diavola is my favorite.

Really enjoyed our dinner here. Went here with a group of friends. Food is all hand made in their kitchen and very reasonably priced. Decent sized wine list too. I had the pasta carbonara which was very good in addition to the stuffed meatball appetizer which was my favorite thing I had there. Only reason it's not five stars is that our waitress really pressured us to order and gave us a lot of attitude that we wanted to have a few drinks and appetizers before ordering our food. Also felt like she was rushing us to leave once we got our entrees. Overall though great experience and will come back!

We love Laurie our server! She was really nice! The food was awesome too, my husband got Tortellini Pizzaiola, but nothing to do with pizza :D he loved it. We share Fritto Misto but only asked for calamari and I got Salmon for my entree, it was good and not heavy at all. We end our night with brownie, everything was so good, we ate them all no to go, except for the brownie that I tried to make it for my lunch snack :)