Cafe Roma

I went here for dinner a few nights ago with my wife and a friend. It was a Wednesday night at about 8pm. The place was dead. All 15 or so tables were empty. WTF. We were there for over an hour and only like 3 people wandered in during our meal to pickup food and that was it. I have no idea how this place stays in business. Especially since it has been there for forever.
Anyway, our waiter was very good/​quick/​friendly but I could tell he really didn’t understand why we were there. I’m guessing that the place is primarily a lunch place and a takeout place. He got our orders right and my diet cokes were quickly refilled.
To start we ordered a bottle of wine. We could tell from the waiter’s reaction that this does not happen often. All the bottles were like 20ish dollars so what the heck.
Here is what we ordered:
* House Salad = very good
* Chicken Parm = good, big
* Pizza = unexpectedly very good. We ordered the white pizza with ricotta cheese. I asked and our waiter said it was made fresh which was surprising.
* Greek Salad = I didn’t try this but it looked pretty good. Not sure why but the waiter asked what kind of dressing they wanted on it. I thought all Greek salads came with basically the same dressing. Oh well… Italian dressing it is.
I really don’t want to knock a little local establishment. The place is just ok. Our waiter was good, the food was good, and the price was good. It is one of the last places within walking distance of my house that I hadn’t tried yet and I can now cross if off my list. It wasn’t horrible so of course I would go back but I certainly won’t rush back.

1^st trip: Tried the appetizer sampler, which wasn’t anything to write home about. But it’s OK, it was just an appetizer sampler, we weren’t expecting anything spectacular. What was really awful was the service. As we walked in we couldn’t find anyone, except someone watching TV. So we waited there for a minute or two and finally sat ourselves. Turns out the our waiter was the guy watching TV. Throughout the whole evening the guy maybe visited us maybe 4 times, we couldn’t even get him to take our money (still glued to the TV) so we left cash and walked out.
2^nd trip: We decided to give the place a second chance because for some reason we thought the place was under new management. Service similarly bad, waiter checked in on us more often but it still took a really long time just for the guy to run my credit card (no cash on me this time). We had two waiters, first one messed up our orders several times on simple things like drinks – which they fixed. The worst aspect of this evening was the food, the pizza we ordered tasted like a frozen Digiorno pizza, and not the fancy kind that taste good. I left the restaurant convinced that the place is a cover for some sort of illicit activity.
Just to make things clear: I hate giving 1 star reviews. I’m a local and I like supporting local businesses, and there are a LOT of good restaurants in this area. This is not one of them. Not even remotely.

At a certain point, the bad service goes from amusing to just intolerably bad. Taking over an hour to eat at a lunch time place is a no go. Offering to refill two people’s diet Pepsi and then switching the glasses is something we avoided on this particular trip, but has happened in the past. Really only go here if you aren’t on a schedule and don’t mind fairly mediocre food.

The food is always awesome! At work we routinely order 3 – 5 plates and we’ve never had a problem. Today I was inspired to Unilocal about Café Roma because I asked for eggplant instead of chicken on my chicken alfredo. Pretty much amazing. I had everyone I work with try it!
The pasta dishes are all very good, wraps are super tasty, subs are good, the calzones and strombolis are amazing, decent prices, clean and friendly atmosphere. Service has always been good for me, Ive eaten at the Café a 2 – 3 times, and I’ve had it delivered many times.
To wrap it up, I’d recommend eating here to anyone!

2.5 STARS would have been a perfect rating.
FOOD: As far as I’m concerned, the best thing available at Café Roma are the calzones. The cazlones’ cheese, sauce, and bread are all pretty good. They are huge and decently priced. One calzone could feed two non-​starving people. I usually have to struggle to finish one. Other dishes are decent, but nothing to come back for.
PRICE: A calzone and a drink cost about $ 9 – 10.
ATMOSPHERE: It’s a typical low-​cost Italian restaurant. TV’s in the corners, music playing in the background, a couple decorations on the walls. Good place for lunch or modest dinner.
SERVICE: Nice people, but they can be almost too helpful at times. Sometimes they come by the table four times during the meal to ask if everything is alright. Sometimes I want to shout, «Yes! Everything is wonderful, now leave us alone!» They know I get the calzone every time I go there, it’s a cool feeling to have that regular status.
SKINNY: Try the calzone, I think its pretty good. If it’s not good, then I’m sorry I wasted all this time writing this review only to lead you astray.

I so desperately want to like Café Roma. It is a small place with a take-​out area and a dining room. When you walk it, it smells incredible. I have yet to have something that tastes like the smell.
I’ve had the Penne with meat sauce. The pasta was overcooked and the meat sauce was average. The lasagna is above average and threatens to be good, but doesn’t quite make it.
The side salad is okay as far as such things go. It consists of mostly iceburg lettuce with a middle eastern type olive thrown in and a sprinkling of some kind of field green. The salad dressings I’ve tried are bottled.
There is a daily pasta special.