Excellent food, good prices in a romantic setting... my favorite italian in Chicago
Friday, June 13, 2008
Atmosphere: Though very small inside, this well priced italian trattoria is very romantic... dimly lit at night with wonderful decor including partially exposed brick walls and a reproduced column from ancient greece... decorations are sparce, but the mood is great for a quiet dinner...There is little room between tables, so you if the people at the next table are talking too loud you can easily hear the conversation...
Food: The first thing i noticed walking in was that the menu was a xerox copy, not printed.. though a little taken aback, i discovered this is done because the menu at Roma changes all the time based on the ingredients they get... there are, however, a number of items always available such as the pizzas and the manager (who has worked with the owner for quite a long time) was willing to custom make a pasta dish if we didn't see anything we liked! We tried the quattro fromaggi pizza and a custom made rigatoni with eggplant.... both were EXCELLENT. I love pizza and the mixture of cheeses on the pizza was exquisite! My wife hates the taste and smell of bleu cheese, but still LOVED this pizza. I will say that it was a tad runny... the pasta was perfectly al dente and the sauce was amazingly fresh. We were so full we couldn't eat dessert, but were tempted by the tiramisu in the dessert case near our table... it looked decadent with the right mix of lady fingers without excessive filling (as is the case for most tiramisu i have eaten) ... it is supposedly homemade by one of the staff's grandmother's or mother's (can't remember which) ....
Service: the manager greeted us warmly and readily explained the menu and the ability to make custom pastas to order (very helpful since my wife and i are vegetarian). The restaurant was packed so the waitress was busy, but she checked with us during our meal to see how things were
Overall, i highly recommend. Food is better than the place around the corner: Dinotto, a citysearch 10best.
Pros: great FRESH food, good service, walking distance from Sedgwick Brown line stop
Cons: small space