Review: Trattoria Romana

[Maley]

Went to this restaurant (over the road opposite Tesco on Eccy road) last week.

 

And i'd just like to say that it was over priced and quality of the food was poor.

 

Sure, it looks nice. And inside the atmosphere (downstairs) is ok. However, upstairs (where we were sat) the lighting was on full. None of the candles were lit - and was just stark and harsh.

 

In terms of food i had a Bruchetta to start. Costing me £5 i had soggy toast with some tomatoes and olive oil over the top. Worst bruchetta i've ever had.

 

Then i had the chicken on the specials board - costing me nearly £12 - which resembled a chicken kiev from Sainsbury's. No veg. and some new potatoes with some cheese chucked on the top.

 

The cheesecake for desert was dry and horrible.

 

In short - it looks nice on the surface and i wouldn't grumble, but for the price i was quite shocked by the poor quality of the food.

 

I don't know what peoples thoughts are on this - and i wouldn't comment specifically if i didn't think it warranted it - but i felt very let down by this restaurant.

[Andy78]

Alright dude,

just checked out of my window and the spelling is correct.

I have to agree with you. We went a while ago, based on the fact that is over the road from and looks all glowy and warm, so thought it would be all nice inside too. Was really let down with the service. They let us know as soon as we got there that we only had the table for 2 hours, which was fine with us. As soon as we were seated they stared telling us to hurry up. Then took ages getting the food to us and kept reminding us that we only had the table for 2 hours. I would have like to have relaxed and eaten in peace, knowing that we would have easily have finished within 2 hours. I don't particularly like being hassled when I'm paying for a meal. Everyones food was sub standard, and mostly cold. I probably should have complained, but just left knowing that I wouldn't be going back.

 

Personally I prefer BB's on division street. Think it has a much nicer atmosphere and the candles are usually lit!

[Non_Shabby]

Yeah, agree. Been to Trattoria twice and it's been very average both times.

[Mr_E]

I was temped to start exactly the same thread here - I do a bit of freelance food writing - and my review was, how shal I put it, completely damning.

I've eaten in restaurants all over the country on my quest for the best and the worse. This particular "restaurant" gave me an opportunity to really slag something off. Fantastic

 

This is not my journalistic account - but it's similar.

Firstly, we were shown to our place by a woman who was determined to make us run up the steep stairs to the first floor dining area by chasing us up them.

"This seems nice," my fiancée commented, out of breath.

The first hiccup was ordering drinks. At this point I must say that the young girl who took our order, apparently new to the job, was understandably unfamiliar with the procedure, so none of this was her fault.

Three slices of white shop made bread arrived (for two people) with one little packet of butter, you know, the cheap ones from Macro or somewhere like that. To make things worse the bread had achieved a crust – on the sliced surfaces.

My beer arrived after about five minutes and it was very nice. But the other drink, Bacardi and Coke, was unavailable.

"Okay, no problem, have you any Southern Comfort?"

The girl departed and returned a few minutes later.

"Sorry we don't do Southern Comfort either."

"Oh,” I said, “do you have any spirits?”

“We do do a single malt whisky and a blended malt whisky." The waitress replied hopefully.

“Anything else?” My fiancée asked.

She disappeared again. Two minutes later she returned, dying of embarrassment. “I’m really sorry, but err, no. Err, we don’t have any spirits.”

My fiancée, feeling sorry for her told her that coke would be okay.

The coke arrived flat.

Naturally I complained. “Do you have any bottles of coke?”

“No.” she replied, almost in tears.

“Don’t worry,” my fiancée replied, “Tap water will be fine.”

We waited with for twenty minutes for our food to arrive.

And then another twenty minutes.

And another.

 

The three slices of shop bought bread had been eaten seventy five minutes before the meal finally arrived.

To say that the meal was a let down after over an hour of waiting is a modest understatement. It was terrible.

I whip up much better meals in five minutes. But to be fair - anybody could whip up something better in five minutes - or however long it takes to boil the kettle for a pot noodle.

The other half to be had to endure a pizza. Crispy, yet also strangely soggy pizza base, smeared with processed tomato and the "cheap" mozzarella was barely melted. She couldn't actually swallow the "raw" pizza.

My dish, Meatballs on a bed of spaghetti and the same processed tomato, had the right textures but tasted of nothing at all.

 

“Was everything all right?” the waitress asked.

“Yes.” We fibbed, we’d put her through enough already.

 

The only good aspect of the entire evening was that we laughed :hihi:about our experience for nearly an hour afterwards.

 

But really, to the owners of this business, SHAME ON YOU. Businesses like this bring down the level of the businesses nearby. To anyone out of town, this place is a shocking embarrassment.

 

I have already dissuaded everyone I know from going… but if you want to see how not to do it, or to have a laugh go to Trattoria Romana on Ecclesall Road, Sheffield.