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Booking: We booked Roma Adelaide last night for a special occasion - a birthday dinner. We selected the Feed Me Menu with an optional extra, and noted in the booking that the evening was for a special occasion. When we arrived, the hostess seemed somewhat bewildered when we advised of our booking. She then looked around to find a vacant table… defeating the purpose of our booking. We were then seated, presented with a menu, and left to chat. The waitress momentarily came back to the table to take our order, although we pre-booked the Feed-Me menu during the booking process - quite redundant. Menu: The menu reads as traditional Italian cuisine, but the restaurant describes itself as Modern Italian. As a result, the cuisine was misrepresented; non-traditional seasonings and ingredients were used in some dishes, in a way that wasn’t clearly conveyed in the menu. While this is not a problem on its own, it meant that the meal was a constant stream of surprises - nearly nothing we ordered was served as what we expected, which made it hard to appreciate (especially on a night where we specifically craved authentic Italian). They brought out the food in succession (pictured). Appetisers: The bread and olives were okay - good, but not as stellar as other reviews led us to expect. The salmon was alright. The lamb arrosticini (skewers) were good, although over seasoned for the amount of meat - we ended up scraping the excess seasoning off and then enjoying them. Mains: The porchetta was peculiar; it seemed to used the same seasoning as the lamb skewers. The fat was not fully rendered, making it difficult to chew; the crackling was chewy and impossible to cut through; and the meat was over-seasoned with the odd lamb flavouring. We couldn’t finish it. The nduja chicken was immaculate, incredibly portioned, with great taste, sauce, everything. Definitely a highlight from the evening. They then proceeded to bring out our additional 2 mains straight after each other and overloaded our table. This was questionable since the appetisers were paced very well… and the 4 mains were too large to eat that quickly without some plates going cold. The casarecce ragu was great, and well portioned. The pasta was cooked al dente and the sauce tasted great. The witlof salad tasted random and disjointed, and it looked very thrown together. The ratio of cheese, dressing and salad was not great - there was very little salad. I’m not sure if it’s portioned differently al a carte, but it was also very small - I’d be quite sad to get only this for $15. Dessert / Service: The panacotta was liquid and tasted like marscapone. While it tasted alright, it definitely was not pannacotta. Mentioning it to the waitress, one of the chefs came to check the problem. It’s important to note he was incredibly helpful, friendly and insightful. He advised us that it was only prepared in the morning, so it might not have been fully set yet (however, the tray of panncotta he showed us still did not resemble real panacotta in any way). He also noted that the restaurant is Modern Italian, which would explain why all the dishes were so nontraditional. This was actually a very good point, albeit one we wished we knew prior to eating - definitely something we’d expect to know from reading the menu. The general service was average; the waitress was attentive but fairly inexperienced, overloading the table, placing things randomly and not what you’d expect of a restaurant of this calibre. Whether this was a bad Monday night, I’m not sure. Summary: Overall, an incredibly average experience, and we wouldn’t really plan on going back anytime soon. The quality of dishes was inconsistent, ranging from quite good to quite questionable. The service was equally spotty - not bad, but unrefined. Given the quality and quantity of food, and the overall experience, I wouldn’t be able to justify ordering any of these dishes at the al a carte pricing.
