Bona Roma Little Italian Eatery — Restaurant in Calgary

Visiting from out of town. The concierge recommended Bona Roma and advised they delivered. I called to place an order and was told their delivery driver was sick so there would be no delivery. How nice! In the real world someone else would cover that responsibility. Glad this restaurant is doing so well they can afford to turn down business. So I then decided to try skipthedishes and find Bona Roma. We were pleased that we could in fact order from this "highly recommended" Italian restaurant. I wish I had read the reviews before. This was by far the worst meal I have ever eaten. The carbonara had an awful taste I have yet to identify but if I had to guess I would say mint or fennel, neither of which should be in a carbonara. The chicken parmesan tasted like a frozen chicken breast out of a Swanson dinner. The salad was soggy and the pizza was just shy of cardboard. I sadly have nothing nice to say about this meal. Biggest waste of $75.00 and embarrassed that anyone would call this Italian food.

Edited to reply to owner:

Having come from out of town we were not aware the restaurant was that close, that being said I have an infant and a brain injury, so it's not always possible for me to "walk the whole 2 minutes" to your restaurant. Thank you for your offer to provide a new meal however the food really was so bad that we would not order again. It's understandable if one item is not to par but all 4 items ordered had issues. Perhaps you were understaffed and busy entertaining your customers and therefore unable to give the proper attention to the meals ordered outside your...

The food is good, but the experience sucks. The service isn't great. They rarely do delivery, even though its mentioned as an option. Every time I've called I've gotten an excuse as to why they aren't delivering at the moment and they don't seem to have a set schedule for delivery. I've also called a few times between 7 and 8 and was told the cook went home. But they close at 9? I'm not sure why they would send the cook home so far in advance of their closing time. Such a disappointment. All of this together makes me not want to go back even though the food is actually pretty good.

For anyone curious, the picture is of the response from the owner, which they conveniently deleted.

Response to owner: First of all, this isn't social media this is a Google review. Just because you're a family owned business doesn't mean you don't deserve negative reviews. You think I'm sad for not having good experiences with your business? I think it's sad that you respond so childishly to warranted negative feedback. How sad it is to be a small business owner who can't take criticism and respond in a professional manner, or have the self-control to not respond at all if you're going to...

My brother moved close to COP about a year ago. He tried this place and liked it. We both like good pizza so he suggested we order from here the next time I visit him. We did. Pizza was great and had a lot of toppings. The past few times we’ve ordered here I have noticed that they are putting on less and less toppings (especially the 3 topping meat pizza I ordered). My brother noticed this too. Plus the last time we ordered from here the pizza was overcooked. The dough was hard and the cheese was very thin and dry. I am always willing to pay more for quality pizza, but we have been disappointed the past few times ordering from here. We have some very good pizza places where I live (Atlas pizza, Dover pizza) and I will probably order from them next time and take it to my brother’s place. I tried to give Bona Roma my business but they can’t seem to deliver a consistently good pizza.

Ps. After reading a previous review about running out of toppings, I encountered the same issue. They ran out of ham. I’m not sure how this happens but a manager/owner needs to take responsibility and not make excuses. Surely someone would check inventory in the morning before...