Aroma Italia — Restaurant in Depok

This is my first time trying authentic Italian food. Well, as far as authentic goes, that is.

I went with my partner here during the weekends. I went to visit her because I haven't seen her in 6 months. She recommended a ramen place but personally, I'm more interested in this place.

I've always loved European cuisine and despite people's belief regarding the blandness of 'white people' food, some regions actually have very tasteful dishes like Italy.

We ordered the pomodoro ravioli, quatro formaggi gnocchi, and pesto pizza with chocolate and ricotta canoli on the side. We also bought a meatball sandwich on our way home.

Maybe it's because I'm Indonesian and I love it when my food has lots of spices in it but the ravioli is not it. It's not hitting. It was also cold when it reached our table. The basil filling was not salty enough (just my preference) and the pomodoro sauce is not sharp enough for me. It's not tangy, not sweet, nor salty enough for me. Sure, we have salt on our table but salting after and before cooking works differently and I wish that the cook would do this in the kitchen before it reaches us.

The gnocchi is sooooo rich! I love it! No complaints. It was my first time having gnocchi and I must say that I think this is my favorite Italian dish by this point. The sauce is mild but that's okay, it's still very creamy and savory which really did my senses right.

The pesto pizza was bland. Sorry. I expect it to be, again, sharper and saltier. Maybe put in more parmiggiano in the pesto when blending. It just lacks the savory-ness I thought I would get from a pesto sauce. The shrimp on the pizza was sub-par too since it was already soft from the heat of the oven and not crunchy.

The canoli was... okay? The chocolate was clumpy as well as the ricotta (it's dry!) and it truly disturbed me how I thought that what's inside the canoli would be nutella and soft ricotta. I mean, if shipping actual ricotta is difficult then just use Gr**nfields's or other generic ricotta brands.

The meatball sandwich was also sad. Just a bunch of meat chunks scattered around the sandwich and it was bland if it weren't for the garlic sauce. My partner was the one to eat it and I absolutely felt so sorry for her, I paid her for the sandwich while she paid for the rest of the meals.

The beverages are okay. Mid-tier.

Overall, I expected something more from this place. Additionally, your arancini is dry. I bought it for my partner in June and it was hard to bite into and chew. Please do something about it.

With this budget, I expect greatness. Not five-star excellence but the excellence that comes from your nonna's kitchen.

Thank you for the service. I may...

We just had lunch here last week. I made a reservation by phone and replied politely by Erna ( if I am not mistaken ). I said that prefer had a quite table and she offered to reserve two tables for us ( one indoor and one outdoor ) so we can choose when we came. Very nice gesture from her,it is beyond my expectation. We came 10 minutes late from the reservation,however I did call to inform if we might be late. We greet nicely by them and showing our tables,which is our son decide to have table inside. We got corner table. As it is almost Christmas, their decoration mostly in red and green, which is nice. We have the menu and they offer many options and honestly it takes time for me to choose 😋. Should I choose canneloni, gnocchi, spinach fettucini,or pizzas. Their menus are too die for Finally we had large meat lovers pasta,tortelinni quattro formaggi and canneloni spinach ricotta ☺. And those dishes are molte buone 👍👍👍. The canneloni blended perfectly between spinach,the sauce and cheese. My husband as cheese lovers said the tortelinni is great and light and my son love his pizza and ask the half of it to take away ☺. Unfortunately we don't have space for dessert 😒. Overall we are very satisfied with the food and will be back for sure to try another menu and desserts. Grazie per il cibo delizioso...

I ordered 3 different items at 3 different occasions (all takeaways) to see the hype with this so called authentic Italian restaurant in TikTok and pretty much food review accs in IG. So far I gotta say the items I've tried are pretty much "mid" in taste.

The Regina Margherita pizza is the most acceptable one so far, but it still doesn't come with fresh basil, which is sad because their competitors offered similarly priced pizza with fresh basil.

The Fettuccine Black Truffle is not bad. It's very well cooked (al dente), but I'm not really getting the black truffle taste. It taste like ordinary, but less cheesy Alfredo.

The Lasagna di Carne is the most disappointing dish so far. I don't understand why it's their best seller. It's very overcooked and nothing much going on with the sauce. I think there's not enough béchamel to balance the sour Bolognese sauce. The meat used in the Bolognese sauce feels like ordinary canned beef corned instead of freshly ground beef.

That being said, there's so many other dishes I haven't tried yet from this restaurant, but the ones I've ordered supposed to be the safest options for any Italian restaurant, and since they're pretty "mid", I'm not sure about trying...