Rose Marie's — Restaurant in Bloomsburg

Stumbled upon this place after the monsoon Central PA was experiencing cancelled our plans for a day at Knoebels. Eight of us (4 adults and 4 kids) waded in around 7 PM on a Monday to a largely empty restaurant, only two other tables were occupied along with a few people sitting at the bar. The server quickly pushed together a few tables for us and had us seated. First surprise was the menu. It was definitely extensive, about 10 pages, and that didn't include the respectable wine list or anything from the bar. It ran the gamut from pizzas and sandwiches to traditional Italian dishes. There were also separate kids menus with six or seven choices. All the kids went with bowtie pasta, three of them asked for light butter and the last with traditional tomato sauce. Serving size was respectable for kids meals, as was the flavor. All four adults ordered entrees which came with either soup or salad. I went with the Cesar salad, and it was a mistake. There wasn't anything wrong with it, to the contrary it was rather good, it's just that the other options were SO much better. One member of the party got a delicious vegetable crab soup, but the star of the first course were the house salads, which were absolutely wonderful. Flatbread garlic bread came out along with the first course, and it was interesting. It drew mixed reviews, with two of the adults raving over it and two disappointed. Entrees were the Gnocchi Ala Genovese, Seafood Lasagna, Linguini with Meatballs and Chicken Florentine Cannelloni. Both the gnocchi & linguini were quite good. The sauce was nicely seasoned and full of fresh tomato, exactly what you'd expect to find from a solid Italian eatery. The seafood lasagna was delicious, with a surprising amount of seafood for the $20 price tag. The blue ribbon dish of the evening was the cannelloni, or the "Italian Burrito" as my wife calls it. It was dense and packed with a delicious filling of grilled chicken, bacon, spinach and ricotta cheese, then topped with cheese and a cream sauce and baked. I felt like I needed to take a precautionary Lipitor just from tasting it, but great googly moogly it was good. Total price for our party came out to under $160, and all of the adults had an alcoholic drink, so to say that prices are reasonable is an understatement. Rosa Marie's is a legitimate, old-school red-sauce Italian joint. It would hold its own in my area that is chock full of similar places. In the Bloomsburg area, it is far and away the best Italian...

I did not have to chance to actually eat at this establishment. We just got into town and was looking for some Italian food. Rose Marie's came up with a very favorable reviews. So we decided let's go for dinner. It is not on the main drag but down and alley which took a little bit of investigating and my mom does not have the easiest time walking around anymore.

It was unclear which was the main entrance and we ended up going through the wrong door. I server greeted us and asked if we had a reservation and was looking us up and down. Mind you nothing said that this place was a "fine" dining place. We didn't look horrible mind you. She asked if we had reservations and I stated we didn't. She said, Oh and that there would be no seating until at least 7:30pm if we could wait that long. She did not look at a book to verify reservations. I stated we couldn't and she rattled off a few other places on where to eat and she was acting like we knew where these places were. Then she stated that they were cheaper. I felt insulted at this point and we left.

We walked along the Main Street trying to find something else. We started talking with a local about where is some good Italian and guess who he suggested, Rose Marie's. He was ready to take us there; when I told him that we just came from there and that they didn't have any availability. He thought that was a little strange. So we ended up going to Bella Luna.

I guess, if you decide to try Rose Marie's call ahead and verify availability and ensure to wear...

SUMMARY - Refused to finish our meals - the only thing we will ever order again is the pizza (and that we will order for sure. The restaurant would give it a 1-2 stars for all other food, but the pizza would be a 4-5 so i gave a 3 star). Staff were polite and no doubt wonderful people. A place a home-body might go for the sake of local tradition, but not somewhere I’d take an interviewee or to impress on a date night.

We tried a pepperoni pizza, salmon with risotto, stuffed noodles with chicken/various cheeses, and the banana cake.

The pizza had a great crisp edge with a nice chewy texture, basil-hinted sauce with a fresh springy mozzarella, and subtlety spicy without overwhelming salty pepperoni (a lot of local pizzerias have pepperoni that’s way over salty) lending to a very pleasant and perhaps one of the best pizza experiences in the region (just be realistic and realize this isn’t NYC, Chicago, or Detroit).

All of the other presentations were awesome - but the eyes otherwise deceived the tongue! All 4 of us felt the same - The salmon was overpoweringly “fishy” and the first and only bite went out much faster than it went in. The risotto was fine but couldn’t redeem the quality of the fish. The stuffed shells tasted like something made with canned chicken and shredded cheese. Bland salty, boiled chicken with a ton of cheese. The banana cake was certainly fine but no more special than the box mix from any...