Roboli Ristorante Italiano — Restaurant in Boca Raton

My 16 year old, who has a better developed palate than I, and just finished his first culinary class, also has a love of well prepared food. His favorite dishes are Italian and after reading reviews on Google, I wanted to treat the both of us to an authentic Italian meal. As dining out is an actual treat, something we haven't done in a year, I had high hopes. I cook at home, a LOT. I can tell when things are rushed or steps skipped. On to the experience: At around 4:30 on Saturday, we were the first to be seated in comfortable booths in the small, but tastefully decorated restaurant. Lots of dark paneling didn't create a dark atmosphere at that time of day with the large front sunny windows and small unobtrusive hanging light in the booth. The menu is extensive with everything from mussels to shrimp scampi to eggplant parmigiana to baked ziti or spaghetti and meatballs! First, there was a choice of bread or garlic rolls; for us, it was a no-brainer, and the bread was amazing! The garlic and oil---YUM. Warning, though. Don't fill up here! With our meals, five cheese ravioli with tomato basil sauce and baked ziti with ricotta and marinara, we were offered soup or salad. My son got the tomato basil with cream and I got the house salad. My son said his was good but something tasted "off." When I tried it, I found that it may have curdled a bit; meaning that it was probably prepared a little rushed (cream and tomato not brought to same temperature before being mixed or not slowly adding tomato to a warm milk, or accidentally brought to a boil, perhaps needing more starch to stabilize the amount of acid, or the restaurant was using a whole milk rather than straight cream (cream is not likely to curdle...). It's still safe to eat, just not as appetizing. Most people wouldn't even have NOTICED as it was very slight. I still thought it tasted good but my son couldn't finish it. The salad was a fresh mix of romaine with bits of carrots and cabbage, a slice of cucumber and a slice of tomato. Fresh, crisp and accompanied by a house vinaigrette that I preferred because it was pleasantly sweet but not too sweet and followed the garlic roll well in cleansing the palate. Then the main dishes were brought out. They looked like two family sized plates! My son adored his ravioli and the baked ziti was perfectly done. At this juncture, a few bites into our meals our server came over.(Were we even eating? Or was it a food meditation of sorts at that point?) Poor Justin...I THINK he came to ask how we were enjoying everything....I was a bit annoyed at the distraction from the experience and I hope it didn't show. I remember saying something positive....My 16 year old finished 2/3 of his plate. A kid who eats 2 MEALS at most restaurants. I finished about 1/4. We boxed that right up....and ordered dessert. Why? Because it's a TREAT today and my son has never had cannoli. A terrific dessert, especially for those who don't like too sweet desserts. Rich but not heavy...creamy and so smooth in a flaky firm pastry. These were PERFECT. As for Justin, he's an intelligent and attentive young gentleman who made sure our first experience dining at Roboli's won't be our last! Thank you.

P.S.- Next time I will take pictures. We were enjoying the food too much to...

I would give zero stars but you have to give at least one. My first time ordering from them. I called and a young girl answered and I first had questions to do with what I wanted to order. First was no cheese on my pizza pie as I am allergic to cheese and she said no problem. I was getting the vegetarian pizza pie and asked if instead of broccoli could I get green peppers. She never said there would be a $2.99 charge extra. When I called back and asked why the price, she only mentioned the delivery charge and tax. I said it does not add up to what you charged my credit card. She said hold on and came back and said she asked her boss and there is a $2.99 charge for the green peppers but I said to her why did she not tell me since I am a first-time customer and asked her originally these questions and why would I take off the broccoli then if I was being charged for green peppers I did not even need. She said the pizza pie was en route to my home and there was nothing she could do. So, I said you say you told your boss and your boss could not get on the phone and at least credit my charge the $2.99 since it was your mistake. Well, there was nothing I could do and the delivery guy brought my pizza and I tipped him since it was not his fault. But when I opened the pizza box, there was no eggplant on the pizza like they advertised, the mushrooms were totally burnt and inedible and all that was really on the smallest pie ever was tomatoes and onions and some green peppers. They charged me $20.16 for this. I will never call them again and hope no one else gets service this badly. So I saved them money on having no cheese, did not get the eggplant, the mushrooms were totally burnt, no broccoli but was charged $2.99 extra for nothing when the girl who answered and takes the orders should have explained but said she did not know when I called back. And the boss she spoke to...

We have been customers for many years and need to express a number of disappointments with the loss of quality of service - particularly from a hostess/waitress - a middle-aged lady with dark brown ponytail hair. We are vegetarians and asked the waitress to confirm if their soup was without meat - she confirmed that the soup had no meat. But when the soup came, we found there were a lot of bacon in them. When we complained, she was trying to "make it like bacon were veggies" without realizing it caused one of our throats to swell (allergic reaction). We tried to be patient and as a result, the same waitress started unprofessionally doing sadistic mockery of pranking us by giving us someone else' food (in a way of saying these are for you and then saying "ha ha" these are for someone else - exhibiting horrendous display of immaturity and creating nothing but discomfort among us two. Even more, the same waitress would come back and inappropriately asked why or how one of us would eat with lipstick on, even asked me this: "How can you eat with so much lipstick on?" - these number of shocking mistreatment / misconduct by this person is beyond belief. The food has always been favorable but all the bullying and unprofessional acts by this person ruined our experience. What good is it when food is good but along with mistreatment from staff? Because of what happened, we will never feel comfortable going back there. The management at Roboli's should learn from how respectful and professional waitstaff are at Villagio (Mizner Park), Mario's Osteria (University Commons),...