Trattoria Romana & Bar Sorana — Restaurant in Boca Raton

We have been patrons of Trattoria Romana for many years, and the food and service never cease to be anything but amazing!!! Unfortunately for me, I am highly allergic to shellfish because the night we were there the specials were an unbelievable seafood platter that was a beautiful display of lobster, shrimp, scallops, mussels and calamari (the table next to us had ordered it and I was almost thinking it was worth my 2 epi-pens it looked so scrumptious! Only, my epi-pens may not do the trick and I didn't feel like it was worth the trip to the hospital, too, lol!) The other amazing special was two New England lobsters also ordered by the table directly next to us (must've been non-native Floridian's, lol) but it also looked simply amazing! One thing I always look forward to at Trattoria Romana is the tomato and bruchetta-like breads they serve as complimentary appetizers. So yummy! There's just no way you can go home hungry after dining here! Our server, Anika, was delightful, knowledgeable, and very quick! My boyfriend is a commercial fisherman, so he's always compelled to ask to ask very specific questions in regards to any seafood that is mentioned on the menu. I ordered the Chilean Sea Bass special and par for the course, he asked Anika some questions, and she answered correctly and quickly! My dinner was amazing! The portions are HUGE! Do not underestimate what you're able to eat! Trattoria Romana may be expensive but with the exception of seafood which I don't feel is something I want to reheat the next day, everything else on the menu would definitely be worth bringing home in a "doggie-bag" for a bonus second meal 😋! My boyfriend ordered the lamb chops, which he said were amazing (I am a pescatarian, so I couldn't tell you personally). My mother, who lives across the street from Trattoria Romana and used to eat there and go to the bar weekly in her younger days, was eating light and ordered the Eggplant bake appetizer as her dinner. This portion was actually bigger than most dinner sized portions at most other restaurants of the caliber of Trattoria Romana! It was also delicious! The only drawback of Trattoria Romana (and this is NOT the fault of the restaurant itself) is if you decide to eat outside, which we did as the weather was unseasonably cool and breezy, you are sitting right on the busy corner of Palmetto Park Rd. and Fifth Ave. (God help you if it's rush hour and the bridge goes up, which it does every 30 minutes whether there are boats or not!) So, do take that into consideration if anyone in your party is hard of hearing or you simply want a quiet dinner. Inside does have some areas of quiet seating, but I would suggest calling ahead and making reservations and specifically asking for a quiet area and NOT booking through Open Table. The plus side of this, though is there's great people watching in this area if you're like me and enjoy that type of thing! Another important thing to note about Trattoria Romana is their incredible valet parking service! There is NO street parking available unless you are extremely lucky and willing to walk quite a bit. It's just much easier to take advantage of their complimentary valet parking services. Trattoria Romana is ALWAYS a mainstay for me and my family. I definitely recommend it to ANYONE and I hope that it becomes a mainstay for theirs. I have beautiful memories with family members who are no longer with me, being at Trattoria Romana. These days, it takes something very special for a restaurant to stay in business year after year. Trattoria Romana does this constantly! If you're not into splurging on dinner then just go to the bar one evening. I promise once you do and see the food coming out of the kitchen you won't be able to resist coming back for a sit down meal! Thank you so much, Trattoria Romana for another great dinner and to our awesome server, Anika, thanks for rocking it and impressing my boyfriend because that means I get another...

STAY AWAY, FAKE ITALIAN RESTAURANT AND FOOD! If I could give 0 stars, I would. Fuhgeddaboudit!!!! The staff was so rude and arrogant. My wife made dinner reservations for our anniversary, even notating our special occasion. Upon checking in, we were greeted emotionless by the hostess and another gentleman who appeared to be a restaurant manager. The gentleman could not find our anniversary reservation in their system. He was so rude and unapologetic. He kept staring at his computer screen as if he was doing us a favor to find us a table. We almost walked out right then and there... turns out we should have. After some awkward silence, he told us to follow the hostess. She brought us to a table outside. We were served two pieces of stale bread, thin breadsticks that tasted like they were from DollarTree, and two pieces of soggy toast under a mountain of diced tomatoes. Very unappetizing, not to mention sitting next to a highway as cars are flying by. The smell of the cars exhaust had more flavor than the bread. We ordered a stuffed meatball appetizer, which was pretty soggy and with an overwhelming amount of sauce that it was drowned it. I had chicken parm with pasta. My dish was edible, pretty average. I've been to dozens of Italian restaurants... this portion for the price was significantly smaller than other local places. My wife ordered an Italian chicken and sausage dish. Her sides were frozen broccoli, frozen carrots, and instant mashed potatoes! Yes, mashed potatoes in an ITALIAN restaurant! I've never heard of such a thing! Her dish was disgusting. Her sausages were not Italian sausages; rather they were these thin short breakfast-style sausages that you'd get with your Dennys Grandslam Breakfast. The chicken was extremely dry. We were in such disbelief about the sausages, we were curious enough to engage and ask the waiter. We were told the restaurant doesn't even make their own food, they get it from somewhere and then just cook it. Sounds like an unauthentic and fake Italian place to me. I expressed to the waiter I've never seen breakfast-style sausages served in an Italian dinner plate. The waiter rudly kept speaking over me expressing how delicious he thought they were. The waiter then was patronizing me by asking me if I found them delicious. I expressed my disappointment and dissatisfaction calling them disgusting. Waiter rudly made jokes that I guess they imported them from Italy but he's polish so it was good to him. I guess that was a dig to me being Italian since they weren't up to my expectation. Never in a million years should a waiter speak over a customer. It was just flat out rude. The restaurant never even acknowledged our anniversary or anything. Just a terrible special occasion experience. We paid and then finally my wife and I got up and left to get our car from valet. The valet drivers were prioritizing customers with Bentleys and luxury cars over mine. After I handed my valet ticket to them, another 4-5 people handed their ticket to them. Those 4-5 people got their cars before mine since they were all driving luxury high end cars. (WELCOME TO BOCA). I went over and asked the valet where's my car. The valet driver didn't even lift his head to acknowledge me. I kept talking to him expressing that I noticed people behind me got their cars already and I'm still waiting for mine. The valet driver rudly said "5 more minutes" and didn't even make eye contact with me. What is going on with this place? It just shows you..... the rudeness and unprofessionalism starts at the top and goes all the way down to every employee in this establishment. I'd avoid this place at all costs. I have no idea why this restaurant is as popular as it is. Rude employees and average to below average food.... I highly recommend that you make reservations elsewhere!...

Great bread!! lets start at the beginning. not an olive put on the table! Nicolas the waiter a pleasure from Transylvania ...uh I mean yes Transylvania a real vampire was the consummate professional waiter with the heavy accent exactly what I want when going for Italian food! The" back room" is ugly and depressing not like the rest of the layout. Décor is horrible back there once filled with people it became a little more festive but still a bleak feeling room. The party I was with was a pasta and cheese crowd so....we hade pastas maybe this restaurant is better suited for the osso buco, rib, beef shank crowd, IDK? The specials sounded luscious but when no prices mentioned, this scares me right away. Again they all sounded great. Waiters brought bowls to table again lots of pasta dishes I saw the assisting waiter with his thumb inside the bowl as he served! I have managed restaurants before I blame this on the training, management and the Flor-ah-duh state itself! A huge, HUGE NO-NO for me!!! next the antipasto mozzarella and garlic breads are delicious, like desserts the assorted cheeses too delicious. The pasta dishes good not great. I had my staple Linguini vongole, the little neck clams with linguini, I had one bad little clam it tasted like, well you don't want to know. It was ejected out of my mouth like a bullet needless to say. the dishes just not very authentic, probably due to all Latin's in the kitchen. The cannoli one of the worst I have ever tasted just terrible. Ninos of Delray and Mama Mias of Boynton Beach both have a better cannoli sadly to say they should be ashamed of themselves. Italian cookies put on table little donut looking things with spice or pepper in them were tasty. Excellent espresso. But c'mon Mangiannos Boca has all this and more. overall I was not impressed. I'm Italian and have frequented Angelo's in Manhattan all my life, this can't even compare. Pricey and great crowds, lots of noise but again, the back room, dismal and the...