Romeo & Juliet’s Caffè & Bakery — Restaurant in Buffalo

The first sign this restaurant may have some quality issues came before our main order was served, it started with the bread provided to snack on while waiting. It wasn't your typical warm, fresh, robust bread you'd expect from an italian restaurant selling plates at ~$20 per. It was the kind of bread you get for 3 dollars at TOPS, the kind with the italian covering on it that has all the flavor pushes out to make way for preservatives and stabilizers. While it wasn't the same loaf, it was about that quality. Bad bread was only an ominous warning for the meal to come.

Starting with the margherita- I was surprised, but not disappointed to see that it wasn't the style of margherita that's common to see in restaurants in the states- a generous layer of very fresh and light sauce with globs of mozzarella scattered over, a light layer of basil blanketing for good measure. This was margherita in the vein of your run of the mill cheese pizza- shredded mozzarella over thin crust. Unfortunately, this is where the disappointment begins for the pizza. With an underproofed, flat, and bland crust that was sorely missing the typical chew and flavor you'd get from most pizza places in Buffalo, the very base of this pizza was doomed the moment they prematurely called upon it to support the equally lackluster ingredients it'd be topped with. None of the typical rippling, bubbling, and browning you'd get with a well-baked, well proofed crust. You instead get a flat, dense, brittle crust. No bite, no spongyness, no chew. Imagine eating an unsalted, semi-soft cracker. You can see in the picture that the dough is perfectly smooth and unbothered, like a soft face that never matured to it's full potential.

It's almost to it's benefit, though, that there was the barest, scant layer of sauce dribbled over it. Any more than the imperceptible dusting applied would likely cause the millimeters- thick dough to sog through completely. I guess they avoid that by adding roughly a teaspoon of sauce to cover the whole pie. The only reason I was tipped off to the fact that there was any sauce at all was that it was peeking out from under the layer of cheese at the very edges.

Was the sauce fresh, was it sweet? I couldn't tell you, because there wasn't much sauce to be tasted. Any morsels and drops that may have clung to the bone-dry, flaccid dough were unfortunately completely buried under an all-too thick, all-too salty cheese layer. Unfortunately unbalanced, salty, and dry, it reminds me of my first time making a pizza from scratch. I saw a mirror of my amateur ability in the pizza as I ate, as though it was made with the same short-minded hacks and tricks that I used- though, unfortunately, drowning something that doesn't taste good in cheese will not make it taste better.

The basil put up a good fight, but it, too, succumbed to the oppressive salt content of low quality mozz, the last vapors of any liquid from the leaves drifting away like my hopes that I'd be eating a small pizza worth 18 dollars.

The pasta special- a 22 dollar entree of orecchiette, rabe, cherry tomato, red pepper flakes, and olive oil- was sadly not even worth boxing to save for the hungry all-nighter that'd cap off my night. The heartbreak starts with the aforementioned ingredients, because there was not a drop of olive oil to be found on the pasta. As first glance, the pool of liquid the pasta was soaking in may seem like oil, but it was actually unseasoned water, presumably from the unsalted pasta and vegetables. I'd like to give the benefit of the doubt and assume that the cook merely forgot salt, oil, and that they still had the pasta on the boil. It at least seems that way, given the mush of the pasta as I begrudgingly teased a few bites down. I choked down about a third before tapping out. Leftovers were not kept.

'Best of 2006' proclaimed two plaques on the wall infront of me. Perhaps 2006 is where this restaurant should have stayed. It certainly has no business charging so much...

You know, I used to love this place and rave about it and order weekly in person and during the week for lunch as well. Last time I ordered the pizza was awful and the manager Shannon was extremely rude- which surprised me because everyone there is usually very friendly.

Today I wanted to give them another try- everyone has an off day. So, I order on UberEats and the pizza tastes as terrible as it looks. The basil is definitely not kept fresh - grow it and cook with it all the time and it’s obvious that it’s been sitting around. It’s overcooked, somehow not cooked all the way in the center, and there is just this off-flavor that I can’t place. I don’t know if the vegetables are just not fresh or if due to prices they’re lowering their quality. Whatever it is, my relationship of years with this place is over. I’m not spending my hard earned money for terrible food - and they should and do know better.

From my previous experience they do not care about feedback and as I said earlier, that manager Shannon is extremely rude and could use training in customer service and general respect for others. They obviously also don’t care because notice that they do not comment on the negative reviews here to express apologies or offer to make it right somehow.

I’m just thankful that UberEats refunded me for this order after seeing the photos - because the rest of it is going straight to the trash where it belongs. What a sad and...

I had a horrible experience. I'm sure it's not like this all the time, but it is worth telling the story.

I went for a late lunch. I ordered a coffee and dessert first, as is my tradition. Then I ordered a caprese salad and a pizza with a bunch of stuff on it.

The pistachio cake and coffee were the best part, but the pistachio cake tasted like artificial flavors.

The Caprese Salad arrived on so much lettuce it was unmanagable, and not at all what I was expecting... which was mozzerella, tomoto, basil and balsamic drizzle... nope, none of that...just a gigantic pile of mixed greens, a couple slices of mozzerella and a few slices of tomato...

Then, to top it all off, the pizza I ordered was burnt, literally falling apart and inedible.

When I complained to my waitress and wanted her to take the pizza off the final bill, she was told by the owner that it would come out of her paycheck. To which I told the owner where he could stick it.

TERRIBLE FOOD. TERRIBLE SERVICE. TERRIBLE OWNER.

With all of that said, I do enjoy some of their baked goods but I haven't been back since I had this...