Sam's La Roma Pizza House — Restaurant in Geneseo

Sam’s La Roma Pizza House 103 E. Exchange St. Geneseo IL 61254

It was a rainy Sunday evening and I had originally planned to go to another pizza restaurant and realized they were closed on Sundays. Then I chose another and they too were closed on Sundays. Then finally it appeared that Sam’s La Roma was open, but just to make sure I called and the first impression I got from the phone call was “rude”. I thought to myself that’s OK I like rude old school Italians, I grew up around a lot of them and worked for a few. That adds character in my opinion and I rationalized the food is gonna be good!

We arrived around 6ish and there weren’t many people there. Maybe because it was a cool, rainy Sunday evening, I don’t know. The place is rather large and they had a whole dining room area not being used. I believe the place has been here awhile by the musty smell and all. The waitress was nice, however slightly incompetent, but that was OK. We ordered Cheesy Garlic Breads with Marinara and a large Pizza, pepperoni on the whole pizza with one half sausage and the other half black olives. We repeated that order multiple times.

The cheesy garlic breads were fine, it was that dreadful marinara concoction however that was abysmal. It was a sugary tomato sauce that in no way resembles marinara other than color. The pizza was cooked fine. I believe, but cannot prove at this point, that the crust is frozen. If it is not then they have the amazing ability to make a crust so bad that you would surmise it to be of the frozen variety. The sauce was again abysmal. I do not like the sugary crap Italian red sauces some places seem to serve. There is no complexity of herbs and spices to give that fresh ahhh reaction to it. The Italian Sausage was of the fake, crumbled pour it out of a vacuum sealed bag non-sense.

According To The Big Food Jerk.

I do not like Sam’s La Roma and would not recommend them. I believe they probably have a dwindling following that will shrivel with time and send them to the waste land of bad pizza joints....

Order two orders of tacos and one cheese fry. Told 15 mins and when we got there and called said it would be another 15mins which is fine we waited, but when we got our food the tacos were cold and the cheese fry was cold not even melted just shredded cheese thrown on top of fries. I called and asked for a refund and they told me I’d have to return the food after I was already home to get any money back. Needless to say awful service awful food and awful atmosphere. Treated like it was my fault for the cold food. And...

This was one of the best Pizza Places that I have had in a very long time. Even though they can only do carry out right now because of a lack of help. That did not even matter it was so good. The deep fried mushrooms tasted like they are fresh breaded and where these best breaded mushrooms I have had in a very very long time! I cannot talk higher if this place. Even as left overs or cold pizza which I am not a fan of, La Roma's pizza...