Roma — Restaurant in Houston

Food - 5, service - 4.5, Value- 5

Wow. I think I just found my favorite Italian restaurant in Houston. This little gem serves homemade pasta and burrata (sooo good!), Shannon (the owner) is so passionate about Italian food, he only hires Italian chefs that makes traditional flavors. If you're looking for American Italian with a bunch of toppings/different flavors in each dish, this is not the place - they serve simple, traditional flavors that celebrates and focuses on the main ingredient.

I was lucky to meet the owner during their FREE Italian wine tasting (only Tues at 6pm) - this is not your typical free wine - he actually took the time to research the history of each wine, region it's from, let you savour it and share stories that led him to each wine. We tried 3 Italian wines that are not typical brands you'll find at the supermarket, I liked 2 of 3 wines and got to meet interesting couples at this event.

We also tried HRW, can't believe their 3 course meal is an appetizer, pasta and meat entree (such a good value), here are the highlights:

The caprese salad - they pull their own burrata, it's so soft and gooey, you don't even need balsamic vinegar because the flavor of the basil and tomatoes from the owner's backyard is so sweet and flavorful.

Bolognese - flavorful, pasta was done just right, so good that I forgot to take a picture.

Smoked Gouda gnocchi with saffron - strong smoked Gouda flavor, gnocchi was fluffy, definitely unique

Beef short ribs - rustic, slow cooked, meat fell off the bones, I don't even have to use a knife

Limoncello tart - owner makes his own limoncello, pretty good, not too strong

Improvements: 4.5 for service because the waiter doesn't seem to elaborate much on the menu like the owner, it might be a language barrier as the waiter is Italian. However, I do think that customers would appreciate the food more (and get more business) if the waiter can explain more to them Once the restaurant got packed, it was very hard to hear the person next to you because the noise was bouncing off the walls (too spacious), maybe they can put tapestries on the walls to help absorb the noise

Can't wait to go back and try...

Looked like a really nice restaurant. Had been there when the place was called Sud Italia, and remembered the food being great.. Roma is more of a terribly executed wanna be fine dining experience. The service was lacking in every aspect. Waited for water, no tables were set, took plates away without asking if we were done, brought some bread with olive oil AFTER we finished eating our main courses (why bring it at all at this point, I'd feel humiliated if I was the server), no one asked if we liked our food (probably because they saw we didn't). Our dishes came out after 5 minutes of ordering them. You could tell why with a sticky and almost hard spaghetti in a carbonara sauce that was separating. Probably pre made and certainly not fresh. Not worth the expensive price. Oh and the octopus salad? Barbarically chopped salad, with sliced potatoes and sliced octopus, covered in olive oil for a modest extra $20. The plating was unimpressive, and really sad way of using ingredients, or wasting good ingredients at that point. Honestly if the price was lower than it was, it would be an expected quality, but the food is pricy while not being all that good. Find it sad. This restaurant has for only asset the pretty spot. Still what I find the most ridiculous about the place is how pretentious they aim to be, with nothing to back this. D'amicos and Copa Osteria down the street actually make good food, I'd think with this competition the effort would be greater to make something good and that could compete with these restaurants. Obviously Roma seems to be desperate for business given that they offer you a free bottle of prosecco with your meal if you come back. Just give me the bottle though, it probably is the only good thing on that menu since you didn't make it, and doubt anyone would come back, even for a free bottle. Management has work to do, from service to menu. Also if you're going to be fine dining and charge us that much owe us the respect of serving FRESH food, not pre made batches.

ANSWER TO OWNER: how is your food this terrible then? That covers the food, how about the pretentiously...

Houston Restaurant Week 2016 PROS: (1) Parking is bad so they have valet parking available for only $5. (2) Charming patio and intimate dining room (3) nice menu selection (5) salmon and arugula salad was beautiful and delicious, (6) wine selection was nice and the owner (Shannon Scott) helped me pick a delicious red in our specified price range. (7) The busboys did a great job clearing plates and filling bread and water promptly.

CONS: (1) We had a language barrier with our waitress, which strangely made her more impatient with us than we were with her, (2) a busboy accidentally got a stain on the owner's (Shannon) jacket - that's not unusual because he works in a restaurant and that stuff happens from time to time. However, Shannon scolded him on the floor and told him he was going to clean his jacket. He could have handled that better and privately. (3) All three of us ordered the 5oz fillet. While they were all perfectly prepared to medium rare, all three had an overpowering charred flavor. I delicately asked Shannon if that was the intended flavor - he confirmed with the chef that it was normal, which means the grill was probably dirty. Two of us got fish instead, which was only okay - nothing special. The third person lost her appetite and didn't get an entree. (4) When the check came, we expected one of the entrees to be removed and an argument ensued between my guest and Shannon that resulted in Shannon telling my guest she was rude. I thought that was over the top and he should have been better composed as the business owner, especially since our evening was disrupted by poor execution from his waiter and kitchen.

UPDATED ON 8/20/2016 The owner Shannon Scott has been stalking me on Facebook the past month with repeated Facebook messages and friend requests. I'm lowering the review from two stars down to one star because of the threatening and harassing nature of his messages and attempts to intimidate me. If he continues to harass me, I'll follow up with legal action. At this point I can not recommend this...