Aromi Italian Cuisine — Restaurant in La Mesa

I recently had the opportunity to dine at Aromi Italian restaurant, and I have to say, my experience left much to be desired.

*Food: We started with the Burrata Bruschetta on toast, which was drizzled with a honey glaze. The combination of flavors was pleasant enough, with the honey adding a nice touch of sweetness. The balsamic vinegar, in particular, was quite impressive—it had a rich, robust flavor that complemented the dish well. However, this was one of the few highlights of the meal.

Moving on to the Pollo Arrosto, I was quite disappointed. The chicken was unfortunately very dry and lacked any real juiciness or flavor that you would expect from a well-prepared roasted chicken. To make matters worse, the dish came with fries that were reminiscent of something you'd find at Denny's, rather than the roasted potatoes I had anticipated. The chicken was served cold, leading me to believe it had been cooked much earlier and left under a subpar heat lamp, losing both its warmth and appeal.

The Gnocchi Sorrentina in red sauce was perhaps the most redeeming dish of the night, but even that fell short of expectations. The red sauce was flavorful enough, but the gnocchi itself was just average—nothing to write home about. We decided to add shrimp to the dish for an extra $7, expecting a decent portion. To our surprise, we received exactly seven shrimp, which seemed a bit skimpy considering the additional cost.

*Service: The service at Aromi left a lot to be desired as well. Our waiter was noticeably inattentive, which made the dining experience even more frustrating. We waited an unreasonably long time for our drinks to arrive, which set a poor tone for the rest of the meal. Additionally, the interior of the restaurant was incredibly loud, with big echoes bouncing off the walls. The noise level was so high that I could barely hear my date sitting right across from me, and when our waiter attempted to tell us about the specials, his voice was completely drowned out by the background noise. It made for an uncomfortable and unenjoyable dining atmosphere.

*Price: Now, let’s talk about the price. For the quality of food and service we received, the bill was shockingly high. The total came to $93 for one appetizer, one pasta dish, and one chicken entrée. Mind you, we split all three plates, and there was no alcohol included in that total. I've had far superior Italian meals elsewhere for much less, and those meals included drinks. The value for money at Aromi was simply not there.

In conclusion, when I evaluate a restaurant, I always ask myself if it’s a place I would return to. Unfortunately, Aromi failed to impress on almost every front. The food was mediocre at best, the service was lacking, and the prices were exorbitant for what was delivered. This will undoubtedly be my last visit to Aromi, as I believe there are much better options available for anyone seeking a satisfying...

We really wanted to like Aromi. We called within an hour of arriving and were thankful to have secured a reservation for two. They also have an awesome pre-fixe "date night" special for $59, but since it was San Diego Restaurant Week, we opted to order from that menu knowing we could return another evening and try their date night special. We ordered their Arancini and Fungo Ripieno for our appetizers. The Arancini ball was tasty but the tomato sauce honestly tasted like the sauce from a Ragu Spaghetti O's can. The Mushroom appetizer was loved by both my wife and I. We highly recommend the Mushroom appetizer! My wife ordered their Cheese Wheel Pasta (it was an additional $5 on top of their $37/per person pre-fixe menu). It was a large fettuccine pasta served with square sausage cubes and mushrooms in a white cream sauce. It was delicious but heavy. After 3 bites, it already felt filling. I ordered the Eggplant Parmesan and for a baked dish served out of the oven, temperature-wise, it wasn't served hot enough and was on the low temperature side of warm. It also was quite small, as I've had shareable crème brûlée dish the size of my eggplant parm entree. The chosen Limoncello cake & cannoli desserts were okay, nothing to brag about but they weren't bad either. As far as our service, we had to ask for their house bread as it wasn't offered, and upon getting the basket of bread, it was received cold. When I asked for my coke, it took quite a while to have it brought to the table. I honestly was about to tell our server to forget about bringing me one, but it came to the table at the time I was going to cancel my order. We don't know if Restaurant Week had overwhelmed the wait staff and kitchen because prior Yelp reviews really rave about this neighborhood Italian restaurant. They have a nice outdoor patio which might be great during the warmer months, as well as a nice private dining table for 8-10 separate from their main dining area which would be lovely for a medium sized group or special occasion. We may try Aromi again for their date night special after Restaurant Week is over... It was slightly disappointing but it may very well have been...

How do you rate a place you will never try again? A single star seems too generous! We planned to try a new (to us) Italian restaurant for a family dinner tonight. We called early afternoon for reservations for a party of 7 at 6 PM. We arrived on time, but they were unaware of our reservation and had no table set up. Luckily, there was an available table big enough which had to be cleared first (they were not expecting us).

After perusing the menu and placing our order, we were advised (after waiting 15 minutes after placing our order) that one of the dishes I ordered was not available (eggplant Parmesan)—the one menu item I checked for on their website to decide whether to try the restaurant. There was nothing else on the menu that interested me (they didn’t even serve pizza!). So i decided just to stay with the salad which I had already ordered and eat that with the rest of the family when their food arrived.

Since there was a pizzeria literally next door (owned by the same owners as Aromi)—Pizza by Aromi. I went there and ordered a $23 12” mushroom and Italian sausage pizza from there and took it back to Aromi to join my family. But we were told by the owner of both establishments that was not allowed! The rest of the family could stay. I could stay, but just could not eat their pizza at the same table inside their restaurant. In my opinion that prohibition was absurd! It was their pizza, purchased from them, but I was not allowed to enjoy it with the rest of the family with the salad that I ordered!

50 minutes after we arrived, the food we ordered had not yet arrived, so we elected to leave to dine elsewhere at a more hospitable place. We took my pizza which was already paid for (but would have preferred a Costco pizza)!

We were willing to give them a try. We did. We were disappointed. If the quality of their dine-in food was like their take-out pizza, it wouldn’t be worth their expensive prices! Needless to say, we are one family that will...