Roma — Restaurant in Laurens

We just moved to Laurens and Roma has quickly become a favorite spot. The food is great. I love the Chicken Parmesan. My husband loves the lasagna. Their pizza is the best. The crust is perfection. My only complaint would be to not be stingy with the garlic bread. Usually a restaurant will bring bread to the table with salad. You will only get one piece each of garlic bread and not until your dinner comes.

Update: Do yourself a favor and never order the Chicken Piccata. It was honestly the worst chicken piccata I have ever tasted. I don’t know how they did it. The chicken was in a bath of pure lemon juice and yet it was completely over cooked and dry. The lemon was so strong. I’ve had some really good chicken piccata. This was not. I’m just letting you know because it is really disappointing to go out and spend $50 for dinner and then have to go home and make yourself a sandwich because you couldn’t eat it.

I’ve eaten at Roma’s many times. Everything else was good, which is probably why I wasn’t afraid to try something different. You know how when you go somewhere and you order the same thing every time because you know it’s good and you won’t be disappointed. Well…. Just stay away from the piccata and you should be fine. Their pizza...

I have good news and bad news; the good news is we have some great places to eat in Laurens. The bad news is Roma is not one of them. Front of house management exists but you couldn't prove it in court. The servers seem inexperienced. Long wait times between table visits, multiple FOH standing around talking or propped up in the dining room, no uniformity, and the table side manner is hit and miss at best. I doubted the FOH managers presence until I heard her speak to a table and then it all made sense. Unprofessional is accurate but without malice. There is simply no courtesy or self awareness. If the food was good it could negate the staff. But that isn't the case. The bruelle tastes like vinegar and was water-thin, the Alfredo is closer to a thin soup than a sauce. Seasoning was considered but not applied. Shrimp had the tails on in a pasta dish. It was just a mess for the price. There are far better places in our beautiful city to spend your money. I only leave such a harsh critique because I am being truthful. I really wish they were better and I hope that things at Roma will improve in time. But as of this review I could not imagine recommend anyone eating what is served here. They have nice napkins and everything seems...

I came in with high hopes, but those hopes were all but lost. I will start with the positive, the servers were kind. Thats It, the only positive.

I started my meal with a negroni, a simple and classic cocktail synonymous with Italian dining. This was to most bitter and uninviting negroni one could imagine. It had no orange peel, was shaken and served in a martini glass (all wrong if not familiar). Maybe the food will make up for it, I thought! It didn't. The fish was so over cooked you would have thought it was found at the base of Pompeii. The Alfredo sauce was dumped out of a can on to some mushy pasta. My girlfriend ordered the chicken. It was so rubbery that Michael Jordan used it to score the winning points in the NBA finals. My garlic bread was served to me with a beautiful curly hair lovingly placed right on top. What about the atmosphere? Seemingly it was a quaint little restaurant with some charm. We were seated at a booth in the corner and to my surprise there were shrimp tails all over the floor and nestled into my seat. It would t have been a big deal if I wasn't dangerously allergic to them. After a quick anaphylactic fit and a single bite of food we paid our bill and...