I decided to check this place out after a friend recommended it to me. I checked out Yelp and noticed a lot of the recent reviews were really poor — I thought, maybe it’s just by chance because my friend said it was good. However, I’m wishing I would have listened to Yelp.

I set up a reservation for my birthday and the singular star alone comes from the ambience — it is very cute inside and out. However, everything else about Rozafa leaves much to be desired. The cocktail list is boring and doesn’t seem to match the food menu. We ordered bruschetta as a starter and it was fine — nothing special for $14. However, before the bruschetta came out, we were served soft Italian bread with what I had honestly assumed at first was blended bruschetta. I thought it was really weird, the server didn’t tell us what it was, so I just assumed it was their take on bruschetta. Then, we find out it was hummus when the server takes it away — It’s lucky we didn’t have an allergy at our table. Then, the bruschetta is actually brought out and we are both laughing to ourselves. We order bread as a starter and you bring us other bread before that? How strange!

Finally, we get our mains. I ordered the short rib and my partner ordered the fettuccine bolognese. The short rib was terribly unseasoned and bone dry on the inside — more like beef jerky. The mashed potatoes were smashed, lumpy, and there was no hint of truffle as the menu suggests. The spinach was fine. I mean, it’s spinach. But for $30? Yikes.

The bolognese was so sweet, you couldn’t taste anything else. It seriously tasted like it came out of a can of Chef Boyardee.

Oh well. You live and you learn, and my mistake was not listening to the reviews. Save yourself and just go somewhere else.