Troy L. Milliron 
Disclosure: The meal was provided by Roma Ristorante, but opinions belong solely to the writer.
ITALIAN IS ONE OF MY FAVORITE ETHNIC FOODS, and who would have thought that a little taste of Italy would be tucked away in a cozy Rice Village bungalow? Located on the corner of Morningside Drive and University Boulevard is Roma Ristorante, the restaurant formerly known as Sud Italia before being renamed by owner Shanon Scott.
The rebranding of the Italian restaurant is certainly worth experiencing. Roma’s lovely new summer menu, curated by Chef Kevin Bryant, offers hearty dishes that remind you of home, if your home is the Italian countryside.
When most Americans think of Italian food, the obvious comes to mind: flour, tomatoes, basil, and more cheese than you can imagine. Bryant’s new summer menu features lots of farm-fresh and locally-sourced ingredients, but perhaps the key element to his cooking is to like.
“Love is understanding ingredients and knowing why you put certain ingredients in a pan, in a certain order,” says Bryant. “Italian cuisine is that grandma deep inside you, showing you the art of cooking, grabbing the best tomato and basil and creating an exceptional product.”
I started off impressed with the extensive wine list—Roma’s selections range from sparkling candon Muscats to Bortoluzzi 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon, but opted for a prosecco (my favorite in Italian restaurants and elsewhere) and complimentary bread and olive oil just to start the evening.
A quick glance at the menu is all you need to know you’re in for an Italian treat. It’s filled with hearty fare that feels right at home and fits perfectly with the restaurant’s quaint aesthetic – from the outside it looks like a little cottage, and upon entering you’re greeted with antiquated chairs and white tablecloths, the ideal setting for an intimate evening.
The extremely helpful servers recommended I start things on the appetizer front through the arancini. But everyone assured me that everything – and I mean everything – on the menu would be good. The arancini, which are fried cheese risotto balls stuffed with ricotta and pesto, came with a savory homemade red sauce. Chef Bryant followed the arancini with the insalata di polpo, a simple arugula salad topped with olives, heirloom tomatoes, cucumbers, octopus and a roasted lemon vinaigrette that provided me with a great cleanser for the palace before the main attractions.
When I say main attraction, I’m talking about the starters, but the big plates also come with a show. If you order dishes like cacio e pepe, be prepared to watch your freshly made pasta mix together and be served at the table. The dish is basically simple: spaghetti, cracked pepper and pecorino cheese. But the best part, other than the fact that the dish puts on a show being mixed in front of you, is that Roma’s mixing bowl of choice is a hollowed-out wheel of cheese. If you don’t like frills, you can always opt for pasta bolognese or some fish and meat dishes like tartufo e baccalà, a salmon fillet on artichoke hearts, heirloom tomatoes and lemon .
Where Roma beats many other Italian restaurants in the Houston area is in its price. For an authentic Italian meal, you pay less than $40 – at best – on the entire menu, which makes the meal reminiscent of an intimate dinner at Grandma’s house – if your Grandma was Marcella Hazan, that’s -to say.
If your grandmother is like mine, dinner wouldn’t be complete without dessert. My server convinced me that after all the delicacies I had tasted, I had to leave room for dessert. After all, when you’re in Italy, you have to do as the Italians do. I contented myself with one torta di mele, which translates to caramelized apple pie with vanilla ice cream. The dessert was just the right balance of sweetness – not enough to give you the metaphorical “itis”, but just enough to leave you satisfied and with a full stomach.
Roma Ristorante is where you go when you’re looking for a reasonably priced meal and don’t mind packing extra calories. My sound advice: bring stretchy pants, because you will appreciate everything.
For more information on Roma Ristorante, visit romahouston.com.
