Roma's Deli

http://fourleggedfoodies.blogspot.com/2011/08/romas-deli-shaw-towers_24.html

Roma's Deli, an all vegetarian cafe thingy (no onions and garlic too), offering set meals - pastas, soups, sandwiches - cooked with mock meat and stuff. Figured it would be greatly appeal to all the wanna-be healthy people working offices nearby, but does it taste good? Hmm ...

Cream of Mushroom - it tastes rather Campbell-derived. There's a very distinct taste of "normal" cream of mushroom, nothing quite fantastic about this to be honest! Portion was quite big though, and it comes with 2 buttered toasted bread (of the Gardenia variety probably).

BBQ Chicken Spaghetti - Replacing the chicken was the chicken mock meat - spaghetti was in a watery tomato base sauce with some lettuce, mushrooms and tomatoes. And wow. Seriously, seriously, strange. The floury tofu-ey flavour distinct to chinese mock meats is very strong - the entire plate of spaghetti tastes completely like mock meat. While not exactly offputting, it's not something I would associate with being "tasty"

Sambal Prawn Spaghetti - The 'prawns' weren't as artificial-tasting as the 'chicken', but was still quite unnatural. And it wasn't exactly 'sambal' by any definition - it was just (too much) spicy red sauce. The few strands of shredded lettuce failed to provide any redemption - if indeed it was there for that reason.

 

I suppose the absence of garlic and onions (and real meat!) renders any attempt of Italian food completely futile. Not sure why this place seems so popular, but I'd take my buck(s) somewhere else.

K and I don't come across eateries that serve Western style vegetarian food often and when we stumbled upon Roma's Deli, we made it a point to check it out. Since then, we'd dined here twice.

On both occasions, we skipped the set meals as we planned to leave some stomach space for ice cream next door and were delighted that the staff served us plain water. We even got our empty cups refilled without prompting!

The pasta dishes we tried were cheese spicy spaghetti ($5.90) and sambal olio spaghetti ($5.90), which featured pretty much the same ingredients (carrot, cucumber and mushroom) except the former included vegetarian sausage while the latter had a heap of deep-fried crunchy bits.

As for our second visit, I ordered baked curry rendang rice ($6.90) that came piping hot with a strong curry aroma wafting from it. Under the layer of melted cheese was moist and fluffy rice that's wonderfully spiced. Curry leaves and cumin seeds were evidently embedded together with broccoli and carrots.

K decided on having creamy mushroom soup bun ($5.50) which wasn't too starchy but there were a couple of small clumps. The soup had an adequate amount of mushroom and the bun was fresh and soft.

The small eatery has limited seating, and its dark furnishings and dim lighting exude a cozy feel. There's even some magazines for browsing and we ate while trying to identify the singers of Mandarin pop songs playing in the background.

It's good to note that the food here doesn't contain eggs, garlic or onion so it's suitable for strict vegetarians who abstain from eating them due to religious reasons.

Honestly, I had no idea that there is such a cool vegetarian place in the heart of the city.

This place is kinda small, dark and the menu definitely speak no vegetarian except for the "Wholesome Vegetarian" words popping up on the wall. I even had to ask the lady who took our order if the food are ALL vegetarian. =)

There are four of us sharing 2 large pizzas - Chicken Mushroom & Mixed Mushroom Pizza. The set cost us S$18 for a pizza, a soup and a drink. The pizzas were pretty big and filling. If I did not observed wrongly, the pizza is freshly baked.  Which is the better one? There is a tie in this question. Different people prefer different pizza. The chicken mushroom pizza tasted slightly better to me.

I am a little disappointed over their service. Don't get me wrong, they are ok in service.I am just disappointed in their opening hours and close kitchen at such a early time. The food served may take a long time to arrive. Bear this in mind when you order.

Overall, this is a nice place to chill and worth paying another visit... If you wanted to go there, you can make reservation. It is better this way...

Another visit to Roma's Deli. The previous post can be found here. This place serves good vegetarian food. Went during a weekday lunch time. With a small capacity, it best to go early. 

Their set lunch menu from 12pm to 3pm. Decided to order the Baked Mushroom Pasta $6.90. It comes with a piece of garlic bread, soup and baked mushroom pasta.

Liked the soup as I am a crazy fan of mushroom. This time the soup is more starchy/thicker. But I still like it as much. 

Careful, the side of the container holding the pasta is hot! Pasta was well cooked, it was soft unlike some other places which are under cook. The mushroom add on to the flavour. However, this dish is quite unhealthy as too much oil has been added. After eating, you will notice what is left below is a layer of oil. I do not think I am likely to order baked stuff from here again.

Overall for for $6.90, I must say that its worth it. Some restaurants are charging $4to $6 for just soup, whereas here, the set of garlic bread, soup and pasta is so value for money. And your warm water gets constantly refilled! Good service, I hope the standard can be maintained! 

Full review and photos: http://foodiefc.wordpress.com/2010/12/30/roma%E2%80%99s-deli/

Eaten here a couple of time, first came upon this hidden gem by recommendation of a friend.

At first sight, you wouldn't be able to tell this cafe serves Vegetarian food, it looks more like a cosy Italian cafe.

Prices are very affordable, though their set lunch ($6.90) is more value for money than their set dinner ($10.90), because the $4 difference only gets you 1 drink.

The highlight for me here would definitely be their Mushroom Soup. Tasty, with a thick consistency and succulent mushrooms, it's served on a large plate, and enough for 2. Could almost be a meal in itself. The only drawback would be the Toast it's served with. Looks like garlic bread, but isn't, it's hard and not particularly tasty either. Order their Bread Bowl for a more satisfying experience.

Their pasta comes with great tasting sauce, and is very filling too. However, they have only a few options of toppings to choose from, and it's all served with Spaghetti. Would have preferred a few more options of pasta to choose from.

Their baked rice is average..... have eaten better. The baked rice doesn't come with much ingredients, so eating it feels to me like eating just rice and cheese. It's also not as cheesy as most baked rice.

The food is served fast, and the service staff and owners are friendly.

Pretty unique experience, especially for vegetarians.

I love going to Roma's Deli whenever I think for their big plate of mushroom soup! It will let me crave more for  their spaghetti . I always like to have BBQ chicken spaghetti, so today, I had the same dish as well. To me, it's really nice, the taste is not too overwhelming, unlike the satay chicken spaghetti which has an unnatural taste. My boyfriend had the sambal prawn spaghetti which tasted quite nice too. Overall, everything tasted quite good except for the satay one. I would not recommend that.

Their service is good! Prompt and they did not make any mistakes or make us wait longer than a few minutes for our food. Their cutlery is clean to use, unlike other fastfood restaurants like pizzahut sometimes. Ambience is perfect for gathering and couples to relax theirselves.

Very Reasonable Prices.  Compare to the prices for Italian Food at Non-Vegetarian Eateries or having lunch at Food Court, this is so much cheaper. For a set meal which is only $6.90, it comes with Soup of Day with Herb Bread + Pasta or Baked Pasta/Rice.

It is a cosy little café with warm lighting, serving simple Vegetarian Italian food like pasta, spaghetti, cream soup, salad, sandwiches, baked rice, baked pasta etc. There are even magazines (English & Chinese) in the Café for browsing. 

This is definitely a place for those strict vegetarians who do not consume garlic and onion and are not so comfortable dinning in non-vegetarian eatery. 

Vegetarian Cheese does not contain cow rennet, so it is also suitable for those who does not consume cow(beef etc). 

Reading reviews before heading to Roma's wasn't a good move. It probably made me set my expectations a tad too high, but even then I didn't feel the food was anything to rave about. Had the pizza set lunch, which included soup + bread and the pizza main. The soup was fairly smooth, and had a good share of mushroom chunks in it. But I'm being someone who is not particularly fond of... mushrooms, I would not so much as comment about its quality. The pizza drastically paled in comparison, even in terms of its size. The soup looked like the main course instead. At $7 (the most expensive of all the lunch set types), I really didn't think the money was well spent. Maybe the baked/pasta items would have been a better choice, but I doubt I'd be returning for a second try.

my fren and I both had the bake rice set for dinner.

I ordered the seafood bakerice and she had the chicken mushroom.

Soup was not in bread bowl as written in some of the reviews. It was a huge bowl though. Although its quality is not as bad as campbell, i would say its only a tad better. Anw, i would think tt this SHOULD be the bare minimum as it is ridiculous serving campbell soup in a restaurant. Bread was very hard and I skipped it aft a few bites.

The baked rice was the MOST HORRIBLE baked rice i haf ever eaten. its uber dry and the ingredients are super crappy. the cheese does not blend well with the rice. It tastes as if im eating the cheese and rice separately. Not to mention, there ain't any cream in the rice at all! its jus rice covered w a layer of cheese period! I only ate 4 scoops and gave up.

service however was impeccable. the uncle was really friendly.

for $10 a set i would expect smth more decent in terms of the food. i was really disappointed and upset abt having to settle at Roma's for dinner. guess i was fooled by the raving reviews here on HGW.

it really suck!

I am a regular patron of Roma's Deli. The place is just beside Suntec City, but it's nearer if you walk from Bugis MRT. It is convenience for those who are shopping near the city district, and mostly the place is packed during lunch hour too!

I really love italian food, and they do provide good food there. They have lunch set and dinner set which are very affordable and value for money.

They serve most of the meal with their mushroom soup which is totally awesome! I love their mushroom soup with the bread.

I like most of their cream- and tomato-based pasta, and of course their baked rice. Do try their herbs bread, it is also delicious!

What can I say? I definitely love the place and recommend this place to my friends.