At least it's not roadkill: Winterlicious at Romagna Mia

Going out to dinner with your beloved is one of life's great pleasures.  Last night, I put on some high heels and lipstick, Rob changed into his good Toronto Maple Leafs sweatshirt, and we headed off to another Winterlicious rendezvous at Romagna Mia.

Serving classic Italian cuisine in the style of Emilia-Romagna and located quite close to our apartment, this restaurant seems like a natural choice to be one of our favourites.  It's even won the Golden Spoon, an award recognizing Canada's best risotto -- and you know how we feel about risotto (we attended the last competition, at which Lino Collevecchio of Via Allegro triumphed for his duck risotto with foie gras and balsamic vinegar).  It had been a long time since we visited Romagna Mia, as we had tried a disastrous fixed-price meal there years before.  The food tasted as if it had been sitting on a steam tray and the waiter joked repeatedly that the venison was roadkill.  "Rudolph roadkill," if memory serves.

But we're young and optimistic and eager to find a place that might recreate some of the memorable meals we've had in Emilia-Romagna.  So we strolled over, hand in hand, in quiet anticipation of a good meal after a long day.

We were a little shocked when the first course came out just a few minutes after we ordered, especially since I had elected to start with a Gran Fritto dell'Adriatico, a selection of lightly battered seafood and vegetables.  "Golden" said the menu, but my squid and its companions were pale and cool.  The seafood was very tender, perhaps because it was barely cooked, and the accompanying tomato sauce tasted suspiciously similar to what I've had out of a can.  Rob's salad was a composed plate of various dressed greens centred around a small globe of parmesan "gelato", which turned out to be an unmelting, room-temperature custard of some sort -- tasty, with its strong parmesan flavour, but not what quite what the menu indicated. 

With a sigh, we awaited the next course.  Wherever we go, I almost always like Rob's dinner better than my own (it's a horrible, horrible curse), and this night was no exception.  His pheasant ragu with black truffle paste risotto (click here for the recipe), the aforementioned Golden Spoon recipient, was the best thing we tasted that night:  meaty, rich, and redolent.  He enjoyed it immensely, while more than once I tried to discreetly spit the grit from the mussels in my gnocchi into a napkin.   

Within moments, our plates were whisked away and our desserts placed in front of us.  Being the crême brulée fiend that he is, Rob had selected something described as "Crema Brucciata al Caffé", which means precisely the same thing as its French equivalent:  burnt cream.  We watched in dismay as his spoon sunk silently and softly through the burnt sugar topping.  The restaurant had obviously prepared these hours before, not even bothering to take two minutes before serving to torch the sugar. Instead, it sat soggily on top of quite delicious coffee-flavoured cream.  My chocolate mousse was fine, but it was accompanied by a meringue cookie that looked exactly like the ones in my local Dominion grocery store and lacked the promised chocolate or hazelnut.

This was the worst restaurant meal we have had in some time.  From beginning to end, it took about an hour for a three-course meal with wine, and I didn't finish a single one of my dishes -- not because I wasn't hungry, but because they were so profoundly unsatisfying.  If the challenge of Winterlicious is to put together a quality meal at a fixed price, Romagna Mia fails horrifically.  The two of us hurried off into the night, still hand in hand and laughing, but vowing never to return.

Comments

[Tania]

Ugh, I'm so sorry you and Rob had to experience that! I've been to Romagna Mia before (not for Winterlicious) and thought everything was excellent. It sounds like they cut a lot of corners and made no effort to please their Winterlicious customers. How disappointing!

[Raspberry Sour]

Now, now, you wouldn't actually be expecting decent food for Winterlicious? Haven't you heard, Winterlicious types are cheap, cheap, cheap. Wouldn't ever want to pay for a full-priced meal, but then Winterlicious rolls around and they all come out in droves. Wouldn't be that people see this as an opportunity to find new favourites.

Sounds to me like the restaurant saw an opportunity for skimping, rather than a chance to lure in some new customers. I'm sorry to hear you had such a bad experience. I'll certainly be steering clear when deciding where to dole out my meagre funds. Anyway, the best way to drown out the taste of a bad meal is to splash out on a good one ;)!

[ejm]

Your horrible experience is exactly why we have been afraid to participate in Winterlicious. I'm really sorry to hear that Romagna Mia was such a bust.

On the other hand, the other restaurants you tried make it sound like Winterlicious is a great thing. We'll have to join in next year... for sure, it's just about the only way that we can afford to try a place like "Canoe". (And I from your review of the steak at Biff's, I'm not sure that we should wait til next year....)

[rob]

Tania, we're not sure why things went so wrong, but it's discouraging enough that I'm not really keen on going back.

Hey Sour, good to hear from you. We use Winterlicious precisely the way you describe, "an opportunity to find new favourites." So far, only Romagna Mia has been disappointing. Sure, I've had a couple of other dishes that weren't fantastic, but every other restaurant has given us reason to return.

ejm, I can't advocate strongly enough for participating in Winterlicious, especially if you're thinking of visiting Canoe or Biff's. Both we're superb, and I would happily eat both menus again (if there weren't so many other places to try!).