Cafe Roma - Elgin

I've been visiting this restaurant for well over 2 years now with my wife and very young son.

The are open Monday through Friday and Monday through Wednesday is lunch only (10am – 3pm) and Thursday and Friday they do dinner and extend their closing to 9PM.

The main thing that attracts me to this place is the freshness and quality of the ingredients. They have a bow tie pasta dish with chicken and simply seasoned with garlic and basil and stirred with olive oil that is fantastic. There's also a penne with chicken in a light vodka cream sauce that is excellent as well. I've also had several of their sandwiches and a great example would be the Caprese Ciabatta which is basically a Caprese salad with fresh basil leaves on a ciabatta roll. It's one of those things that is so simple, but is so delicious because of the preparation and freshness of the ingredients.

Since I live near here, we've been for dinner several times and the menu is similar to lunch with the addition of some entrees and maybe an extra pasta dish or two. For dinner, they have a Salmone alla Griglia billed as an “8oz Wild Sockeye Salmon grilled to perfection”. Basically, it's a grilled piece of salmon and not drenched in any heavy sauce or blackened or any other tricks to hide the flavor. What you are left with is just what is advertised, a delicious, moist and very fresh fillet that is seared so well with a nice crust that I could never hope to duplicate at home. We've also ordered out from here several times and the food travels well.

The last part are the pizzas which I tried for the first time today. I had a pepperoni pizza today and while it does not fit the true Napoletana type crust, it has a good char on it and the crust is a thin slightly chewy non-cracker crust. I don't know how to classify it, maybe more of a flat bread type crust? In any case, it's nothing like a thick doughy over sauced, over cheesed monstrosity that caused me to stop eating pizza when I moved to Chicago oh so many years ago. My only complaint was that there was maybe too much pepperoni, and I cannot believe I just wrote that, but there it is.

I lived in the city for over 10 years and this place would thrive in almost any neighborhood so I have to emphasize that it's good, not “good, for the area”.

You can get in there for lunch under $10 easily and dinner entrees are not very expensive.

I highly recommend this place. The layout might distract some. It's very nice, comfortable and clean, but I could not classify it as intimate. It's located inside an office building and at first you might think you are waking into some office building cafeteria that serves chicken noodle soup and tuna salad sandwiches. Also, at lunch, you order from a register, get a number and some tags that tell them you're getting a drink or a side salad, etc. and then go find a booth or table. I think that some people don't like that but it really doesn't bother me. If the setup helps them reduce the number of staff and keep their prices low, more power to them. Dinner is standard table service.

Service is usually great unless they are breaking in someone new. The owners have always been there when we've dined there and are friendly and helpful.

Cafe Roma
2175 Point Boulevard
Elgin, IL 60123
(847) 836-7662
http://www.tastecaferoma.com

They have an excellent homemade Italian Beef sandwich and fresh cut fries at lunch. I agree that it's top notch and the attention to detail on the food is there. Salads are super fresh and I've had the San Pietro sandwich and loved it.