Trattoria Roman Gardens

I’ve lived in Little Italy for over a year and this is my favorite place on the block. The food is always good and the complementary bruschetta before your meal is to die for

Great food and very courteous staff. I was surprised they took a 16 person reservation on a Saturday night and they were very accommodating. Also love the wine carafes that are only $ 20!

This is one of our favorite restaurants in Little Italy. It’s a down home Italian restaurant with friendly service and huge portions. You won’t leave hungry. Their marinara sauce is delicious. You should definitely try the lasagna and the eggplant parmesan. They are amazing.

Just had the worst experience ever, and I have been coming here since I moved to Cleveland. Was given water and bread by two different people. Neither said one word to us. Server walks up, «did you want something to drink?» That’s was it. Walk to the restroom and moved out of the way for the hostess and she passes without a word. Another gentleman from my table did the same for her and again nothing. Our server was very inattentive and curt. I’m hoping this was an isolated incident. I will give them one more chance and that is it. Very disappointing when I have always had a great experience.

In Brazil Italian food have different tastes. The pasta ravioli isn’t so thick, and the lasagna has filling in all the «layers».
The food taste was good, and the portions as always were huge.

All time favorite place to go in Little Italy. They’re well known for their Lasagna but their Gnocchi al Burro is off the charts good. I always to make sure to take a jar of their sauce home too. It’s the perfect flavor and consistency.

We went to Trattoria on a whim. We had been stuck inside all day and wanted to get out and just do something. We decided to walk around Little Italy and decided to get dinner here because it’s more affordable than some of the other places. Service was great — the waiter knew the menu items and was honest when he had not tried some of the food. I enjoyed the bread and the oil or tomato topping that came along with it (I can’t remember!). I ordered the primavera pasta with red sauce. It was tasty and the portion was HUGE. I think I got three meals out of that plate. It just wasn’t anything to rave about in my opinion. I appreciate the family atmosphere and just being in Little Italy. I would try it again and try another dish, which may lend to a better foodie experience.

The food was great here. I had the crab cakes marina. Our server Mike was awesome. However they have faulty furniture and because of this my phone slipped through their couch. They refused at first to get it out. It was a big enough hole for a cold to get their arm stuck in. They claimed I may never get the phone back and asked well do you have insurance? Our server Mike finally came back over and pulled the board up and got it. So easy and the frustration could have been avoided by the woman server. Even though the food was great I’d rather have a good experience and not be meant with multiple rude servers expect Mike. Kudos for Mike for dealing with the rough streets of this restaurant.

This is my favorite restaurant in Little Italy. I have introduced many friends and family to it, always with positive experiences. It can get very crowded on weekend evenings, so you need a reservation.
Since other people have mentioned it, I will too — the bread! Fresh, presented well in a paper lined metal bowl, with the whipped butter… tells me this place knows how to make a great first impression. Unlike other restaurants that give you hard rolls with frozen pats of butter that I have to hold in my fist for awhile so I can even spread the darned stuff!
The parking lot behind the restaurant is a BIG plus, especially on weekend nights. They have valet service at night, at lunch you park yourself.

Delicious! Little Italy here in Cleveland is a must. We followed the suggestions on Unilocal and tried this place and are so glad we did.

Had dinner here a little less than two weeks ago. Have been here several times before but it has been a couple of years.
A quiet Thursday night because there had been rain in the area a few hours previous. they have parking right behind the restaurant which was a breeze on this quiet Thursday night and they have a back entrance.
The loaf of bread with a generous portion of bruschetta and a cup of butter was a great start. I had the chicken marsala which was great tasty sauce with fresh mushrooms and instead of pasta on the side I had the rosemary and oregano roasted potatoes which were split quarters of red bliss potatoes perfectly done maybe the best I have ever had anywhere.
Had a Peroni beer which was a perfect accompaniment to the meal service was absolutely excellent. the dining room is Olde world Italian.

We ended up eating here because there was literally no other parking spaces anywhere else in Little Italy except for the parking lot dedicated to this place. So we decided to check it out and were pleasantly surprised.
When we sat down they brought a basket of bread with REAL whipped butter and a delicious fresh tomato topping! We also got the Breaded Calamari as an appetizer and it was really great! You could tell it was fresh and not a single piece was rubbery! Really great! I also got the Linguine with Clam Sauce (with the white sauce) and added the fresh steamed mussels on top. Not one bite had grit in it and the mussels were perfect. The bowl was also huge, which is great since I love leftovers!
This is solid and I’ll definitely be returning!

Had a very nice night here this past Friday at Trattoria. The eggplant parmesean was a very hefty portion, perfectly breaded and just enough on the cheese to sauce ratio.
For the table they bring as standard bread with a roma tomato– garlic spread, very delicious and unexpected.
I had the chicken marsala, fiancé had the eggplant parm’. I thought it was very good but not great like the eggplant. I think my chicken marsala standards are a little high after working in an Italian catering company in high school (I got paid in chicken marsala).
I got a side salad in place of linguini and red sauce, the italian dressing was homemade and had a good amount of zest.
The atmosphere was good, a little close seat wise but I think that’s kind of the charm of little Italy in a way.
didn’t have any dessert but they looked like HUGE pieces of cake and will try that next time.
The prices were very reasonable too as a bonus. Love coming here!

Stopped in on a Friday for lunch with my parents. Not our first choice, but most of the restaurants were closed at lunch time. Which seems really dumb to me. In the end, we enjoyed this place a lot, so it was good.
Started with fresh bread in a basket with butter. Pretty good bread.
I started with a chocolate martini, which was delicious. It wasn’t as full as I expected or typically get, which was too bad, but what there was of it tasted good.
I got the chicken parmigiano with red potatoes as a side. The chicken parm was good, pretty big, and pretty tasty. Red potatoes were fine — came with a lot of them.
My brother go the same thing with pasta on the side. The pasta was boring.
My mother got spinach ravioli, which were really good. Came in a tomato sauce, a full plate of them, pretty big, and flavorful.
My father got chicken marsala, which was similar — tasty, big, and good.
We got tiramisu for dessert — filled a martini-​like glass. There was a lot of it, it was super tasty and well-​done. Loved it. I love tiramisu and am snobby about it — this was good tiramisu.

Decent place. A good restaurant if you want your ravioli or chicken parmesan without pretense and extra cost associated with it. White cloth napkins, but a little more casual.
None of the wines by the glass was more than $ 7. That’s a beautiful thing.
Attentive service.
Parking is the same for most of the restaurants on the street. Park in a paid parking lot somewhere or hope to get a spot on the street.

This 2-​star rating is an average between the 1 star I would give the service and the 3 stars I would give the food… Just a disappointing experience overall. We made reservations for dinner for 5:30 for my sister’s birthday and were told when we arrived that they were running a few minute behind. A few minutes turned into an hour, and we weren’t seated until 6:30. The hostess literally had no idea what was going on and told every person who came in that the manager would have to talk to them about getting seated. It turned into a big mess.
When we finally got seated, it was another 10 minutes before we even saw a waitress, and she only came over to give us a laundry list of excuses («we’ve been busy and I have 3 tables») before disappearing again. The only helpful person was the woman who brought our bread and water… She was on top of her game and was incredibly friendly! We ended up with a different waiter who also gave a dissertation about how packed it had been all day when at this point all we wanted to do was order and go home.
I got the fettuccini Alfredo for my entrée and it was ok, nothing special. I had to add several spoonfuls of cheese for it to have any flavor at all, but once I did this, it wasn’t bad! The portion sizes are huge but they’re just not very big on flavor. My sister got the chicken parm and liked it, but said it definitely could have used more flavor. The one bright spot was the cannoli… That was absolutely delicious and I would definitely recommend it!
Our experience started out poorly and never recovered, so I probably will not be frequenting this place in the future

The average rating of stars pretty much meets my experience, about a three and a half. Food was good, not worth driving from the north side of Medina county (Santa Susso’s on 18 is better).
Food was good, decent sized portion. Dining area is nothing to shout at, but the bar area is a little nicer, we should have asked to eat in there.
Definitely felt rushed to get out the door and the manager on staff did end up telling us that he was in need for our table and invited us to come into the bar and let him buy us wine and drinks.
For an average night out, this is a good option, we would do it again.

EHHHHHHHHHHH. Came here on a Thursday night for a date (so unfortunately, I was too self conscience to take photos). Considering I am a huge fan of at least one restaurant in Little Italy, I was convinced I’d love surrounding restaurants. Whoops, guess I was wrong.
I must state that this place was not horrible. I repeat, NOT HORRIBLE. It just was not taste bud exploding. Or mind numbing-​ly amazing. Or to die for delicious. It just tasted like something I could make in my kitchen with a bottle of pink sauce from Heinen’s. But I feel bad saying that :(Maybe I just ordered the wrong dish. By the way, I had the gnocchi with shrimp.
Final say: I’d rather go to a different restaurant in Little Italy.

Went here tonight for our very last meal in Cleveland. Sadly, a let down.
I’ve been here before and the experiences have been varied. If I’ve been with older family members, I feel like service is fine. If I’m with a friend or significant other around my age, there is something to be desired.
We went on Mother’s Day, which we realize is one of the worst days to eat out. But today’s experience was fairly inexcusable, no matter what the day!
We were seated in front of a table of 21. 21 people! There were 3 waitresses dealing with that table, and it seemed like few dealing with the others.
We ordered the shrimp cocktail, which was only a little less than $ 10. It was 6 tiny shrimps. That’s it. They were very good, but really, 6? That’s almost entirely negligible! We also got the bread and butter which was good. Once we were done with these appetizers, our waitress never came back to take them away. In fact, they weren’t taken away until well after we had our entrees.
The entrees were just okay. I got the gnocchi with basil tomato sauce and it really just tasted like a bland vodka sauce. My boyfriend got the chicken Parmesan. One spice was overwhelmingly strong in the sauce. The chicken parm itself was baked, which he didn’t like. The spaghetti looked fairly bland. It tasted like it would if we had attempted it at home. For a $ 45 meal, we’d expect more than that.
Our waitress was fairly MIA the whole time. I saw someone else with our waitress literally throwing his hands in the air in frustration.
At the end of our meal, 3 different waitresses asked if we needed boxes, which was way more attention than we received the whole meal. Our waitress was the first to ask and went to get it and the check, and didn’t return for almost 10 minutes. When we went to pay, we were told that we had to tip immediately because they can only run the card once. We eventually did this, then left. No thank you, no goodbye.
Aside from the mediocre (at best) service and food, the restaurant atmosphere was lacking. It was SO loud that I couldn’t hear my companion sitting literally 6 inches away from me. Asking «what?» every couple of minutes over a bad meal… not what we had hoped for.
Overall, big disappointment. Sad that our last day in Cleveland ended on this note; wish we’d gone elsewhere.

We were in the neighborhood after visiting the Cleveland Botanical Gardens over Thanksgiving weekend. There are so many options, but the group I was with had good things to say about Trattoria. Our party of four plus a baby was seated immediately. We were served with complimentary bread and butter. We started with a bottle of wine, and it was brought out right away.
The server was great about when one of my friends asked questions about vegan options. They were able to accommodate her, and the pasta came out cheese free. I ordered the shrimp and gnocchi trattoria. The sauce was lacking a little flavor, so I added some crushed red pepper and that was just the thing it needed. I normally can finish an entire entrée, but the portions were so huge, I took more than half home. The flavor of the dish really came out in the next days leftovers.