Romeo’s
1500 Barton Springs Rd., 476-1090
Sunday-Thursday, 11am-10pm; Friday-Saturday, 11am-11pm
Conventional wisdom dictates that zee French, zay are zee most ardent lovers and zee most romantic culture on earth. Zee wine! Zee food! Ah, but zee French have an equally solid reputation as being the snootiest people on earth. And the food, while widely agreed upon as among the most sophisticated and delicious of cuisines, can be intimidating. Escargot are snails?! Foie gras is purposely bloated goose liver?!Italians, however, enjoy an almost equally ardent reputation with none of the snob factor. Il vino! Il cibo! And the food is also among the finest in the world, but infinitely approachable. Even those of us farthest from foodies know and love it. Fettucine? Linguine? Lasagna? It’s macaroni, for cryin’ out loud!
It’s this egalitarian reputation that no doubt lands Romeo’s at the top of romantic-spot lists year after year. Sure, it’s a kitschy kind of cute place, and the live music from the baby grand piano lends a musical element to the evening. But it’s the absence of unpronounceable, undefinable menu items that makes it a sure date bet. Nothing dampens the fire of passion like the impression of being an unsophisticated rube or the unexpected and undesired appearance of a mollusk on your plate.
Romeo’s strength is that it doesn’t surprise. Maybe your definition of romantic ambience has gone beyond a lattice ceiling dripping with plastic grapes and white string lights, flickering votives in red hurricane glasses, and red-and-white checked tablecloths, but these elements still can evoke a nostalgic sense of romance. And perhaps your palate has evolved past the point where Italian food equals spaghetti in your mind, but pasta and red sauce is still universally loved. This is what you’ll find at this busy Barton Springs restaurant.
The menu is a series of hits and misses, even within their respective categories. We found the touted and recommended Stuffed Mushrooms ($7.50) unremarkable except for their magnitude. Huge white caps were filled with what tasted like frozen shrimp and topped with an overly sweet, hugely creamy tomato and basil cream and smothered in cheese. On the other hand, the Grilled Polenta ($6.50) was quite good: nicely crisped on the exterior, pillowy inside, and served with a nicely spiced pomodori sauce studded with fresh diced tomatoes. Ê
The lunchtime salads are satisfying. The Tuna ($11.99) consisted of lightly grilled fish cut into chunks atop a nice mound of fresh greens, allowing for easy spearing of the fish with each bite. But the House Salad ($2.99) served with dinner entrees was soaked in so much pungent vinegar (and an undetectable amount of olive oil) that it was inedible. Even the croutons were so overly coated with garlic salt that they made us wince.
Our entrées were equally mixed. Tortellini Sugarosa ($10.99) is a rich and lovely cheese-filled tortellini in a roasted garlic tomato cream sauce with mushrooms, spinach, and sun-dried tomatoes. It’s a richly satisfying plate that offers no surprises or disappointments. From the low carb menu, the Sicilian Braciola ($10.99) is like an Italianesque gyro. It’s described as ground sirloin rolled around prosciutto ham and mozzarella cheese, which suggests a roulade of sorts, but it turns out its more like a mixed meat loaf. The accompanying sauces are allegedly chipotle cream (there’s an Italian staple!) and roasted red bell pepper pomodori, but while we wouldn’t have identified them as such without a menu, they were still piquant and tasty. But the side of grilled eggplant was tough and bitter and again, inedible.
So what keeps Romeo’s as a top date destination? It doesn’t overwhelm. That may sound like faint praise, but on a date – especially a first date – that can be a very good thing indeed. Your wallet won’t be emptied, the ambience is cozy and amusingly romantic, the food is familiar and tasty for the most part, and it’s an Austin original. And in the bargain, you get a bit of the ineffable Italian quality of la dolce vita.
This article appears in July 29 • 2005.