Villa Roma - Our FINAL Revue for the March Maddness competition!

http://www.villaromaonthecape.com/

Villa Roma
278 Rt. 6
West Harwich, MA

Hey forks!  The final revue is in and March Maddness has come to a close.  Villa Roma was the last venue in our Final Four and in dramatic fashion...

...well, let's not get ahead of ourselves.

You might wonder why a blog called Boston Revue would trek down to the Cape for a competition like this.  I will address this by saying that while a current dweller of the city, there is life outside.  Many of us escape to the sandy beaches of Cape Cod during the summer, no?  And we gotta eat, right?  So that pretty much sums that up.

While it's common that most of the older generation flies down to Florida this time of year, many remain on Cape.  We dined with most of them last night at Villa Roma.  We were definitely the youngest people in the restauant.  The music was Big Band era and Rag-time.  I thoroughly enjoyed this.  Roomie did, too.  Did I mention that is who I took?  No?  Ok.  Well, Roomie was loving the older crowd as much as I was.  At one point I shushed him in order to eavesdrop on an Octogenarian telling her friends how she'd met her husband.  It was actually this really romantic story about how they'd sat next to eachother a plane to DC, only to realize that they lived in the same apartment complex!  She invited him to a New Years Eve party at her apartment and the rest was history!  Although he had to go to Italy (pronounced "It-lee", just like my Nettie says) for a time, so they wrote letters back in forth.  When he came back they got married.  Oh god.  Who needs food when you've got the original classic love story over at table 5?

Ok, I'm right on track for getting off track, so let me see if I can regroup.  Roomie and I were actually the 2nd diners of the evening to arrive at Villa Roma, a nice and dark, quaint dining room of booths and tables and a small bar.  It was a very cozy space with dark woods and nice bright white table clothes.  On each table was a bottle of Pelligrino, olive oil and packaged bread sticks.  I loved the table.

Immediately our waitress, who was really nice, as I expected, being on the Cape, brought us over a nice baguette, a cheese spread and marinated mushrooms and olives.  This is what she simply called, "Snacks".  Awesome.  Love snacks.

Roomie had his order ready within seconds, but I needed a bit more time.  The menu is actually very small, just 2 pages, not couting the Specials.  And each Entree comes with a salad, which is really nice, considering the prices were already very affordable. 

We decided on getting an appetizer off the Specials menu, which was the Maryland Crab Cake.  This is just  a serving of 1 cake on top of a bed of mixed greens, capers and roasted tomato.  We did not mind this serving size, as we both had Caeser salads coming.  Sharing the crab cake, we noticed instantly that the cake was all crab.  Minimal fillers, minimal mayo.  The crab was the focal point and it was so good.  The mixed greens were dressed in a super lemony herbed dressing and the tomatoes were sooo hot, right out of the oven or pan, that all combined in one bite was perfect.  Roomie dubbed this the 2nd best crab cake he's ever had.  I would agree.

Standard and tasty Caeser Salads (anchoives optional) came out while I was eavesdropping on our older counterparts in the back, now reciprocating to their friend how they'd met.  Their's was more humerous, as they met on the tennis courts as matter of convenience.  The gentlemen and his friend wanted to play a game of tennis, but the singles sign up was taking too long.  Off in the distance he noticed 2 gals waiting, too, so he suggested to his pal that they snag these girls and sign up for doubles, as there was no wait.  They agreed they didn't have to hit the balls to the gals!  So the pairs were made and a game was played.  Less than a year later, the couple was married.  Dinner and a show, my friends!  Ok, I know, I know, back to the food...

Out came the entrees.  Veal Parm for Roomie and Chicken Piccatta for me.  Portions, huge.  Presentation, eye catching.  Mine was lovely with all the lemons and shallots.  The parm was just a big cheesy, saucy blob.  But I'm not into parms or any sort, so you may find my opinion a little unfair.  Back to my chicken.  The dish was very flavorful with lemon shallots and capers.  For their own personal touch, Villa Roma adds scallion and thyme.  Although Roomie thought this made it untraditional, I thought it was delicious and really pretty in presentation.  I found the pasta to be unflavorful, so when twirling up some to take a bite, I'd twirl it directly on a lemon, which made it taste super good.  Love lemon, 'buds.  Love it.

Veal Parm - What do you think of this?





Chicken Piccatta - YUM



Now, I tried Roomie's Veal Parm and kept an open mind.  I love veal, but again, parms aren't my thing.  I have to be honest when I say, it was not good.  I didn't taste like veal or any other sort of meat.  It just tasted like saucy fried cheese.  And Roomie did not care for it, either.  He'd intentionally ordered it to see how it stood up against other places.  That's just how he orders.  Unlike myself, where I like to mix it up.

Villa Roma no like sharing. No like loud kids!

Check out the link that I posted up top for more menu items and hours.  Villa Roma is open all season long, so don't worry about that!  If you're in the Harwich area this summer, I would definitely suggest going.  I know that when I'm in Dennis this summer, I'll take the short ride over to try some seafood, which I can only imagine will be outstanding.

Ok...so you want to know.  You want to know how Villa Roma scored out on the Final Four March Maddness ranking system.  You want to know if Villa Roma topped Cantina Italiana's whopping 43 points.  There were lots of things to consider when ranking Villa Roma.  An older crowd, a lovely dining space and beautiful table, one great entree and one mediocre, a delicious appetizer...there's only one thing to do but wrap up this competition and tell the readers who has won.

So check back in a few for the announcement and see if Villa Roma bested Cantina Italiana!