The Roman Empire Restaurant
Closed
The spot is permanently closed.
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If you have never tasted Italian and Mediterranean cuisines, you should reserve a table at this restaurant. Try tasty gnocchi, salmon and pizza roma. The chef at The Roman Empire Restaurant cooks good cannolis, crème brûlée and panna cotta. Come here and try delicious bitter or good white wine. Great latte or delicious hot chocolate are waiting for you at this place.
This spot is well known for its great service and friendly staff, that is always ready to help you. From the guests' point of view, prices are average. There is cool atmosphere at this restaurant. But many clients who use Google didn't grant The Roman Empire Restaurant a high rating.
Best in the city This award is based on the analysis of multiple factors, including reviews, ratings, and user engagement trends on Restaurant Guru.
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Italian, Vegetarian options
$$$$
Price range per person A$19 - A$58
© OpenStreetMap
contributions
Address
742 Creek Rd, Carindale, Queensland, Australia
Features
Outdoor seating
Takeaway
Booking
Delivery
Wheelchair accessible
Сredit cards accepted
TV
Parking
Opening hours
| SundaySun | Closed |
| MondayMon | 5:30PM-8:30PM |
| TuesdayTue | 8AM-2:30PM 5:30PM-8:30PM |
| WednesdayWed | 8AM-2:30PM 5:30PM-8:30PM |
| ThursdayThu | 8AM-2:30PM 5:30PM-8:30PM |
| FridayFri | 8AM-2:30PM 5:30PM-8:30PM |
| SaturdaySat | 8AM-2:30PM 5:30PM-8:30PM |
It was going to be my dad's first day in a few days time, but he was not going to be in town for the exact day. As an easy gift, I asked what he would like to be arranged and a meal out is an easy enough default option. Still going by the Gold Book, he felt like some Italian for that night and this restaurant had a voucher in there plus it was close by. Looking at how popular it was, it was high time to book a table one night - too easy. The booking was for four people: me, my parents and my dining buddy.
Italian restaurants are one kind which can not only get away with a rustic look, but sometimes even be enhanced and improved as a result of it. What is trying to be said is that a posh look should not be expected. Instead, there are plenty of tables put into the dining space (with some al fresco from memory) and even the entrance can get cramped - it is a little hidden and right on the edge of the car park, which itself can turn it into an obstacle course. The atmosphere is loud, which shows how much people are enjoying their meals. Each table is set, albeit modestly, and the table number is a good plug for the restaurant.
Let us discuss about the service. To put it into perspective you have good service, where the waitstaff more or less do what they need to do without any real qualms to be had. Then you have the kind of service which is better, usually in a more characteristic manner since there is something about in which you remember. What you remember is always the better, more personable service, and especially that kind of service which comes with a great deal of sportsmanship and efficiency. Then there is service such as this - and it can only really come out when the restaurant is really busy, in which it definitely was that on the night the four of us went.
At no point during any of the night, were any of the waitresses stopping even for a minute. They were really efficient, down to the small aspects including replacing water bottles and clearing done plates from the table. The main waitress in which the four of us had was a bright, chirpy young woman; she could rattle off what the specials of the day were and knew the basic details of the menu inside out. An aspect like this can make all of the difference. She was not the only one; all the other lasses were just as good and they brought an energy to the place that livened up the atmosphere.
Note, the food here was definitely some of the best Italian that I have had. Is it the finest? Probably not. However, when it comes to Italian cuisine, what it really needs to have for the full experience is to have a good and suitable atmosphere (rowdiness can help as much as ambiance). With the family focus in mind, the place was certainly alive. With three other people in two, it was more or less perfectly aligned for a great night out.
It is pretty obvious at the moment that the menu offers Italian cuisine. Everything you could want from an Italian place is present here: it has the pizzas, it has the pastas, it has the risottos, the salads, the breads, the sweets and even the classical main meals including parmigiana and scallopini. They also have accounted for lunch and breakfast, with a scaled back menu for the former offering mainly sandwiches, and the latter having the basics plus plenty of Italian-inspired twists on the familiar classics and some Italian favourites as well. You can't say that there is not much choice there; instead call it spoiled for choice. That even goes so far as the drinks menu, which has something for everyone - cocktails, wines, beer, coffees, milk, sodas etc. No one is left out.
Not only that, the food has been kept as it is over well over a decade. No short cuts have been made, it is all made fresh daily and it is quality controlled. Without a doubt, the best experience is to come here with a group - specifically a family. Portions are really generous.
Starting off with some starters, the trio of dips were ordered. This is one of the several daily-changing items on the menu. That night, the dips were three cheeses (in which plenty of blue was used, it has that lovely distinctive flavour), black kalamata olive, and eggplant. On the side was grilled pizza bread. My dad pointed out how fresh the dips tasted, and they were. A lot of the time, face it, a restaurant will happily just scoop a serving of dip from a bin of dip and it will taste alright, but nothing special. Sometimes the flavour is either slight or even artificial. Not here, as it is all freshly made by hand. The eggplant was fairly subtle in flavour, with a bit of smokiness here and there. There was no doubting that the middle dip was a black olive one, as olives have a flavour that you cannot mistake for anything else - it was really good. However, for the blue cheese lover in me I could not get past the three cheese dip - that strong odour and flavour in blue cheese overcomes me every time I take a bite of it; the bluer, the better it is to me. As well as three good quality dips, they also served it with pizza bread that could well be good enough on its own. That was freshly baked, with a good coating of olive oil on top plus plenty of herbs. This was a great start to an already good experience.
It was then onto the main meals. Each person managed to order something fairly different to the others getting quite the range of what the menu had to offer. Looking at it, aside from the sheer size it also had so many options - some a bit on the unusual side - it was hard to know which to order. Luckily, this is good enough to warrant a return, therefore order envy has not come into fruition since dining here. And, to answer the question quickly, yes - there was heaps of sharing going around the table.
First off, my mum went for a risotto. It was a simple on for sure, but keep in mind that sometimes simplicity done right can be what you really want at the time. She got the three cheese and mushroom variety. This had mushrooms sauteed with garlic and onion, mixed into the three cheese combination of gorgonzolla, parmesan and goat's cheese (you have me already) all served with a creamy garlic sauce. All three cheeses simply blended well into each other, akin to a well chosen marsala. Risottos are easy to mess up, but they did well here. The mushrooms were perfectly cooked, buttery and absorbing the flavour of garlic well and the rice was at a creamy consistency. It was unanimous that my mum ordered the best of the four meals.
It is one of his favourites, as it has been established in several reviews, my dining buddy opted to get a traditional meat lasagne - all they said on the menu was "Mamma Santina's Special". If there had to be a weak point that was to be pointed to on the night, this one would be it. There was nothing wrong with it per se, but not much to be pointed at that was distinctive. The sauce was quite good, it was a generous size and served very hot. I am sure it is wholesome enough to satisfy, but both my dining buddy and I agree that he has ordered better out.
Getting back to a more positive note, my dad also got one of the better choices of the night. On the menu, there is also the D and G special of the day. That night, it was a big lot of slowed cooked lamb rump, which came with a side of mashed potato and greens (broccoli and green beans) with a good red wine jus to compliment them. I got to try a forkful of it, and I can say that if I were to get order envy for anything at the table, this would be it (the risotto I could replicate at home, this would be a bit more tricky). The lamb was really tender, and had a lovely flavour, with the mashed potato being very soft and almost like butter on the palate. They cooked the greens to just the right consistency and thus made one fantastic meal to enjoy.
Last but not least, it comes to the meal that I ordered: the Godfather 6. To get the obvious out of the way, it was an offer that I couldn't refuse. In all seriousness though, it almost sounded too good to not order. First, it had a combination of pork belly and prawns (two of my favourite meats). The prawns were well cooked, and they went quite generous with them; you probably needed two hands to count the number in the meal, maybe even more. Put this is a combination of sauteed onion, garlic and chilli, plus onion jam, semi-dried tomato, rocket and EVOO and you have a meal with so many tastes, maybe a few too many in retrospect. However, it was all good. The taste was characteristic, with the sweetness of the jam and semi-dired, the perfectly matched trio of garlic, onion and chili and the buttery nature of pork belly - this is the antithesis of bland. This is all mixed into al dente fettuccine. You got to give the chef credit for creativity with this one at the very least.
So, it comes to dessert. It varies from person to person, but I like to make sure to leave room in my stomach for it. Throughout the meal, note I have not had a drink yet. That is because I was holding out until the end to order a coffee (because, it's Italian - that is what you do). It would be then that I would make the maneuver to order dessert on the side. I did make this known throughout the meal. Luckily as well for me, my dad is also on the same page. The other two just got a coffee each, and I went a bit indulgent and ordered a long Affogatto (think long black with ice cream already in it). The coffee they use is from Lavazza - another one of the mid-carders. Beforehand, I had had a sip of my dining buddy's cappuccino which was a little bitter, but he assured the rest of us it changed tastes with each sip and it got a bit sweeter near the end.
The affogato was good as always, being a mixture of sweet and creamy from the ice cream, and strong and dark from the coffee. It is truly a match made in heaven. For the dessert on the side, I finished the prophecy for a rule of three - ordering an x of the day during the meal. This time, it was the brulee of the day; it was all because it sounded so delicious.
The brulee of the day was Italian hot chocolate and strawberry. Points must go to the presentation of it; they served this is its own little coffee cup, which was quite cool and worthy of many photos. On the side was some ice cream, which was good, cold, smooth and creamy. The dessert was not taking a backseat to the ice cream in anyway, it was absolutely delicious. The mixture of chocolate was dark and lithe on the palate, it was smooth, blended well with lots of cut-up strawberries that added a tart flavour here and there. Plus points must also go to the crust; any brulee worth its salt has a good crust. The burnt sugar coating it almost like a topping of caramel on an already good dessert. Even if my dining buddy and my mum did not get a dessert, they at least had a try at this. A rule of sharing brulees: always allow whoever has a bite to get a bite of the crust coating; it is the core reason why creme brulee works so well.
My dad ordered the cannoli for dessert. This is always a classic to go with coffee, and this one came a bit more spruced up and up-sized than usual. This was filled with a combination of Italian vanilla and chocolate custard then topped with crushed nuts, and how can a dessert not come with ice cream? This was no ordinary cannoli; it was like cannoli from a specialty pâtisserie (or at least, the Italian equivalent). The shell was made by hand, and was crusty and delicious with hints of flavour throughout it. Mixed into it, the nuts have a subtle note of hazelnut which complimented it and finished it all off brilliantly. This all wraps up a fantastic dessert, in which a great filling of custard made from good quality chocolate simply melted in the mouth. A cannoli is hard to go by, and this proves it once and for all.
While aesthetics haven't been of concern yet to the Roman Empire, when it comes to dessert that is when they start presenting it well. Because, put it this way, we all know how bad sweets are for your stomach line; therefore, a sweet has to look really good to tempt you into overcoming that mental barrier. That is why the best dessert places have all the sweets gleam at you. Therefore, effort is put into how the desserts look on the plate here; it makes it seem more special.
The Roman Empire Restaurant is absolutely deserving of all the hype that it gets, and then some more. In spite of it being rated so highly, I still would say it is under-rated or at least a bit of an underdog. Roman Empire has been surviving for quite a long time, ever since 2001, and it does not show any signs of slowing down or being weary. This is absolutely worth seeking out and going to; it is some of the tastiest food that I have had in a while and it comes from a pure desire for a wholesome, fulfilling meal without a compromise.
TL;DR: just go to this place already, you will not regret it at all.