Rosie’s Little Italy

Oh, how the mighty have fallen! What was once a kitchsy Italian establishment that offered up great Italian food, Rosie’s Little Italy is now a dingy little restaurant that offers up mediocre meals at best. It pains Jennifer to say this as her childhood Friday nights with her father were spent at Rosie’s enjoying the superb sausage ravioli with one of the tastiest marinara sauces ever.

During a recent road trip, Jennifer was all excited to take Sheila to Rosie’s to experience yummy Italian comfort food at its best. Alas, it was not meant to be. Upon arrival, Jennifer noted that the place had taken a turn for the worse appearance-wise. After choosing a booth (seat yourself!) the waitress promptly arrived with menus. The first thought? Dude, where is the Italian food? The menu was loaded with salads, sandwiches and blue plate specials, which was all very disorienting to Jennifer.

While Sheila pondered what to order, Jennifer noticed that the patrons at the nearby table had chosen the salad/pasta route and the lasagna with a huge meatball looked promising, so she ultimated decided upon the manicotti lunch special that also came with a meatball. Sheila also chose one of the lunch specials – but selected the personal pizza with mushrooms, of course!

The crusty, crispy, crouton-like bread with optional spreadable cheese was filling though bland for these road warriors as were the side salads with (bottled) blue cheese dressing; but, when the food arrived there was stunned silence followed immediately by snickering. The personal pizza was the smallest pie either of them had ever seen! It was truly laughable. It was generously covered with mushrooms, not too difficult considering the small surface area of the meal, but they were canned mushrooms still on the chilly side.  And as for the manicotti….well, let’s just say that Chef Boyardee makes it better. The meatball couldn’t even save this dish. It was bland, a bit cold and just blah.

Service was mostly indifferent, and we had to pull out money in sight of the server for the bill to finally be delivered. Payment was handled pretty promptly at least, as we were ready to be on our way. One positive is that at least the prices were low.

Sheila was such a trooper as she didn’t complain one bit. Jennifer was, needless to say, crestfallen. Perhaps you can’t go home and re-visit the classic restaurants from the past.

Food 1/2
Atmosphere: no stars. A bathroom that filthy automatically deducts any 1/2 star it might have otherwise received.
Service *

3909 S. Western Ave
Marion, IN 46953