Roman Lily

We decided to revive the Buford Highway restaurant crawl a couple of weeks ago, with yesterday intended to be the first night back on the pan American-Asian journey. We decided that, instead of going over mostly old routes, we would all agree to try new restaurants together neighborhood by neighborhood. I suggested the stretch of Highland Avenue from Ponce down into the Highland Bakery and on to the East side with L5P and beyond. The group decision was made to go to Roman Lily, a wonderful little place near the Highland Bakery building. A couple of us had eaten there but most of the group had never been to that restaurant. Eight of us converged on Roman Lily and were quickly seated in the back room in what seemed like our own private, impromptu party.

I had the polenta and scallops, which I'd had before quite some time ago. The scallops were perfectly cooked, tender and mild. They had changed the polenta since I'd had it last - instead of a soft, baked sheet of it cut into small triangles, its now two big wedges that are fried crisp on the outside, making it taste and feel too much like cornbread.

J&M ordered three bottles of the "Peace" red wine for the table and gave it thumbs up. Everyone loved both types of gravy that Roman Lily serves - the herb-laced house gravy with parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, and the tequila gravy.

The group ordered samples of most of the appetisers and deserts.

The favorite appetiser was the crab dip, served with triangles of crisp pita, which was very creamy. The least favorite appetiser were the fried green tomatos, which some in the group described as being too firm - maybe not cooked long enough.

The Apple streudle pie was the overwhelming favorite among the deserts. The least favorite desert was the Coconut Almond cake, which was dried out.

The steak-eater DOES pick the pocket of the salad-man

The only real problem was, with the size and variety of people and wallets at the table, the bill - to be split evenly - was much more than I'd budgeted for going out. I gutted my wallet and put all that I had on the table.

"we splitting the cheque the steak-eater picks the pocket of the salad-man"
- Blue Raja, Mystery Men