The local iteration of Dearborn’s Roma Bakery has more going on inside than you might expect from its funky, chalet-style facade. Located on Washtenaw just west of Golfside, it’s serving up quick, baked-while-you-wait interpretations of European and Middle Eastern standards. Some come warm to your table literally seconds after being pulled from the hearth oven.
That’s step one in the recipe for delicious. Step two, for the wonderful za’atar, is the more than a millennium’s legacy behind the dried thyme mixture atop a cracker-thin crust. There are only a few ingredients, but they make a greater whole when olive oil binds the powdery thyme into what’s almost a pesto paste. Add a bit of oven char at crust edges, intense bits of flavor from toasted sesame seeds, maybe cool tempering from an optional kefir-like labne dip side order, and you understand what’s kept the za’atar around so long.
Also worth mentioning is that Roma’s za’atar pie costs just a buck fifty. One day at noon, an older couple came in and ordered a za’atar, a ground meat pie, and a cheese pie for a truly fresh and ample lunch–for two!–for $5 and change. The prices and the no-frills presentation–pies are served on a piece of paper on a plastic tray–make Roma seem a lot more than five miles from Main Street.
Roma Bakery calls itself “Home of the Pepperoni Roll,” so of course we had to try one. It was okay, although the halal pepperoni tastes more like generic salami. The broccoli cheese roll has more charisma, with chunks of lightly cooked vegetables and a nice amount of mild cheese. The lemony spinach triangle is simple and divine. All are bargains.
On any given day, there are likely to be a half-dozen more savory baked goods to choose from, served warmed up in the oven if you want. They range from mild and doughy feta-filled sambusik to deep-fried (and rather greasy) meat and potato samosas, with a few veggie options in between.
Roma’s pizza, which gets top billing on the sign out front and on the menu, is fine (tastes “natural,” my teenage son observed, thinking, I’d wager, of the Amy’s organic pies I sometimes buy frozen). Its crust is thicker and more doughy than the za’atar’s, possibly because the pizza’s generous cheese layer soaks it thoroughly. The sauce was smooth and pastier than my favorite crushed tomato versions. Roma doesn’t cook the pizza as long as some popular local chains do, so there’s none of that browned cheese coating, but the onions we chose as our one free topping were crunchy and sweet. The meat topping mixture (the same as in the smaller meat pie), on the other hand, was bland–nothing special.
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On to dessert. House-baked cannoli shells are crisp and tasty, but the chocolate that both ends are dipped in doesn’t taste as decadent as it looks. Bavarian cream filling made me miss the traditional sweet ricotta, although maybe that’s just me. Eclairs are essentially the same filling in an eggier and softer dough shell. I preferred the chocolate filling in dessert croissants, which have a light apricot glaze. Fruit and cream croissants also were on hand–they’re almost Danish, really. Baklava, the super-sweet traditional version, is imported from Dearborn.
Unfortunately, eating in at Roma is less hospitable than it could be. We had to hunt around a haphazardly stocked counter for teabags and powdered “creamer” and ask the friendly servers for forks and spoons. Also, the plastic serving trays could have been cleaner. The interior decor is functional at best, and an overhead television drones.
I hope that Roma can get a grip on some of these atmospheric details, because its pies are best enjoyed right at the source, hot from the oven.
Roma Bakery
4837 Washtenaw Ave.
879-0100
Mon.-Sat. 9 a.m.-6 p.m., Sun. 9 a.m.-3 p.m.
Savory baked goods $1.50-$7, pizzas $6 and up, desserts $1.50-$6.
Wheelchair accessible
