Trattoria Zooma

I came here with a few friends during the week for lunch. We made reservations and seated promptly. Our waiter was very friendly and knowledgeable. He went over the menu with us and suggested wines that would pair well with our lunch. I though the wine selection was good, not the best I’ve seen on the Hill. the pasta was excellent! It was fresh and delicious! The manger came over during the course of our meal to see how everything was… so I would say their customer service is great, very attentive.
I had pasta with a spicy sauce and my two friends had a pizza (which was large and delicious)! The lunch menu is a bit limited but the food was very good! We finished the lunch off with gelato which was also very good. We were all pretty satisfied and will be back again!

Loved the ambiance of the restaurant. Went during restaurants week. Had the tortellone to start out with and then for the entrée I had the pasta al forno. Both were to die for, although the al forno wasn’t as seasoned as I might’ve liked. The tortellone was amazing!

Me and my friend recently dying to hear for lunch because it was restaurant week and the food was phenomenal the portions were big and we were very pleased with the selection of choices I would have given five stars but the service was a little slow. The service was good but it was just a little slow other than that everything was delicious

This review is based purely on one dish– the pesce spade. I can’t remember the last time I wanted to return to a restaurant for a specific dish. And I’m not even a big fan of sword fish! But the sword fish was grilled to perfection, the bean ragu was amazing and the lemon sauce tied it all together wonderfully. Rhode Islanders obsess about where to bring out of town guests for a meal. They went the state to live up to all the food hype they’ve told to their visiting friends. So glad I brought my out of towner here. She was a fan of the food.
We had some pretty lack luster service though. And I’m never a huge fan of a bunch of off duty waiters still in their uniform drinking loudly on the bar stools next to us, chatting with their still on duty friends. It was funny that it was hard to get service when it seemed like all the restaurant was chilling 5ft away. But that fish. I will go back for that fish.

Terrible food terrible service= never going back.
First off, my knife was dirty with a big piece of green something stuck to it so I set it at the edge of the table to be replaced but no one ever took note. I ordered soup so it was not a huge ordeal but definitely not a very observant wait staff.
It took 12 min for our server to come to the table to take our drink order, and then she only brought one, mine, which was an under-​poured glass of wine, while the other three people in our party waited another five minutes at least, for theirs. When I ordered a second glass it was brought in a serving carafe and I did get a full pour this time. Next I ordered the tortellini soup. The tortellini was not fully cooked and very pasty. I asked to have it cooked throughout and as a result they just heated it up. It was my only course so I expressed my dissatisfaction and got a salad instead. My husband ordered gnocchi, which was cooked perfectly, very soft, light, however they messed up his order and served it with eggplant which he requested not to have. The «runner» didn’t know who had what and was asking who had this and who had that, which if you have ever been in the restaurant biz is a big no.
The tomato sauce was meh, and if it is going to be the base of all your Italian dishes then i would expect all the red sauced food will also be mediocre. We got some meatballs and they were very bready. My daughter had the cavatelli and it was homemade and she enjoyed it. My son had the lasagna and it was just okay.
With so many choices in the area I would have chosen another establishment but the 5 star Italian restaurant across the street was closed so we went here as a default. First and last experience. I’ll pass on this one next time.

Not sure why they got so many bad ratings. We came here on a Sat night party of 4 and there was plenty of seating. Our server was very attentive and timely and we had a great time. Menu had a medium amount of variety, about 10 or so appetizers, main dishes, and non-​pasta dishes each.
1. Meatball appetizer — meatballs were tender, juicy, not too salty. We dipped bread in the marinara sauce after which was delicious
2. Mushroom pasta — very hot, flavorful dish. It’s made with one of their homemade pastas hand wrapped and filled with mushroom and truffle oil. It was delicious and the sauce was not excessive or overly salty either.
Overall, I’d come back to try other appetizers and dishes.

Great place. We ate at the bar. The food was wonderful and the bartender, Ashley was as good as they come. We will definitely come back.

Sorry guys. Just not impressed with the dishes, and we tried. This was our 3^rd visit.
We ordered Spritz for aperitivo beverage: was almost transparent in color, hardly any Aperol
Farro and Kale Salad: there is barely Farro, and is lost in the greens at the bottom of the plate.
Sacchetti al Fungo di Bosco: they look lovely, filling was tasty, but the pasta is so thick where it is twisted to make the ‘sack’ that it doesn’t cook thoroughly.
Polpette di Zooma: so much marinara
Cavatelli: look like Sardinian gnocchi in shape, not smooth and hollow and longer as we have eaten in Italy.
And in general, the olive oil was not good, and the music was playing so loudly.
Some work to do.

We are from out of town and decided to go where locals said to go to… Federal Hill. The place… federal hill is a great place to walk around. Festive happy area… reminded me of little Italy in NYC a bit.
We decided to go to zooma based on Unilocal reviews. Maybe we just had some bad luck with my wife’s dish.
First the good news… the soup of the day was GREAT. it was the chicken soup A+ all the way.
I had the lasagna… it was a B rating. I say that because it was like a ham and cheese sandwich. …nothing special about it. The meal wasn’t offensive or anything but nothing memorable. I’ve had the exact tasting lasagna in almost every Italian Restaurant so if u want a safe meal… get the lasagna.
However…DO NOT GET THE CLAM LINGUINI.
Fist…the pasta was WAY to salty! Second… my wife asked for the home made pasta. which the menu said to ask for if the particular dish that was ordered did not come with home made pasta. So we did… but the issue was that there was a $ 5 up charge for the request. Most likely she would not have asked for the home made pasta… which was already included in most of the pasta dishes anyway.
We told the waiter about the brine like pasta and he did say he would talk to the chef and gave the weak excuse that sometimes the class are already salty… but that is the chefs responsibility to get it right.
Lastly…which was a network error… we sat waiting for the credit card to be processed for an extra 20 minutes. We are from out of town and wanted to see this amazing town.
All in all… the restaurant had a nice ambience had lots of people… but the CLAM linguini was a fail.

This was my first time going to the restaurant. My friend who was with me has eaten here before and hasn’t had any problems until that day.
Our waiter knew what he was talking about and when asked if there was a risotto dish, immediately pointed out what options there were. We didn’t find out our waiters name until after our meal finished and we received our check, this wasn’t a big deal since it wasn’t too busy. Our experience with the staff was overall great on our first visit. Our experience with the food wasn’t so good.
One of the entrees that was ordered was the Tagliatelle Nere ai Gamberi. Black ink pasta with sautéed shrimp. We found that the pasta was under cooked and very hard to chew. The lemon sauce served with it was also overpowering and took away from the dish. The Seared Scallops and Risotto was also ordered but aside from a little too much salt on the scallops it was very good. To end the meal we had ordered the molten lava cake and it would have to be the best part about our lunch.
We returned to the restaurant a week later for more lava cake. Our experience wasn’t as great as the first time we went. The dinner crowd was in and all the dining rooms were filled. There were a few seats at the bar and we were offered seats if we would like to wait for a table to open up. We had decided that since we were only going to have dessert and maybe a drink then we would just stay at the bar. At first we weren’t acknowledged as the bartenders were busy making drinks for the waiters and their tables. When we were seen, we asked for drink menus and ordered our drinks. We knew what we wanted for dessert and put those orders in as well.
The first lava cake came out and sat behind the bar for 5 – 8 minutes before the bartenders saw it. By then the dessert had begun to get cold and the gelato on top was sliding off the cake and out of the bowl. The second cake came out and was also left on the back counter for a considerably long time. Now the first time the bartenders were making drinks when it came out but the second time both of them were in a corner of the bar area talking and what looked like they were using their phones. One of the managers had come out and began talking with them as well. Eventually they brought the cake over but completely forgot about providing a spoon to eat with. It wasn’t until they were asked for one did they bring it.

I understand the place went through an executive chef change over the past few months.
We had dinner on a Friday night. We first had a drink at the bar then were seated. The fried calamari was excellent then I had gnocchi in a cream sauce. It was perfect. Little pillows of lightness. I’ve never had better. We too did not get bread. I think this is a training issue more than a food issue.
For dessert we got the little crisp waffles with fresh berries and fresh whipped cream. It was awesome. I’ll definitely be back!

Not sure what all the negative reviews are about. This place is a true 4-​star. They handled a party of 12 with ease, and everyone enjoyed their meals.
Started w/​mussels and fried calamari: the calamari was very typical, nothing crazy, but the mussels were outstanding — everyone raved about them. For my entrée I had the pan seared scallops w/​cheese and pepper risotto. The risotto was a bit lacking in the flavor department, which was very disappointing b/​c caico e pepe is my favorite Italian dish. BUT, the scallops were the best I’ve ever had: seared and seasoned to perfection and cooked 1 millisecond longer than just being cooked through. They were unreal; I literally can’t stress that enough. Also, the butter fried egg was done properly and helped sauce the otherwise bland risotto. Next time I’ll ask that they switch out some of there handmade pastas for the risotto.
Wine list was very affordable and had some quality stuff on there. No one had dessert, so I can’t speak to that. Our waitress was on top of everything, friendly, and informative — wish I could remember her name.

Worst lunch experience ever in Providence. Our waiter was Michael who seemed as if he didn’t want my two friends and I to be there. I’m usually the optimist and I love my friends but had a difficult time hiding my face of disgust at the level or lack of service we received.
1) Michael wasn’t helpful when we asked for recommendations. Pulled the get out of jail free card «everything is great“answer
2) Didn’t bother to get our bread until we desparately asked 2 different staff members. The hostess curtly replied «ask your server when he gets here» which was ironic as he was no where to be seen. Finally asked the food runner who gets us bread without butter so we had to ask again for butter. Never had to fight tooth and nail before for 5 pieces of generic bread.
3) He magically reappears as we are finishing our meal and enjoying our remaining glasses of sangria ($ 35 for a pitcher of purple kool-​aid) and hovers around with a glare as if he’s signaling for us to leave. We ignore him and he then proceeds to hand us our bill with the standard «take your time» reply.
We had the prix fixe lunch menu which we really tried to enjoy but the lack of service made it difficult. Definitely will not recommend this place to my friends and will not be coming back. There are so many great establishments in RI so I hope they consider the reviews and change their game up.

I tried to come here with a friend of mine on a Saturday night for dinner. I called ahead, asked if it was busy, and was told that it was and it would be best to make a reservation. I put my name down for 8:00 and arrived at 8:02. Upon arriving, I gave my name to the host and he was extremely strange and rude. He barely even acknowledged me, so I had to say «this is us» to get any attention. Then a couple minutes later, a girl comes out and tells us that we will need to go to the bar and wait for 30 – 45 minutes. At that point we said we were just going to look elsewhere. I never even take the time to write reviews like this, but this service was just downright rude and unacceptable.

My wife and I used to come here often, and before I espouse on dinner, I should mention that we haven’t been to Zooma in over a year and s half.
What happened to Zooma?!? This place used to be awesome, used to crave the squid ink Tagliatelle. So we get there and it was horrible… so al dente that the noodle stood horizontally. Nothing better than the taste of hard floor and chalk. sent it back, 2^nd version was cooked through but dish was horrible, half soup half pasta (had I wanted soup I would have ordered ciopinno)
Can’t remember the last time I didn’t either finish a meal or bring it home as you can tell I did neither. If I’m spending $ 34 on a dish it better taste like $ 34 not $.34
Way too many restaurants that execute much better than this in RI, so based on what I’ve seen over my life in RI, Zooma shouldn’t be open much longer.

We have stopped in here a couple times for drinks, love the décor. I was also here recently for lunch and really liked my pasta and cannoli. You can tell the pasta is homemade. One of my favorites on the hill.

I will start by saying that the food was tasty and it was great to see the chefs hand-​making the pasta in the window. However…
The décor was nice but I was seated next to a poorly washed window and there was masking tape keeping it together.
The waiter was nice but he was not attentive and my boyfriend and I had to wait 20 minutes for him to give us three slices of cold bread.
Still, we were optimistic for the entrees: my boyfriend got pumpkin ravioli and I got mussels. They were both good but nothing remarkable considering the prices.
We had a nice time but I will not be returning. On the ride home, we had to stop off at McDonald’s because the small portions had left us hungry!

Fantastic bar come see Kevin will very much take care of you! well I only sat at the bar and had cocktails I plan to go back for dinner soon. the menu seems very pricey but my understanding is a lot of ingredients are flown in from Italy in ultra fresh like the buffalo mozzarella.

Not impressed.
I came here for a friend’s birthday when another restaurant on Federal Hill didn’t work out. We were seated quickly, but that was one of the only things that went well all evening.
I ordered the Tagliatelle Nere ai Gamberi, a squid ink pasta dish with sautéed shrimp, garlic, chilies, tomato, and scallions. Even though the dish is one of the most expensive on the menu ($ 30), I love squid ink pasta and I knew all the pasta was made in house, so I figured it’d be worth it.
Wrong. First off, the dish was tiny considering the price. Looking at the small plate, I figured that first bite had to be out of this world.
Once again, wrong. The housemade pasta was so undercooked that it was inedible. Not al dente, just straight-​up underdone. I ended up sending the dish back, which I think I’ve done maybe twice before in my life. Before I could reorder, the server had to get permission. To me, this isn’t the best business model — a server should have the authority to say yes and turn around the situation.
The second dish I ordered, the Pappardella alla Bolognese, was considerably better, although still not really any great shakes.
The only thing that rescued this was the cleanliness and décor of the restaurant, as well as the tasty dessert we ordered for our friend. For a higher-​end restaurant, Zooma really needs to step up its game.

Oh, Zooma, I am so incredibly disappointed all around. We’ll start from the beginning…
Fail # 1) It is restaurant week, yet no where on the RW website does it mention you do not serve from the lunch menu on the weekends:
Now, there were easily 15 other places I would have opted to go for my one of maybe two RW lunch meals, I felt cheated by going back to an old favorite and not being able to fully experience the menu this afternoon. While my friend and I were disappointed, our original mission was to have soup, so we opted for just that.
However, fail # 2: Everyone in the restaurant (4 tables perhaps) were seated in the bar area by the front windows, however, there was a very loud, obnoxious party going on at 12:45pm not far away. I could barely hear my lunch date over the loud patrons across at the bar. I’m not sure why they did not utilize the back section of the restaurant (of which I have never been sat, come to think of it?!) which would have separated the «it’s my party and I’ll yell if I want to’s from those looking forward to catching up with friends after a crazy holiday season.» The last table to be sat in our section, (when it almost had cleared out), asked to be sat next to (read: on top of us) because they didn’t want to be near the «noisy ones.»
Fail # 3: Our bill for two soups (nothing more) came to nearly $ 23. That is BEFORE TIP. Excuse me? For soup?! We should have gone ahead and vacated as my intuition told me initially.
Fail # 4: At least you are consistent. The décor in here has always been awful. That has not changed. I am so utterly sad to have had this experience, as I have been at least four times prior and never felt cheated, aggravated, and still hungry when I left. It’s going to take a long time before (if) I step foot back in this establishment, unfortunately…