Casa Romana Restaurant

Casa Romana is the Italian restaurant at the Hilton Al Ain, tucked just off the hotel lobby in a room styled to evoke rural Italian warmth: rustic, lamplit, quietly elegant rather than theatrical. The lobby setting is unusual and, at first glance, uninspiring, but diners consistently find that the cooking, wine list and service punch above the address. The kitchen works best on its simpler dishes. Caprese and carpaccio open a meal well, the pizzas - particularly pepperoni and the regionally tilted Pizza al Indiana with chicken tikka - are the restaurant's quiet hallmark, and regulars single out the pies as among the best in the UAE. Pastas lean creamy and generous, with ravioli ai funghi and three-cheese risotto both solid orders. Seafood is handled with more delicacy than most of Al Ain's Italian kitchens, so sea bream, salmon and tiger prawns are worth ordering when available. A tasting menu with paired wines, offered periodically, has delivered some of the most memorable meals in the city for a fraction of Dubai prices. Ambitious mains are more variable. The lamb rack has landed perfectly for some diners and tough for others, and the menu has contracted over the years - classics like lasagna and osso buco appear and disappear. Close with the tiramisu. Service is the defining strength here. When the manageress is on the floor, pacing and hospitality are excellent, and the restaurant accommodates large family tables with ease. On quieter shifts or when the room is staffed thin, attentiveness slips. The wine list is genuinely well chosen and priced fairly. For a relaxed Italian dinner in Al Ain that values substance over spectacle, Casa Romana remains one of the more dependable hotel restaurants in the city.