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Food by Beth Weisberg Romantika Pizza Café Mediterranean. That’s the kind of name that begs a visit. The place isn’t hard to find – it’s taken over the old Cedars location on 1st Avenue S.W. Although the menu is half Lebanese, Romantika doesn’t have any business ties with Cedars. It started life as a pizza joint down on 94th Avenue S.E., then expansion into downtown led to combining the pizza side of things with the owners’ mother’s cooking. Hence the name, which we decided to sample from left to right. We ordered the 10-inch Romantika special (pepperoni, mushroom, ham, shrimp, olives and green peppers for $13.50) and called in some pizza pinch-tasters to try it out. Regina folks take their dish seriously (aficianados of Pile o’Bones pizza are not easily satisfied, vastly preferring their own brand of pie for reasons that can be laid out for the price of a beer at a ’Riders game). "Not a lot of sauce," one grumbled from behind a bite. "Why’d they put toppings on the cheese?" quizzed his buddy. I pressed them to make a call. "It’s OK," they said. Which is what I thought. It smelled good, looked good, crunched nice, tasted fine, but there’s nothing exceptional about it. We wanted to see how the standards on the other half of the menu compared to our favourite Lebanese places, so we racked up the classics: orders of hommous ($4.50 for a small, $7.50 for the large), stuffed vine leaves ($4.50 and $7.50), tabouli ($3.95 and $6.95) and a falafel ($4.50 for a sandwich with pita, or $6.95 for the plate – served on a bed of rice with vine leaves and a side of pita bread). I liked the falafel pita. It’s served with more lettuce, tomatoes and onions than most places, and the falafel are soft and fresh. My friend prefers the Cedars version – less vegetables, crunchier crust on the falafel, and bigger balls. The vine leaves carry a different flavour than most due to a smidgen of tomatoes in the rice stuffing. The rice is compacted in the leaves – it verges on glutinous. I prefer the tangier vine leaves at Aida’s or the Istanbul Cafe, but there was nothing specifically wrong with these. The tabouli and hommous are the dishes that really grabbed us. The tabouli salad of finely chopped parsley, tiny bits of bulgur (crushed wheat) and finely diced tomatoes with a lovely dressing of lemon juice, olive oil and seasonings is delicious, cooling and more refreshing than a scoop of lemon gelato. Wonderful. Even better was the hommous, a light and creamy blend bursting with the flavour of tahini and chickpeas, spiked with lemon juice and smoothed by rich olive oil. We ordered a small size, to our regret. It’s the nicest I’ve ever had. (Our waiter claims to eat a large plate of it every day, topped with banana peppers.) Romantika Pizza Café Mediterranean (1009-A 1st St. S.W., phone 263-7662) has spruced up the shop from its Cedars days. Gone is the awkwardly placed serving counter – bold wine and deep green colours dress up the floors, walls and ceilings, and two comfy banquettes in the window of the smoking section make a great perch for people watching. There’s a non-smoking section available, but steps into the building mean Romantika won’t be accessible to everyone.

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