The spanking new (May, 2026) Romero’s Italian Restaurant occupies the same Wheaton location as its predecessor, Cristina Italian Ristorante. Fans of Cristina who never heard about its closure are forgiven for visiting Romero’s and believing they are in the old place. Sure, there are a few clues:
- The green and white awning has the new restaurant’s name instead of the identical green and white awning with the old restaurant’s name.
- The old linen tablecloths have been replaced with plastic table coverings.
- The menu price point is lower and now includes pizza
- ‘Restaurant’ instead of ‘Ristorante’
Doppelgängers
Otherwise, little has changed. Owner and executive chef Ismar Reyes-Cruz faced the end of the upscale, white-tableclothed Cristina Ristorante’s 20-year lease. He decided to close the beloved Cristina and rebrand as Romero’s, with a cheaper menu, faster table turns, and more carryout. At first blush, shutting down a known and beloved entity seems nutso. However, Reyes-Cruz likely saw the economic upside of a restaurant that trades lower prices for greater traffic.
A bona fide reviewer might compare the Cristina Ristorante dishes against Romero’s. In its parochial single-mindedness, DishingPizza cares about nothing besides pizza.1 Visiting on a quiet weekday for lunch, DishingPizza ordered the unpretentiously named small “red pizza.” The pizza arrived piping hot, with a Clark Kent look about it.
On the surface, a handsome pizza indeed. It’s a species close to NY-style, but embodies a sub-species of Italian restaurant style, shared by La Panetteria, Pines of Rome, and Vicino. An irregularly shaped, obviously hand-tossed thin crust. An excellent cheese-to-sauce ratio. Nice charring of the edges and modest mozzarella bubbles. It all adds up to a perfectly baked, nicely proportioned pie. But everyone knows what becomes of the mild-mannered Clark Kent.
The first bite is a pleasure – crispy with a soft crust and no flop. Slightly rubbery mozzarella – not the best quality, but this kind of down-market cheese is a guilty pizza-pleasure. But the sauce! The sauce is robust and fresh, popping with notes of oregano. A second bite reveals the overpowering presence of garlic. A third bite is the shocker — DishingPizza chews a large chunk of a garlic clove. Suspecting the clove is an errant anomaly, DishingPizza is surprised to encounter several more chunks. The thing about garlic is that it’s delicious and overpowering. However, one needn’t chew garlic cloves to repel nosy co-workers or vampires. Minced garlic in the sauce works just fine.
The website’s copy reads like boilerplate search engine optimization, which is a shame. The following integrity-signaling words are used repetitively on the single-page website: Authentic (12), traditional (13), classic (8), quality (7), fresh (7). Reyes-Cruz has a compelling narrative, but he’s not even identified on the website. For the record, Reyes-Cruz was the executive chef at Wheaton’s El Nopalito Grill for 14 years and did stints in the kitchens of Chef Geoff’s, The Four Seasons, and Clyde’s. Not to mention his several years cooking Italian food as the executive chef at Cristina Ristorante — now he’s betting on his own concept in the same location.
Romero’s isn’t a pizzeria and doesn’t pretend otherwise. The pizza, while acceptable, is probably better as a garlicky appetizer accompaniment to a sumptuous meal.
Romero’s Italian Restaurant
2666 University Blvd W, Wheaton, MD 20902
Pizza type: Italian Restaurant Style
Pizza quality: 🍕🍕
Overall experience: ⭐⭐
Pie – 14″: $17
Pie price per square inch: $0.11
- Well, okay, DishingPizza also cares about Dishing. ↩︎
Nice review of a non-pizza joint.