Johnny Rocco's Italian Grill — Restaurant in Niagara Falls

*edit 2022 - The restaurant has truly done an employee overhaul. The server and manager truly rectified themselves. The service I received and was met with was a breathe of fresh air. I went in again once restrictions were lifted for indoor dining and was met with such a pleasant experience, I ended up loving the restaurant AND the FOOD ! I have so much respect for this restaurant, they take pride in the service and food they provide so I am glad they have shifted their management team to reflect that. Johnny Rocco's Thank You!

This was the most disheartening description of an experience that I can describe. On October 18, 2021, at 5:21 PM. I had entered Johnny Rocco‘s driving from Hamilton as I was celebrating my birthday dinner with my fiancé and me on such a memorable day. I had called ahead to make sure there was room in space for me and my partner. Upon arrival, neither my partner nor I was greeted. I pulled out my vaccination status card and said we were vaccinated - asking if they would like to see it. Afterwards, One of the female hostesses inside - then seated us to a table directly in front of the pizza-making station. We sat down; we were not greeted nor serviced of water for 10 minutes. However, I would have no problem with that if the restaurant was busy. However, that was not the case; the restaurant was docile. Having had experience working in the service industry and as a business owner, I know what a manager looks like. I had asked a female wearing an A plaid shirt with a black shirt underneath with medium-length hair if she was a manager since she was working on her laptop and speaking with the employees. She responded, “yes,” I asked her if she had seen my fiancé and me sitting behind her and having no server greet us. Her response was, “yes, I did,” and she continued to turn around to do her “work”( socializing with other workers as the conversation was obvious, as I was directly behind her).

I responded that no one had come to our table even to greet us or offer us water. I was concerned because if I was visible, why hadn’t anyone come to us. There were no apologies; she turned around and continued her conversations with the employees. I felt so less than that. Her response may have been an indication Of her idea that perhaps we couldn’t, or I couldn’t afford a meal at said Johnny Roccos. I saw both managers had walked past me, another who was wearing a long cardigan, and she also had medium-length hair. Neither one came to my table to apologize for my experience, something that a manager should do; however, not once did they do that. The only person that apologized was the server himself, Preston.

If this represents how management deals with customers at Johnny Rocco‘s, it is a sorrowful day. Gracefully enough, we had a fantastic server who tried to rectify the matter. His name was Preston, and I must say he is a gem at Johnny Rocco‘s. He had tried his best to make me feel comfortable on my special day, in which I got calamari and water. My experience was so bad at Johnny Rocco‘s in Niagara Falls that I did not feel comfortable eating food nor even sitting inside the restaurant any longer. No paying customer should ever feel like that, especially when it comes to a place of food and comfort such as Johnny Roccos, which strives to be a place as such.

I will also be contacting the 43North restaurant group, which owns and operates Johnny Roccos. As a business owner myself, this is very concerning because these are the people that represent the corporation and the franchise; as someone who has never been to this restaurant before, this has left me with such a bad taste in my mouth that I left the restaurant shocked and bewildered by the treatment. I cannot recommend this restaurant to anybody by any means, only due to...

Be warned, this is a long and thorough review but if you plan on dining here it's probably worth reading.

I'll start off by saying I've been dining at this restaurant for almost eleven years exactly. I only remember because dining here was mine and my fiances first date. Since then I've probably dined here upwards of 100 times throughout the years, it truly has been one of our favorites. I write this review with such a disheartening frustration. The food is good, plain and simple -- when it's done right. When we first started coming here the food was always good and the service was awesome.

As the years passed the service would be great, but the food medicore or the food was great and the service was lackluster. It was never consistent, very rarely would it check off both boxes. But we always peristsed and returned because we genuinely enjoyed it here. Fast forward up until about two years ago and it's so depressing to see what this place has become. We've been forced to walk out three separate times in the past few months from either not being acknowledged at all at the host stand during lunch or from no server showing up after being seated for fifteen/twenty minutes. It's so damn sad because again, we LOVE(D) this place.

What sparked this review was our trip tonight. Got off a twelve hour shift to be asked by my fiance if we wanted to go to Tapa's as tonight is Thursday. I hesitantly said yes knowing how lackluster things have been here lately. Show up, get sat on the patio by (three) young hosts. Sat at the table for fifteen minutes and never saw a server once. About six other tables on the patio all chatting and eating their food but I never saw a server attend to any of them let alone come outside at all. Several tables surrounding us still had dirty dishes, napkins and whatever else on them and after realizing that no one was coming, we once again were forced to walk out. I know we could've just asked the host to alert our server but there's no possible way we were getting decent service with multiple other tables still dirty and needing bussing and multiple other tables with patrons that also needed tending to. It's not hard to see the shortcomings, especially when I currently work in a busy restaurant.

I'm writing this review with such disdain because this place had such massive potential and it went from being the "IT" spot that everyone met at (especially during tapas) to being not even half full during a Tapa's night is just so telling how far from grace this place has fallen. I don't think I'll ever be back. It's like breaking up with a toxic partner, you just keep giving them chance after chance until one day you've just finally had enough.

Take this review as a warning for what you're likely to face if you choose to dine here. They just can't seem to get a grip on the success that they used to have. It's such...

The biggest waste of $100. My husband and I had gone to this restaurant a few times while visiting Niagara Falls and it was fantastic, but we hadn’t been since 2021. I am not sure what happened but the quality of the staff and the food has taken a nose dive. Forgotten drinks, no one came by to see how the food was, and 20 minute wait for our bill. We ordered the calamari to start - if you could call it that - it was a bowl of soggy fried vegetables with maybe 8 pieces of calamari. We then ordered two entrees which came with our choice of soup or salad. We both chose Italian Wedding Soup, one veal parm and one baked chicken penne. 15 minutes after we put our order in the server came back to tell us someone got the last of the soup. He said we now have chicken noodle not made in house- I assume made by chef Campbell ‘s - or egg drop made in house, or salad. My husband decided on egg drop - which turned out to be chicken broth with a couple of carrots and onions. I decided on a Caesar salad - the server made a point of telling me it’s an upgrade….which I feel they could have waived the $2 up charge considering they didn’t have my first choice. When my salad arrived, there was maybe 10 pieces of lettuce smothered in dressing and buried under a mountain of low quality cheese. Then the server came back to say they ran out of veal, so I had to get the chicken parm. Finally after 55 minutes, our food arrived, my husbands “baked” penne looked like the cheese was melted under the heat lamp, and it had no flavour. My chicken parm was just okay. The portion is good but the chicken was dry and the sauce on the penne had no flavour. We were not offered dessert or coffee, it took 20 minutes for the server to pick up the dirty plates and ask how things were. We didn’t want to complain since we ate everything, said fine and asked for the bill. Another 10 minutes passed before we got our bill. Paid, he said he took off my drink for the delay, which is great but it should have been addressed while it was happening. We will not...