Rocco's New Orleans Style Po-Boys & Cafe — Restaurant in Baton Rouge

Rocco's makes excellent--TRANSCENDENTALLY GOOD--poor boys, available to anyone who calls. You will only have to exchange ordinary US money for this treasure, a commodity you may already have. Or if you don't have any with you, you can easily, safely and honourably acquire US money to exchange for your own personal poor boy, invariably made to your order and specifications.

Contrast this situation with other times and places, where you would have to be either nobility or a high government official in order to qualify for this kind of quality prepared victuals.

Mere money! Thank God for the French Revolution (1989) and The Fall of Communism (1991).

Just saying.

The seafood poor boys are good beyond exaggerating, particularly the fried/grilled shrimp and​ the catfish. The fried oyster poor boy and the roast beef poor boy are equally good, but not my tippy-top favorites because the oysters are, well, OYSTERS, and they are so rich and intense I only want them about once a week. As to the roast beef poor boy, it is delicious but requires some logistical planning to eat, because because it is so messy. First, tear off several paper towels from the roll on every table, and tuck them into your collar like a bib. Then either eat the sandwich with a knife and fork, or (for the daring) pick the sandwich up an eat it like a conventional sandwich, bite by bite. Either way, your attention is directed to the roll of paper towels on the table to blot the lips and wipe the fingers. OFTEN. Finger bowls or moist towelettes are NOT provided.

There are many additional varieties of poor boys, mainly having to do with hamburgers, sausage and cold cuts, all of which are very good examples of that sort of thing, but you have to be nuts to pass up seafood or roast beef in favor of cold cuts. On the other hand, maybe you're allergic to seafood or a vegan or something. In that case, I'm so sorry.

For sides, I really like Zap's potato chips, homemade potato salad, or French Fried Dill Pickle Chips, a hard to find local specialty which everyone ought to try at least once. Either you will find them addictive or you will describe them as "an acquired taste."

There are two soups available daily, by the cup or by the bowl: Always chicken and sausage gumbo (really good), and usually shrimp and corn chowder (really, really good)..

Plate lunches are good, especially the red beans and rice with sausage/or fried catfish, always available on Mondays.

If you are minded to have dessert, there is a variety of choices, and you won't go wrong with the bread pudding or the often available homemade cake by the slice.

You order at the counter, specifying dine-in or take-out. Fill your large soft drink glass at the machine (with free refills) and sit at a table to eat. Beer and soft drinks by the bottle are...

Been coming to Roco's here since they opened. Atmosphere and people there are fantastic. But, I guess because of the pandemic and our rise in inflation, their pricing has gone to the point that it is no longer worth coming. I got a standard whole fried shrimp poboy and some fried pickles. I have been getting the same thing here for years now.

Well first of all the bread has changed and is now much smaller around, basically less. I had exactly 9 fried shrimp on one half of the poboy and 8 on the other half. So few, the shrimp were not stacked on top of each other like it used to be all the time before the pandemic ( I can remember the days when I received that many shrimp on a single half). I got the whole poboy, 17 shrimp, a fantastic portion of fried pickles and a iced tea. Total before tip was almost $24.00. Before the pandemic, this would have cost $14-$15 at most.

I do not know whether the girl at the front had made an error or not, but I usually do not make a fuss and just leave. But I will remember this when I want to have another great poboy. There are a number of good places here in Baton Rouge, Dempsey's being one, Parrain's being another and there is always the quick and good Po-boy Express.

Cutting down on quality and greatly increasing prices on the excuse of the pandemic, when it hasn't affected other places as badly is not the way to keep loyalty to your eating establishment.

Hopefully management will step in and re-evaluate their quality, quantity and pricing before they are in the ranks of those that have to close up due to lack of customers.

I just want my old...

Full disclosure this review is only based on service or rather lack thereof. I unfortunately didn't have the 80 minutes it took for 2 simple poboys and fries to arrive at the table before I had to return to work. My wife and I placed our order at 11:52 (order# 77) on 3/11/21 and were fortunate to find an empty table. 30 minutes of conversation and no food when I started paying attention to the order numbers that were ready....."order 55", five minutes later "order 56". I walked to the counter and asked the server if she knew how long before our order may be ready...."I don't know, everyone's asking that right now. What's your order? Me - "77". Her - "Oh, it's going to be a while. They're only on #66 right now." Mind you, this is already 35 minutes after we ordered and they are 11 orders from picking mine up. I had to return to work but my wife remained to see what the final wait time would be. Food arrived at 1:08 and according to her was not the culinary masterpiece that you would have expected to arrive after waiting nearly an hour and a half for a poboy. My shrimp were cold and soggy as were the fries. Will...