Cafe Roka — Restaurant in Bisbee

The ambience was gradiently diminished as the increasing feeling set in of being in a psuedo-upscale restaurant delivering less than what its ambience suggests, almost like a bait-and-switch. The meals are billed as being four course, when in actuality, they can be described as the entree including soup, salad, and sorbet. The soup came in a miniature bowl with perhaps four tablespoons of soup (the spoon was bigger than the mouth of the bowl), more of a sample than an entree. The salad was mid-sized; the sorbet was a one tablespoon pallet cleanser, not a course. My wife had the half duck. It was well prepared and of adequate size for an entree. She ordered a glass of wine, which is listed as being 5 ozs. coming in a 16 oz. glass. She got perhaps 3 oz., and had to goad the waitress into pouring more upon refill. I had the seafood platter, which was just short of adequate size for an entree. The four jumbo shrimp had no flavor whatsoever. The fish filet and crab cake were small portioned. My after dinner Drambuie came in the smallest rocks glass I have ever seen. Not sure I even received an ounce. The dessert platter itself was massive, but contained only two very thinly sliced wedges of chocolate and cheese cake, respectively; and a tiny pot, possibly of creme brulee. Overall, the first three "courses" were inadequate or outright chintzy, and they tried to make up for it with the entree but fell short. My wife is petite and eats very little, and her meal was thus adequate for her, but not sufficient for most. The meals are over priced for what you get. I left still hungry October 13, 2019 update. Review I posted in Trip Advisor: I gave them 3 stars because with a $19.95 meal, the 4 "courses" were actually served, the wait staff were good, and we very much enjoyed the Flamenco guitarist more than had it been the jazz they billed. I reviewed as follows:

Nice, but nothing to write home about Decided to give Cafe Roka a 2nd chance. It is a very nice restaurant with good wait staff both times. My wife had the duck special first time, I had the sea food special. Meals are billed as being 4 course, but are not. 1st "course," 3 oz of tomato soup (the ladle part of the spoon is as big as the bowl opening). 2nd "course," very small dinner salad. 3rd "course," 1/2 oz of sorbet, known in Europe as a palate cleanser, making the overall price not that great of a value. Both were almost a rip-off. The duck was good, however, the sea food platter mediocre. This time, my wife had the potato gnocchi with peppers. The presentation was beautiful, and the portion large. But, gnocchi should be the star of the plate. These were not. On top of the gnocchi being dense, heavy, and chewy, the dish was too busy with overuse of rough cut vegetables with the gnocchi almost thrown in, and the sauce was overpowering. It was served as four courses, as described above. At $19.95, they can call 3 oz. of soup, small salad, and palate cleanser anything they like. I had the Portobello and Artichoke Lasagne which came served as the same four courses. The portion was large, but there was very little pasta, and course cut cooked vegetables dominated the dish to the point I could not identify it as being lasagne. Again, for the price, they can call the first three "courses" anything they like. But, it was delight to be able to dress up and go to a somewhat upscale restaurant that had live music, billed as being jazz, but turning out to be a solo Spanish/flamenco guitarist whom we did...

Having been to Café Roka on two occasions visiting Bisbee (which is a wonderful town and well worth the trip), we find this establishment consistently disappointing. The reasons this restaurant is often recommended are hard to fathom. Our first visit we found neither the service nor the food particularly impressive. Our most recent visit was marked by repeated displays of indifference and incompetence bordering on the absurd.

We arrived at ~6:40pm for our 7:00pm reservation. One of our party stepped in to advise we had arrived early. He provided our name and the hostess said she could not seat us until our reservation time, which is fine. What was not fine was that from 7:00-7:15, two parties that arrived after us and also had 7:00pm reservations were seated before us. Perplexed, one of our party asked when we might expect to be seated. She learned that the hostess had not marked us as present at 6:40pm when we advised we had arrived early. No apology was offered and no acknowledgement that this was their error was made.

Shortly, we were led to a third-floor high-top table that had bizarrely small pedestal counter-height stools with a back that was perhaps 4” in height and wrapped around a quarter at best of the seat’s circumference. Everyone in our party is tall and none could use the stool-back for any useful support. The stools also had no arms. These stools, which had a remarkable springiness when sat upon, were more of a core-exercise than they were a seat one might choose to sit in for a whole dinner. One of our party asked that we be re-seated, which was done in a reasonable time frame.

Now at a table with proper chairs, we were given two menus for four people. The server came and we requested two more menus. He obliged, then disappeared for fifteen minutes (I checked on my watch).

When it came time to order, my wife asked what options there were for adding a protein to the gnocchi. The server first merely repeated, “a protein?” in a questioning tone of voice. She clarified that she would like the gnocchi, but would want to add some sort of protein to it. He said he had no idea as no one had ever asked such a question before. She ordered something else.

We ordered a bottle of wine. The server managed to spill the wine twice while pouring it. I do not think he noticed, so we cleaned the spill up ourselves. My wife requested a new napkin after we cleaned it up. Then she requested the napkin again about five minutes later. That time she was given one without any apparent awareness that she’d had to ask twice.

We had the deviled eggs, which had remarkably little flavor. The salads that came with our entrees were quite tasty and well-composed. I had the scallops and shrimp special, which was also quite tasty. It was not so good as to justify the price, but it was not a disappointment. The other dishes ordered were the mussels, the short-rib, and the lobster ravioli. None were said to be impressive, with the short-rib described as being comparable with what one might get at a truly excellent buffet.

My experience of this establishment has consistently been that it is well-marketed with a patina of refinement that is not consistent with the actual experience either with respect to service or to...

I gave you 2 stars because I was happy with my entree. The duck was perfectly prepared and beautifully presented. But, that's where it ends. When we entered your restaurant, I was pleasantly surprised when our server announced that our dinner included four courses. I have eaten all over the world, including 3 and 4 star Michelin restaurants, and I know what a 4 to 6 course meal is. Your salad qualified as a "course." Your soup and sorbet did not. The soup was served in a bowl smaller than my mise en place salt container. The soup spoon would not even fit into the mouth of the bowl; and, the sorbet was nothing but a palate cleanser, not a "course." Your response to my husband's review regarding this, was to give your definition of what a "course" is, which makes two of the four items technically qualify, when in fact, they do not. Then you rationalize the two non-courses by saying that the chef/owner likes to give a variety of tastes designed to complement, not supplant an entree. That is fine. But you should not classify "tastes" or palate cleansers as being "courses." Additionally, I did taste my husband's shrimp, and there was no flavor at all. Either the curry had been left off, or it was on the bed and did not come into contact with the shrimp, because there was zero taste, not even of the shrimp itself. As for my wine, my first glass contained much less than 5 ozs, and when I ordered a second glass, the waitress poured short, again, and I called her on it. At many fine restaurants, when one orders a glass of wine, they serve 5 ozs. in a 16 oz. glass plus a miniature single serving carafe on the side. It is okay that you do not, but I felt a bit undervalued as a customer at the under pour and somewhat irritated at having to coax a proper pour when I ordered a second glass. My husband received much less than 2 ounces of the digestif-Drambuie he ordered. Perhaps your staff is erring on the short side so as not to over pour. Words matter, and when we were told there would be four courses, and there were not, our dining experience was severely diminished. And, I must say that I was surprised at how you went on the offensive in your response to my husband's review. Rather than taking his expression of dissatisfaction into consideration, and seeing it as an opportunity to improve service protocol and customer relations, you immediately and unnecessarily chose to demean him - your customer - in an attempt to protect your reputation. As to walking out without bringing this to the attention of staff, we did bring the soup, sorbet, and short wine to the attention of the server. We are bringing the flavorless shrimp and short Drambuie up to you, now. That's what reviews are for. We are new to the area and were looking for our special place to dine. Apparently, Cafe Roka...