Rooney's Restaurant — Restaurant in City of Rochester

My family has always saved Rooney's for the most special occasions because the food was superb and the atmosphere special. After a break of about 5 years, we returned to Rooney's to celebrate a family member's milestone birthday. Both the host and the waiter, who have been employed by the restaurant for many years, were, as in the past, very cordial, friendly, and considerate (he put a candle in the desert of my family member's desert when he learned that it was their birthday! thank you!). However, I was very disappointed with both the food and atmosphere. I remember Rooney's as a refined, fine-dining experience. When we arrived around 7, the volume in the room was deafening! People laughing, talking very loudly. If I had closed my eyes, I could have been one of the "hipster" restaurants - like Nosh! But as the night went on and the restaurant cleared out, it became a bit quieter and more enjoyable. The more serious issue that I have is with the food preparation. I'd describe all of our meals as just o.k. The sauces were tasty, but there were major faux pas, especially for a retaurant of this calibur. One family member ordered his steak "medium rare." This is a person who usually cooks steak rare at home but decided to play it a bit safer. The meal was delivered with the steak cooked very well done - there was literally almost no pink!! That is just unacceptable. My duck was so chewy that I had to remove some of it from my mouth because I could not swallow it. I'm not sure about the other meals because we did not comment on our food much - we were there to celebrate so we focused on the positives. I think the meals were tasty but the meats and fish cooked poorly. Another person at the table said that their scallops were probably overcooked. I feel I need to write this because we were very much looking forward to going to Rooney's. It was my family member's favorite place, and they chose it to celebrate this special birthday. I simply think that the chef (or wherever they are getting their direction) needs to pay more attention. We did have a good time ultimately - the desserts were pretty good. But the experience wasn't as special as...

I recall visiting this restaurant several years ago and I was blown away. Returning to celebrate my birthday a days ago, it was just okay.

We started with a couple of the appetizers. The plantain-crusted shrimp were great. I loved the presentaion, and the flavours were spot on. I found the price of $15 for three shrimp is a bit steep but it was a good tasting and good-looking appetizer. Also placed an order in for the crab cake. The crab cake was absolutely delicious, but I wasn't too fond of the white sauce it came with. It tasted like a mayonnaise-based sauce and I'm not sure if it went well with the crab cake. This also ran about $15 for one single crab cake which I also found a bit steep.

For mains, I ordered the rack of lamb. This is one of the most tender lamb dishes I've had anywhere. I found the accompanying sauteed spinach overly salty and the potato gratin a bit underdone. The lamb which I requested medium-rare, was more towards the rare side (which was fine). At $45 for this entree, I expected everything to be spot on, but some aspects missed the mark for me. The girlfriend opted in for the duck breast. I sampled a bit and this was absolutely delicious. A absolutely stunning dish. The flavors were spot on and the puree with the duck were perfect. We both agreed the brussel sprouts were a bit underdone (still crunchy) and some bits had a hard kick of spicy.

I want to make clear this is no fault of the restaurant, but the restaurant got quite loud. The dining room is on the smaller side but it was beyond my tolerance. It was rather difficult to hear my girlfriend or ignore the level of noise.

I'm on the fence on whether I would return. Even taking the noise level out from my decision, one bottle of still water, two glasses of wine, two appetizers, two entrees and a dessert came to slightly under $200 including tax. I expect things to be near perfect for that price-point which I've found at other...

My daughter and I were looking for a fine dining restaurant for her birthday. After much searching on the internet, we settled on this place. I will agree with all other reviews that state that at first you think you've made a wrong turn as you head down a residential area. But in between all these homes is this little gem in Rochester. It has it's own parking area and we had no trouble finding a place to park. The restaurant is small by many standards but that added to its quiet, elegant quality. The waiters were attentive to our needs, but not overly "hovering" either. My daughter ordered Carrot soup, beef tenderloin and Creme brulee. I had the Plantain crusted jumbo shrimp, roasted duck and creme brulee. Everything was DELICIOUS. I could rave on and on, but suffice it to say, we were not disappointed. This is definitely a fine dining establishment. A very high quality, refined menu. It is pricey but as they say, "you get what you pay for." We truly enjoyed getting dressed up and eating a meal that was way out of our comfort zone. We chuckled because there wasn't a paper wrapper or plastic lid anywhere. Joking aside....if you are looking for fine dining...this...