Stromboli's Restaurant — Restaurant in City of Rochester

I really tried to convince myself that 5th time was a charm. Because this establishment is across the street from my work and there are limited food options, i decided to give Stromboli's one last try..... That was a mistake. I won't even bother getting into the prior 4 times my order was trash, but this was the absolute tipping point. I ordered a vegan stromboli online and selected a side of blue cheese. Online there is no designation as to vegan or regular, so i made sure to check with the gentleman cashing me out. He assured me that everything in my order was vegan and i went on my way. The blue cheese was great and i was raving to my coworker how close it tasted to regular blue cheese dressing that contains dairy. I know they have a vegan chef on board for their cheeses so i figured the individual was just really good at recreating flavors. There were no chunks of cheese to let me believe otherwise. Once i reached the bottom of the cup i found a chunk... I squished the chunk between my fingers to discover it was not tofu but an actual piece of blue cheese. When i walked back to the establishment to make the restaurant aware of their error, the owner became indignant and said it was my fault for not specifying in my online order that i wanted vegan blue cheese. (Mind you there was no option for V blue cheese, i ordered a vegan stromboli, and the guy at the register assured me everything was vegan.) When i explained they did not give an option online and that i verbally asked an employee he said that most of his customers that order vegan aren't vegan -_- I said that is irrelevant to my situation and that i was assured by the cashier it was vegan. His response was that that guy didn't know what he was talking about, and that if the sauce was vegan it would say this on the outside. I asked how i as a customer am supposed to know how they designate their sauces and explained that i just consumed nearly a whole container of sauce when i haven't had dairy in 2 years. He asked what i wanted him to do about it... A simple apology and recognition of their error from the beginning would have sufficed but instead it became a whole ordeal resulting in me never ordering from here again. I do hope they can learn from their very obvious mistake. In the meantime i will be letting everyone i know (especially people following a plant based diet) to not patronize this...

1. The restaurant was generally not clean. The tables, windows, bathroom, counters, were all in various states of dusty/grimy. This immediately begged the question of whether the kitchen practices are sanitary and it honestly diminishes some of the enthusiasm for the food.

2. We had a couple of options from the vegan stromboli menu. I will say that they were cooked well, and the bread was good. Specifically regarding the "seitan steak" option, I would recommend (much) less vegan cheese. The thing is, vegans have a love/hate relationship with vegan cheeses. The chef uses one that is considered high-quality (pretty sure Miyoko mozerella), but too much -- to the point that I felt the need to scrape it out to continue eating. I would recommend that the chef (even if he is not vegan) eat it himself and see if he can stomach that much vegan cheese -- and if not, add less. I'll also say that the seitan steak strombili could have been seasoned better/more. It had a small amount of onions and peppers which were kind of "meh". In regard to the seitan steak itself, I honestly expected something more substantial. What I got was a single slice of deli-meat style seitan. I assume this was carrying most of the flavor, but there was so little of it that I didn't catch much in the way of flavor overall. I would recommend the chef go to Swiftwater and order the vegan stromboli. This is the best I've had in Rochester and I think perhaps the chef could learn get some inspiration from it.

3. The surrounding area was a bit sketch. I guess that's just Rochester for you. Overall, we will likely not...

Strombolis is THE best pizza parlor in the east end. Hands down. Everyone here is friendly. It's popular with the local college - Eastman/UR- crowd. The food is amazing and the ambience is cool, casual, cultured and comfortable.

The owner loves music. Jazz is his favorite and it shows!  The wallpaper alternates between a montage of jazz greats like Ellington, Davis, and Fitzgerald and there are several large pieces of art on the walls. The soundtrack is 105.9 North Coast Radio, our local jazz station. It's even used as a venue for small combos during our acclaimed Jazz Festival in the summers.

Now for the food - amazing! They're known for their bolis which are kinda like stuffed breads or rectangular calzones minus the ricotta. Anything you can put on a pizza you can put in these bolis. A crowd favorite is the Tim's Special with spinach, bacon, mushrooms, ricotta and mozz. My favorite is the chicken club - all white meat chicken, cheddar, mozz, bacon and tomatoes - YUM!

They recently got a liquor license and have 4 beers on tap and a wine list! This place has come a long way since I was a kid and I hope my kid enjoys it...