The Rogue Roundabout — Restaurant in Conway

We'd read about this place and it seemed like it would be a perfect fit for us. Now I'm seeing other recent reviewers that had a similar experience to what we had and that makes me feel better but not in a good way.

We showed up for lunch a few days ago, around 330 pm or so, and we didn't get out of there before 530pm because of how slow the service was. It was not busy. There were maybe 20 people there to eat at most.

We didn't have waters brought to our table until about 15-20 minutes after we got there. Our beers were these about 10-15 minutes and were served to us in warm glasses. One of our second beers our server set down so hard the head foamed up and over the glass, spilling it all over the table and she didn't even give it a second glass before walking away. We ordered a couple appetizers and our entrees. Apps (fries and their cheese dip) took 25ish minutes (we both went through a beer and a half before we got the apps are we are not fast drinkers) and the fries were cold. My partner said he'd watched them come up and then just sit there under the heat lamp next to a salad that was up when we showed up and was still there, dead, when we left. The cheese was obviously heated for either too long or too hot as the fat had separated from the solids and then it had been left to sit under the heatlamp. it was just... strange. You could only taste the smoke and it was just an overall weird texture.

We ordered their summer flatbreads for our entrees. We got our entrees about an hour and 10 minutes after we sat down in a not busy restaurant. My partner's was supposed to come with apples on it, but they must have been out because there were no apples on it and not only that they'd doubled down on their gooseberry onion bacon jam. The jam also seemed to contain either ground pork or beef because when we took it apart to figure out when it had another weird texture, we didn't see 'bacon' just ground meat. The beers were merely okay. One I had, the Peach Father, tasted exactly like the cheese smoke flavour from our appetizer. My partner said that it was possibly 'cold-smoked' peaches, but there were no peaches, it was literally smoked cheese flavoured beer. All the others were just okay at best and that's being generous.

I think one problem that the Rogue Roundabout has is that there is no communication in their staff. Even the manager seemed more interested in chitchat than running the place. My partner and I have both worked in food service.The only noise we heard from the kitchen was people joking and laughing and the ticket printer. Tickets were not called out. There was no expediting. Kitchens should NEVER be that quiet unless they are closed.

We also noted that some kitchen staff took breaks in their aprons, coming back into the building smelling like cigarette smoke. I"m all for taking breaks but anything else that that apron was exposed to outside the 'realm' of the kitchen was then passed on to the food those cooks were preparing. It is no longer considered a 'clean' linen. Anyway, when food was put up in the window, there was no signal to the wait staff that it was ready. There was no call out, no bell, no nothing. So food was left in that window for every single table that was there with ours until someone just noticed. There was also no food runner, which would have solved the food in the window problem. I can't even say that there was a breakdown in communication because there just wasn't any communication happening. Other than that our other complaint was that someone came over to bus our table while we were waiting for food but took everything like we were expected to leave. We hadn't even finished with the appetizer yet.

Overall, the Rogue Roundabout is a skippable destination. Especially given what we paid. The food is mediocre, the beer is nothing exciting, and the service was terrible. My husband and I have been unwell since we left which doesn't surprise us given what we observed in the kitchen. We...

Let me start off by saying the food is nice! I would just avoid eating here as a date at any of the "table for two" bc the seating is a joke. 😭 It felt so embarrassing for both me and my date. We ordered an appetizer to share and an entree each + the entree side dish for him, so the table (which really looks like a table for 1) was so badly crowded that we had to rearrange everything given to us. Even after the server came by to get some of the plates, it was still so laughably crowded that we were still nervous about the possibility of knocking something off the table! The chairs (stools) are also uncomfortable??? I understand places with this type of style often market the "experience" of what they're selling, but it should be noted that it's not a particularly great experience. I already gave my friends a heads up about this place, bc we were all at one point interested in coming here as a dinner date restaurant. I'm definitely not coming back, but the server and host were nice! It's really just the fault of whoever furnished this place. The food is not so exceptional that I would return despite these flaws, but I do understand the hype bc objectively the food is good! It does make me feel disappointed because I understand that this place hosts events, and for me that was a lot of the appeal before actually sitting here on a regular day. If the ratio of price:food quality:discomfort was different maybe it'd be worth it, but until something changes I'll go somewhere cheaper for lunch and...

My wife and I stopped overnight in town while passing through for our honeymoon. As vegans we know to expect that not every city will have options for us at 8pm on a Tuesday, so when our search turned up a promising option we were pleasantly surprised. We called ahead and got in touch with a very friendly and helpful staff member who was more than happy to answer all of our questions. A short while later we arrived and found easy, convenient, and, most importantly, free parking less than a block up the street. When we came in the place was fairly bustling, likely because they were hosting a trivia event, but we were quickly seated by the same gentleman who we had spoken to on the phone. He was even more professional and helpful in person and was happy to clearly and confidently answer all of our follow up questions now that we had the full menu in our hands, and he even offered to make some substitutions for us so that we could get a starter. After the excellent service we received from both the host and the server, we would honestly have been happy with food that was just okay, but happily the food was delicious, creative, and generously portioned. After we left we felt like we had absolutely lucked out finding this gem of a restaurant and already planning to come back the next day for lunch. If you are a vegan staying nearby or even traveling anywhere close to Conway I cannot recommend The Rogue Roundabout highly enough, and I wouldn't doubt that their other options are...