Saint Rocco's New York Italian — Restaurant in Dallas

I made reservations for my wife, Son, and myself on Mother's Day. On the Saturday before, I called because I noticed the normal hours of operation were 5:00 PM to close and my reservation was for 2:00 PM. I wanted to make sure they were open and everything would run smoothly. I was driving all the way from Sherman, TX (70.7 Miles) and I did not want any issues. I also inquired about the menu and I was told they would be running brunch until 2:00 and then they would be serving the normal dining menu. This was great because I wanted my wife to experience the table side Cacio e Pepe.

Mother's Day was a rainy day, and when we left the house, in Sherman, my GPS said we would arrive at 2:14 and would be late for the reservation that I chose. I drove pretty aggressively to get there and we arrived with 2 minutes to spare. I dropped my wife and Son off at the door and found a parking spot across the street (No Valet on Mother's day??). After I finally got inside, I found my family standing in the foyer along with several other parties. I said nothing as people continued to pile up behind and beside us. I looked at my watch and noticed that it was now 2:12 PM and we are still waiting to be seated for our "reserved" time slot and table. Finally at 2:17 we were directed to follow the host to our seat.

The waiter comes over to take our drink order and then returned to tell us that the buffet was still open and we were welcome to serve ourselves. After further inquiry...we were informed that the main menu wouldn't be available until after 5:00 PM. After some audible discontent from my end, my wife took it upon herself to inspect the buffet. Her affirmative thumbs-up signaled that it appeared passable, so we proceeded to visit the omelet station and navigate the buffet line. However, upon returning to our table, disappointment set in as the only items retaining warmth were the omelets. The potatoes, French toast, waffles and EVERYTHING else was cold. Needless to say, we did not try anything else because it was Mother's Day and I wanted my wife to be served...not up doing all the work herself. I will add this tidbit and I am done.... We ordered 2 drinks off of the menu: The Sangria and the Cotton Candy Martini. When the drinks came, the Martini was a ton of cotton candy and no liquid. A few moments later, the bartender came running out with the liquor that went in the drink.

I will pause before I finish and say that our waiter was new and yesterday was his first day on the floor. I think his name was Caesar. He was nice and will be great once he gets used to the place. He is the reason for the extra star.

With all of that said: The bill was $189.00! Now...for good food and great service...this is nothing. However,well-maintained in this instance, I could have found a better and more well-maintained buffet at some random Choice Brand Hotel. I used to work in the food industry and I had many of them as clients and they at least kept the food warm and ready. For $45.00 per person I expected a LOT more! Actually, what I expected was the main menu being available because of the conversation I had with whoever answered the phone when I inquired. I normally would not write a bad review and I rarely take the time to do so, but in this instance, I feel it is warranted! No "Reserved" Table or time slot and $189 for 3 mediocre meals and 2 drinks is hard to accept. Funny thing I noticed after leaving - we never took any photos of the food or drinks. We ALWAYS take photos of our food because we brag about having more photos of food than we do of our children. Then years later when they show up in out "memories," we try and guess or remember where we ate by the photos of the food. Clearly, this was a non-memorable moment and the saddest part was we went to eat somewhere else...

My wife and I went to Saint Rocco’s for a Saturday evening dinner. We showed up on time for our reservation and had about a 10 minute wait for a table. Once escorted to our over-lit table with its extinguished candle, the waiting began and never stopped.

The water servers bypassed our table no fewer than four times and after 13 minutes seated at the table (and with two minutes remaining on our personal timer before we were just going to walk out) our server, Mercedes came to the table. She was cheerful, knowledgeable about the menu, our defender at the bar, advocate with back of house, and the best part of our meal.

We placed a drink order. One gin and one vodka martini. After being told the bartender had neither liquor ordered (we could see one of the bottles on the shelf), Mercedes advocated that the bartender should not just substitute a different gin, rather she wanted to check with her table. We selected another vodka and were told that one of the chef’s intervened pointing the bartender to the full bottle of gin.

This was unfortunate because what came out were two of the strangest looking and tasting beverages. Both had bubbles running up the side of the glass and a thick white head that never subsided. We took a sip of each and put them aside. We ordered them — we hated them — but were not going to send them back. Let’s just move on to a glass of wine. The manager happened to deliver our wine and noted the two full drinks. He asked what we ordered. When replying “a martini,” we could see his eyebrows raise with question. He asked of we liked them, we replied we did not, to which he removed them from the table and said “he would take care of this.” We thought this meant remove them from the check, but it did not.

During the martini fiasco, our calamari appetizer arrived (as did out water, after Mercedes’ intervention) and was consumed. It was OK. Some pieces more tender than others and a significant sheen of oil coated the bottom of the plate.

Enough time had passed that we were nearing completion of our glass of wine that arrived post-appetizer and pre-entree. It was now 8:50pm (reservation was at 7:15pm). Mercedes continued to stop by the table and let us know the food would be out shortly and the she was checking with the kitchen. Two tables arriving after us ate full meals and paid their tabs. We received our second glass of wine and started our timer yet again.

At 8:57pm I went to find the manager who was going to “fix” the martinis. I explained the nearing two hour wait between reservation and entree and requested a check for the items that arrived at our table. In this brief moment, the food finally arrived.

My wife ordered the chicken parm. The protein was not offensive but the linguini with vodka sauce had a strange taste and was barely dressed. I ordered the eggplant parm and requested a substitution side of the rigatoni bolognese instead of the spaghetti with marinara. To Mercedes and the kitchen’s credit, the side was executed as ordered and probably the best part of the meal. Only the middle of the eggplant parm could be eaten as those touching the sides of the oval ramekin were so chewy where the Parmesan cheese went beyond frico and turned into a near glue.

We finished our meals, paid our check inclusive of martinis, which, hey we ordered and it was only the manager’s comments that made us think they might be comped. We knew Mercedes did her best while lack support from other areas of the restaurant. If we want NY Italian / Italian-American style dishes, we’re headed back to Barsotti’s. We tried, and will never return to,...

DO. NOT. RECOMMEND. I’m not one to leave reviews like this, but this is one that I MUST write. I would hate for anyone else to have to experience the unprofessionalism of a business on top of tasteless food.

Tonight was my second time going to this place. The first time I went, I felt the same exact way about the food…very bland and dry, but I believe in giving places a second try, especially because I wanted to check out the happy hour speakeasy, and get the amazing view of the skyline! (I didn’t get to experience that the last time) This time reaffirmed my decision to NEVER come back!

The customer service from the host, and my waiter was great , (as it was the previous time). They attended to all of our needs, and that is the reason for any stars at all!

Tonight, I got the roasted chicken, broccolini, and potatoes, all of which were just not good at all. Like the last time, the food lacked seasoning, my chicken was very dry, and it was just all bland, as a whole. I was very disappointed. Also got calamari, which I wasn’t a fan of but I did eat a couple of pieces because I was starving! My waiter asked if I wanted to box up my leftovers, and I told her no thank you.. and was going to leave it at that; however, she noticed the other two people that I was accompanied with also didn’t eat much on their plate either. Because she was so kind, she asked was there anything wrong with the food, and we explained our concerns, told her it was ok, and we asked for the check. She comes back with the check and says, hold on… before paying, I’m going to let the manager know because I hate that you all were dissatisfied. (Remember before, we were just going to pay and leave it at that). This place is nice, and we definitely don’t want to cause a scene. Anyways, she came back and said… I’m sorry, he says that he can’t do anything with this because he doesn’t believe anything is wrong with your plates. From there, we asked to speak to the manager, because what kind of response is that and why didn’t the manager come over anyways after our waiter communicated that the food wasn’t good at all?

Before we can even say anything, he comes over to the table with an attitude. I was so shocked, and have never seen a manager act this way before we even had a chance to speak. We expressed our concerns, showed him the food, and his response is.. “there’s nothing I can do about it, if you don’t like it, don’t come back, nobody else feels this way but y’all and no one else sends back their food”… But let’s be clear, if no one EVER complains about the food, why would he be so defensive before even speaking with us? You take the criticism, and move on. We weren’t asking for a discount or anything, but we did want to be heard, and the waitress did express “that they only want to get better as a whole.. so feedback is appreciated”

Although he mentioned before, that he couldn’t do anything, he did wipe the bill, but told us “Never to come back again”. Beyond unprofessional! That is something he was never going to after to worry about anyways! We tipped our waitress, and thanked her so much for her kindness and left.

So many other places with good views! That’s the only thing it is good for. You have been warned. (Also, check other...