Roost — Restaurant in Dover

Our first visit to Roost yesterday (05/10/2025) will also surely be the last one. My wife booked a table for 6:45pm, we were greeted by the host who promptly took us to our table, gave us glasses of water and the menus. Great start but everything went downhill from there. For 30 minutes after being seated, we didn't see anyone. Nobody came to ask if we wanted to order drinks or anything else, nothing. The place was not even busy but still, no staff came to talk to us or the table next to us, it's like we were all completely ignored.

At some point (30 min +), the wife ran out of patience and went to the host to ask if we could move to the bar to at least get drinks and we did. We were surprised to see that the bar area was also not busy and that there was no one behind the bar. After sitting there for like 5 minutes, someone came to the bar and asked if we wanted drinks. We finally got our first drinks around 7:20pm and ordered our food at the same time: Crispy brie and Arancini for starters, Roost Burger and Salmon sandwich for mains.

We waited another 40 minutes before our starters came. Arancini were delicious, perfectly made and really tasty. Sadly the brie wasn't cooked enough, it was a bit cold, the center was still hard and not melted enough. The side crostini were really salty. Our mains came pretty quickly, something like 15-20 minutes after we got the starters but these were another disappointment. The Roost burger was nothing special, the bun was really dry (see pictures) and was served with undercooked frozen French fries. Not impressed. Same comment for the salmon sandwich, salmon was good but the bun was your standard supermarket type of bun and was dry.

Altogether, pretty poor experience, really! I was expecting more after looking at their menu. It screams fine dining but really wasn't. The food was not worth the wait (an hour and fifteen minutes before getting starters), staff wasn't very friendly and the service was sluggish but the place wasn't even busy. Don't know if they are short staffed but still, the fact that no one came to say "sorry but the wait is gonna be a bit longer than usual" and they avoided contact (seated for 30 minutes without anyone to come, no one behind the bar most of the evening, 3 interactions top for the entire time we were there and simply a global "can't be bothered attitude") speaks volume, especially when we had a reservation. It feels like the staff tried to avoid contact.

There's nothing fancy about this place, it's mediocre at best. Not considering coming back for a second try.

PS: the beers list is outdated and has wrong information (i.e. Stella beers are from Belgium,...

My wife and I had a 4:15 PM reservation on Monday. We arrived on time, and the maître d' silently brought us to our table, right off from the main entrance. From what we could see, there were no other customers in the restaurant at the time. After seating us the maître d' went back to her station, about 10 feet away. Directly behind where we were seated, also about 10 feet away, were three staff people – two women and a man. They were engaged in a discussion about the restaurant’s personnel, staffing and schedules. They were somewhat animated, and at times in their discussion, cursing. Next to our table was an opening into the bar area where we did see one other staff person - a woman who was filling the utensils at a station. She also looked in our direction, noticed we were there, then walked away. As an open concept restaurant, our presence was obvious and conspicuous. We sat at our table for over 15 minutes and nobody came by to say hello, offer us water or anything to drink, or acknowledge us in any way. As the time went on it became increasingly uncomfortable - and no music playing made it worse. For them to stand there having their open discussion, and not even think about coming over to acknowledge us was rude and unprofessional. It was incredibly uneasy for us, and I suggested to my wife maybe it was time to go - she agreed. At which point we got up to leave. I looked over at the three people who were just standing there still talking, and one girl started to say something to us, but I just said, “have a nice evening” (because there was no call for us to be impolite). As someone who has worked at a culinary/hospitality university this type of behavior was unacceptable. One of the main objectives of a restaurant is to make the customers feel welcome. We felt extremely unwelcome and awkward. It has been a few days and I am still stunned that five people would allow us to sit there that long without even coming over just to say hello! And my wife and I are incredibly understanding people. If the restaurant had been jamming, or it seemed like they were understaffed, or if someone had just come over and said “hey there's an issue, but we’ll be right with you”, we would have been fine. But to let us sit there in an empty restaurant while you complain about the establishment was insensitive and ignorant. Roost seems to present itself in décor and on its social media as classy, fine-dining establishment, but it has a long way to go. We left and went to The Farm Bar and Grille, where we enjoyed a fantastic meal, with great service provided by a very sweet young lady – who we...

Man, this place is going downhill after looking at recent reviews. Unfortunately mine will also echo the sentiment. We have been here probably half a dozen times or so now... Our experience (up to our most recent visit) has been hot and cold, up and down.

Most recently I ordered the "special". It was an asian inspired dish with jasmine rice, teriyaki chicken, and roasted asparagus. I was embarrassed for the place for serving it. The dish must have sat under the heat lamp for an hour? I dont know, the chicken was incredibly overcooked, the sauce was sodium concentrate from a bottle;. The asparagus had no body as it was overcooked, chewy skin. It was bad enough, that as a kitchen, they MUST have known that it was bad as it left the doors.

My wife got the baked haddock... for what reason do you not bake the bread crumbs with the haddock?! they were put on after the fish was cooked and made everything soggy. The fish was overcooked and there clearly was no care put into the dish. Seems like this is a problem that not only I have experienced lately here.

Unfortunately, this was the last straw. As I stated, the place has been hot and cold, so I will give 2 stars. But this last time (on a saturday evening no less) was the last straw. It is sad as we live so close... but it was a very poor...