Rocco's Pizza & Cafe — Restaurant in Florida

This is something I really don’t enjoy doing as this has been an establishment that my family has frequented for YEARS!! Had reservations for 6pm, we showed up early. Yes it was a Saturday night and understandably busy. We waited for over 40 MINUTES to get drinks, appetizers didn’t follow until at least 30 minutes later, and we were still lacking 2 of them. Again, they were busy so even though it was frustrating, the part that truly angered us was the actions of the owner. After almost 2 hours our food started to come out. The pasta dish was accommodating and seemed to be good, it wasn’t mine so I can’t speak personally but it did look good. Then came out the Prime Rib, which looked like a run of the mill steak, my uncle could barely cut through it. By the time the pasta dish was almost completely consumed, out came the pizzas. The personal pizza was satisfactory, however the large supreme, even a chain Pizza restaurant would have tossed that before attempting to serve it. It was undercooked, I mean gooey and soupy in the entire middle, it was absolutely necessary to use a fork to even attempt to eat it. The toppings slid right off showing the undercooked dough. Fluid oozed out around the slices on the plate and also the pizza pan itself. By this time we were fuming!! It was absolutely disgusting and unacceptable and we were starving having waited 2 HOURS!! Again, we had reservations. I admit I do happen to be a bit of a hot head but I held it together until the owner came over, his exact words were, in an extremely condescending tone “what’s the problem” of course my reply was not too pleasant. He said he’d been making pizza for over 30 years and this was normal. Apparently multiple toppings equals raw and gooey pizza. It was extremely hard for me not to throw it back at him. What I wanted to tell him after his 30 year statement was that I have flown on an airplane more times than I could count but it doesn’t make me a pilot. I informed him that our family had been coming to that establishment for years and we wouldn’t be returning, he didn’t care and told us that we would be playing full price for that slop. Even the servers were horrified at his actions. A simple “I’m sorry, what can I do to make this right “ would have sufficed, we would have probably calmed down and told him that everyone has a bad night and that we were appreciative that he acknowledged our displeasure and we would have been back. This place, we even had my grandmother’s Celebration of Life there!! We are all appalled, disgruntled and quit honestly hurt. It saddens me that we will not be back, no one deserves to be as disappointed and disrespected as we were. To the staff, you were as accommodating as you could be being as busy as you were and I feel so terribly sorry that you have to work for such an ugly spirited person. It wasn’t as much about the food as it was the lack of humanity. Both servers did ask if they could have another one made, but by that time it was after 8pm and even the entertainment was wrapping the night up. At this point we just wanted to go home and have dinner 😭 We didn’t desire to wait...

We have dined at Rocco’s several times since moving to the area from Lutz ( north Tampa). Being Italian, I had hoped to find an authentic, friendly, family owned restaurant similar to our favorite located in Lutz. At Rocco’s the food is good. Not as good as we were used to, but good enough to have kept us going back. The wait staff has always been friendly and attentive. If possible, we will go out of our way to compliment the owner of an establishment. Even attempt to establish a friendly relationship. I’m not sure that is possible with the owner. Or perhaps it just takes a while for him to warm up to be friendly? We went out of our way on two occasions complimenting him on his establishment.

We will sometimes stop in the cafe on a whim if we are in the area, as we did this past Saturday. It was at about 2 in the afternoon. There were no cars out front. But the open sign was lit, we dined at that time previously, and the door was open. We put on our masks and walked in. The owner, as we sometimes find him, was sitting at the back table, with his back to the wall, facing the door. No one else was in the dining room. We could hear voices coming from the kitchen. We walked past the first table and waited to be recognized. He certainly would have seen us. He’s facing us. The dining room lighting is not bright, but with a sunny day behind us as we walked in the door, we would be hard to miss. We waited. My husband and I spoke to each other, which the owner certainly should have heard our voices, asking each other “are they open?” Every indication, including our previous visits on Saturdays at that time would tell us yes. He’s not telling us they are closed. We continue to stand... waiting. Will he greet us? Will he move from his seat and tell someone in the back they have a customer? We know we could speak up and ask if they are open. Or “can we be seated?” Being business owners ourselves, we are stubborn about certain things. One being that we expect to be treated in the same manner we would treat our own customers. So we turned around and walked out. Right through the door that when opened brings in bright light one can’t miss. Will he come out after us? No. We figured he must not need the business. Even during this pandemic. Too bad. We know there are places who...

I will start off by saying I am not the kind of person who writes bad reviews especially for local restaurants but unfortunately our experience warrants one. We started our evening out wonderfully. The waiter was attentive and gave us time to think on what we wanted. He explained and tried to sell us on certain dishes for the night. One of the people in our party ordered the Zuppa Di Pesce. This dish is shrimp, calamari, mussels and clams over pasta. The food arrived everything fine. The waiter came to ask how everything was and we altered him that the all of clams in the dish weren’t opened which typically is a sign not to eat them. There was one clam that was slightly opened enough to use a knife but had a bleach/ chlorine smell and taste which is a sign that the clams are not fresh and treated with chemicals as a preservative. The waiter went to get the owner…the owner came over and asked rather rudely what the issue was. We told him most of the clams weren’t open to which he responded use a knife! We let him know of the taste and smell and offered him one to try. He grabbed the clam, struggled to open it with his fingers, raised his voice and said “it smells and taste like clams” turned to the rest of the tabled and asked if anyone else would like to try. We realized we weren’t getting anywhere and he walked away. We continued with our meal and were mid conversation when he returned with a box of frozen mussels and said all our mussels and clams are frozen and pre-cooked, showing us the box. He also did not show us the clams box, which is what we were talking about. The owner continued to be standoffish and rude throughout the conversation. Despite the seafood being frozen, according to the FDA any clams or mussels that are not opened by themselves should not be eaten! After awhile the waiter returned to let us know that the owner was giving a 10% discount on that dish but by that time the meal had been ruined. The owner didn’t try to make amends and the rest of the food was mediocre at best. Do yourself a favor and go...