Rocco's Pizza — Restaurant in Florida

So i recently moved to springhill. I am a fanatic about Italian food. Growing up with all Italians and being an Italian chef myself for over 10 years i have high expectations when eating at Italian restaurants that claim too be authentic. Ive been seeing this place every time i go to publix and it seems pretty busy, even reviewed the reviews before going last night. So i called my daughter and said let's meet here, 3 adults 2 children. Upon walking in we were promtly seated the restaurant was just starting to get busy. Our server was promt in greeting us and taking drink orders. They definitely had no Italian ambience going on as they were playing 80s rock, (first time ive ever been in an Italian restaurant without Italian music singers at least playing). Upon our drinks coming i explained to our server it was our first time and asked for recommendations, now finding out he is the owners son i was extremely shocked at the lack of recommendations and the nonchalant i don't care attitude he provided. I decided to order the chicken parm with linguini with a cup of pasta fagioli and then the rest ordered a pizza to share. I was shocked to see them deliver a tiny sesame seed roll enough for 1 person to the table for 5 people to share. The food was delivered in a reasonable time. Pasta fagioli was the worst i ever had, it was real watery, had some kind of bitter vinegar taste which ive never had before with that soup and no flavor at all. The dinner i ordered the marinara was extremely watery and lacked even the most basic of Italian flavors very bland, the chicken itself was nice portion and had decent flavor. They did not even serve the pasta with a spoon or a knife i had to ask which the server was rude and i was delivered a teaspoon and butter knife They brought the pizza out, it was not cut all the way through i asked the server to bring it back to cut it for us he said he's not allowed to take it back and brought us ANOTHER butter knife to cut pizza with. But i will admit the pizza was great. Asking for refills on our water made us feel like we were inconveniencing him, his constant rudeness was getting very irritating. He came and asked us if we wanted dessert we ordered the little fried dough balls with powder sugar and what is supposed to be a chocolate dipping sauce. They took 20 minutes to get our dessert the balls were very tough and the chocolate sauce was in fact cold Hershey syrup, completely nasty eating that as a dessert sauce. The best thing he did was bring me my check, i couldn't wait to get away from our server his lack of customer service skills was awful. I would not recommend this place for their dinners or dine in experience at all but i would...

Reading other reviews it appears that their product is inconsistent. Ranging from thick dry crust to "just like new York pizza".

I can 100% assure you that it is nothing at all like NY pizza.

First the style of the restaurant is all wrong. You can't walk up and place the order. Pizza is on display but they tell you to sit. This is the "pizza by the slice" format you would know well in new York city. How am I supposed to know what pizza you have and pick of I can't see it? Why put it on display? So confusing.

After I sat down, just nearly getting to see the pizza display I felt like I was in timeout, waiting to place my order. I asked what kind of pizza was available and response sounded like whatever you want. But but but.. can I get up and look? Should the waitress come with me so I can put the order in while looking at the pizza on display.

So I picked what I could remember. After some time I had a drink and pizza.

Pizza was nicely sitting atop a glass plate, which feels weird. Where's the floppy paper plate we know and love?

As for the pizza, it resembled NY pizza in the fact that it was once round, has bread, cheese and most likely some sauce. The crust was too thin and lacked that stretchy inner texture from properly risen and baked crust. The pepperoni resembled something you buy in a grocery store, and the cheese was seasoned to remind me of frozen pre made pizza. I can assure you it was not, but the flavor profile matches slightly.

Once all done, I received my bill and I was out the door for $11 for two slices and a drink. The receipts were laughable. Seems like a lot of paperwork for two slices.

Not NY style by any stretch of the imagination. The only thing about it that made me think of actual NY pizza is how laughably off the mark it is.

Overall the pizza is ok, I know, I am spoiled. Maybe it's great for the area or the lunch pizza is different, but my one and only trip here will likely not...

Run, don’t walk to have an AWESOME pizza here when you are around!!!!! My husband and me have been working next door and saw that lots of people going to this place. I went in just to check what is that about…. When I opened the door I had no doubt, WE HAVE TO TRY THE PIZZA HERE! So I called my husband and went for lunch. The staff is super-friendly, our waiter was a very cool guy who took care of everything and even went beyond our expectations. The pizza is fresh, exxxxxtra great crust, you can even watch the making process, because you have a great view to the pizza oven from the tables. We are European, travelled all around the world, yes we are picky, but this pizza was FLAWLESS!!!!!!!!!!

Started with Caprese for appetizer and went for extra cheese pizza after. (Extra large pizza is just + $2, go for it, worry it! ) Even when we’ve been full, we could not stop eating lol.

Seriously, this place is a hidden gem!!!!!

Service 5 stars, Food 5 stars, Prizes 5 stars.

Thank you a lot, can’t wait to be around Spring Hill again, just for the Rocco’s Pizza. :-)

(It was a month ago and we still can’t stop talking about how...