The Rock Wood Fired Pizza — Restaurant in Lakewood

A Meal to Forget: The Worst Restaurant Experience of My Life

Dining out is usually a treat—an escape from cooking, a chance to try something new, and, ideally, enjoy good food. Unfortunately, my recent visit to a highly rated but utterly disappointing restaurant turned out to be one of the worst culinary experiences of my life. The food was not only overpriced and inedible, but it also left me sick for two days. What was supposed to be a fun evening became an expensive disaster.

From the moment I walked in, I should have trusted my instincts. The place had a strange smell—something like stale grease mixed with overly sweet air freshener. The decor was trying to be upscale, but it felt more like someone’s attempt at imitating luxury on a budget. Still, I sat down, hoping the food would make up for it. Spoiler: it didn’t.

The menu was absurdly overpriced. Basic pasta dishes were listed at gourmet prices, and even simple sides like fries were nearly ten dollars. Thinking maybe the quality justified the cost, I ordered a seafood risotto that was described as “fresh, creamy, and packed with flavor.” What I got was a lukewarm, watery mess that tasted like someone boiled rice in fishy broth and called it a day. The shrimp were rubbery, and the mussels smelled off—something I should have taken more seriously in hindsight.

Still trying to salvage the evening, I ordered dessert. Bad idea. The “house-made” chocolate mousse came out half-frozen and had the texture of pudding from a school cafeteria. At this point, I was just laughing to myself—how could everything be this bad?

The real nightmare started about six hours later. I woke up feeling nauseous, and the next 48 hours were a blur of stomach cramps and regret. It was food poisoning, almost certainly from the seafood risotto. I later found out that several online reviews mentioned similar experiences, but I had trusted the restaurant’s high rating without digging deeper.

To make matters worse, the bill was outrageously high for what I got. I paid nearly $80 for a meal that not only tasted terrible but also made me physically ill. There was no apology from the staff, no acknowledgment that something might have gone wrong.

In the end, this experience taught me a valuable lesson: always trust your gut—both metaphorically and literally. Just because a place looks fancy and has decent reviews doesn’t mean it’s worth your time or money. Sometimes, the worst meals come wrapped in the...

If it was my choice I would give this place ZERO stars. First off my coworkers came here after a work event for the health care field in which we deal with mental health patients . We are all professional who work in the health care field. First of all the Waitress was rude, giving my fellow coworkers attitude from the very beginning, and she seemed very unhappy working for the place. They accused us of calling the waitress names hours after serving us. The waitress then came to us after I have arrived around 3pm took my order and then proceed to say that we need to pay for our order/bill .She kept going to us and giving us the bill, and we kept saying we are not done. Then she like “ well 330pm i leave so you guys need to close the tab “. We ended up closing the tab because the waitress insisted . An hour goes by , and the waitress was still working. We asked for more drinks in which she told us that we were “cut off” . We had no clue what that meant we just didn’t say much because we didn’t know what that meant . We seen three girls talking to a guy dressed in a black polo . I had waved a waitress down in which she didn’t respond right away . Three minutes later a the guy came to our table, and we started inquiring about our service and how we were being treated by the waitress. We asked if we can order more drinks in which he proceeded to decline us anymore service stating , “ you guys called 3 people names” . We gathered as professionals and none of us did as he was stating . He declined us any service as we were already there for 4 hrs . This place is not attentive to people who come and pay for a service. We ended up leaving as we felt like the manger listened to the waitress VS. customers. He stated we called 3 people names including a host in which there was none .The attitude that was Exhibited by both was unprofessional and uncalled for being that we work in the health care field. We know professionalism and we did not feel like we were treated with kindness or respect. I would not recommend this place. Save your money go somewhere else.

-the owners reply just shows you what kind of place this is . And your service should've been better. How...

I didn't want to "ding" them completely on stars. I gave them three because our food was VERY good. Before I get started let me say this: I worked in restaurants in just about every position. Hostess, server, back waiter, I have done all of it.

My mother and boyfriend and I came in this passed Friday evening around 8:00 PM. We where pretty hungry. I had called ahead 5 minutes before we arrive and was told the wait was 15 minutes. Perfectly satisfactory as my boyfriend said the food was great. Once we arrived the Host told us 15-20 minutes. No problem! I didn't necessarily sit there and monitor the time until I realized we where approaching an hour, and we noticed that all the people whom came in after us had already been seated. When we finally sat down it took our server not 5 minutes, but a good 10 minutes to get our drink order. Emily, I believe her name was definitely needs work. We had to flag her down to remind her we still hadn't got our drinks. We ordered an appetizers which we told her we wanted before our food. When the appetizers did come out, so did our pizza, soups and salads. I could forgive one thing or another but when we had to repeatedly ask for refills, or the desert, or the check, it shows a lack of training. I have a hard time going back to a place when service is non-existent from the front staff and servers.

The food on the bright side was very good. We ordered a white sauce pizza, it was a 10, even though it was a medium I wish it had been a bit bigger. The "Rock Chips" my boyfriend ordered where amazing, the soup my Mom order was great. I will try going back again next time I am in the area and really hope that the service is better,...