The Roe — Restaurant in Monroe

My girlfriend and I love The Roe’s dining atmosphere. They have done a fantastic job renovating the space and making it very unique. Overall the food and beverages we have had over the course of 4 or 5 visits have been tasty, generously-sized portions, and overall enjoyable. We have told many people about The Roe and have highly recommended it.

With that being said- our most recent visit this weekend didn’t go as we had hoped. On arrival, we told the hostess about our reservation with the name and time details. She initially was not able to find a record of the reservation. We repeated the details and showed a confirmation email on our phone. We were again told the reservation couldn’t be found. While we were trying to sort things out, a different hostess approached and was filled in on the confusion and it turned out they had sat another party at the table intended for us and marked it under our reservation. No problem; mistakes happen. The weird part was we were told they would “see if they could still seat us” and “would try to find a table” as though WE were the ones who had made a mistake and were having to be accomodated. It all worked out, but it was a strange encounter to start the evening.

We ordered the ricotta & tomato appetizer- their take on a deconstructed bruscetta. It was delicious. My complaint though is that the bread to cheese to tomato ratio was way off. There was a large serving of the ricotta and 6 or so large slices of beautiful tomato in addition to 6 or more cherry tomato halves-again, a generous portion. But with all these beautiful toppings, we were given a total of roughly 2 slices of bread, cut in halves. Since we had ordered for a table of 4 to share, each of us got one half piece of bread. Once it was gone, there was still well over half of the cheese and tomatoes remaining. When we asked for more bread (which we would have had no problem paying extra for), we were told that they only had enough bread to be able to serve that amount with that appetizer. When we clarified that it didn’t have to be the same bread, we were again told that no extra bread of any kind could be offered. I do understand that their bread is likely made in house or locally sourced and that quantities are therefore limited, but it would have made more sense to me to reduce the portion sizes of cheese and tomato, charge less money, and have it be a reasonable ratio of ingredients.

We’ll be back because of the other better experiences we had before and hope to have again in the future.

P.S. we really miss the pimento cheese...

Sharing feedback on our disappointing experience with the hope it reaches the right people and improvements can be made at this restaurant with such great potential!

I came to The Roe last Friday night for my birthday. I had booked the reservation myself via Resy and I did note that it was my birthday. When we arrived, I gave the hostess my name and she told me she did not have that reservation. I asked if she would like my last name or phone number as I had just confirmed the reservation via text the day or so before. She came off very rude and finally located my reservation with my phone number. It became clear she had not been expecting the reservation and there was not a table ready. So she had another girl rush to set up our table. While still standing at the hostess stand, she called into her radio and loudly asked for some happy birthday cards to the front. It felt extremely uncomfortable and unwelcoming. If our table was not ready, I personally would not mind being asked to wait a minute or two while they prepare the table.

As for food, the arugula salad and bread service was really great. My cocktail was also delicious. For our entrees, we ordered the NY strip and the shrimp and grits. I ordered the NY strip as medium rare however it came so overcooked there was not even any pink inside. The shrimp and grits were undercooked and shrimp appeared gray and raw in some places. My boyfriend and I are not confrontational people so we did not send any food back, but we did feel quite disappointed with the preparation of the entrees given the price point.

The last sort of odd occurrence was at the end of our meal, our waitress brought out a huge plate with "happy birthday" written in chocolate on the place but nothing else. Just chocolate sauce on the plate. I do not expect a free dessert or anything for a birthday but the plate seemed weird and wasteful as it was just a plate of chocolate sauce.

Passing our experience along because we saw so much potential in the restaurant. The space and atmosphere was really stunning. The commitment to locally-sourcing ingredients is admirable and drew us to the restaurant. I hope you all can learn from our feedback and improve the experience to meet the higher end standard The Roe...

Walked into the market side to shop around with my dad and the store was not busy. There was one other family grabbing cups of water who then walked out. I asked the woman behind the bread counter if there was someone I could talk to about their selection of wine. She asked me very bluntly “what do you want” and when I told her I prefer sweeter white wines, she very flatly said “there is no such thing” and then walked away. I said ok and walked back toward the wine rack to browse by myself, and she came back from behind the counter to continue to tell me that I don’t know what I’m talking about because her friend told her there is no such thing as sweet wines because “real wine isn’t sweet and any that are is just soda.” She then continued with “if you want sweet wine then go to Walmart.” The lady continued to talk down to me about the wine they have, what makes champagne different from sparkling wine, and only offered me the cheapest things from their selection. She was highly condescending and beyond rude and I hope that maybe she was just having an off day. Tip for the store, it is best practice to not be condescending to potential customers for asking your recommendation, especially when your staff apparently do not know what they are talking about when it comes to wine. First, sparkling wine is not champagne just because it comes from France, it must be from the Champagne region of France to be called Champagne. Second, wine is made from grapes which is a fruit that naturally has sugar in it. During the fermentation process, the amount of residual sugar the grapes retain determines whether the wine will be sweet or dry. “Buttery” is just another flavor that can be picked up by the palate like “earthy” or “tart” or “fruity”. To tell someone that there is no such thing as sweet wine so either go to Walmart or purchase “buttery” wine as if that’s what I meant is not only incorrect but patronizing. Third, unless the customer tells you that they are looking to stay within a certain price range, do not tell a customer that they are probably looking for wines less than $20 and then continue to steer them towards the cheaper options. This was my first time in this store, and the terrible customer service ensured it...