J Roo's Restaurant — Restaurant in North Haven

This is the first bad review I've ever done. We have had great and not so good experiences. Even with the not so good experiences we have always been treated respectfully and issues resolved with no problems. However today was like I said before the worst experience. We will never return to Jroo's again!!! It started off when the wings came out. The garlic and parmesan tasted very bland and the teriyaki had barely any sauce. The waitress took them back and brought out a new order which were no better!!! The rest of the apps were good. Food took forever and the waitress was overwhelmed. Our meals came out and the 4 people who ordered meatloaf all stated the meatloaf was too salty. The croutons in the salads were so oily, you could see and taste it! We let the waitress know and she said she would have the manager come over. The chef/ manager Mike came over and said he would take the meals off the bill with the exception of the sides. Which we assumed were our apps. He gave us our bills and walked away. When we reviewed our bills we saw he nit picked our meal and charged us for the two sides which were suppose to be part of the meal. When he returned to the table we asked him why he was charging us for the sides separately and he said because you ate the salad and fries. We said that was part of the meal that came out first. This isn’t a la carte restaurant. Chef Mike then said well what do you want not to pay for anything. We said no we will pay for our apps and the other food that was ordered but the meal should be taken off. How can you charge us for apps when they were half the size of the apps. The meal was $19.50 and after charging us for the app prices for the sides he took off a total of $6.50. So how does that make sense to pay $13.50 for salad and fries that were half the size of the full size apps??? And where do you get meatloaf for $6.50???? And what kind of manger breaks down a meal instead of just taking it off the bill all together. Chef Mike said he was not the owner but he was a partner of this multi million business that makes 25,000 a night. So if you are making so much money and are doing so well why would you have to break down a meal instead of just taking it off the bill 🤔 He went to take off the sides off the bill and came back with another manager who we did not get the name but she was a red headed older women with glasses. And would you believe this women began to ramshack the table in anger and grab all the plates and the birthday girls to go box. When we told her there was nothing wrong with that food and we were paying for that she said no you don’t have to pay the bill and you’re not getting the food. Don’t come back here again. Chef Mike then said it was too much to re-do the bill and that they were not going to charge us and would not allow us to pay for the food that we did eat and were willing to pay for. Before I left I asked for the owners name and Chef Mike said the owner was somewhere in Arizona but I could email my complaint to him at the jroo’s email. Seriously, he thought I was going to email a complaint to him when he was the one that did not provide good customer experience and allowed the other manager to act so rude and disrespectful. That complaint would’ve of went no where!!! Even after everything was said and done one of the ladies went back in and have what we had in cash to the waitress as a tip because she was good. The food can be fixed but the restaurants two employees representing them as poor customer service and unprofessionalism needs to be addressed!!! So if anyone knows the owner please forward this to them. There has not been any falsification or fabrication of the events that occurred today and this is based on true events.

P.S we still look forward to supporting the local...

(Sigh) This is a mixed review, for several reasons. Some good, some bad was our experience. A little background: party of 7 (3 adults, 4 kids), arrived at 6:15 PM on a Friday night for dinner. Full restaurant, but we were seated quickly (that was a pleasant suprise!!). Waitress came quickly and took drink orders (soda for kids and bar for the adults). Sodas came out very weak (colas were light brown color, instead of that dark Coca-Cola color). Beer from bar came quick, but 2 mixed drinks took 15 minutes (apologies from our server, the bar was backed up). That happens on a Friday night - no big deal. So we order 3 apps and 7 entrees. Our server forgot to take my son's order (he was at end of table), had to call her back. Mistakes happen (and by this time, you could tell she was hustling and a bit overwhelmed). She used 2 tickets to write our order (important later). So apps start to come out. First one comes and is eaten before second arrives. 2nd comes as entrees are being served. We only get 4 entrees - more apologies for the wait. One order is completely wrong, and is sent back (pasta dish). That one comes out corrected before 2 more entrees show up (quesadilla and a grilled cheese). My son's burger is nowhere to be found. More apologies for the wait. 10 min later, he gets his burger as everyone else is finishing. He asks for a box, since he's eaten off everyone else's plates by then. 3rd appetizer finally shows up now. (garlic bread). Waitress offers to comp us dessert for all the hassles. So honest review: Bar service was slow. Kitchen was overwhelmed (there were 2 cooks - open kitchen design). Waitress was doing the best she could, serving the food hot as it came out, in any order it was ready (Good for her!!). It was obvious that the order she took on 1 ticket was filled, but the 2nd ticket's order was delayed - by 20 minutes or more. Food was good when we got it. And our free desserts? We put in our orders only to have the waitress return and apologize again - there was no cheesecake left. My opinion: The bar and kitchen both were understaffed (they had plenty of waitstaff, however). The bar caught up by the time a 2nd beer was ordered. But the kitchen was a mess. Understaffed, not reading the ticket correctly (hence the returned/remade entree), only cooking half of the table's order at a time, appetizers showing up throughout and after the meal was done. This screams management issues to me. Having appropriate staff for a Friday might is critical. All of the issues we had were because of the bar and kitchen being overwhelmed and mis-managed. And that point was made throughout every part of our meal - including dessert!! (How the heck do you run out cheesecake on a Friday night at 7 PM, when it's a regular menu item? I could understand if it was a specialty dessert, but really?? It was the frozen, pre-cut kind you get from restaurant suppliers. Order an extra case!!! ) So the "big" question - would I go back? Maybe. If I found myself in that area again, on a Mon thru Thurs night, and I had a smaller group of people - then Maybe I'd try it again. Because the food, when it came out, was good. Our waitress was doing the best she could, and was nice about it. Hopefully the management can pull in appropriate staff to fix the problems we had. But I wouldn't make a special trip to go back (it's about 30 min...

First and last time at this restaurant, if you can even call it that. My husband and I stopped in here after a movie on a Saturday night. Parking lot was jammed, but we usually see a busy restaurant as a good sign. Unfortunately that was not the case here. Immediately upon walking in, I had to raise my voice standing at the hostess desk for the hostess to hear me. She asked if we had a preference on where to sit, I asked if we could sit somewhere not so loud because having to scream across the table to make conversation during a meal is exhausting and unenjoyable. Her response was “unfortunately the whole place is loud.” The acoustics make it feel like you’re dining in the middle of a rock concert, voices echo and bouncing off the walls you can barely hear yourself think.

Our waiter was very kind but absolutely clueless. I asked if instead of a bun for the salmon burger if I could have it lettuce wrapped instead, he had no idea what I was talking about whatsoever. His response was “we don’t have/make those.” I asked for a spicy margarita, which I don’t believe had any tequila in it because it was so weak, and he asked me what flavor I wanted.

And, The food was honestly terrible. The calamari was rubbery, the soup that came with my entree was ice cold, and the salmon entree I ordered was very fishy and bland as paper, absolutely no flavor to it whatsoever. My husbands burger came on a Portuguese roll…???…nowhere on the menu does it say that’s how it would be served. Did they run out of burger buns and just throw together whatever was lying around? This place is a glorified Applebees at best (I was going to say chilis but I would never disrespect chilis like that). Not convinced they actually cook/make anything in the kitchen but just thaw/heat stuff up in a microwave. No clue why the place was so busy but I guess it’s one step above all the fast food/takeout in the area and that must be good enough. Not worth the $100+ spent, I’d rather set my money on fire than spend...