Rococo on Western — Restaurant in Oklahoma City

Absolutely no way this restaurant is worth the prices it charges. Go compare the cost of the items here to a place like Osteria Mozza in LA - which is run by the likes of Mario Batali, Joe Bastianich, and Nancy Silverton. The most expensive thing on the menu will be $38! IN LA!

When arriving we were greeted by the most dismissive and snobby hostess I've come across in OKC.

Foremost if you tour the kitchen to see the chef's table you'll discover a dingy table in the corner, but in the process you'll learn that the bread is bought from the store.

But it gets worse from there. Their Zuppa di Pesce is $60. $60 for a pasta dish you say? Same reaction I and every chef/cook/restaurateur I've talked to since eating there last night has had. When I saw that price I expected a veritable mountain of seafood. Instead what I was served was 2oz of lobster, 2 scallops, a couple clams / mussels / shrimp, and a single ring of calamari. The shrimp was actually cold when served. The whole thing was dumped over barely warm linguine leaving a pool of water at the bottom of the plate. The sauce came in a serving dish - that's where the one calamari was - and that sauce was about as warm as room temperature.

Obviously I brought up how cold everything was. So they took the plate back - leaving the sauce - and then brought it back again 3 minutes later. The lobster and scallops were now rubber and everything was still no more than lukewarm. The guy running the saute station had, according to the manager, put everything in a saute pan and stuck it inside their oven for a few minutes. The waitress later commented that the guy running the saute station was having a "bad night". If either are true then the managing partner / head chef - who was in the kitchen because we toured it to see the chef's table - should have stepped in to correct things after the most expensive item on their menu had to be re-fired...twice

All this at a time in the restaurant when there were 3 tables seated.

It sounds like the scallops probably went in fresh ('fresh' as in defrosted) - and then the cook tossed in the pre-cooked pasta, the pre-cooked shellfish, shrimp, and lobster (sitting portioned out in the reach in) gave it all a toss in the skillet and microwaved the sauce base separately, and had it all in the window within a minute...where it sat waiting for other food. Even if it was done when other food was completed it probably came out cold because the cook didn't bother to check the sauce when it came out of the microwave, and didn't toss the pre-cooked portioned shrimp/lobster long enough after it came out of the fridge.

Anyone should have been paying about $30 for the dish and it should've come out flawless, and been made of truly fresh ingredients.

The restaurant's response was to switch me to the special, an unseasoned cut of halibut topped with a burned crab cake that was almost all breading and no crab. If that's the managing partner & head chef's response to a bad meal then he's obviously vindictive, but I was hungry and ready to leave by that point so I just ate a $55 plate of burned food.

Then they offered us free dessert. When we ordered 4 desserts the manager sent the waitress back to the table to say she actually was only going to give us 1 free dessert. So we paid for the other 3. The apple crumble was literally just sliced apples stuck under a salamander - if it weren't for the ice cream (which is an extra charge) it would have been too dry to even eat. The "flavor of the day" creme brulee was just creme brulee with some chocolate smeared on the bottom of the custard dish. The russian cake was just a flavorless chocolate cake with Kahlua poured all over it. The pot du creme was flavorful in the sense that you could kind of taste the espresso - but the blackberries that came with it were better than the dish itself.

A $240 food tab + a $35 bottle of wine for one helluva...

The Real Truth about Rococo’s Catering

I want share the hidden truth we discovered about Rococo’s catering business and why you should consider elsewhere when looking for catering. Bruce is the owner of Rococo’s and honestly I hope he loses a lot of business from failing to please this customer’s concerns.

Here is my story. My fiancé and I had scheduled a sampling with Rococo’s for catering our 200 person wedding reception. When we showed up at Rococo’s on Northpark, Sam, who is in charge of catering, greeted us and is by all means one of the nicest people in the business. He was wonderful and brought out delicious tasting samples for us to choose from to compose our menu. Not once were we concerned about the taste of the food, which we both agreed was very good, but we did express concern over the presentation of our food. As many of you may have watched cooking shows, presentation can be just as important as taste. We made it clear that since we were ordering and paying an extra $5 per person for an appetizer plate with 3 small appetizers, that the dish would look very "meager" for our important guests. We were reassured twice that the "plate would be dressed up with some garnish" or either "a drizzle" or something to take up space and make the presentation look "grand."

So we signed a contract and paid for the entire meal upfront. Rococo then had our money. Here is where the wool starts getting pulled over our eyes. We find that it is astonishing (but reality) that once a company has your money, well they really aren’t motivated to address your concerns as much anymore.

Fast forward to the reception dinner, imagine the look on our face when the 3 small appetizers were brought out to each guest on a very large dinner sized EMPTY white plate(imagine 3 cheerios on a plate). There was so much more empty space then there was food. Our presentation concern which we had made a big deal about, was completely forgotten or dismissed. Keep in mind that we have a high expectation for quality (which is why we chose and paid for Rococo’s in the first place). And since the first dish given out for the reception dinner sets a tone for what is to follow, well honestly we were very, very embarrassed and disappointed of our first dish for our cherished guests. Second dish wasn’t any better which was a side salad that looked as sparse as Jason Alexander’s hair from Seinfield. Again, we are not complaining about the quality of food which was good, but the presentation was god awful and embarrassing for a wedding reception.

We tried to contact Rococo’s about our disappointment and after 4 unreturned calls and 4 weeks later, Bruce, the owner, finally contacted me. After re-expressing my concerns, I found him to be very rude and inconsiderate and he completely refused my request for a partial refund of the appetizer portion. To be honest, he offered me a $100 gift card, but after the way he talked down to me and saying that he delivered food as promised (“who cares about presentation?” – was basically what he said), I frankly refused it as I will not be dining there ever again. He could not and choose not to understand how important presentation can be when delivering a meal.

Well there it is, word of warning to other’s considering Rococo’s. Once they got your money, don’t be surprised if they don’t deliver as promised. And don’t even think about getting a refund as Bruce, the owner, because honestly he doesn’t care if you are...

Wanted to have a nice dinner at a nice restaurant, did not get that at all. The restaurant was no where near full and had an ample amount of staff. I guessed 1 server per 3 table TOPS. So we got sat and didn’t get menus or anything for about 10mins. Appetizer order was taken promptly because I Asked can we order appetizers as he looked like he was about to walk off. So about 30 minutes pass by no one else has been back by to check drinks or even take the rest of our order until the appetizers come out. I’m still ok about it even though The restaurant barely had any patrons to server ratio. So now we finally get to try the apps at 30 mins and place the rest of our order. This time it the food comes out faster probably around 20 minutes after placed. They brought out my girlfriends meal like 5 minutes before they brought out my steak so I’m sitting waiting even still ok at this point. My steak comes out and the side is missing the server said a few minutes so sure I wait and A few minutes turn out to be 9 minutes. Now I’m sitting with a cold dry steak so I tell the server how dissatisfied I am with the whole experience of a “$$$” restaurant. He then gets defensive and says oh we’re short handed. I’ve been a server in the past and I’ve always been proactive about telling the customers if we’re short handed so there’s no misunderstanding. The place is supposedly ran or owned by the chef, which to my understanding was in the house that night. I would think a good chef knows how to time the cook times properly so it all comes out together instead of having one person eat and the other person sit there awkwardly. Still possible the server forgot the side order and blamed it on the kitchen. The server claims he told the head chef (owner) about what’s happening but we never once saw this owner/chef. Anyways to sum it up I probably had a bad experience but the way our server/chef handled the situation for a place that’s advertised as upscale is beyond terrible. I mean even the most basic of restaurants know how to time the cook to where it comes out together and not a piece at a time. Imagine a nice filet in your face but your side isn’t there and it’s told a “few” minutes so you’re waiting. The few minutes turn out to nearly be 10 and the nice expensive filet you paid for is now dry and cold. This place is located in a pretty nice area so there’s plenty of other great restaurants in the area that actually know how to handle customer service and conflict resolution. Maybe that’s why there weren’t a lot...