Rocco's Tacos & Tequila Bar — Restaurant in Palm Beach Gardens

Because of the manager who clearly needs medication and anger-control intervention, we will never go back to Rocco's in Gardens. So, I will start by saying we have been loyal customers of Rocco's since they opened. I had a party there in March and it was a good time. Because the owner goes out if his way to support law enforcement, it seemed like the obvious choice to have my husband's police retirement party here since our guests would be mostly LEOs from PBSO, Jupiter, Juno, and Gardens. I spoke with a hostess (who was very sweet) and we booked for 20 people. It has been exceptionally hot so we wanted to make sure there was space indoors. The young lady we spoke to told me to call back if we needed additional seating for the party, since it would be difficult to accommodate more guests last minute. Made sense to me so I called back later in the day to increase the seating to 30 people. The person on the phone said she needed approval from the manager. Moments later, I received a text confirming that our reservations were successfully changed from 20 people to 30 people. Great. Here's where everything changed... the manager gets on the phone and started off with a horrible attitude. His tone was over-the-top nasty and aggressive. The call was on speaker and the cops who were helping me plan the party were shocked at the tantrum the emotionally unbalanced manager was throwing. He said we will all have to be outside now or cut our guest list, as the owner's friends will be in that space and we cannot have additional people. Had we known that, we would not have increased our invitations, but since we were told "no problem" we added 10 more. I tried to diffuse the situation realizing I was dealing with someone lacking basic customer service skills, but he was twisted and he was obviously not calming down. After being told that the young lady misinformed us, the manager doubled-down and basically blamed me for his inadequate management skills and failure to properly train his staff. I still tried to resolve the situation, since my priority was to throw a fun party for my husband- I said "no worries- not everyone needs a seat. We will be standing and mingling." The unhinged manager warned me that he will be there and will personally count our guests to make sure there's not a single person after 20 guests- and then sent us another text changing our reservations from 30 back down to 20. Lol, calm down... we wanted food and drinks- not life saving medicine. After the manager's tirade indicating we were not welcome, we were concerned that his threats of being there the night of the party would likely result in poor treatment, we scrambled to find a new location. We wound up at Voodoo Bayou where we were met with a professional manager and event coordinator. By the end of the night, I charged $6K on my card and generously tipped out the servers, bartender, and manager. Not only did the behavior of this "manager" at Rocco's take this money away from Rocco's and the staff for the night, but he gave future business to a local restaurant, as we won't be returning to Rocco's. Our guests were introduced to an amazing place with great food, drinks, and atmosphere and liked it better. Our future events will be held at Voodoo Bayou in Downtown Gardens, where we were treated so kindly. I'm sure this restaurant is grateful for all the business and future business Rocco's handed over to them. In the end, we are all grateful for the manager's unstable melt-down because we found our new spot. I do, however, feel sorry thar Rocco, who is known to be a very good man and was not involved in this has to lose customers because of one angry employee, but if he doesn't condemn the treatment we were subjected to, he...

Today marked my 3rd trip to this restaurant - and only because we had a gift certificate did we decide to go there. HUGE mistake. The first 2 times were both pretty forgettable, but this time the staff worked hard to earn this bad review by not working very hard...

First, I was "greeted" by a disinterested hostess who encouraged me to walk around to find my husband who arrived before me. It was not very busy, and he appeared to be the only person waiting for someone at a 2 person table, so you can understand how she might not have been aware of him.

When the waitress finally appeared to take our order, we both ordered the same: Traditional Tacos. Hey - it's part of the name of the place, so we figured they had to be good, right? She asked if we wanted it served as a "platter" so I agreed, not really knowing what that entailed, but I've been to other restaurants, ordered platters, and it typically means that the entree is served with additional sides. Again, we had a gift certificate, so we figured what the hell...

That was almost the last we saw of our waitress. Some other guy came and placed 2 plates on our table with 3 lonely tacos on them. No sides, just 3 tacos. I figured they just didn't get the order right. So we proceed to eat, since we were on lunch hour and short on time. The tacos were quite mediocre. Not all that flavorful, which was disappointing. Again, Tacos is part of the name, so I expected something at least good. Not so much.

The waitress never came back to check to see if we had the correct order, or even for a refill on our sodas. Husband had to track down some other waiter to get refills, as we were a bit parched. Upon delivering them, she abruptly grabbed all of our plate, including the chips and salsa we were still munching on. We had to ask for it back as she practically ran away.

Then...the bill. Suddenly our waitress reappeared, dropped the bill & ran. We had to wait for her to come back so I could ask about the platter she upsold me on, as I felt that the order was incorrect. She informed me that a platter only meant that there were a few more different toppings on the tacos than the regular kind...not that there were sides. Well, I must say, if what we received was special, I would really hate to see what a regular taco was!! I will never know.

So, we pay. We handed over our gift certificate, expecting to receive enough change to also cover an unearned tip comfortably. Houdini waitress comes back, and tells us that we would not receive change on the gift certificate, and that any unused portion of it would be forfeited. per her manager!! Unbelievably sleazy business practice! I have owned businesses which sold gift certificates, and have used many received as gifts, and I have never encountered a policy so dishonest. I wonder if the purchaser of the gift certificate would like to know how they were ripped off, so that way, this restaurant could lose at least 2 more customers!

In summary, this was an awful experience. I agree with many other reviewers, the food is mediocre at best, and the service is abysmal. It's also not cheap, so unless you like bad food and worse treatment, steer way clear...

Tuesday night was All You Can Eat TACOS night at Rocco’s Tacos on PGA Blvd in Palm Beach Gardens. All I can say is “The joint was jumpin.” There was barely an empty table to be found.

As soon as you walk in, you see a big crowd of smiling people eating and listening to great music. There were lots of Smiling and welcoming faces from the staff and wait people.

Our server was Anthony. He was very personable and I felt like he was glad to be there helping us with our order, something you don’t see at every restaurant.

There were Pitchers of margaritas going by every few minutes. The ample sized dishes going by looked amazing, so we were ready to eat.

Rocco’s Tacos on a Tuesday night was a happening place. It is the place to go. There was Great looking crowd. It looked like the perfect place to take a date or meet a date. There were lot’s of families and party tables too.

Our meal started with a young lady coming right to our table to make fresh guacamole right out of the avocados. We picked..mild hot quack and it could not have been better, especially with all the extra sauces and fresh chopped tomatoes. Even though we knew we had a big meal coming, we couldn’t stop nibbling on the seasoned chips and guac while we waited for the other appetizer.

Out came the Lightly fried chile rellanos with a terrific avocado ranch sauce to dip our peppers in. My wife Lorin and I agreed it was the Best we ever had and we lived out in LA for 5 years and had great Mexican food out there.

Next came what I call the volcano of seafoods and what they called MOLCAJETE SEAFOOD. It had shrimp, scallops, other fish, sweet potatoes and sun dried tomatoes, all served in a round lava rock from Mexico. Hats off to the chef. It was a Hot lava of seafood. My wife had the ENCHILADAS ROJAS. She loved it. I tasted it and it was very good.

We were stuffed and ready to leave when out came Rocco’s tacos signature dessert, Tres Leches. Again, we both agreed it was the best we ever had.

At the end of the evening, we were having such an enjoyable time and food was so good and it was such a happening scene, we did not want to leave. Five star food, great music…five star service, great sightseeing. in all it was a 10 out 10 experience for us at Rocco’s Tacos. The Luvcoach Bruce Starr Talk radio Show Host on 95.9 and 106.9 FM The Palm Heard on Thursday evenings...