The Rock Wood Fired Pizza — Restaurant in Renton

$72.48 for Plastic Forks & Bagged Salad? I emailed this review to The Rock Corporate & The Rock Renton Landing after visiting last week. I never received a reply... This is my review as promised...

My wife & I visit The Rock every 3-4 months for date night. Last Friday (Oct 11th, 2024) we came in for dinner around 6pm. They said there was a 15 minute wait or we could go in the bar, but it would take more time to get food. I checked the bar but it was totally full. I also noticed they removed the booths. So we opted to wait for a table in the dining room.

We sat in the main dining room, next to the kitchen, next to the windows. The dining room had opposing faced booths, those have also been removed. The center of the room was empty with tables around the perimeter, kind of odd.

The waitress came & we ordered Cokes and Garlic Mozzarella Bread ($13.00). We received our drinks almost right away. The soft drinks were really watered down and tasted more like water than Coke. Infact, I check the menu to check for an off brand, it said 'Coke-a-Cola'. Either someone doesn't know how to adjust the mixture or they are trying to cut the syrup. Good tactic to save money. Nevertheless, it did not taste like Coke. After 10 minutes our waitress returned and we ordered our meals. My wife ordered a BBQ Chicken Chop Salad ($19.25) and I, a Burger Man burger ($17.50). The cheese bread took forever to arrive. Well over 30 minutes. We thought that was odd since there were not many people in the restaurant. The waitress was apologetic about the wait time and said there is a 'huge group' and that's why it took so much time. We understood.

We ate the bread which was good as always. After we both used the restrooms which were clean. However, while walking though the restaurant there was hardly anyone there. Maybe 50% capacity at best. Most of the tables in the main dining room were strewn about not set up and looks disheveled. We saw a party of seven people in the back, but did not see a 'huge group', as we were told. I looked upstairs and there were only a two groups of two people there as well. After that, We were watching the people in the kitchen. They looked fully staffed and I saw 6-7 people at any given time. Some preparing food, some of them were just standing around talking and not looking like they were in a rush to do anything. Also odd considering how 'busy' they were.

We received our food. I had a plastic fork on my frys, which I didn't really think anything of. The weird part was, my wife had one on her salad too. Not a nice full sized Chinet plastic fork, this was the cheapest, 4" flimsiest fork you would buy at the dollar store. After that we started questioning everything above.

As I ate my burger, it was the same good quality like it always is. I ask my wife, 'How is your salad'. Reluctantly, she said 'It's good'. She only finished about half and said that she was full. I ask if I could try it. The second I took a bite, all I could taste was lettuce from a bag lettuce. Not fresh chopped lettuce. From a bag. You know that chemical taste of grocery store bagged lettuce? Yuck.

Lastly, about half way through our meal, we finished our watered down Cokes & put them on the edge of our table for a refill. We didn't see our server for the rest of the meal and really needed a refill. Many of their staff members walked by - even made eye contact with us. Not one of them were conscious enough to look down at our table to see our empty drinks. They just kept walking... After drinking all the melted ice and finishing our meal, our waitress finally came by and asked, "Is there anything else I can get you?"..... ??? BTW: Our waitress was serving 4 tables. Totally manageable.

Honestly if wasn't for the lettuce and plastic forks, I would not have left a review. But all these items above added up to frustration.

I really hope they turn this place around. My wife and I like going here. Their food is good, but the service is not. The main thing is paying $72+ for plastic forks and super slow service is really...

After hearing rave reviews from some of our friends and neighbors, my wife and I decided to treat some out-of-town friends to dinner at The Rock. I should premise this review with the fact that I am extremely tolerant of bad food / service, but our experience warrants the following:

Our first impressions were all positive. The Rock has a good atmosphere, we were seated quickly, and our server was both nice and knowledgeable about the menu (which had just changed). The menu was diverse, the drink selection was extensive, and the prices seemed fair for what we expected to receive.

We ordered a variety of food and drinks: two kinds of wings, cheese bread, a burger, the steak sandwich, a pizza, and a type of chicken sandwich. The server specifically asked us if we wanted our drinks and appetizers before our main food, and we said yes. At this point, we were still very much enjoying our experience.

We waited about 25 minutes to get our drinks (beers and a margarita) and another 15 minutes for the wings and cheese bread. It was obvious the server was behind - she avoided contact with us and was extremely bashful when we asked for an update on our drinks. When she finally brought them, she apologized many times over.

While waiting 40 minutes for drinks and appetizers was a bit odd, our crew was still in good spirits.

Another 20 minutes went by, and no one had checked on us or given us an update on our food. When we finally flagged someone down (by getting up and chasing a different server down), we were told that our food should be out shortly.

It wasn't. It took another 25 minutes before our food began to arrive (that's almost an hour and a half from the time we ordered).

We immediately began eating the food, which was, without a doubt, the worst food I've ever had at a restaurant (including fast food).

I had a hamburger, which was small, cold, sloppily put together, and missing two of the main ingredients listed on the menu. As I said before, I'm not one to complain, so I ate it. Unfortunately, it also lacked any seasoning, so it was like eating a cold ball of ground beef smashed between two halves of a bun - with some random crap thrown on.

My wife ordered a personal-size Hawaiian pizza. It was also cold, which is understandable considering that the bottom dough was still raw (so raw you could pull on it and it would stretch without breaking). Each person at our table tried a bite; none could finish it. The pizza had obviously been rushed into the oven and pulled as soon as the cheese began to melt. The sauce felt like it had just been taken from the refrigerator. My wife sent the pizza back and ask if they could finish cooking it. It was better when it came back - but not much.

My friend Joe ordered a steak sandwich that the menu had described as having thin slices of steak with a variety of fixings. What he received was a bun (cold) with three thick-cut pieces of rare red meat that had absolutely no seasoning. Joe is a large, good spirited Italian who will eat just about anything and knows good food when he tastes it. He could not finish more than two bites of the sandwich before taking the meat out, cutting it up, and dipping it in the blue cheese that came with our wings.

My friend Greg ordered a chicken sandwich, which we all agreed was pretty good. And we all agreed the wings were pretty good as well. However, I spent over $150.00 when it was all said and done, and we were treated to one of the worst meals of my entire life.

I have never complained to a restaurant or sent an order back for a serious reason, but I was very tempted to send it all back and ask for explanation. I understand that they were behind in their orders and that they were rushing to get our food to us after a ridiculously long wait, but if I'm going to spend that kind of money on food just apologize for the wait and make sure the food comes out right.

Honestly, despite all the good things I've heard from others, I will have a hard time giving The Rock a second chance after...

Waitress took 20 minutes AT LEAST to even walk into our section and when she did, she didn't even come to our table. When we finally got drinks and ordered, we had to use the kids coloring papers as plates to divvy up our appetizer bc she didn't bring plates or utensils or napkins. All we had was crayons and coloring sheets. She wouldn't even look in our direction- she just never came back. I sat with my hand up like a child in school and I'd flap it around every time a wait staff passed and never once could I get someone to stop to bring us silverware to eat. I caught her and she left the plates with us finally, but when I asked for silverware and napkins she apologized, but walked away and took the order of an entire party and checked on another table, but still didnt stop to deliver silverware. The manager brought the adult food and I had to hand him the appetizer stuff bc he didn't even offer to take it away to make room. He didn't ask how the appetizer was, how we were doing, nothing like managers at every other restaurant where we never realized how lucky we were to say things were great! He just sped off before I could ask for silverware. My husband ended up getting up and going into the back for it! We sat for another 20 minutes just waiting for the kids food that never came. They kids were so hungry they started to cry. We didn't even have more liquid to offer them because the waitress was still MIA. I decided enough was enough when my almost 2 year old stood up because she wanted to check the table herself that they really didn't bring her food and she slipped. Be careful: the edge of the table is a very sharp corner. It left a tight red line across her jugular and I already had a bruise just from the corner itself, which had a protective cover on the top, but not the bottom. My husband told the manager we were leaving and what happened and believe it or not, he actually said he totally understands, he had been keeping his eye on the situation! So this guy saw my kids crying and never stopped to check on us! He was the one who would have the ticket for the kids food too! Although he said she must not have put it in. I'm actually more annoyed with him than her, bc we were sitting in the table where his face had an open view past the decor so I do believe his statement that he was watching us and all I can say is SHAME ON YOU for seeing the looks on our faces, watching us flag for help but not recieve it, and see our kids crying. We felt like we were caught in the middle of some personal drama where he must have wanted to fire her and didn't care about our experience in order to get the last straw out on her. Just a disclaimer: our family had just come from the Nutcracker. These are the kind of kids who sit down and behave. This was no spectacle situation where you purposely might want to avoid a certain crowd. Just a nice family dressed up for a good meal but can't catch a bone at a...