Rubino's Ristorante — Restaurant in Rocklin

My husband and I love trying new restaurants and were in the mood for Italian so decided to try Rubinos for the first time.immediate first impressions was it was a really nice,,cozy,cute and comfortable restaurant with a nice ambiance that we really enjoyed.Bartender made one helluva old fashion that we loved!I know the best thing about going out to eat and should be the #1 thing that stands out the most should always be the food and unfortunately that wasn't the case here.we ordered the sole filet and Chardonnay chicken as our main courses,both came out as a dish of oil with sides of chicken and sole.they both had about an inch of oil resting on the plate,so much that our waiter had to slowly set the plate down very carefully to try not to spill any of the large excess amount of oil that was on the plate for some odd reason and drowning the mash potatoes and risotto.we saw a table next to us get there food and not sure what it was but it was a different dish than what we ordered but was clearly able to see it was suffering from the same problem as our dish,flooded with oil.one thing I noticed by looking around it seemed that almost every dish looked to have the same boring oil,butter,wine sauce which seems very repetitive and almost lazy.our shrimp cocktail were nice plump jumbo shrimp but were again cleaned very lazily and only cleaned about halfway on each shrimp.our salad was tasty with some delicious ranch dressing and our cheesecake dessert was on par with any delicious cheesecake you would get from cheesecake factory but the main courses were forgettable and imo were overpriced seeing how a liter of oil at Safeway goes for about $5 and that was what we got the most of.The star of the night for us was our waiter Paul.he was amazing to put it lightly and is what saved our first experience to Rubinos.very nice,charming and professional not to mention very handsome and good looking. He was very attentive and made sure we were never in need of anything throughout the entire visit,and this was on a Saturday evening when the place was packed and Paul seemed to be the only wait staff in the restaurant that was calm cool and collected and able to handle doing his job during the rush hour. not only did he handle it but he made sure my husband and I as well as the tables next to us that had Paul as their waiter were all taken care of very well and you can clearly tell that Paul was very experienced at his job and knew what he was doing,it almost made me feel guilty in a way seeing the other waitstaff running around flustered and in bad moods and the other tables looking angry and here we ended up with Paul who was obviously THE GOAT of the waitstaff at Rubinos,there was a older lady waiter who was literally running faster than what she looks capable of doing and almost body slammed another employee as she went around the corner and then you see paul turn the corner with a smile on his face looking calm and confident and we couldn't help but laugh at the Situation.Paul would check in on us at just the right times,made sure our waters never got below halfway and that our bread plate was never empty,knew when to conversate with us and when to give us our alone time,Paul checked every single box that you want a waiter to check,he even smelled delicious and if it wasn't for Paul this experience would of easily been a forgettable one due to the subpar food but instead my husband and I as well as a couple friends will be returning to see on Paul in a few weeks and hopefully get some redemption on the food,were willing to give it another shot because there is allot of potential here to be our favorite restaurant but no matter how nice of an environment it is and no matter how perfect the waiter is if the food is thrown together very lazily and shows no thought or care into any of there dishes then no matter how much we want to like the restaurant,we will not be returning until we hear of a menu change or a chef change.the food is the only complaint we have...

I've given this place several tries over the course of 6 years and there's been no improvement. I've been invited to different events, if it had been up to me, I wouldn't have gone back after the first time. I'm not exactly sure how it stays open. The food tastes like a TV dinner and the service is slow. For trying to be a upscale restaurant, the servers are definitely not trained well. I've had more upscale service at The Spaghetti Factory and that's a compliment to The Spaghetti Factory. I've been told by some staff that the chef had no prior cooking experience and was pulled from dishwashing after their chef quit. Last night we were the ONLY party there and even still some food came out wrong and others took too long and it was a prix fixe menu with 3 choices. How do you mess that up? Some people were finished eating and others still didn't have their meals. One person asked where their salmon was and another guest remarked, "they flew to Alaska to catch it." They allow smoking by the front door and have ash trays less than a foot away from the entrance, which is not only gross, it's against code. The restaurant smells like cigarette. They need to invest in their business. Their carpet is filthy, you can see the orignal color under the mat and along the walls. Plastic unmatching patio furniture, uncomfortably quiet (no music), and having to ask for everything. Our servers would interrupt our party to ask, "is everyone ok?" It's supposed to be fine dining for crying out loud, if you see an empty glass: fill it. If you see an empty plate: buss it. Don't yell. We were a party of 20 and were being given 5 pieces of sliced bread about the size of a silver dollar and they never even bothered to refill the oil and vinegar. Speaking of vinegar, no one finished their salad and some were even coughing because of the "vinaigrette." I was told it was just vinegar; I wish I could personally vouch for the taste but I didn't even get a salad because apparently if you need to use the restroom, it's the equivalent to leaving? Food was auctioned off despite leaving little different colored stones in front of diners: "who has fettuccini? Raise your hand!" There wasn't any room for anything because of all the empty plates left of the table. There was also no host/ess. Booths with giant tears in them over a foot long. The restroom was cute. All in all, this place is an enigma as to how it hasn't closed permanently years ago. I'm guessing the residents of the area are either happy to overpay or grossly unaware of what fine dining looks like. Hey, if you can get away with milking your client base and under delivering, I...

We have checked out a lot of ‘Italian’ places in the area and are trying to find the best one. We had high hopes for Rubinos but the food was a bit of a miss.

The good:

Great ambiance, and the staff is well dressed and the tables look formal.

The food came out quickly and our waitress was very fun.

The clam chowder was delicious and had a good clam to chowder ratio.

The cosmo was well mixed. And the Italian soda was good and had the right flavor.

The bread came out fresh and warm and the oil and vinegar tasted light and fresh. The presentation was also lovely,

The seafood feta had a good amount of seafood and was very good. The oysters were perfect and the shrimp were cooked just right.

The bad:

We ordered a dish with risotto and expected risotto for the price. When the dish came out it was a lump of rice pilaf instead. Very disappointed.

The veal came out tough which is the opposite of what veal should be. The whole point is that you want tender meat. It’s almost like it wasn’t veal at all.

The minestrone was unlike any we have ever had. Minestrone is a vegetable soup, that tends to be lighter but what we were served was thick like pea soup.

The sole fish we were served lacked flavor. I get that sole is a white fish and lighter in flavor but the fish was just so bland and disappointing.

On the opposite end of the spectrum the salad we ordered went overboard on the vinegar. Just too sour to eat.

Lastly the parking is limited and fills up fast.

I feel like (as a trained chef) that the biggest problems of our dinner came from the kitchen and somebody who doesn’t really know what they are doing, especially in regards to Italian food. Example, meat should be rare and tender not tough, spice your fish, take the time to actually make the risotto (if you can), and don’t just pour gigantic amounts of vinegarette on the salad.

Sadly we had high hopes but we won’t be back as we have discovered better Italian restaurants who know what they are doing. We paid too much money for such sad food, and in the end no matter how good the ambiance, no matter how great the wait staff is, the food is what matters most and this place just really...