Rocca — Restaurant in Tampa

Michelin Starred Embarrassment – Started with Perfection, Ended with an Epic Failure

Restaurant: Rocca – Tampa, FL

Having traveled to 68 countries on 6 continents and 38 states in the US, I have had the opportunity to eat at some of the finest establishments around the globe. I have also had the great pleasure of eating at 27 Michelin-starred restaurants, including dining with 8 Michelin-starred chefs. For any restaurant, obtaining a Michelin Star is often a soft-after dream that never comes true. For restaurants that get a Michelin Star, it's truly about living up to the level of what it means to have the star.

The beginning of our dining experience was absolutely exceptional. We started with the Mozzarella Cart, presented by a skilled mozzarella server tableside with a cart full of fresh ingredients, including cheese curds, basil, tomatoes, and a 10-year-old balsamic. He displayed the process of pouring hot water on the curds and kneading them into a ball of mozzarella, which he sliced and curated the plate with the remaining ingredients.

Second Course: Pasta. Our tabled order 4 of the 7 Pasta dishes, which brought different types of pasta (Taglioni, Angolotti, Gnocchi and Spaghetti al Limone) freshly made every day and some of the finest fresh ingredients. The finished product was some of the best homemade pasta that I have had the pleasure of eating in the US.

Last Course (Epic Failure): Protein/Meat. This is where the restaurant completely misstepped, causing the entire party of guests to walk away completely dissatisfied. We ordered two of the Bistecca – 16-ounce 35-day aged Akoushi Wagyu beef strips. At $125 a piece ($250 total), the expectations for a restaurant at this level would be extremely high.

When the Wagyu was brought to the table, it appeared to be a well-crafted dish with a strong appearance and presentation, highlighting the perfection of the temperature and showing the overall quality of the meat. However, once we started eating at the Wagyu, everyone noticed the same thing. SALT. Not just a LITTLE bit of SALT. A LOT OF SALT. So much salt that after drinking 3 glasses of water and walking away from dinner, I still tasted salt in my mouth. When I notified the manager of an issue with the meat, he took the meat back to the kitchen to ask the Sous Chef to taste the product. He came back out to tell us that it was cooked and seasoned exactly as it should have been.

Here's a little tip – Fire the sous chef. Any Michelin-starred chef knows that a dry-aged steak will always have a naturally rich, concentrated flavor that sometimes people would describe as SLIGHTLY salty. In fact, any competent chef knows that when a steak has been aged for so many days, it's oftentimes better to go much lighter on the seasoning so the consumer can taste the natural umami and nutty notes of the steak. The level of expectations from a restaurant selling such an expensive cut of meat, you would think they would pay careful attention to how they prepare the product.

The other issue is how the manager handled the situation. You don't come back to the table and tell the guests who are absolutely unsatisfied with the product that it was cooked perfectly. I don't care if the chef thinks it's perfect. The customer is always right, even when you think they are wrong. In addition, his lack of interest in rectifying the issue, even offering to take the $49 overpriced mozzarella cart off the bill, would have been a great solution had he offered it. He offered nothing.

I have had the pleasure of working with people out of Michelin for years and have already contacted Florent Menegaux and Gwendal Poullennec at the Michelin Group to consider re-evaluating the Michelin Star awarded to this restaurant.

If you are looking for an amazing appetizer and pasta experience – I would absolutely recommend the restaurant. However, do NOT spend the money on the proteins. It’s NOT a good...

As someone who has dined at many fine dining restaurants all over the world I had high hopes when I found out that a restaurant in my city received a Michelin star. I made a reservation for my husband’s birthday excited to give this restaurant a try and sadly we were both extremely let down.

-First off the ambiance , the restaurant is supposedly a fine dining establishment and we dressed accordingly. Instead we were sat next to a table of 4 men in t-shirts , gym shorts and sneakers. It was totally disrespectful and unprofessional. Its sad that this restaurant does not adhere to any dress code policy or has any standard for their guests. It truly took us out of the environment and made us feel like we were in some cheap bar.

-Second the food, we were excited to try all the dishes we saw posted all over instagram. We ordered the steak tartar , the king salmon appetizer, the mozzarella cart for starters. The king salmon appetizer was one of the most disgusting things i have ever tasted. It had the worst pungent fishy flavor, it was like the salmon was bad or rancid. This is coming from a raw sushi lover who knows that salmon should never taste fishy like that. I couldn’t even eat it and was shocked that they even served something that tasted so rancid. Second was the steak tartar which was lackluster . It sat on a bed of black mushrooms. What a strange texture. Slimy steak tartar on an even slimier bed of wet diced up mushrooms. It was so bizarre. The textures were horrible together. Then came the mozzarella cart which slightly made up for the last 2 appetizers. The only thing about it was that it was so rich you could only eat a couple pieces without feeling sick.

-then came our main course, we got the Strip steak. “How could it possibly get any worse” we thought. well it did. The steak comes out and we can see a thick opaque white piece of fat on the steak. It looks like the fat was never rendered down properly. I take a bite and low and behold im chewing on un rendered fat. It was so undercooked i couldn’t even chew through it and had to spit it out. How does a michelin star restaurant mess up a steak that bad? How do they serve someone raw fat on steak? That was my final straw. They asked if we wanted desserts but i didn’t even feel like giving them a third chance to let us down.

After spending over $500+ on dinner we felt like we were robbed. We wished we went to Berns or meat market where we could of had a decent steak and good appetizers.

Dont believe the hype!!! If you truly know food you will be sadly let down. Your money and time will be better spent elsewhere. I Would never recommend this restaurant to anyone. We should of listened to my husband’s coworker who warned us that the food wasn’t that great ....

Underwhelming I want to start by expressing my experience with a carry-out order. I understood while I was ordering that the food would not be of the same quality nor have the same pizzazz that the restaurant's atmosphere or presentation could give. We ordered out from Rocca for a Pre-Mothers Day dinner and overall the food was just disappointing. We ordered the MOZZARELLA CART, TAGLIOLINI al RAGU, LINGUINE alle VONGOLE, SALUMI, SHRIMP FRITTI, and TORTELLO all’ UOVO. The tagliolini al ragu and the linguine alle vongole where okay but not great , 5/10. The sauces tasted fine and held well to the noodles, but the noodles themselves were lackluster. I was expecting to enjoy that fresh pasta mouth feel, but I instead just had pasta that was no better than most other pasta places in Tampa. I didn't dislike them, they just were not impressive and tasted rather middle-of-the-road for a restaurant pasta. I was the most disappointed by the mozzarella but I don't believe it was completely the food's fault. By the time I was able to look at the food for the first time (about 10 minutes from picking it up at the restaurant), the mozzarella had melted under the head of the pasta dish containers, making one big cheese block surrounding a very small amount of tomato. The texture and tenderness of fresh mozzarella had completely been lost, it was like eating quality string cheese (low moisture mozzarella) or pizza topping. The food could have been separated by hot and cold bag wise because our SALUMI, SHRIMP FRITTI, was in the other bag and did not nearly produce as much heat as the 3 pasta dishes. this was heartbreaking for me because I was very much looking forward to the amazing experience that fresh mozzarella can bring. The balsamic, olive oil, salt, and pepper, that came in a separate container were great though and so were the tomatoes I just wish there were more. (3/10) The TORTELLO all’ UOVO was the only item that I have no complaints about, the mushrooms were fantastic I just wish there were more. The Salumi plate was alright, but not worth getting again. The shrimp fritti was actually very good and is the only other thing I would recommend trying. Overall for the price and esteem that a Michelin star brings, I was just disappointed with the taste of the food. I could have instead gone to DalMoros Armature Works which is just down the street and had comparable pasta for a better price. For anyone that is thinking of ordering this for takeout, because you want to experience Michelin star quality but can't/don't have the time reservation to sit down. Just try something else. I hope that at least the mozzarella is given more care next time if someone orders it for takeout as it was the biggest disappointment...