Roth Social House — Restaurant in Turlock

I really wanted to like this restaurant being that it had good reviews. Coming from San Francisco and wanting to celebrate my Birthday dinner here, I found this place to be an exceptional restaurant for the valley being that its menu and price points were similar to home. Unfortunately that wasn’t the case.

First when I made the reservation at noon, I mentioned we would be celebrating a birthday. Most restaurants reservation platforms have tags for celebrations that you can easily add the reservation for the server to know. This wouldn’t be the case since our server (Bernard) didn’t mention once. Maybe not his fault since the communication wasn’t passed down. Food was exceptional. Service was standard.

Once we passed on dessert, I didn’t feel the need to mention the celebration, nor was it asked, so I figured, fine, we will paaa on the sweets. We split the bill between 2. Asked for $100 to be charged on the card and the rest was paid cash with a 20% tip. Apparently maybe it was a mistake on the servers behalf, but he over charged the card, which then jumped his tip up to a good 28% tip. By this time I did not want to wait for the whole new processing and deleting payment process, so we left.

Lastly, I realized I left a good $50 of leftovers in a box there and I called about 10-15min after departure to let them know I will be returning for my food. Mind you I was 15min away and let them know I will be there around 30min to retrieve. I walked in to pick up my food just to be told by the host that the busser had thrown it away. I watched the host walk to 3 men leaning on a wall just watching without one person moving to perhaps try and look for it, but within 30 seconds they had a simple”it was thrown away, sorry” response. The men looked as if they could have been management being one was in a floral button up, but to not offer an alternative and allow a guest who spent well over $300 on a meal to walk away empty handed after tipping (involuntarily) well over 25% and the most expensive meal on the table thrown away will be the reason I can’t recommend or give this restaurant the review I was hoping for.

Hopefully management will take this opportunity to train staff to communicate better about celebrations when people trust this establishment to make special occasions memorable, not over charge their guests (hopefully not scamming) and find them more valuable and the money they spend there to keep them open instead of throwing out...

No surprises here, Roth SH is terrible. I think the good reviews are from people who had Covid and lost taste buds or assume good intent about everything in life and don’t know how to be blunt and honest when things are bad…

I’m legit mad for paying for their food. Shame on them. Turlock only has a few options and they really all suck compared to Tri-Valley and Bay Area options. I have zero bones to pick with anyone at Roth’s so this is purely objective:

Food — Flat Iron Steak - basically, if you get a keto flu and need salt, get this steak. It’s all salt for no reason. Cooked well though (medium), very tender. — Brussels sprout - each bite was oily. No taste. Saving grace: the few pieces of bacon. Had 2 bites and gave up on them. Terrible. — Empanadas - just bland. Nice display though. Bone (marrow, I think) on the side is a tease. They give you a small spoon for it but it’s just charred something and no actual marrow. What a weird thing to do and very disappointing.

— Drinks: nothing special. Whiskey Sour is, well, SOUR. Goodness, it’s tart man. Don’t waste good whiskey/bourbon on it. The mix overpowers. Got a rum and coke after, flat. Took two sips.

Service - super nice but super lackluster. Said would bring ranch and peppers for pizza, doesn’t bring them until a few minutes into the pizza getting there! I started eating without condiments, I gave up on anything meeting any levels of satisfaction. Pre-bussing and preemptive bussing doesn’t exist or is not coached. It also wasn’t that busy. My second drink was super late so I asked for them not to bring it out. It eventually came out (the flat rum/coke mentioned above).

Ambiance - the outdoor seating area is EPIC. How in the world is this place not filled every night? It’s awesome. Well, it’s not filled everyday because the kitchen is mediocre and the food just isn’t good and people don’t want to overpay for horrible food. I came here back in 2022 and said I’d never come back. Fooled me twice!

Almost a $300 tab for 4 heads. They should honestly close, rework their menu and get some actual 3rd party audit to review their work flow and food quality, then do a soft opening and start over. Great location, great ambience, just dismal food quality and service...

Food and service are both 5 stars, but that’s not enough for me to return My hubby and I dined with two friends. I know I am going to sound old and cranky here, but the music was so loud, we could not carry on a normal conversation. My hubby and I are in our 50’s. Friends are in their late 60’s. That’s not too old, right? There are usually 6 of us, and we go out quite often. Good food, cocktails, a bottle or two of wine…. Let’s just say we know we will pay quite a bit, per couple, when we meet for dinner, so the final bill was not surprising. It’s on the high end for Turlock restaurant prices. Again, wonderful food and cocktails are worth it. The food did not disappoint. A crispy rice - ahi tuna appetizer was delicious. We loved the grilled octopus app and the wild mushroom pizza. We also enjoyed the gnocchi entree, though it was a little light on the gnocchi Our server, Mario, was attentive, kind and knowledgeable. The bartender makes a fabulous old fashioned But the atmosphere, oh my goodness. The music was so, so loud. We could not hear each other across the table. Again, dinner is our weekly social activity. We do not go to clubs, we go to dinner…..To have conversation. We asked our server if they could turn down the music (at the risk of being known as the old people in the corner). They did, but it still was too much to enjoy our evening together As we left, our friend mentioned to the hostess that we loved the food and service, but we could not carry on a decent conversation over the music. She replied, “yeah, we get that a lot” We clearly are not their demographic. What a shame. If Bon Jovi, John Mellencamp, and other similar artists are your thing, you will love the atmosphere. If you dine out and want the music to be part of the background, this is not the place for you. We enjoy dining out, not dining in a club. We were there at 6:30, which seems like normal dinner time, where music should be in the background. As we left, I noticed an older couple at a table, holding their ears. At least we were not the only ones? There, I guess that’s my cranky old...