The Rock is a rock music themed restaurant with a bar area. The music is a great combination of current and classical rock, and the walls are covered with rock themed swag. The pizzas are named after rock bands, songs and ideas, such as "The Crazy Train" or "Bat outta Hell". This is a great place to go with friends or family, bringing the family a little earlier in the evening, and staying late with friends.
The Rock is known for it's amazing wood fired pizzas, refreshing microbrews and "The Bucket", which is a knock-you-on-your-ass combination of citrus juice (orange and pineapple would be my guess) and five oz. of specialty rums and is actually served in a plastic bucket. Due to the KYOYA nature of these drinks, you're limited to only two servings, although that's plenty. At $9 a Bucket, two is plenty for the wallet too.
Our favourite food here used to be the Rock's Hot Wings. These things were FIERY! The chicken was well cooked and very saucy, with a nice serving of delicious blue cheese dip and some celery, to cool things off between bites. Another curious dish is the Brown Sugar Mozza Bread. Before you give me a weird look, give me the benefit of the doubt and try it. At first, I thought my friends were nuts for ordering this, but after trying it, I crave it all the time!
The reason I say that it "USED" to be our favourite food, is because lately some of the food, and all of the service, has gone
D
O
W
N
H
I
L
L!
The quick wait times and friendly hosts and hostesses seem to have moved on to greener pastures. I'm sure the economy had something to do with this, but now you're left with some young person with much less interest in seating you then interest in finishing the conversation they're having with other host(esses) or servers. You'll often be passed up for parties bigger than you if you come in a party of two, even though most of their tables seat four or more so it isn't like they're waiting for a two top to be available.
The wait staff also seem very inexperienced, often forgetting to give you cutlery, or side plates for shared appies. Many times we've not had our water refilled when it's empty and haven't been asked if we'd like another beer, once when our beer was empty before the appies were gone and we still hadn't ordered our main courses. A few visits ago, I had ordered a second Bucket that never came, and when asked about it, the waitress brought it right away and made the comment: "Sorry, I thought it was for him." and motioned to our oversized friend in a dark trench coat. Whether that was a comment on his appearance or what, I'm not sure, but we were MAD.
Those perfect batches of hot wings have turned into small baskets of smaller wings that have been very overcooked and under sauced. And forget about the blue cheese dressing, 99% of the time you have to remind your server that it comes with that, and if you recieve it before your wings are cold, you're lucky. The sauce is still incredibly spicy and delicious though.
Two visits ago, I reminded our waitress about the blue cheese dressing and asked for a second bucket at the same time (yes I like my Buckets, it's probably the only reason we keep going there), and the dressing never came. The Bucket came about 20 minutes later when the bartender brought it out (with the ice completely melted) asking whose it was. Our waitress was sitting talking to friends who were seated a few tables over.
Another selling point for The Rock is their weekday pizza buffet lunch. A bit pricey at just under $10 per person, but it's all you can eat, and comes with a soda or lemonade (flavoured lemonade is extra). However, unlike our visits last year, our visit last week took forever to be seated, eventually seating ourselves in the bar. Water was brought, but drink orders weren't taken until we were three quarters through our meal (to save on refills?), we had to flag down our waitress for the cheque (she was busy talking to a friend at the bar) and she never came back to pick up our credit card. We had to walk it up to her and inturrupt her conversation after ten minutes. The buffet was out of cesear salad the entire time (we were there just short of an hour) and the pizza trays were almost always empty and very slow to be replenished.
All that aside, the pizza is fantastic, although overpriced. If you can overlook poor service, the possibility that you will get zero to one drink regardless of how many you'd like, and you keep the $5 off (a large pizza) coupon on the bottom of the recipt for next time, the pizza is pretty yum. Skip the appetizers (except the Brown Sugar Mozza Bread) and eat dessert at home, but the pizza is worth a shot. And don't forget to grab a Bucket!
The Rock is known for it's amazing wood fired pizzas, refreshing microbrews and "The Bucket", which is a knock-you-on-your-ass combination of citrus juice (orange and pineapple would be my guess) and five oz. of specialty rums and is actually served in a plastic bucket. Due to the KYOYA nature of these drinks, you're limited to only two servings, although that's plenty. At $9 a Bucket, two is plenty for the wallet too.
Our favourite food here used to be the Rock's Hot Wings. These things were FIERY! The chicken was well cooked and very saucy, with a nice serving of delicious blue cheese dip and some celery, to cool things off between bites. Another curious dish is the Brown Sugar Mozza Bread. Before you give me a weird look, give me the benefit of the doubt and try it. At first, I thought my friends were nuts for ordering this, but after trying it, I crave it all the time!
The reason I say that it "USED" to be our favourite food, is because lately some of the food, and all of the service, has goneD
O
W
N
H
I
L
L!
The quick wait times and friendly hosts and hostesses seem to have moved on to greener pastures. I'm sure the economy had something to do with this, but now you're left with some young person with much less interest in seating you then interest in finishing the conversation they're having with other host(esses) or servers. You'll often be passed up for parties bigger than you if you come in a party of two, even though most of their tables seat four or more so it isn't like they're waiting for a two top to be available.
The wait staff also seem very inexperienced, often forgetting to give you cutlery, or side plates for shared appies. Many times we've not had our water refilled when it's empty and haven't been asked if we'd like another beer, once when our beer was empty before the appies were gone and we still hadn't ordered our main courses. A few visits ago, I had ordered a second Bucket that never came, and when asked about it, the waitress brought it right away and made the comment: "Sorry, I thought it was for him." and motioned to our oversized friend in a dark trench coat. Whether that was a comment on his appearance or what, I'm not sure, but we were MAD.
Those perfect batches of hot wings have turned into small baskets of smaller wings that have been very overcooked and under sauced. And forget about the blue cheese dressing, 99% of the time you have to remind your server that it comes with that, and if you recieve it before your wings are cold, you're lucky. The sauce is still incredibly spicy and delicious though.
Two visits ago, I reminded our waitress about the blue cheese dressing and asked for a second bucket at the same time (yes I like my Buckets, it's probably the only reason we keep going there), and the dressing never came. The Bucket came about 20 minutes later when the bartender brought it out (with the ice completely melted) asking whose it was. Our waitress was sitting talking to friends who were seated a few tables over.
Another selling point for The Rock is their weekday pizza buffet lunch. A bit pricey at just under $10 per person, but it's all you can eat, and comes with a soda or lemonade (flavoured lemonade is extra). However, unlike our visits last year, our visit last week took forever to be seated, eventually seating ourselves in the bar. Water was brought, but drink orders weren't taken until we were three quarters through our meal (to save on refills?), we had to flag down our waitress for the cheque (she was busy talking to a friend at the bar) and she never came back to pick up our credit card. We had to walk it up to her and inturrupt her conversation after ten minutes. The buffet was out of cesear salad the entire time (we were there just short of an hour) and the pizza trays were almost always empty and very slow to be replenished.
All that aside, the pizza is fantastic, although overpriced. If you can overlook poor service, the possibility that you will get zero to one drink regardless of how many you'd like, and you keep the $5 off (a large pizza) coupon on the bottom of the recipt for next time, the pizza is pretty yum. Skip the appetizers (except the Brown Sugar Mozza Bread) and eat dessert at home, but the pizza is worth a shot. And don't forget to grab a Bucket!
No comments:
Post a Comment