Johnny Rocco's

My wife and I went there to try this cool looking place. We were told 20 mins for a table at 6.30 we patiently waited untill finally being seated at 7.30. Our app and drinks came quickly but our main didnt come out till 9.20. So to compensare our wait the poor waiter has to give bread and oil multiple times and continue to appologise for the wait. When the main finally came it was such a let down, way too much sauce like it was put together for a prisoner. My wife almost cried.

Every one of the staff members were very courteous and attentive. My daughter had her newborn son strapped to her chest in a wrap and many staff members stopped by to see our 6 week old grandson. The manager on duty even stopped to ask how everything was. The food and service was wonderful. The food never fails to please. We also ordered takeout recently with chicken parm meal for 4. We were able to feed 5 adults and still have some leftovers for lunch. Excellent value!

Food is excellent.....staff courteous and knowledgeable about menus...a great place to go! Owner often visits tables and chats with customers...a nice personal touch!

I highly recommend this place for Italian food. It's like the best home cooked meal with large portions. Servers are very friendly and the manager usually comes around to check up on your dining experience. Great place to Dine!!!!!!

Love This Restaurant

Wife and I had date night, so many awesome choices for dinner. Our food was delicious, we left happy from s restaurant for once.

Thursday Tapas

I went to Johnny Rocco’s with my friend for Tapas last Thursday. I’ve been here before, but it was my first time trying out the Tapas. It was a really fun night. We really enjoyed the live music. It was busy that night, but we were greeted at the door with a smile and brought to a table right away. Our server was friendly and took our drink order. It took a little while to get our Sangria, but we didn’t care. We were too busy enjoying the live band playing and checking out all of the options we had to choose from on the Tapas menu. Since it was our first time our server suggested we start off with 2 or 3 Tapas each and then if we were still hungry we could order more Tapas later. She said a lot of people start off with a couple and then order more as they go. So when in Rome lol We ended up sharing everything. We got the Crispy Raviolis, a Sicilian Pizza, Boneless Chicken, and an Apple Salad to start. The tapas don’t come to the table all at once, but we didn’t have to wait long for them to start coming. The Raviolis were good. Kind of like a jalopeno popper. The Pizza was nice and golden brown, thin crust and spicy! It was great, I’ve had this pizza before off the regular menu and the mini version was just as good. The Boneless Chicken was good. And I’ve found my new favourite salad! The Apple Salad was delicious. It had apples, pecans, I think goat cheese, and roasted red peppers in it. When our server checked on us we were saying how good the salad was, and we had to order another one. She told us that they have it on the regular menu too. We also wanted to try a Tapas pasta, but we couldn’t decide. Our server suggested the Penne with Chicken in a Rose sauce. So we went with her suggestion and tried it. It could’ve used a little bit more sauce on it, but overall it was a good suggestion. Eventually our server was back to check on us. At that point we were stuffed, but we really wanted to try the Tapas Desserts. She told us they had new Tapas Desserts that weren’t listed on the menu and that they were delicious. We asked her what her favourite one was, but she said they were all THAT good that she could never pick just one. So we decided to try a few! Seeing how they are Tapas sized…we had the Carrot Cake, Chocolate Fudge Brownie, and Red Velvet Cheese Cake (who could resist that! Red Velvet!). They were all so good! And our server was right, too hard to pick just one favourite. lol We were sooo stuffed by the end of it we couldn’t move. So we stayed longer, relaxed, and enjoyed the band. They played a lot of great songs that we knew, and they had us singing along with them. Overall a good night. I will be back for Tapas again, for some already known favourites and to try some new ones too. There’s so many to choose from.

Horrible Experience

The service was by far the worst I've ever experienced. We had a group of 14 and the kitchen sent out only nine of our plates, and then the other five got their food after the rest of us had finished our meals. UNACCEPTABLE!!! My poor father was one of the people who had to wait and they made the wrong dish so he had to wait even 15 minutes longer. The food was good but I can't return to a place that is managed that poorly!!!

I have gone to this place ATLEAST 10 times since it has opened. I had my birthday here (they gave me a private room in the back) with a group of 10, plus free ice cream for myself for dessert. I've gone here for both lunch and dinner. I do recommend lunch over dinner as their service is faster. Lunch time is very quiet and the service is quite fast. Dinner on a saturday the place is packed and busy, so the wait for food is longer. I enjoy their salads. Ive had their bruchetta and it was good. Their risotto is yummy. By far my favourite is their parmesan chips and their calzones. The calzones are very fresh, always crisp and never burned. The parmesan chips are always crisp and fresh. The waitresses I've had in the past have been fine and never had an issue with service. Overall affordable price and I love the rustic decor. The St Catharines Costco offers a spend $80 and you receive a $100 gift card. This is a great deal for anyone who eats there frequently. I will be going back again :)

First time at Tapas

Well, the food at Johnny Rocco's in the Falls isn't that good so my friends go to the St. Catharines one instead for tapas. It was my first time going with them last night and the tapas was delicious and fun. The atmosphere was great, but the service was awful. Last night, our server took forever to check on us. We found ourselves without service for 15 minutes when we sat down, wondering when we could order a drink, and then ended up without utensils for another 5 minutes when our first round came out. When the 6th person in our party came, she had the same wait. Our waiter would drop off the food and rush off without giving us a chance to ask for anything else. Sure, the restaurant is busy on Thursdays, but he also had a bad attitude. Not only did our server seem to have an issue being polite, but the rest of the servers also seemed to have sticks up their butts. At times, I felt as though I was back in my university days getting sized up and stared down by snotty girls at a bar. My friends have mentioned that this is what the service is always like there, and I wonder why they keep going back. At least in the Falls, I leave in a good mood.

I'm a fan of Johnny Rocco's, but had only ever been there in the evening for dinner. My boyfriend and I decided to go there for lunch recently. Every time I've gone to Johnny Rocco's it's always busy, but we still get great service and the food is delicious, and the same can be said for our recent lunch experiance. On our first ever visit for lunch we were promtly greeted at the door with a smile and were seated in a big comfy booth, even though we were only two people. The waitress was nice, friendly and seemed knowledgable about their wine list. I was looking to try something new and told her I usually go for a sweeter white wine. She suggested the Megalomaniac Narcissit Reisling ( I remember the name because I enjoyed the wine so much I had her write it down for me so I could go pick some up at the LCBO lol). I also had water to drink. To eat I ordered the Rigatoni Rustica. It was so good. Normally I go for one of their Pizza's because I love the thin crust and I always know they're going to be delicious, but this day I was in the mood for pasta. The rigatoni was in a white creamy sauce and it was loaded with lots of good stuff! It had chicken, roasted red peppers, prucuitto, and shrimp. It was really good and very filling! It came with the choice of soup or salad to start. I had the house salad. It was good.It had lots of stuff in it like lettuce (obviously lol) cucumbers, tomatos, cheese, crutons, olives, onions, chickpeas, and this little pepper. My boyfriend also had a glass of the Megalomanic Narcissit Reisling, a glass of water, and he had the Sausage and Pepper Arrabiatta. He said he really enjoyed it. It was good and spicey. And he really enjoys peppers and this dish had an assortment of them in it. So it was a good choice for him. He also had the house salad to start. As always, even though the restaurant was busy, our waitress, made sure to check on us and offer to get us more drinks. Although the wine was delicious, it was lunch time so we only had one glass each. I also liked that after she brought us our drinks, we clearly needed more time to decide what we wanted to eat and we told her we'd need more time (their menu is huge), she asked us if we had any questions, and we didn't so she said she'd check back with us in a bit. When she did come back to take our order she asked what I thought about the wine. I like little things like that. It shows they actually care and you feel like you're being taken care of. And to me when a server comes back to check on you and make sure you have everything you need and the food is good, that's important and can make all the difference. Overall our first lunch time experiance was a good one! And we will be back :)

We went to celibrate a Birthday. It was a Sunday night and we reserved a table. We were seated and 15 minutes later a waitress showed up and took our drink order. It was all soft drinks and took another 15 minutes to deliver. Again the watress dissapoeared for another 10 minutes. Two people ordered the soup and it was bland and lukewarm. On loaf of bread was brought and 1 salad bowl for the 6 remaining people. I asked about the Salad and the waitress just said we share here. The food finally came after one hour and 15 minutes. My Pasta with Sausage was a congeled mass on my plate and barely warm. The same for my wifes pasta. Everyone was very disappointed with the food. The service to say the least was non existant. There is no excuse for cold food. I had to ask for a refill on my empty glass that was sitting right in front of the waitress. If I could give a 0 for this place I would. I will not go back, and I really don't think it will last. I saw many tables where people were staring off into the air waiting for food and service. O yes and for n 18 dollar meal they charged me 50 cents for cheese on my Garlic bread and even that was cold. I almost laughed out loud when the waitress said to be carefull the plates were hot. They were stone cold like the experience we had.

Nice neighborhood place

Johnny's has everything going for it. The staff are terrific and interested in making the meal nice. They are pretty knowledgeable. We've eaten here 4 times since the summer. There is lots of variety on the menu. Try the nachos. The chips will float off the plate they are so light. Excellent. Nice place to take your older kids for a nice meal. Looks like it's a popular place with university and college kids and visiting parents

DECENT

We had a decent meal here. We ordered the appetizer for two and had calamari, parmigiana chips and deep fried ravioli with dipping sauces.It was all very good! The seafood pasta was very good but they charged me extra to make the sauce as rose. Not sure why? What was the big deal? My husband enjoyed the Gnocchi very much. Service was sooo slow. I do not blame the server though as she was run off her feat. They could have used more waitresses. Issues as well with the debit machine. The atmosphere is likely what will prevent me from going again unless we have a big group. Its way to loud. Nothing intimate about this place.

A friend and I went to Johnny Rocco's for a bite to eat. She had never been there before and I'm always telling her how good it is and how awsome the building is, so I finally took her to try it. We decided to sit at the bar and eat. It was really busy that night, but the bartender was great. He was friendly, gots us drinks right away, and took our order. I was expecting to have to wait awhile for the food because the restaurant looked pretty full, but it came out pretty quick and was delicious! We shared the Parmasean Chips for our appetizer. They were so good! We love the Garlic Aoli they serve with the Chips. Then we shared a Sicilian Pizza for our meal. I love Johnny Rocco's pizzas. They're thin crust and baked in a fire wood oven. Delicious! The pizza had pepperoni, italian sausage, roasted red peppers, and I think they put chilly flakes or something like that on it to make it a little spicey. It wasn't too spicey, but it had a nice little kick to it. The bartender looked super busy making tons of drinks, but he still made sure to check on us, ask how things were, and get us more drinks. Needless to say my friend is now hooked too! lol

Blah, blah

Johnny Rocco's is another one of those feel good places trying to imitate a good eatery. Bland food and high prices. Average across the board. You will get fed but don't expect it to be anything to write home about.

Decent Food, Great Service

My husband and I were down while our children were rowing in Port Dalhousie. Our children’s coach was bragging about how beautiful this restaurant was so we decided to check it out. Truly a beautiful place, antique building with some construction still going on but all through lunch we were looking around and just amazed with the history the building had. Seemed to be busy when we came in a young gentlemen sat us by the bar seemed like the bartender and got our drinks quickly. After ordering our lunch, it took about 10 minutes to receive our appetizers, the calamari was rubbery bruschetta was dry. Our meals came out very close to our appetizer. The pasta that came with our meals was way to large of a portion. And very sloppy presentation. Our waiter was always around very talkative and personable, took us for a quick tour of the building and showed us the historic basement which just made up for the flaws of the restaurant . . Great service over all. Needs improvement on food presentation and quality .. Would come back for the service

No taste for Italian restaurant!!

We had heard alot on mixed things about Johnny Rocco's, and had been to the Falls location, so we thought we'd give the St. Cath location a try. I had never heard of bland Italian food before, but we both had that meal-different orders, but both bland! I thought garlic was a must in any Italian restaurant, but it was non-existant here! The service was pretty horrible, as well. Since both meals came with soup or salad, we thought we'd get asked which we would want-if any- and we were brought the simple house salad (which apparently can be purchased in a bag from any grocery store)....with the house dressing-which we neither asked for or ordered. Drinks (iced tea and coffee) were never refilled. We saw our server at the end of the meal when our bill was brought. So, again-bland food, bad-to-non-existant server. I realize that it had not been opened that long, but one owuld assume that there was some type of training involved after the hiring process took place. Won't be going back any time soon, however, we have spoken to other patrons of this establishment who raved about the food-the service hasn't changed- but the food is so good that they're willing to overlook the bad service. (The steak was prepared incorrectly, but we never saw our server again to complain, so really, why bother going back again?)

HORRIBLE

Since I have no where to submit a complaint, here it is! I went with 3 other people to this restaurant, to wait for 20 minutes before we were seated. Once seated, and our orders taken, random people began bringing us random food. Seafood appetizers were brought to the table before the salads were... (and why is seafood ready before a salad?)... Our entree's were all brought out at the same time, while 3 of us still hadnt received our appetizers. A young man brought us 2 salads when we ordered 3, and we asked him what each of them were.. he had to go ask. Then another lady came out and stood beside the table and said "clams?", no one ordered clams, we ordered mussels, "do you mean mussels?" I said, "Oh right, thats what I meant" as she dropped it on the table and ran... The service was horrible! Everyone received their food at the table at different times and they didnt even know what they were bringing us!!! On top of that, once we received the food 2/4 people at the table thought their meals were undercooked and tasted aweful... We will never go back! WORST SERVICE EVER!!!!!!!!!!!

Terrible Service. Decent Food.

I went to Johnny Rocco's with a group of women from work. When the reservation was made we were told we were getting a "private dining room". We weren't sure why, but we were excited! When we got there we learned the "private dining room" they talked about was just the room way in the back. It was in no way private...there were probably 8 other tables in there. But maybe they meant private - as in we would rarely see our server? We had no trouble with the service until after our orders were taken. Our drinks were never refilled and it was like pulling teeth to get our server over to our table. One of the girls with us is vegan and she ordered a pizza with a few substitutions. She asked for no feta and chicken. Instead she wanted tomatoes and mushrooms. The server said this would be no problem. When the pizza came it seemed to have EXTRA chicken and feta. The server quickly took it away and assured her a new one would be out shortly. The rest of us had long finished by the time she even saw her pizza again. She barely had a few slices when she decided to pack it up because we had to go. When we finally got our bill we noticed that they not only did not discount her pizza for it being wrong and then very late, but they actually charged her for removing expensive ingredients and adding cheaper ones to the pizza! One of our other group members was charged for cheese on some garlic bread she didn't even get! When we told our server about the problems he just asked if we wanted to talk to a manager...obviously! When the manager came over she was completely clueless about what the problem was and made the poor girl who's pizza was messed up explain to her what items were on their menu! You would think a manager would know their own menu. The manager was very patronizing and offered a tiny 10% discount for the wrong/late order. I'm amazed she even took the extra cheese off for the non-existent garlic bread. We were absolutely floored that they would not cover the price of the pizza when they had 6 women sitting in their restaurant who they could have impressed with their problem resolution. Had they solved the problem with class we would all be coming back with husbands and friends. Now? Now it's just something we joke about at work all the time. You can bet all our customers know what we think of Johnny Rocco's!

this place is fantastic

This place is really just terrific! We stopped in for a lunch on our way to Niagara-on-the-Lake... What a wonderful surprise to find this place! The location is easy to find, and the building is immaculate! The inside decor is absolutely beautiful, it would be a lovely place for a first date. There is an interesting glassed in private dining room which while cute and offering the idea of privacy from others would only probably draw attention and make those inside feel like they are in an aquarium. But that aside... the food was delicious! I could not resist their Prosciutto Panino: Sliced thin with roasted red peppers, provolone cheese & balsamic greens this was a delightful dream! As were their Stuffed Pasta Shells: Homemade shells stuffed with melt-in-your-mouth ricotta cheese & topped with pomodoro! We'll most certainly be back... the patio where we had our lunch was beautiful!