Johnny Rocco's Italian Grill

Very good food, we went on Boxing Day and the service was slow as there were few people working.

Could not be more impressed from the rose sauce, alfredo sauce to the mommas meat balls and Dutch Ceasars, James our server was awesome. Didn't wait long at all for all our food! (3 people)

AMAZING AMZING AMAZING

Title: Disappointing Experience

I recently ordered the "Make Your Own Pasta" from this restaurant with high expectations, given its claim to be an Italian establishment. Unfortunately, the experience fell short on multiple fronts.

1. **Misleading Advertising: ** The restaurant bills itself as Italian, but the only Italian aspect is the attempt to use Italian titles on the menu. It lacks the authenticity it promises.

2. **Quality of Pasta: ** The pasta quality was subpar. The noodles were thin and lacked flavor, resembling low-end store-bought options.

3. **Excessive Water and Oil: ** Upon receiving the dish, I found it swimming in water and oil, with the noodles practically floating. This made for an unpleasant and soggy texture.

4. **Unimpressive Sausage: ** The Italian sausage turned out to be a generic spicy sausage without proper seasoning, delivering an overwhelming taste of pure fat.

5. **Poor Ingredient Choices: ** Canned olives, unrinsed and high in sodium, were a disappointing choice. The vegetables seemed randomly thrown in, with mushrooms barely visible.

6. **Excessive Oil: ** The pasta contained an excessive amount of oil, a detail even acknowledged by the staff during payment. This oversight raises questions about the kitchen's attention to detail.

7. **Incomplete Order: ** Despite an additional charge for salad, it never made it to my order. This oversight was both disappointing and frustrating.

8. **Limited Dessert Options: ** The lack of available desserts, except for a single chocolate-based option, further underscored the restaurant's apparent shortcomings.

In conclusion, my experience was far from satisfactory. I won't be returning, and I cannot recommend this restaurant, as it seems overrated, outdated, and lacking in culinary expertise. The pictures attached speak volumes about the disappointing reality of this so-called "Italian" restaurant.

The food was great! Our server was really kind and on the ball. I came in on a Monday with friends and they had an amazing special.

Will definitely be back! Thank you.

Waited for an hour for a pizza and salad and paste, food was terrible, costs like a good restaurant. Stay away! ’

Amazing spot and their new Peach menu is to die for! Great deals and the staff is extremely warm and inviting.

Considering we came in late and in a big group is the reason I'm not giving it a lower rating. The place was not capacity, but clearly, our 4 table order overwhelmed the kitchen, and my chicken wings came out last. Not nice. However, they were exactly what I asked for and very tasty. I couldn't finish them because by that time it was almost 10 pm, so I'll have them for breakfast! Live singer was wonderful, Mario!

No manager should have a hatefull conversation with a server in front of customers. It was very disrespectful.

Second year in a row we came here. The food was fantastic. The staff highlighting- Nathan are fantastic. Phenomenal service!

Amazing service by Kyle and if you go during happy hour the mussels and the house white are so yum! Loved it.

The guy who serve us is very nice.
Concern - the steak is fine but it's not the medium rare that I expect to.

This was the most disheartening description of an experience that I can describe. On October 18,2021, at 5: 21 PM. I had entered Johnny Rocco‘s driving from Hamilton as I was celebrating my birthday dinner with my fiancé and me on such a memorable day. I had called ahead to make sure there was room in space for me and my partner. Upon arrival, neither my partner nor I was greeted. I pulled out my vaccination status card and said we were vaccinated - asking if they would like to see it. Afterwards, One of the female hostesses inside - then seated us to a table directly in front of the pizza-making station. We sat down; we were not greeted nor serviced of water for 10 minutes. However, I would have no problem with that if the restaurant was busy. However, that was not the case; the restaurant was docile. Having had experience working in the service industry and as a business owner, I know what a manager looks like. I had asked a female wearing an A plaid shirt with a black shirt underneath with medium-length hair if she was a manager since she was working on her laptop and speaking with the employees. She responded, “yes, ” I asked her if she had seen my fiancé and me sitting behind her and having no server greet us. Her response was, “yes, I did, ” and she continued to turn around to do her “work” (socializing with other workers as the conversation was obvious, as I was directly behind her).

I responded that no one had come to our table even to greet us or offer us water. I was concerned because if I was visible, why hadn’t anyone come to us. There were no apologies; she turned around and continued her conversations with the employees. I felt so less than that. Her response may have been an indication Of her idea that perhaps we couldn’t, or I couldn’t afford a meal at said Johnny Roccos. I saw both managers had walked past me, another who was wearing a long cardigan, and she also had medium-length hair. Neither one came to my table to apologize for my experience, something that a manager should do; however, not once did they do that. The only person that apologized was the server himself, Preston.

If this represents how management deals with customers at Johnny Rocco‘s, it is a sorrowful day. Gracefully enough, we had a fantastic server who tried to rectify the matter. His name was Preston, and I must say he is a gem at Johnny Rocco‘s. He had tried his best to make me feel comfortable on my special day, in which I got calamari and water. My experience was so bad at Johnny Rocco‘s in Niagara Falls that I did not feel comfortable eating food nor even sitting inside the restaurant any longer. No paying customer should ever feel like that, especially when it comes to a place of food and comfort such as Johnny Roccos, which strives to be a place as such.

I will also be contacting the 43North restaurant group, which owns and operates Johnny Roccos. As a business owner myself, this is very concerning because these are the people that represent the corporation and the franchise; as someone who has never been to this restaurant before, this has left me with such a bad taste in my mouth that I left the restaurant shocked and bewildered by the treatment. I cannot recommend this restaurant to anybody by any means, only due to poor management.

First time visitor. The food was delicious, the place clean, and Michelle was great serving us. Will come back for sure.

Brutal - they had limited food options - no Parmesan cheese, limited option for sides. Server was apologetic and it wasn’t his fault. But the meal itself was pretty bad. Salad was tasteless. Sorry - but it was a bad experience

Love Johnny Roccos and go to St. Catharines all the time. This was our first visit to this location. Unfortunately unlike St. Catharines you cannot make reservations at this location. We were concerned about time when we sat down as it was bust and we had bought tickets to a movie but food arrived fast. Our server was great and food as always did not disappoint. Love the Spaghetti and meatballs!

We were visiting from out of town and after a last minute change in plans these guys got 8 of us in, 4 adults, 4 kids, for dinner. Our server Alyssa (sp?) was amazing, service was fast, she was knowledgeable and made great recommendations and was great with the kids. We happen to be there for tapas night which turned out to be awesome, got to try lots of options which were all mini versions of the main menu items, and everything was fantastic. Looking forward to our next visit to Niagara Falls so we can visit Johnny Rocco's again!

It's ok. Depends what you order. Some dishes off their menu are good, others not so much.
Staff is very friendly.

The food here was excellent. We started with their Rice balls which were cooked perfectly.

For entrees we enjoyed the sausage and pepper arribbiata and the lobster ravioli. Both of which blew us away. They only knock against it (if you can even call it that) is the portion size of the sausage penne was quite large.

We sat in the dinning room but next time I'll definitely ask for a spot on the patio. 5/5. Will be back!

Amazing food - the mushroom ravioli, calzones and pizza are superb. Very good service and prices. I'd give 6 stars for the food.

Your Wood oven Pizza is best in town…. Must visit place…. Margarita Pizza with basils is yummm……

Service was a little bit slow but the food was amazing! So. Yes. The food was hot and delicious!

Visited recently for an anniversary dinner. I think we got there a little too early and the FOH almost seemed confused when we went in to get a table but no real inconvenience. (Called in advance and was told it was FCFS). We chose to sit on the patio to enjoy the weather. The patio set up is nice with the only downside being the traffic noise from the really busy intersection just outside. Our server was a little different than your usual overly cheery wait staff that you find at most restaurants. She had a good sense of humor and wasn't giving fake customer service (if that makes sense). It was nice to have someone real and down to earth serving us. The food was great! We had Calamari El Diavolo & Rice Balls to start and we each had a Calzone (Margherita & Sicilian) for our main. The Calamari was served on a sizzling platter which was a nice touch but also caused a few pieces to be overcooked a little. The hot sauce had a decent heat and flavour. The Rice balls are always a hit and you get 4 decent size balls on a plate of marinara sauce. The Calzones were amazing. You could taste the fresh ingredients and the dough was so light and perfectly cooked. We got Fries and Parmesan Chips as sides. The chips were great! Perfectly crispy fresh cut potato chips dusted with Parmesan and chives with lemon aioli. Overall a great experience and great food.

We love Olive garden and we didn't feel comfortable yet to cross the border to go there, we did oír research and saw this restaurant had a similar menu. Worse mistake ever! The food, specially the tomatoe base taste like canned food. And we did not like spending that kind of money for fake flavour food. Anyhow food was not the best. I am giving it 2 stars cause of the servers, all of them were very good, else I'd have given it - 2 stars (if I could).
I do not recommend this place neither we'll go there in the future

Only reason I went there was because of the high reviews. But unfortunately, I had a different experience. The service was poor, table was not cleared after each course, so I ended up clearing my own table (even though the restaurant was empty, only 2 other customers inside and 1 family in the patio). Despite so many employees floating around, no one noticed us. I was there with 3 kids and my sister, so we needed napkins, and dishes to be out of our way. The food was not all that! Spaghetti meat balls the sauce tasted like it wasn't cooked at all. Won't be visiting there again. Disappointed only thing I liked was the girl who took our order very polite and apologized for our experience.

We used to very much enjoy the chicken parm take out family meals pre covid but the price has gone up and the portions down. We recently ordered other take out food to try and both times they forgot to include the cookie with the kids meals even though we reminded them to include it the second time. The second time they also forgot the fries with a meal and the family cheesecake slices were actually small squares with little to no crumble and cheesecake that had a thick pudding type texture, and the calzone was a little burnt and pepperoni super spicy. When we went back to pickup the missing items, they still forgot to include 1 of the cookies. Disappointing. The kids hamburger meal is a deal but the patty wasn't wowing.

Issues with take out food order. Never returned phone calls to rectify final payment.

Second bad experience at this restaurant.

Not very impressed 75 $ for pizza spaghetti with three meatballs and a frozen TV dinner styled microwaved chicken parm. Had to fend and find our own utensils aswell.

Amazing food. Was the best chicken parmesan I have had. The peach sangria was delicious too. Will definitely be back.

My Family And I Were There Aug 26 2021The Food Was Awesome And The Waitress Ashley Was Awesome Too
We Will Be Coming Back Again Next Year.

Amazing food. Everything from the calamari to the Caesar salad to the meatball sandwich was perfectly prepared. This is going to be a regular spot for us. P

Always amazing food the waitresses are always super friendly and willing to suggest the best appetizer or meal I highly recommend them and will be definitely going back again soon

Great Experience!

Atmosphere: The patio was open and there was a live band playing, which was amazing. The patio was clean, great lighting after dark, and the inside decor is modern, nice and clean.

Washrooms: despite being busy the washrooms were clean.

Service: service was great. Our server Andrew was pleasant and on the ball, constantly checking on us. We Didn’t have to ask for anything, it was always looked after for us.

Food: Excellent. The portions are perfect, even for the kids menu. The pasta sauce is fresh and flavourful. The calzone was incredibly delicious. My wife ordered the seafood pasta and it was delicious. Nothing disappointed us, including the Nutella pizza. They have their pizza dough really figured out at this place.

Overall: great experience and highly recommended. This was our second time here and it was great during both visits.

Had dinner today (August 3rd). Everything was amazing and service was spectacular. Our server Preston had great recommendations, was very friendly and attentive. He was also training another server who was on his first day and he was amazing as well. Nathan did a great job on his first day. We will definitely be back and hopefully we get one of them as our server again.

The food was amazing. The service just a good. Very clean. Will definitely be coming back and sending friends.

I ate here with my family while visiting Niagara falls. I knew when comparing other Italian restaurants in the area, that this would be an authentic Italian eatery. We were greeted by the best waitress we ever met: Lauren! Not only was our antipasto, white sangria pitcher, and calamari amazingly delicious, but the cook made my kids a half margarita half's sicilian pizza to die for. In addition, Lauren was like a sunshine! She wrote down for us some greater places for us to visit with the kids (breakfast place, activities and shopping) and gave us a complimentary Nutella and fruit desert pizza. It was so good we clean the plate. It was a great start to our trip!

We love supporting local restaurant's vs the big franchise chains and decided to give Johnny Rocco's a try for the first time. We ordered several different dishes to share and try amongst the family of four (4). I must say all dishes were good but the service could have been a bit better. We had a waiterr named Ryan who was very kind but also very forgetful. We literally had to ask for things 3-4 times. To top it off, one of the waiters unfortunately smashed a glass bottle of sparkling water we ordered at our table. Once we finished dinner we figured we would end the night with some cappuccinos or espressos and dessert, after all its an Italian Eatery. The waiter seemed unaware and note sure how to make the drinks and asked who appeared to very a floor manager. The floor manager told us the machine was down today but it was working. They were just busy and made an excuse which was disappointing. I saw others with coffee and lates. And we heard her tell the waiter after that they're just to busy. We tried to spend more money and despite the service I still tipped 25% on the $210 bill close to $60. Don't judge your patrons and I am still giving a 4 star although a feel a 3 star is better suited due to lack of service.

Pretty good environment with live music performed at the patio. Food is also good, the kids love their stone baked pizza from the kids menu.

The service was great. The food is great and the portions are big. I just wish they served espresso coffee.

Great food and atmosphere. Nathan was very sweet and pleasant. Would have been nice if the manager on duty stopped by to see how everything was going.

The food here was amazing so was the service. Props to Ava and Lauren. I'd give 6 stars if I could. I will back for sure.

It's a nice place but the staff need to be trained how deal with customers and orders when it's busy

Great patio, good food, live music was fun, and the server was nice. I would say Johnny's is a cut above the chain restaurants that it competes with and could do well to be a chain beyond the two locations open right now.

I Ordered the rice balls because I was craving some and I felt they tasted very bland they had no flavor at all. It would be nice it they had some flavor

Absolutely lovely: food and service. First time dining and I was not disappointed. Highly recommend if you are in the Niagara Falls area. Would surely or most definitely visit again.

I got so disappointed.
Our bear was warm, the caesar cocktail was terrible.
Burger was not good at all and the Johnny rocco’s salad was not good either.
Don't recommend this place.

Our experience this evening was great. Our food was cooked perfectly and was delicious. Our server was friendly and knowledgeable

ABSOLUTELY One time deal. High Price with Low end food. If you have other choice, do not come to this one. They gave me a spoon to eat my pasta, told me that they don’t have any fork. The waiter did not even gave us a plastic fork. Told waiter that the pasta is too salty (the saltiest pasta we ever had). The waiter ignored us completely. Service was not friendly. Food were salty. Food portion is not very much. Sweet potato fries was less than 20 pieces. Signature Pizza was nothing special. We ordered 4 main courses. Very disappointed. The waiter recommended roasted potato. That was the only thing taste normal. Go to Boston Pizza or other restaurants. This place is NOT a good choice.

The parmesan chips are so very delicious. The chicken Parm was good, but a little to much mozzarella for my liking. The tables are close to the door so it was chilly. Overall, had a good meal and will attend again.

We ordered pasta and chicken wings, and salad, very tasty indeed, prices are normal for a restaurant like that, but we enjoyed the quality of food and the atmosphere is lovely too.
Thank you.

Johnny Rocco's is a great restaurant at the corner of Dorchester and Lindy's Lane in Niagara Falls. The Italian cuisine is fabulous and they have a good well-priced wine selection and plenty of beer choices. One appetizer recommendation is "Zia's Rice Ball's" - they are to die for! With marinara sauce and fresh ground parm from your waiter/waitress! I also LOVE the Lobster Ravioli. It is truly amazing. All that and a nice intimate atmosphere too. Enjoy!

My family had dinner at Johnny Rocco's and the food was great and the service was great also it was a very good experience and thank you to all your staff great job to everyone that works there.

Delicious. We came looking ofr burgers and weren't disappointed, although it's mostly Italian food on the menu.

Waiter was friendly, but forgot about us a couple of times. We ordered appetizers first and then waiting 20 minutes after we finished before he came back to take our entree order, and then got my water to refill but didn't come back with it for another 10 minutes. Great food! Would go back again.

The service and dinning experience has been excellent every time I've been. The food is delicious and they offer just the right selection of food and wine - not too much choice, and not too little choice.

I was not happy with the burger served to my son. It was very burnt. My pasta was cold with my chicken parmigiana. We were a big group, no coffee or dessert offered. Kids got their dessert as we were all leaving. I would not go back. An expensive lunch experience which left us unsatisfied.

Went to eat out at this restaurant tonight. We went to the lundys lane restaurant.
We ate here before and it was good but tonight, certainly not a good experience. Snow storm again tonight so the place was very slow. When we sat down there was only one other table. Our server was the host that sat us. He really seemed like it was an absolute chore to serve us? After we sat down he came over and he said “well, it looks like you’re stuck with me tonight”. We laughed but the way the service continued through the meal, it was unfortunate that we really were stuck with him.
I ordered a salad and so did my wife and my son, a pizza. We also ordered a goat cheese app which he forgot. I would remind you that there was only one other table. He was somewhat apologetic but he just seemed so blah and portrayed such a negative presence.
Our salads were 17.00 each. Apple and pecan salad with salmon. Mostly greens with I believe I saw 5 pecans, two skewers salmon, four slices of apple a couple of cranberries with balsamic. My perception of the salad after reading the menu was a lot different than what we had received. The salmon and the shrimp on the salads were cooked well. My sons pizza was good.
I did not tip the server a cent tonight. I think that is literally only the second time I have ever done that. If I think the service is bad, I will usually tip something at least. But tonight it just started off on the wrong foot. I’m sure we were on the bad list after we left for not leaving a tip but I think if he reflected he would understand that it was just bad service. A weird vibe overall. He did take 2.00 and change off the bill for forgetting to put in the goat cheese app but still our bill was 61.00. So if the service is bad and the food was ok, for 61.00 and the reputation of Jonny Rocco’s I would expect a better experience.

Excellent first experience! Mel was our server and everything was exceptional. My husband, four kids and I received fast and efficient service and the food was amazing! Would definitely recommend.

Excellent service. I can see that our waitress truly cared about our experience. We ate well. The pizza and eggplant parmigian were delicious.

Very nice restaurant and service was great but the food was sub par for the price. There are much better italian restaurants in the area where you will get more bang for your buck.
I ordered the calzone and there was barely any filling, it was like just eating a ball of dough.

Amazing experience. Servers were very attentive, food was delicious, and the seats were comfortable. Will be visiting again!

Date night extraordinare. Our wait staff was great. Wine selection, perfect. And the eggplant parmesan? , absolutely to die for. Also ordered mushroom caps and caesar salad.
Very happy with our experience, we'll be back soon.

Some of the best pizza oven had will go back 100% staff is vary nice and friendly. Cool seeing the chef toss the pizza. The only thing is the parking lots a little small but who cares the food is great.

The food was great here but the front entrance into the restaurant gets stuck when anyone opens it so the dining room was fluctuating between cold and warm frequently, this made the atmosphere uncomfortable. Service was quick and good. Tables were not wiped after guests left but the dishes were taken away. It was 930pm so not sure as to why that happened. Overall a good experience.