Rocky's Food is.......

Lately we've had some amazing dining out experiences from Seviche, Volare, Z's Fusion, Bistro 301, Mayan Cafe, Baxter Station to North End Cafe and Safir's. So it came as a real shock to have some of the worst food I have ever put in my mouth when we ventured into Rocky's the other night. The decision to dine there was based on having my rather non adventurous daughter and her two girls (3 & 1) with us. Pasta, can't go wrong, right??? We had a very short 15 minute wait. We got drinks rather quickly and had our order taken. Salads came out fast, but were extrememly boring iceburg lettuce with huge rings of purple onion. This is where it went bad. My daughter ordered ranch dressing. After two bites, she said, "Mom this stuff is nasty!" I tasted it and it reminded me of burnt peanut butter. This is ranch dressing mind you. We asked the server for another salad and he ran down the list of dressings again. He got to "gorgonzola" and she looked at me quizically, so I said, "Sorta like blue cheese". The server says, "It's not blue cheese!" I wasn't going to get into a semantics argument with a pierced, tatooed, bald headed 20 something year old server with an attitude issue (no offense to anyone who is a pierced, tatooed, bald headed 20 something year old!) Anyway, this dressing tasted EXACTLY like the first dressing. This time, she just left the salad. Our entrees arrived and by now we had three salad bowls and numerous napkins from cleaning up after the kids piled at one end of the table. They lived there until I ASKED the server to please take them away. My daughter had the Chicken Pasta Carbonera, which turned out to be the best choice but the 3 year old wouldn't touch it. My other half had a Seafood Pasta with light lemon, garlic sauce and said he was only eating it because he hadn't eaten all day. I had a Salmon Caeser with overcooked burnt salmon and possibly the worst caeser dressing I have ever tasted. It was so spicy, my mouth was on fire! Long story short, all three of us had upset stomachs a couple of hours later. I can safely say, it was not only the worst food I've had in a long time, but it was loud and all the young servers seemed more concerned about whatever they had to do than being considerate or aware of the customers.
Worst part is we always like Rockys when it was up river! Anyone else have this experience or was it just a bad night?

I have fond memories of the orignal Rocky's across from Jeffboat, and seared in awful memories of the first and only time I tried the new incarnation down by the bridge.

While my experience wasn't as horrifying as yours, I've been once which was one time too many.
It is such a shame that what could be a great patio right on the river has such awful food, drinks, and service. Our waiter was wearing those weird shades that have horizontal "shutters" and introduced himself as Giovanni. Of course, I can't be certain, but I feel quite confident in saying that his name was NOT Giovanni. I knew from that moment on it was going to be quite an experience.

Never, ever again.

I have fond memories of the orignal Rocky's across from Jeffboat, and seared in awful memories of the first and only time I tried the new incarnation down by the bridge.

It was a great pizza joint.

The original Rocky's by Jeffboat was the first place I ever had wheat-crust pizza done correctly, and I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. I can't imagine even bothering with it now

[Robin Garr]

It was a great pizza joint.

Agreed, although I can't say I ever thought of it as an authentic Italian restaurant. Family Italian-American, maybe.

It also deserves credit for being into beer before beer was in. They had quite an import bottle list, as I recall.

We considered Rocky's on Westport for our rehearsal dinner a couple of years ago, because it was close to the hotel where our guests were staying, seemed to be able to accomodate our party, and Italian food appeals to most. We dined there with this in mind, and found everything from the salads to the pastas incredibly bland, and pasta was definitely not al dente. Bread was ok, if I recall correctly. We got carryout not long after that, and still found it so bland, that we completely ruled them out for a rehearsal dinner. I know they used to have a great reputation at one point at the original location, but we were so unimpressed, that we never went back. Apparently, we weren't alone, as the Westport location is no more. Didn't they have a store on Douglass Loop? Is that location still there?

I think you're thinking of Ray Parella's. He moved from Douglas to Frankfort and it's consistantly good for that kind of fare. You know what else is pretty good, especially for kids? Puccini's Smiling Teeth on Shelbyville Rd. It's cheap, sauces are tasty and even though it's a small chain, it isn't careless about sauces and dressings. I've always had good service as well. It's someplace you can go in shorts and t-shirts and still eat healthy.

I've long been a semi-regular patron of Rocky's (back to their days across from JeffBoat) and never had a bad meal or experience at any of their locations, so it's a little disheartening to read these posts, and those who dine there on a more frequent basis probably have a better read on what's going on over there....despite the diversity of Louisville dining, there are relatively few solid, family-oriented Italian-American options in the city, and for years Rocky's was arguably at (or certainly near) the top of that list...perhaps the time has come for Rocky's to step back and take a hard, objective look at what they're doing and how well they're doing it....their disappearance would be a real loss to the local dining scene...

I think you're thinking of Ray Parella's.

You're right! It was Ray Parella's on Douglass Loop. Did they originally have a place in IN as well? I never did try the DL location, and I think I got them confused with Rocky's. I lived right around the corner for bit, and probably missed out.

I think you're thinking of Ray Parella's.

You're right! It was Ray Parella's on Douglass Loop. Did they originally have a place in IN as well? I never did try the DL location, and I think I got them confused with Rocky's. I lived right around the corner for bit, and probably missed out.

Ray Parella's did have a location on Court Avenue in downtown Jeffersonville. I used to love going there.

It's funny or sad because I just posted about overcooked pasta and Rocky's was my prime subject. I am originally from NJ and I found it, at least a while back, to be not unlike many of the places I went to when I was growing up. Their pasta now, is routinely overcooked. And saying it is overcooked is actually kind. I always loved their meatballs, but they are not as good as they were. They had the best meatball subs in the area and I ate their recently and the meatball presence on the sub was sparse. I am having a difficult time heading back----which is quite sad. I loved Rocky's.

Buckhead's is not much different than Rocky's, in terms of food quality. The last few times we have eaten at EITHER restaurant, we were, shall I say, less than impressed......It is a shame too, because Buckhead's was always a safe place to take the family.

I cooked at Rocky's for a couple of years back in the 70's. It wasn't exactly rocket science what we did back then. The Fondrisi brothers brought their recipes from New York and we were never really fine dining if you will. Just very consistent quality New York style Italian American. The pizza crusts were probably the highlight of the joint and if we ever had a subpar batch of dough (seldom) we'd chuck it and make another one. We had a German guy doing a lot of the cooking and there was another feller by the name of John Schnatter who made pizzas (you may have heard of him).

I've only been to the riverside place once and it didn't seem much like the original. Maybe the new partners are playng a bigger role; the menu seemed like it was maybe planned by a food supplier consultant although there were remnants of the old recipes.

Those are funny comments about the servers. Somehow I don't think they could be any funkier than we were back in '79.

Somehow I don't think they could be any funkier than we were back in '79.

Not a chance.