Rocca

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500 Harrison Ave (at Thayer Street)
Boston, MA 02118

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(617) 451-5151
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Rocca - Boston, MA
Rocca - Boston, MA
Rocca - Boston, MA
Rocca - Boston, MA
Rocca - Boston, MA
Rocca - Boston, MA
Rocca - Boston, MA
Rocca - Boston, MA
Rocca - Boston, MA
Rocca - Boston, MA
Rocca - Boston, MA
Rocca - Boston, MA
Reviews
( 7 )
( 5 )
( 6 )
( 5 )
( 8 )

Best

Amazing, they just got a new chef and it is a must try, sat outside to a wonderful meal and great staff. Manger came by to every table to check on the service. This is something...

Worst

I went to Rocca on Friday night with a few friends for drinks. We got there around 10:30 and the place was pretty packed. Unfortunately there was only dedicated bar attender to s...

Hopefully it was an ""off night"" 10/2/2007

I had steak the others all had pasta dishes. My meal took longer to eat since it was steak. All of the dishes were cleared away while I sat there still eating. The waiter came over while I was still eating to get the dessert order. Hopefully it was an off night bc/ the food was very good and hopefully we were not being rushed out because we were not drinking alcohol to drive up the price of the bill. Pros: food, parking Cons: Service more
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WORST ITALIAN SO FAR (and I am 45) 9/2/2007

It is hard to make bad italian, but they do. We were an easy manageable party of 6: scampi overcooked were chewy, pasta dishes were tasteless, and a pasta stew served in a skillet had probably been baked and reheated 10 times as it was more a dough than pasta with sauce. Pros: parking Cons: food and service more
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Never Again 7/29/2007

It was our friend's Birthday. We took him out for a nice memorable meal. At least that's what I was aiming for. It was a new restaurant with a parking lot in Backbay. I thought hey what could go wrong. We have made a reservation in advance but still the hostess had us waited for an hour at the bar before we got a seat. After we got seated, the waiter seems nice enough but the only problem is he know nothing about the menu. He answered, "" Sorry, I do not know what it is because I just started working here only a month"". That's wasn't helpful. We waited another hour between appertizer and main courses. And Yes!it was Tuesday night!!! I can't really imagine it was that busy in the kitchen. Anyway, the portion is rather dissapointing along with the tasted. I was starving after the meal. The whole time I was thinking about going somewhere afterwards for my real dinner. In summary, it's poor serviced, overpriced and a wasted of time. more
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Third time NOT the charm....unfortunately 7/13/2007

This was my third dinner...the first was great...a week or two after they opened...the second one was not quite as good..but still good enough to go back. Last nights dinner was a disappointment. It was OK. Not good enough that I would go back. My companions comment was either have appetizers or dont' ..but the tastings are a gimmick that cost $$ and its about two bites. She went home hungry after ordering a pasta as an entree. I understand the Euro portions...but then have an app size and an entree size for those that eat Pasta solo. Also wait staff needs some training...they're ok..but no professional. I hope that things pick up. I also noticed Michaela absent last night...perhaps thats why the food was not up to par. Pros: Comfortable bar and dining space. Cons: food average...wait staff needs training. more
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Average at best 5/12/2007

Would have loved a great restaurant in the area, but unfortunately we did not get that. The food was disappointing. Much better places in the area just a few blocks away. Not to mention the rip off on the valet parking (which parks your car 20 yards away). more
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Good Food, but don't go hungry. 5/11/2007

Living almost directly across from Rocca, I was excited to the new restaurant go in on Harrison. There was a lot of excitement around this place and opening party seemed quite impressive watching it from my locale. more
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Need to work out the kinks... 5/8/2007

Okay, I was so excited to try the place...it's not really South End - more SoWa, but who's counting. The bar is beautiful and if it had been warmer out, we surely would have tried the patio. Drinks were potent enough that the waitress had to fix them a little, but she was great about it. Waitstaff was great, to the point that you wonder if people have been complaining about the service. The disappointing side of things was that the food was just okay. Our group shared the antipasti as well as two pasta dishes (the rabbit one and the shrimp one) and the stuffed veal entree. Nothing was bad, but nothing left us dying for more; we decided to leave and considered dessert elsewhere. There's hope, but for the prices and portions, there are better places in the area right now. Pros: service, decor, atmosphere Cons: average food more
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Excellent pasta dishes and house wine 5/7/2007

The restaurant is very large, 3 floors and an outdoor area. The outdoor seating is secluded so unlike a lot of outdoor seating in the city which is on busy streets, you are off the street surrounded by nice landscaping so you don't feel like you're in the city. The food was delicious. They serve focaccia with oil at the table and we had a meatball slider appetizer (the best meatball I've ever had) and 3 pasta dishes, all of which were excellent. (The pasta dishes are small so they are not designed to be an entree alone, you would need to get an appetizer in addition to the pasta or share a second pasta between 2 people). The flourless chocolate cake dessert was okay, not great. The house wine, both white and red was not only excellent, but at $6 for almost 2 glasses, you can't beat it. I would highly recommend it. The service was okay, not great, but the food and wine made up for it! Pros: house wine and food! Cons: service more
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Great Northern Italian food in a neighborhood of working artists 5/6/2007

We went there on the second Saturday since it opened and found the service to be quite good and the food to be excellent. The portions are European-sized, i.e. designed so you can have pasta as an appetizer rather than a main course, but for the quality of the food the prices are quite reasonable. The wine list is 100% Italian . We weren't familiar with a lot of them and neither was our waiter, but the manager came over and had some excellent suggestions. It turns out he had personally traveled through Italy and picked all the wines and he seemed to know what he was talking about. Pros: Creative Food, Fun Atmosphere, Attractive Decor, Cheap Parking Cons: reserve a week in advance for a Saturday night more
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slow and average 4/29/2007

Exteremely slow service. Took an hour to get salads and then another hour before we got our entrees. Sometimes that is okay if the food is memorable, good bread to nibble over, water glasses filled, and a sense of service, but there was none of that. The salads were bag lettuce with light dressing, plain. The entree fish was well cooked but with no sides and a bit too much oil. The pasta was average and extremely small. Fighting over the bones was also a hassle. We didn't order dessert because we didn't have anymore time. We ran into a fellow dinner at the 7-11 around the corner buying food. He recognized us and said this was not a good sign, leaving a restaurant to get food at the 7-1 because you are still hungry. more
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Menu for Rocca


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Editorial

  • Experienced local restaurateurs Michela Larson, Gary Sullivan and Karen Haskell opened Rocca, a handsome restaurant and bar with an eye towards modern design, in the far reaches of the South End. A...

  • 4/23/2007 Provided by Citysearch
Additional information
  • Hours: Sun-Thu 5:30pm-10pm Fri-Sat 5:30pm-11pm
  • Payments: Master Card, Discover, Visa, American Express
  • Neighborhoods: South End, Harrison Lenox
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