Dominic Bellissimo Review of Rooster's Woodfired Grill
***ALLERGY WARNING REVIEW*** We just left the rest...
***ALLERGY WARNING REVIEW*** We just left the restaurant about 30 minutes ago and my fiancee is already back at the hotel incredibly sick.
She has a severe gluten (Celiac's) and dairy allergy (I have neither), which we alerted the restaurant clearly and politely a few times-- to which they seemed knowledgeable and used to, considering they even had a gluten-free menu.
--appetizer--
Our first issue came with the mussels that we shared as an appetizer. They said they could make it without butter and without the ciabatta-- a different waiter than our own brought it to our table with a nice piece of toasted bread on top (our waiter should have handled all food as he was aware of allergy). To those with Celiac's, you will know that just taking the piece of bread off of the plate does not make it gluten-free, as cross-contamination is still just as dangerous. They quickly brought us a new one and insisted they just gave us the wrong plate-- there was what looked like a smudge of flour on the dish as if the bread had just been taken off, however we believed them that it was a new dish without the cross-contamination or butter in the sauce (with her current symptoms now I am not so sure). The mussels were still very good.
--entrees--
With our entrees, we both ordered from the gluten-free menu so that my fiancee could taste from my plate as well, assured there would be no butter and gluten-free. Hangar steak and beef short rib, inherently GF and easy to make without butter. One bite in, we decided to ask again (not wanting to be rude since we just had the mussels issue 10 min prior) and our waiter took one look and said that was butter all around both plates. Not blaming him but at this point in the night knowing you're serving someone with a severe allergy, he could have looked at the plate before bringing it and apparently very easily determined it was butter. He took the hangar steak back and brought one with a sauce with no butter (honestly better tasting) but I decided to keep my short rib with butter and just not have her taste any. She was already sick by the time she finished her no-butter plate. Hangar steak was very good, short rib was a bit fatty but cooked nicely. Neither one worth the price for how small the portion was, both a la carte and vegetable sides are $7-$11 each.
--service--
Our waiter was very friendly and accommodating the whole night, and although he could have caught all 3 dishes being messed up, I do not think it was his fault as the kitchen clearly does not have the allergy training that their staff and menus insinuate. I told our waiter before he brought the new hangar steak that she would be very sick tonight, however none of the messed up items (both overpriced, mussels expensive but not as bad) were removed from our bill or discounted. I do not think this was the right way for the restaurant to handle this however I do not feel that even the 10% tip left was justified.
She is currently completely out of commission and I am very upset that fast-food joints can handle her allergies but a $25 for 6oz piece of meat restaurant can't. Would have gone for grilled nuggets at chick-fil-a on the way home to fill our bellies but she was too sick.
***
Allergy - 0/5
Service - fine, disappointed in how they handled contaminating my fiancee
Smell from outside - 5/5
Food - a hair above average, mussels were very good hangar steak was good, short rib not as good as they made it sound, (friends ordered burger and pork sandwich, said it was fine)
***
2/5 stars overall
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