Rockaway Athletic Club

I am giving this restaurant 3 stars because the servings were definitely plenty, I would give that 5 stars! But everything else wasn't great. I got the Rockaway burger. (None of their burgers come with fries. Its extra.) The burger definitely wasn't anything special. I mean it was a decent size and loaded with lettuce, tomato, cheese and all that. But If you like your burgers well done, the outside may look done but not the inside. It wasn't juicy to me, surprisingly. I felt like I could have gotten a better burger at McDonald's. I got a large fry and it was enough to feed two people. Which is amazing! But They aren't crunchy fries. They were soft. That's my review of the meal I had.

It's worth going for the Pimento Cheeseburger alone. Don't expect a huge selection of food--I feel like the menu has been reduced over the years--but what they have is always good. Also, don't expect ornate decor: this place projects as a neighborhood bar, and the interior seems almost deliberately lived in. There's a pool table, shuffleboard, and other games. Note that there is no sign that this restaurant is there. The building, while unique, is free of any identification from Rosewood Drive.

Update 12.28.21 I last reviewed Rockaway several months ago when the burger was really lacking. This time I showed them some older burger pictures and asked to cook me a fresh one with extra pimento cheese like the pictures. They did and I would rank it a 5*. Due to Covid and short staffed, they have removed some tables and serve the food in small paper trays making it impossible to get a grip on the burger. I asked for a paper plate and they provided a real plate which was nice. I deducted a star for for paper trays rather than paper plates and also lack of eating utensils. BTW, Jazzy was my waitress and she was fantastic!! She talked to the cook for me and listened to my eccentric thoughts of a good burger. In other places you would pay twice as much and not get the freshly ground burgers Older Review Poor service and poor burger. I waited 15 minutes for the waitress to take my order. There were few people there and no reason for this. There famous pimento burger was flavorless with very little pimento cheese. I begged several times for napkins and utensils but never got them until everything was cold. They didn’t even put condiments on the burger and brought out packets instead. When I got the check, I gave the waitress a credit card. 15 minutes later and no card back. I asked again when she finally came by but no card. Another 10 minutes pass before I finally get the credit card slip. The End!!

I like the food here. It's not a huge menu but what I've eaten is good. We typically go at lunch because we have kids. It would be nice if the menu had a few more kid friendly options, even if it was disguised as an appetizer. When we went recently, they were a little stingy with the pimento cheese. I like enough to dip my fries in. You can tell they are a little short staffed, but our server went out of his way to make sure we had what we needed in a timely fashion. I also hate that everything is a la carte, but it works out.

Absolutely the worst lunch experience ever! Been open forever, how I have no idea. I came with 6 other people, there was one server on the floor and she had no clue how to wait a table. 3 of us got our food before the others, food arrived before drinks, two of us ordered the pimento cheese fries, large, one came out large with pimento cheese on the fries and one came out small with the cheese on the side. Total absence of any manager or even someone who vaguely knew what they were doing. Pimento cheese, the signature item was bland and clearly made from canned cheese sauce. The only reason for the one star is because I had to put it there to post this. Never come here.