Review Rooney's Restaurant - Rochester

Everything was perfect from the moment we entered. The staff is incredibly friendly and professional. The bar area is separate from the dining room and welcomes you with polished wood and well-stocked shelves. The dining room has an old world appeal with a fireplace and exposed brick that is warm and inviting. The food was excellent with just the right portion size. Our entire experience was enjoyable. We have already made recommendations to friends and can't wait to go back.

What a gem of a place!!!! Food was delicious!!!!! We had a beautiful dinner and looking forward to go back! Teres major, rack of lamb, shrimps, escargot, and the crème brulee ooohhhh lala AMAZING!!!!!!!!!

We are in Rochester for the PGA Championship. I scoped out restaurant options to seek a venue enjoyable, elegant ambiance and good service. Rooney's came highly recommended by locals. In fact the manager at Tournedos Steakhouse said Rooney's was a favorite. Rooney's was a bright star. With excellent service provided by Alec, cocktails created superbly and a diversified menu with selections where anyone could be pleased, Rooney's was a gem. A hidden gem. The building is of old style history and we could hear each other talk! At our table was a former Rochester resident who had never dined who said that Rooney's is now on his must list.

You’d never expect that down a beaten path you’d find one of the best hidden gems in Rochester! A cozy, comfy spot with an incredible staff and food. The menu was small (always a great sign) and we got crab cake, escargot, salmon and Duck breast. Blown AWAY! Both chefs have been there for decades and take extreme pride in their hard work. We assumed there was a saucier (turns out there isn’t, and it’s just the handiwork of the extremely talented chefs!) because of how well the flavors came together. Will 100% be back and highly excited to share our experience.

We absolutely love Rooney’s! It is so classy and the atmosphere is perfect for a romantic dinner. The wait staff is amazing and we especially enjoy when Alex is our waiter. He is always so entertaining and welcoming. The food has always been fantastic!! We’ve never been disappointed or bored with the menu. Highly recommend the crème brûlée. And we will be continuing to dine here and recommend to friends.

This place is probably the last classy gem in Rochester! We arrived in Rochester on a Monday evening and Rooney's was one of only a few nice restaurants open. We got to the restaurant at 8:40pm. We essentially had the whole place to ourselves. The staff was excellent and treated us with the best service. We enjoyed the crab cake, salmon and duck entrees. Everything was fresh, seasonal and well-seasoned, which speaks volumes because I'm quite the well-traveled foodie. I appreciated the old school, traditional charm and atmosphere. Nice ambience. I wish more places in Rochester actually cared enough to execute the level of class, service and kindness as Rooney's.

Came here on a Monday! Got the November Menu. Went with the pumpkin soup, Caesar salad, and the faroe island salmon. All very good. Finished off with the apple and raisin dessert. Highly recommend. Would come back again!

We went here looking for a classy fancy dinner. We definitely were not disappointed! From the wait staff to the food, everything was great! Food was prepared perfectly and the flavor was on point. Can't wait to dine here again

Absolutely amazing. Everything was fantastic. Great wine pairing. Great atmosphere. We are planning to come back for our wedding anniversary dinner.

Great little spot that's intimate and delicious. Very low-key with excellent service. I can't wait to go back.

Second time coming to this place. The food was excellent and made for interesting, unique flavor combinations. Service was prompt and efficient. Will certainly return soon.

At first the waiter seemed a little stand offish.. but other than that it was a good experience. We were not rushed. The food was delicious.

Rooney's has become our go-to to celebrate our marriage anniversary and any special date night. Intimate atmosphere impeccable service and good food - consistently year after year. There is no restaurant in Rochester that compares...plenty of good dining choices, but Rooney's is in a class all by itself.

Glad to be back in a familiar setting. All the waitstaff, including our server Alex, remain top notch; you won't get a better dining experience anywhere else in Rochester! There wasn't a cellphone in sight--guests were focused on their companions and on their plates. The first dish is the Plantain Crusted Jumbo Shrimp, mango salsa and curry butter. The second dish is the Fire Grilled C.A.B - N.Y. Strip Steak, roasted fingerling potatoes, fresh asparagus, rosemary aioli.

Rooneys is our favorite place to go for date night! Rochesters hidden gem! The best food and service you can ask for.

Our server wasn’t that friendly and actually tried to talk me out of ordering the crem brûlée to go because ‘ it doesn’t travel well “ … got home and it was fine and yummy .

This is an amazing place. Everything we had was delicious. I had a wagyu NY strip steak. Omg melted in your mouth. My girl had a Rack of Lamb. It's more upscale restaurant, but for what you pay the flavors of everything is well worth it.

Little hidden gem...loved the fireplace and architecture inside/outside! Food was delicious, lobster bisque soup was a bit watery but still tasty. Staff was fantastic...took reservations, very knowledgeable about the drinks and food menu. Temperature was a little uncomfortable...really hot, then cold...no happy medium. But it was like 0 degrees out so that's ok! I liked the blue water glasses and fancy flatware. Our waitress had great etiquette and I loved how she took care of us! Prices were reasonable and service was timely. We will def recommend this place to others and we will be back, thanks!�

My husband and I were celebrating our eighth wedding anniversary yesterday and we ate at Rooneys. We had a wonderful experience there. Right from the greeting we received upon walking in, to the desserts, we had an exceptional dining experience. The food was very good, a step above most, and we eat out often. I'm guessing their food is all fresh because their menu changes daily, to a degree, and most restaurants that do this do it because they buy fresh foods daily. The scallops I had could not have been frozen, they were exquisite. Because their quality is a step above, their prices are also, but well worth it. We will definitely be visiting Rooneys again.

My husband and I were there on Friday night for our holiday dinner. We have been dining at Rooney's for 20-25 years. We started with the plantain crusted shrimp and a salad and it was delicious. I do not often order tenderloin steak, but it just appealed to me this time. I ordered it medium-rare. When I cut into it the end was medium-well. I pointed this out to our waiter and was asked, in a kind of snarky manner, "Well, was it good?" It was good, but it was not how I ordered it. When a new steak was delivered, the waiter informed me that they cut into the 1st steak in the kitchen and the middle was more rare. I was very disappointed in the way this was handled and truthfully, I don't know if we will go here again.

Had the most fantastic dinner experience. The service was very special. The food was exquisite and we have been in many other restaurants worldwide. The desert was to die for. In general it was the best memorable time. We were there visiting our daughter unfortunately she'll be moving otherwise we will return. Ileana and Scott Sansoucie.

Would be five stars but for how slow the service was. Tremendously friendly waiter...must have been understaffed that night. Food and drinks a 5! Yes, I'll go back. A most favorite place to dine.

Omg. The best meal ever. I had the mussel appetizer, endive salad and the duck breast. Dessert was the flourless chocolate oblivion with the Rooneys coffee. Absolutely everything was delicious. Service outstanding. Been there before and can't wait until we go again. Thanks Joe!

No cocktail list ... but the cosmo and wines were great . The butternut squash soup and citrus salad we started with were excellent. The beef tenderloin was most delicious-cooked to perfection and my husband loved his scallops . Too full for dessert.. Ambience was great -cozy . Service was a little rushed at first ( maybe because we were early diners and the only table at the time ) but everything was very good - we will be back . We miss Nelson the bartender-he made the best cosmos :)

Delicious 4 course Valentines meal. Romantic ambience and attentive service. Truly a hidden gem!!

Ambiance and food was Amazing. Everything was on point and for that I am giving it five stars.. our waitress wasn't very talkative nor did she smile at all! Felt odd but everything else was beyond excellent so I am still giving it five stars

Highly recommend Rooney's if you want delicious food with fantastic presentation, Fabulous wine choices, Ambience is wonderful, service was perfect.....and mostly we were not rushed to finish our meals!

decent. hard to find our server at times and the food lacked season but not a bad experience

Had a delightful evening including drinks, appetizers, dinner and dessert. Excellent and thoughtful menu. Personal excellent service. Also romantic ambiance.

Great dinner! Food & service were phenomenal! I would highly recommend this place

I Actually Picked This Resturant From The Menu Ambience To The Vino and Delicious Food and Excellent Service Definitely Will Be Back

First time there and it is on my favorites list! Best tenderloin I have ever had, can't wait to go back!

Wonderful food, beverage, ambience, and ,most spectacularly, service. Highly recommend

The area is a little bit sketchy. <br/>The place looks romantic, rustic. <br/>The waiters are so friendly. <br/>They do their own bread, which is so delicious. <br/>The garlic in the ceasar salad is a bit strong. <br/>The orange salad is tasty, especially with the walnuts in it. <br/>Sirloin steak was perfect, so tender, cooked to perfection. <br/>The mashed potatoes were ok, not that awesome

I like the fact that Rooney's serves teenagers. But the usual customer is more sophisticated and connected. Food matters here. Fabulous choices of tastes worth dining out to enjoy. Cozy nooks to relax in with especially bright people dining and serving and a devoted staff in the kitchen classes the place up even more.

We went for our anniversary. The food was good but the atmosphere terrible. They sat us next to a group of middle school boys there for a bar mitzvah. They were not supervised and the yelling and noise was deafening. Don't go.

Shrimply Delicious. Hungry Girl curtailed her usual Sunday afternoon intake of chocolate in anticipation of a carnivorous feast at Rooney's. The restaurant, tucked in a side street in the Swillburg neighborhood, has a gorgeous, olde brick ambiance with a burning fireplace. Our server was outstanding; friendly, anticipatory, and highly competent. Dinner started with a split of Freixenet sparkling wine from Spain (e.g. faux champagne)($7), which was excellent, crisp and dry. Appetizer was a fantabulous concoction of plaintain-crusted jumbo shrimp with mango salsa and curry butter. The coating was superbly succulent, and the salsa and curry butter did a happy dance on my palate. For entrée, I selected the Loin of Pork, served with roasted potatoes and slivered green vegetables. The pork was cooked well and was tender, but not exceptionally flavored. The potatoes - mind you, Hungry Girl will NEVER give a negative review to a potato - were roasted and deliciously buttery but just a teeny tad too soft. I enjoyed the vegetables, which were perfectly cooked and seasoned. You may recall Hungry Girl loathes vegetables, so this is high praise indeed. My dinner companion, a vegetarian, had the Marinated Beet Salad, with mixed greens, and peppered goat cheese (9), and a Roasted Butternut Squash and Sage Soup (9). Since both were concocted with vegetables, Hungry Girl did not partake, but judging by the scraped-clean condition of her dishes they met high standards. The meal ended marvelously with a Fresh Made Apple Dumpling with Almond Cream and Craisins (8) served on a gaily decorated plate (the glaze spelled out Rooney's). Verdict: 2 thumbs up, would return for a special occasion, and would order 2 helpings of the shrimp (1 for appetizer, 1 for entree).

Food was perfect, atmosphere was awesome.

It's ok..... Overrated in my opinion ....had clam and chorizo ... Under seasoned , veal porterhouse was a little overlooked I asked for medium rare though the sauce was good. I Aldo had trio hunter plate ... Both quail and duck were overlooked. Boar sausage wax just okeyyyy .... Probably won't be back

Valentines Day Gouging. I have dined at Rooneys in the past and was always pleased so decided to make dinner reservations there for Valentines Day. When I called to find out what they were offering that day , I was told by the owner there would be no special menu. There would be a fixed charge of $85.00 per person for 4 courses off the regular menu but that charge INCLUDED tax and gratuity. We did dine there on Valentines Day and when presented with our check at the end of the meal, were informed by our waitress that tax and gratuity were NOT included. Our bill for two people with no drinks (we brought our own wine) came to over $200. Not wanting to make a scene or penalize the server, we gave a generous tip but left feeling we had been taken advantage of.<br/><br/>We were fortunate to be in the first sitting (5PM) that evening because Rooneys was overcrowded and the service slow as a result of their having stuffed as many extra tables into the dining area as possible. . When we left it was approaching 8:00PM, and many couples who had reservations for the 7:00 sitting were still waiting in the foyer looking VERY upset. Pity the poor souls who had reservations for the 9:00 PM seating,<br/><br/>As to the price of the meal, in checking Rooneys normal menu prices, it was apparent to us that our Valentines Day meal cost us at least $60 more that it would have had we dined there any other night -- and this is for identical menu items. While the food was good (albeit somewhat cold when served), Rooney's obviously took advantage of their customers to make a killing for Valentines Day. Something other upscale restaurants did not do.<br/><br/>Rooneys was a favorite in the past, but this experience left a very bad taste in our mouths. The change of ownership has caused this formerly great restaurant to be not so great any more. We will not be returning.

Good food and Very expensive.. Came here for the wife's 60th birthday. I ordered strip steak, with potatoes and veggies, with an appetizer of clams and sausage and small salad. Wife had mango shrimp w curry butter and beef tenderloin. Wife loved the shrimp and savored every bite. My clams and sausage was good. though the Portuguese sausage had more the grainy consistency typical of British sausage. My wife said the tenderloin was OK, but that the sides were excellent. I think I enjoyed my strip steak a bit more (as we rarely have meat except when eating out). The sides here (veggies and potatoes) were good and wonderful, respectively. We shared a desert of something massively chocolate and it was very nice. We also shared a bottle of wine and it was good, and since we rarely drink, we were happy to wake the next day feeling great. Bill came to something well over $200 with tip. Service was good (though they were fairly busy as the place was nearly full - so we did have some waits at times). All in all, a fairly good though very expensive dinner.

Why do I ever eat anywhere else? Dinner here on Saturday night, beautiful quiet atmosphere in the corner raised booth in the bar; attentive but not intrusive service and exquisite dinners. I had the mixed "grill" with a beef tenderloin, sausage and tiny quail with mashed potatoes and crisp vegetables, it was sublime. I woul rather come here once instead of going twice or three times to any lesser Rochester restaurant with poor service and the typical menu offerings common to the travesties served at the high end popular places. Long live Rooneys!!!

Most romantic spot in town. Special occasion with your sweetie? Go here. Call for reservations and ask for a table for 2 next to the fireplace or the windows. Very romantic atmosphere. Expensive spot, but worth it to DINE, not EAT. This has always been my "go to" spot when I want to celebrate or go somewhere special. The chef has changed over time, the owners...but it is still a great place....classic, never goes out of style. Always has some standard fare like crab cakes, great salads, but you will also find innovative things of the time. They also have a great wine list. BTW...you don't have to wait to go with your sweetie, you will find business people and friends dining also.

Fancy and accomodating. When my husband and I found out we were expecting with our first child, we decided to celebrate with a nice dinner. Rooney's was the perfect spot to remember that special day. Very upscale, all fresh market ingredients, impeccable service. Since I was pregnant and a vegetarian, there were certain ingredients I needed to avoid. The chef literally made me a new dish, off menu, to accommodate my needs. We will definitely celebrate more special occasions at Rooney's.

Rooney's was sold about three years ago after many years of stable ownership. It was head and shoulders the best gourmet restaurant in the Rochester area (priced accordingly). Our absolute #1. At first after the sale, we noticed no difference, however, after 2 yrears under the new ownership we went and experienced the only "off" night we'd ever had at Rooneys. Recently it happened again. It's still good, but not outstanding, and sadly, no longer lives up to either its long almost-legendary reputation or its pricing. It's no longer our #1 recommendation for the best in Rochester...no longer our pick for a top "special occasion" evening. Kit's now good, bujt very overpriced for what it has become. Sigh.

Go on a weekday when it's more intimate. better yet, reserve a table in front of the fireplace or near the windows. Darklit with candles, very nice. Food is fantastic, service exceptional.

Rochester's best. Heck, any city's best. It has been my favorite for more than 20 years & never disappoints. Great food, well trained & personable staff, lovely ambiance.

Roomeys is by far the very best restaurant Rochester has to offer! Have never had a bad meal there yet. Love the fact that they change their menu weekly also. Highly recommend and service is wonderful also. ENJOY :)

Good..but.... Living nearby Rooney’s means it has always been on our short list of restaurants to try. Finally for my husband’s birthday, we decided to experience Rooney’s, and quite frankly, I am not sure we would rush right back. Not that the food was divine, because overall it was. Not that the service wasn’t good, because indeed it was. But the impression I got of Rooney’s was a quaint, quiet, romantic spot & the reality was anything but. It was loud. Cackling, self important voices bouncing off the ceiling loud.<br/><br/>We arrived early to get a drink & have a bite to eat at the bar. Our reservations were for 8:30, which is much later than we usually eat. Our bartender was professionally friendly, providing our drinks & taking our appetizer order. Ordering food at the bar must not be the norm, as when the food was delivered, they walked back into the kitchen with it & we had to wait an additional 5 minutes while we received setups. The Panko crusted crab cake ($12) was excellent, more crab meat than filling with garlic mayonnaise and a black bean & corn salad. It was a little small to share, but it whetted our appetite for more.<br/><br/>If we had known what it was going to be like in the dining room, I would have happily opted to stay at the bar for our $170 meal. The tables are quite close together & the aforementioned loud din did nothing to compliment the rest of the meal.<br/><br/>Hungry as we were, we decided on a salad before the main course. The Pear Salad ($8) came out as expected, crisp, firm pears, candied nuts & strawberries made for a delightful treat. The bibb lettuce salad with orange, blue cheese & pistachios ($8) wasn’t bad, but the dressing was applied quite heavily. I am a dressing on the side kind of person, but usually in high end restaurants, I don’t have to worry. By no means did this make it inedible, just more of a wet salad then I usually enjoy.<br/><br/>For the entrees, a Blue Marlin was chosen along with Beef Tenderloin. The Beef Tenderloin ($31) was a typical time worn combination of potatoes, vegetables & beef. No matter, as the beef was truly incredible, cooked to melt in your mouth perfection, the veggies crisp & delicious and the potatoes mashed & topped with crispy onions. The Blue Marlin ($31) was the standout treat, with sushi grade fish along with spicy black rice & bok choy.<br/><br/>I was sufficiently stuffed after the meal, but the birthday boy needed a sweet fix. The first choice was already out, so he settled for Profiteroles ($7) with lemon sorbet, strawberries & lemon sauce. While the combination was refreshing, the choux pasty was a disappointment in comparison to others.<br/><br/>While some aspects of the meal truly stood out, I didn’t walk out in utter awe. Which is really too bad.<br/><br/>http://eatoutrochester.blogspot.com/2008/09/rooneys.html