Family is super important to my own family so the fact that Rocco's is family owned and ran makes it that much more special. The Italian food was delicious, the drinks were amazing, and honestly the service was top notch. You get what you give and if you are kind and communicative you will get that in return. Communication is key! If you ask, you shall receive! read more

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Had my wedding here and couldn't be happier with the way everything turned out. Nicole, Rocco and the staff went above and beyond to make our special day perfect. The hall was beautiful once the decorations were set up, the food was great, and the prices were very reasonable especially for Memorial Day weekend. Thanks guys!! read more

Had my sons 16TH birthday party and everything was PERFECT from beginning to end! It's a family owned business and when I tell you that they are all so professional and so welcoming!!! The Italian food was sooo delish, drinks and service was amazing! I'm so happy that we booked with them! Nicole has so much patience and I was able to call her whenever and always available. Rocco is so pleasant and what you ask for you get! Was so happy!! read more

We haven't had a meal or time this good in East Rockaway in 26 years! Rocco and his staff did a great job of welcoming us and making sure we were greeted, escorted, entertained and fed with delicious home style food and beverages. Every time I turned around, Rocco was nodding at or directing his people to do something for us-it was such a special evening and we walked away regretting that the time had flown by. Just make it easy on yourself and make this your place for a reunion, party or special event. The other good news is we get to hit Rocco's other restaurant around the corner and down the block (Atlantic Avenue) the next time we're in town. Make this stop a must and support a local man who loves to indulge and who never forgot his roots! read more

Ok...I have to write this review. I can not stray you farther from roccos. Go to alias smith and jones or even Burger King for that matter. The staff at this business is awful and are so unwelcoming. I have never been so insulted at a party I PAID FOR! This catering hall has a rude staff and I felt completely In the way the entire time. This is supposed to be a Hall to celebrate family parties etc. well you won't be celebrating...you will be stressed and unhappy the entire time. Your party will be memorable but for the wrong reasons. The food is beyond unbearable, and you can not even swallow it. It is half cold, terribly prepared and just in general awful. What a depressing party I had here. Roccos basically ruined my event and I will never have an event there!. Stay away! Run run run! read more

I've attended a few events here and every time I have been 100% satisfied. The food is always top notch, service is excellent and the bar is fully stocked with TV on the wall. Would highly recommend booking any function here read more

I had a surprise 80th birthday party for my grandfather at Rocco's and had a great time. About 100 guests and the service, the food, and the decour was excellent. The owner, Rocco, was there and was very cordial to all of my guests and made sure everything went smoothly and that everyone was having a good time. I plan on booking my parent's 50th wedding anniversary here as well. I would definately recommend Rocco's to anyone. read more

We used this place for en engagement party on June 20, 2015. We had 155 guests and I owe each of them an apology. I wanted to bring my grievances to the owner, but when he wasn't available, I spoke with his manager. I wasn't going to publicly air my gripes, but when he didn't call me, and one of my guests told me today that when she went up for food she was told there wasn't any left, I felt it was my obligation to warn all about doing business here. The hall is big and roomy. Nice dance floor and DJ area. The food was an embarrassment. We requested chicken parm, filet of sole and roast beef. We had issues with all three. The chicken cutlets were cut in four pieces. The servers put one piece on each plate. The filet of sole could fit on top of a Ritz cracker. The roast beef was sliced like cold cuts and the server struggled to grab one slice with prongs to put it on the dish. We also ordered tortellini bolognese but were given rigatoni with a few tortellini mixed in. When I went up for food, the salad tray was empty. I asked about more salad and was told that it was coming. I have catered events in Bridgeview, Russo's, the Coral House, Antuns, and a few other locations. Never has the food been so embarrassingly sparse. I was charged about $1400 for tips (20%) and there was one food station for my 155 guests to be served. It was chaotic and unnecessary. They understaffed and pocketed the tip money. I am 100% sure of this. They told me that because our party was so large, they would open up the two rooms and make one large room, which they did but they only had one serving station. Absolutely ridiculous. They ran out of Jack Daniels and Smirnoff. We were charged $125 for a bartender and he held the line up because he was looking on his phone for drink recipes. When we arrived prior to the event, we notified the owner and staff that we had 5 additional guests and paid for each of them. I knew the money was going in someones pocket without another ounce of food or liquor being purchased and I didn't care. I never in my wildest dreams imagined that there wouldn't be enough food for my guests. We were embarrassed. Please use my review as a warning. Contact me and I will show you receipts and photos. read more

I was so disappointed in this place. I had my son's Communion here. We had 120 people and apparently they booked a party right after ours. I paid over $6000 and they were physically taking people plates away WHILE THEY WERE STILL EATING! I needless to say was quite upset and if that was not bad enough when my DJ was playing the last song of the night the owner told him to stop the song immediately or he would cut off the music (mind you we had NOT gone over the time we had booked). My DJ said this is my final song and the owner went and turned off all the power in the building! I was so embarrased and would NEVER EVER go back there or recommend them to anyone. So beware YOU DO NOT GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR! read more

Unfortunately, I had a VERY BAD experience with Rocco's catering when I hosted a party there. I was told the half room held 120 guests but my 95 guests were packed in like a can of sardines. It was way too tight. I opted for the hot antipasto appetizer but was told that Rocco couldn't provide that and they recommended the hot and cold antipasto buffet to which I agreed. When the buffet ran out of food after 2/3 of my guests went up, I approached the maitre'd and was told that "a lot of food was put out and they weren't putting out anymore". Nothing was replenished and I was very embarrassed. My uncle's pasta course had more onions than pasta in the bowl. The chicken parm tasted like a Swanson frozen dinner. I also paid for an ice-cream bar for ALL of my guests but only about 40 cups of ice cream were put out. The cake I ordered was not the cake that was served and the first table didn't get served any cake at all! When I contacted the business the following day with my issues I was told that they haven't been in business this long by providing bad food/service and that I must be mistaken. My advice would be to STAY AWAY FROM ROCCO"S CATERING!!! read more

I was a guest at a child's christening party held there recently. This was the worst experience of my life. From the food to the environment, it was a DISGRACE!!!!!!! It started with a salad that was drenched in some kind of terrible dressing. The crutons were soggy and the salad itself was not good. Next was a pasta course which was even worse. The pasta was so soft, it fell off my fork and the sauce was a disgrace. It was extremely sweet and very thick. It was almost gray in color. That is how dark it was. By the way, you don't serve CHILLED RED WINE. That is what they served if you went to the bar, like I did, and asked for red wine. When I asked the bartender if had red that was not chilled, he very nicely said no. I had the london broil. The choices were that or fish or chicken. The meat was so over cooked it was brown in the center. The gravy on the top was disgusting and the rice they served with it was NOT COOKED. Yes, it was raw. I am not even going to speak of the vegetable. Overall, I was extremely upset for my friend, who probably got charged an arm and a leg. I had a child with me and they had no high chairs left. The staff was dressed very sloppy and the female who looked like the head waiter looked as if she hadn't washed her outfit in months. The bathrooms were a disgrace, dirty and looking like they haven't been renovated in years. This place is a rip off and shame on the man who pranced around in the RED coat claiming, or looking like a head chef. You should have an extremely hard time looking yourself in the mirror for 1) claiming to be a chef, 2) allowing your staff to look as they did, 3) serving the food you did 4) taking the payment from the people who had the party. read more

I've been here many times for various events. This place is definitely the cheaper option which is not always a bad thing. I would advise people to stay away. Family was at a party here and all 4 members got sick. We would have spoken up but we are known in the area. This is a no go, pass this up. read more

I checked in right before walking in and was immediately terrified because of all the one star reviews! I did not have my party here, I attended one. They seemed really happy too. She did mention no one helped her set up the party but at the time it didn't seem to phase her anymore. It was open bar and the bartenders were really fast. The cocktail hour was okay nothing amazing was put out but the food was still good. The dinner was pretty good. I had salad penne alla vodka and steak and they were all very good!! I'm very picky so I was surprised I liked it. My boyfriend liked it too. The music didn't get good until after a couple of hours but when it did everyone was dancing and having fun. These desserts were really good too...maybe they decided to head in a different direction after there previous reviews. The reason for not five stars because the guy kept coming over to our table when we still had about two hours and taking full alcoholic drinks from the tables when we were all clearly still drinking them. That really annoyed me but other than that I attended a great party and had a blast. read more

Great place. Amazing food. Had such a beautiful christening party with family and friends. Not sure about these other reviews here my experience was incredible. I highly highly recommend this venue and will be returning for future bookings. read more

The manager is rude, the food was just ok, I can do at least as well and I am not a great cook They gave us about 1/2 hour to eat and then took the food away Although the food was mediocre at best it was all there was and many folks missed eating. This was a party not a prison where you eat on someone else's schedule There were decorations (not ours) left out and the manager started screeching when young children expressed a natrual interest in them Very uninterested staff, bartender was pretty nasty if you didn't tip him DO NOT GO HERE read more

My wife and I had our daughter's communion party at Rocco's and we could not have been happier, the hall was huge with a nice sized dance floor which was able to accommodate my large family. The wait staff was very attentive and the bartenders did a great job serving our guests, several of whom who came to us afterwards and told us what a great time they and how much they loved the food. I would highly recommend Rocco's to anyone thinking of booking their next event as we have attended several functions there in the past 15 years and our experience has always great. read more

I am surprised by these negative reviews!! I think a lot has changed in the years because our even was spectacular. I used Rocco's for my wedding reception, and as a bride, I had high expectations. Our food was so good - chicken parm, chicken francese, sausage and brocolli pasta and a lot more. Super good italian food. My big Italian family was impressed. The staff was quick and friendly and we had a great bartender. Rocco was very helpful throughout every step of the process. I highly recommend this venue! read more

DO NOT choose this location for your catering needs! I had my Baby Shower here and their customer service is lacking, they are rude people not willing to help with decorations, and the food was terrible! I chose this catering hall because a cousin of mine had her babys' christening here. When I attended that a little over a year ago, it was in the larger room with nice chandelier and decorative lighting. The food was served buffet style and I felt there was plenty to choose from and I don't remember the food being bad. Well, I show up one hour early to set up decorations for the baby shower and I was met with gloomy faces and people that looked as if they had better things to do than worry about how the customer feels. We were offered NO HELP whatsoever to place a banner up. A simple request was then met with an immense amount of disappointment on my end. Our party was set for 40 guests in the smaller room. There is a partition that may be closed so that your guests don't have to look through into another large room with empty chairs. We politely asked if we may have the partition completely closed so that we may hang a banner up that says it is a baby shower. All I wanted was for my guests to see this beautiful sign I paid for. I brought the sticky tack which was what Debbie the "Manager" had advised I use to adhere the poster to the wall. When we first asked Debbie to close the partition we were answered in a short, stern, tone "No." No explanation was given as to why we could not have the wall closed as she walked away. All I can say is that it looked ridiculous because I could not put the sign up and two huge gaps are in the wall where my guests could view this other empty room. So we try measuring up the sign to see if we can fit it on the wall, but not only will not fit unless this partition is closed, it would also be off center if only one side is closed. We asked again, this time a man walking around talking on a cell phone, why we could not have the partition closed and the answer we got is that the servers need to fit through in order to serve the food. My answer to this was that there are two doors on either side of the partition, where the servers could easily walk through. The "gentleman" that said both sides of the partition could not be closed, then LAUGHED at me and walked away! I quickly responded to him saying that it was extremely rude to laugh at a paying customer who is only asking to have the room as I paid for. He then denies he laughed at me, AS HE'S WALKING AWAY LAUGHING AT ME!!! Mind you, I had 3 family members as witnesses. In addition, who laughs at the guest of honor, (MYSELF) an 8-month-pregnant woman on the day of her Baby Shower???? Completely unacceptable. After I decided not to carry on like a wild woman, my family and I placed the banner off center and I had to walk outside to breathe. As all of my guests started to arrive, they miraculously closed the partition completely! Tell me why does there have to be a verbal fight to get anything done in this establishment??? Fast forward to the party, I think things are going well. Everyone was served salad and bread and the next course was rigatoni with filetto di pomodoro. The entree was a complete let down. The mashed potatoes that accompany every dish was so salty it tasted like a box mix of dehydrated potatoes! The chicken Marsala was also inedible due to the salt content and tasted like frozen tv dinners. Sadly, I heard this from a few of my guests so you can imagine how many others probably just chose not to say anything. The tillapia orreganata was overcooked, and the London broil was a poor excuse for sliced, grisly, tough steak with a brown, salty gravy with onions on top. TERRIBLE FOOD! The only "highlight" was the cake which, surprisingly was good. (probably got it from a local bakery; NO WAY they made it) They are so "upscale" that they served our coffee in styrofoam cups! In retrospect, this wasn't such a bad thing considering the amount of dirty forks, knives and glasses we had to ask them to replace. They even did THIS begrudgingly!!! In summation, save yourself aggravation, embarrassment and disappointment : DO NOT USE ROCCO'S CATERING for any event!!!!! read more