Rocco's Tacos

Critic's Review

I haven't been up to delray in a while; a few years ago you could roll in at lunch time, get a spot in front of the restaurant and it was all very pleasant. It's become a traffic disaster; more restaurants, more beer trucks parked on the wrong side of the road, and more construction. There are roads closed all over the place. I ended up having to park 3 1/2 blocks away.

Delray Beach Construction

I got to the restaurant about 1:30; early by my standards. I needed to be home before 4, so I had to get an early start. As with all of the Big Time restaurants, they made one big room out of the place. It looks a lot bigger than Prime did. It's a very impressive space. I think that the naked babies hanging from the ceiling are unnecessary though.

Rocco's Tacos Delray Interior

I paused at the hostess stand; did I want to get a table or sit at the bar? I likely wasn't getting a booth, and I didn't want to sit in the middle of the room There were seats at the bar and a well dressed Braziilan woman by herself, so I opted for the bar. I'm not one to hit on babes at the bar but it's better than sitting next to some drunk fat guy.

The restaurant was no more than 1/3 full; most of the restaurants on Atlantic were empty; considering the traffic you wonder how they can all survive.

Roccos Tacos Delray

As usual, Rocco has cornered the market on cool lighting. He's moved from 1 cool chandelier to multiple, with both orange and blue.

Roccos Tacos Delray Bar

I didn't know that there were elephants in Mexico; there's lots of odd stuff on the walls here. I didn't see the masks but I'm sure they were somewhere.

Roccos Tacos Delray Bar

I sit down and try to find a hook for my camera, but they left that out of their $3M design. Meanwhile a server asks me what I want to drink without offering a menu. "I'll have an iced tea, and a menu please".

She plops a menu in front of me and delivers a tea with no lemon or sweeteners that also has almost no ice in it.

Rocco's Delray Tea

It took me 3 separate requests to get lemon, sugar and a glass of ice.

Meanwhile this dude sits down on the other side of the woman and starts hitting on her in a very awkward way. Then, I recognize the voice. I look over and it's a guy who used to live in my building; he moved away a few years ago and I haven't seen him since. He was focused on the babe so he didn't recognize me when I looked over. I was thinking maybe I could avoid the whole "What have you been up to" conversation.

I've decided what I want but a blonde bartender is too busy flirting with the cretins on the other side of me. There's apparently no fixed server, which means you get no specific attention. This is reminding me of the Rocco's bar in Fort Lauderdale, which has been a disaster since day 1. Neither of the bar babes seem interested in taking my order. Finally a dude came over; I hadn't seen him behind the bar previously, and took my order. I've had most things on the menu; I didn't want a taco or a steak, so I ordered the Chile Rellenos.

At this point the woman is flashing her wedding ring, and we know what that means. I figured I had to talk to the guy eventually, although he's a bonafide ear-chewer, so I knew my usual peaceful lunch would be impossible. I chimed into the conversation; he didn't recognize me at first, and then he did. We knew each other pretty well, so it's not just like he was some guy I saw in the elevator a couple of times.

So now we're talking over the woman and she's clearly uncomfortable, just trying to eat her tacos. My food isn't coming out quickly, so there's more banter. Now he's hitting on the bartenders, trying to arrange a double date; except none of the other 3 of us are interested.

Finally my food comes out, so I can try to get a breather from this conversation. Ah, the red rice. I keep forgetting to sub that out.

Roccos Tacos Chille Rellenos

The dude heads to the bathroom and I get to talk to the girl a bit; smart girl, a lawyer. Nice too. All the good ones are married.

The cheese wasn't entirely melted, which is an annoyance. This wasn't as good as the times I've had it in other restaurants. It always LOOKS so good, then you taste it. This place becomes more of a chain every time I visit.

Roccos Tacos Chile Rellenos Cheese

I taste the red rice. OMG, it's worse than ever before. In fact, it's completely inedible. It's like they doused some rice with cumin and paprika; "Red" rice shouldn't really be this red unless its contrived. Cooking rice with tomatoes and onions doesn't turn it bright red. This stuff had no moisture at all.

Roccos Tacos Red Rice

The "Salsa Rojo" was tasteless as well.

The woman cashes out, leaving me with the dude, who can now fill me in on his babe trolling escapades; you know that guy. I wanted to get out of the place, so I asked for a box for my 2nd Chile Relleno; my empty tea glass didn't phase the girl at all; she just dropped off the container and I put it in myself. She also didn't make the connection that I also wanted to leave. I had to ask after a few minutes of staring at her hoping she'd get it.

I gathered my leftovers, said good-bye and bolted for the door.

When I got home, I discovered that they're already cheating their customers at this location, as I was charged the dinner price of $16.50 instead of the $12 lunch price. My bad for not noticing, but I shouldn't have to scrutinize my bill. That's what happens when you get distracted. I'm so used to paying $20 for lunch that it didn't hit me at the time.

Rocco's Delray Overcharge

$3.50 for an iced tea with no refill sums up what Rocco's Taco's has become. An overpriced chain restaurant with bad food and bartenders that are much better at flirting than serving.

Leftovers

I had my leftovers for lunch a few days later; good stuff with good rice.

Rocco's Tacos Leftover Chile Relleno with my own Mexican Rice

Conclusion

The last restaurant at this location was a waste of a prime space, but this place is so similar to El Camino that I wonder why Delray needs it? If you know nothing about food, you'll be wowed at how good Rocco's food "looks", unfortunately it doesn't taste very good. It's very good looking chain restaurant food.

Nice lighting though.