Website: www.rojomexicanbistro.com
This restaurant/bar gets a mixed review - some aspects were very good, others, not so good. Rojo is a locally-owned restaurant with four (current) locations in Michigan.
Atmosphere - Located in trendy downtown Rochester, it has a trendy feel to the decor so it fits right in. One entire wall was end-to-end windows so daytime diners have a good amount of natural light. We arrived at about 6pm so it was still daylight outside.
Food -
Appetizer - Like most Mexican-style restaurants, this one serves chips and salsa as soon as diners sit down. What is brought to the table is a mild tomato-based sauce but the waiter/waitress will offer two additions - habanero and verde. We requested both. They were brought to the table in separate small condiment cups and the waitress advised that we could mix them in with the larger bowl of salsa as we chose. The habanero salsa was almost more of a habanero puree. While I don't personally care for habanero (due to its peculiar after-taste), I would rate it very good for those looking for habanero flavor. As expected, it had a habanero heat level. The verde was probably a mix of jalapeno and serrano and was decidedly my favorite. I did not mix it into the tomato salsa, but just ate it straight up. My son did mix the habanero into the tomato salsa and liked that mixture. I liked the salsas enough that I was really looking forward to our meal order.
Entree - Both of us ordered carne asada. Rojo's carne asada is boneless ribeye, cooked to order. I am a big fan of the ribeye cut... most of the time. The meat was cooked to my desired doneness (rare) and I did not care that the waitress failed to bring steak knives to the table, as it was easily cut with a butter knife. The piece of ribeye given to my son, however, was extremely disappointing. Every foodie knows that "fat means flavor", but that is only true up to a point. After that, fat is just fat. There was such little meat that I gave my son some from my dish. Additionally, the meat was barely seasoned. As already stated, I am a big fan of ribeye, but simply roasting such a cut does not make it carne asada, in my mind. If the meat had anything on it besides a little bit of salt, I could hardly tell. What's more, the traditional sides of beans and rice weren't as expected, either. The beans were undercooked and barely seasoned. The rice was hardly more than high school cafeteria-style white rice with some cilantro thrown in. I only had a couple bites of each and was glad the chips and salsa were so good - that along with the carne asada was filling enough for me.
Drink - This place should bill itself as a tequila bar as its primary business. They had almost every kind of tequila sold in the U.S. on display and available for order. The margarita was outstanding. Ok, plural - the margaritas were outstanding! The first glass of tea I received was nice, but the refill had either been over-brewed or sitting too long. But hey - we didn't go there for the tea!
Service - I've already mentioned that no steak knives were brought to us, and that was a good example of the level of service we received. Our orders were timely enough but the waitress had a just-doing-my-job type of attitude - polite but not friendly, and around just often enough to keep one from grumbling - not outstanding and not what one expects from a trendy restaurant in a trendy neighborhood.
Overall - Go for the drinks, chips and salsa, but go elsewhere for the main meal. In looking at restaurant reviews after returning home, I found most rated Rojo between 2.5 and 3 stars. (We had intended to go elsewhere but changed our minds after finding our original destination full of college students.) I would say the reviews are pretty accurate. One review site averaged 4 stars, but it had a low count of reviewers and I would not give Rojo that high of a rating.
This restaurant/bar gets a mixed review - some aspects were very good, others, not so good. Rojo is a locally-owned restaurant with four (current) locations in Michigan.
Atmosphere - Located in trendy downtown Rochester, it has a trendy feel to the decor so it fits right in. One entire wall was end-to-end windows so daytime diners have a good amount of natural light. We arrived at about 6pm so it was still daylight outside.
Food -
Appetizer - Like most Mexican-style restaurants, this one serves chips and salsa as soon as diners sit down. What is brought to the table is a mild tomato-based sauce but the waiter/waitress will offer two additions - habanero and verde. We requested both. They were brought to the table in separate small condiment cups and the waitress advised that we could mix them in with the larger bowl of salsa as we chose. The habanero salsa was almost more of a habanero puree. While I don't personally care for habanero (due to its peculiar after-taste), I would rate it very good for those looking for habanero flavor. As expected, it had a habanero heat level. The verde was probably a mix of jalapeno and serrano and was decidedly my favorite. I did not mix it into the tomato salsa, but just ate it straight up. My son did mix the habanero into the tomato salsa and liked that mixture. I liked the salsas enough that I was really looking forward to our meal order.
Entree - Both of us ordered carne asada. Rojo's carne asada is boneless ribeye, cooked to order. I am a big fan of the ribeye cut... most of the time. The meat was cooked to my desired doneness (rare) and I did not care that the waitress failed to bring steak knives to the table, as it was easily cut with a butter knife. The piece of ribeye given to my son, however, was extremely disappointing. Every foodie knows that "fat means flavor", but that is only true up to a point. After that, fat is just fat. There was such little meat that I gave my son some from my dish. Additionally, the meat was barely seasoned. As already stated, I am a big fan of ribeye, but simply roasting such a cut does not make it carne asada, in my mind. If the meat had anything on it besides a little bit of salt, I could hardly tell. What's more, the traditional sides of beans and rice weren't as expected, either. The beans were undercooked and barely seasoned. The rice was hardly more than high school cafeteria-style white rice with some cilantro thrown in. I only had a couple bites of each and was glad the chips and salsa were so good - that along with the carne asada was filling enough for me.
Drink - This place should bill itself as a tequila bar as its primary business. They had almost every kind of tequila sold in the U.S. on display and available for order. The margarita was outstanding. Ok, plural - the margaritas were outstanding! The first glass of tea I received was nice, but the refill had either been over-brewed or sitting too long. But hey - we didn't go there for the tea!
Service - I've already mentioned that no steak knives were brought to us, and that was a good example of the level of service we received. Our orders were timely enough but the waitress had a just-doing-my-job type of attitude - polite but not friendly, and around just often enough to keep one from grumbling - not outstanding and not what one expects from a trendy restaurant in a trendy neighborhood.
Overall - Go for the drinks, chips and salsa, but go elsewhere for the main meal. In looking at restaurant reviews after returning home, I found most rated Rojo between 2.5 and 3 stars. (We had intended to go elsewhere but changed our minds after finding our original destination full of college students.) I would say the reviews are pretty accurate. One review site averaged 4 stars, but it had a low count of reviewers and I would not give Rojo that high of a rating.