My family and I went to the restaurant for a "Dine-In" experience on November 7, 2009. We arrived at 6:15. It took over 45 minutes for my family to receive their order. There were only 3 other customers in the restaurant so a busy restaurant was not the problem. It took over 20 minutes for the waiter to notify me that one of the items on the menu was not available. My barbeque ribs were overcooked and it was not a full rack unless the pig was named "Wilbur" and was from Charlotte's Web. It was more like 3/4 of a rack of ribs. There was barely any sauce on the overdone ribs. Food has a grade of C+ (and I'm being generous).
Kitchen Help - during our stay at the establishment I noticed one thing, the kitchen help was of no help at all. Several times I noticed the kitchen help coming out the back service door to help themselves to the soda fountain. It was not just one but two or three individuals that came out multiple times. When I was leaving the restaurant, it all became clear to me. There were probably about 5 or 6 people in the kitchen, and maybe one or two were working. Several girls were staring through the kitchen door observation window out to the parking lot where one of the employees was smoking a cigarette and checking out one of the cars parked in the dirt. Most of the employee's cars were parked in such a haphazard way that it looked like a high school drive-in more than a respectable restaurant. One employee is certainly active because he was also one of the ones that kept helping himself to the soda at the fountain. It also doesn't help that the male kitchen help were not clean-shaven. The kitchen help gets a grade of D- (I've seen worse and that's why it's not an F).
Service - I would have to say this was the only bright spot in the whole experience. Our waiter, busted his butt to make sure our dining experience was good. I know he was covering for the kitchen help because he was very apologetic and seemed frustrated at times with what was going on in the kitchen. I give him a grade of A.
My final thoughts: I have done more than my share of restaurant work in my youth and I have been in the Customer Service field for over 20 years. This experience was not a good one. On the website I'm sure Sam Rosati would not stand for this kind of kitchen help or quality of food that I experienced on Saturday November 7, 2009. Since the restaurant is not in the best of locations, it will have to survive by word of mouth. It is not going to survive for very long with kitchen help and food like I experienced.
Russ
p.s. I'm not sure about those earlier ratings of 4 stars because this particular Rosati's was not open during 2008.