Rocko’s Cantina

Love tierra and jamie, beautiful and amazing serves. Late night burritos and late night 4.50 $shots of Jameson.

Tiny margaritas at a premium price. That is why prices aren’t on the menu. Waitress tried to tell my girlfriend that reposado and anejo tequila are the same thing. Go across the street to El Tapatio where margaritas are made right and the food is good.

I visited last week to celebrate the Broncos’ victory, unfortunately there wasn’t much to celebrate about Rocko’s Cantina. There is nothing particularly wrong with Rocko’s, but certainly nothing to write home about. The food was mediocre and overpriced and while the servers were friendly (when we saw them), they were rather inattentive. The restaurant was relatively empty and there were plenty of servers, but we were left alone for the entirety of our meal. We were never asked if we wanted refills on drinks nor could we ask for refills as no one came by our table.
The food was fine, but rather lackluster. I had Carnitas Enchiladas and would not order them again as they were relatively bland. We also ordered the chips and salsa and were met with disappointment, especially considering they charge four dollars for a a basket chips and two small cups of salsa. The tomatillo salsa was too sweet and the other salsa was bland.
While I wouldn’t hesitate to go back to Rocko’s if a group were going, I will not be rushing back on my own.

We visited Rocko’s Cantina last night for the first time. I won’t tell you that it was necessarily the last time, but there was nothing that will motivate me to rush back, at least within the next decade.
The service? It was a Sunday night and the restaurant was close to empty — still, while our servers were pleasant, they were not attentive. We waited unnecessarily at every stage of our meal and we never received beverage refills or even a question of whether we needed refills. The servers appeared more interested in chit-​chatting with each other behind the bar and with one other table of diners than in keeping track of us and our needs.
The food? Remarkably boring and lackluster. The menu mainly consists of tacos and burritos — you choose your protein (barbacoa, carnitas, al pastor, carne asada, polle asado, chicharron, chorizo, pescado, yada, yada, yada). There are a few appetizers, a few specials, and a full bar. We had al pastor burritos, the enchiladas special and guacamole tostadas. Everything was under-​seasoned and bland. We also had chips and salsa — that shouldn’t be news, but at Rocko’s it is because it costs you $ 4.00. The chips are too thick and lacking salt, and the salsas totally devoid of zip or zing and by and large pretty flavorless. Not to mention that there «oughta be a law» against charging extra for chips and salsa in a Mexican restaurant.
The value? Would be a little high even if the food quality was good, but definitely value-​lacking when you link the prices with the food quality. Tacos range from $ 3.50-$ 6.50 and burritos from $ 7-​$ 10, all ala carte. I would add that Rocko is far from generous with the proteins in his burritos — our al pastor was pretty much MIA midst the backdrop almost exclusively of black beans and rice). And yes, I’m still whining about having to pay $ 4.00 for chips and salsa in a «Cantina,» especially for bland chips and boring salsa.
The bottom line? Rocko’s isn’t awful. It’s just pretty lame across the board. If you want a fast food burrito, Qdoba and Chipotle are a little cheaper, much faster and a lot better. And if you’re really hungry for a Mexican meal? Well, you will still be really hungry for a Mexican meal when you leave Rocko’s.

The worst service I have ever experienced. Waited more than 30 min and no one even pretend to bother about serving us. One came to take our order only after I asked somber get our order.
food is average too. Small portions, felt like over priced. Not going again.

This cantina is worth checking out! It is a walking distance from our temporary place. It’s close to DSW, Party City and Champa Burger. It looks cute outside. So we dropped in to check it out!
It was surprisingly very spacious inside. The service was immediately noted as casual and friendly. I like it. It’s my style.
On the safe side I opted for a burrito. Guess what? It was good! Simple and safe and good!
Their cheap margarita is not for me though. Weak and nothing to write home about. But I will be back for their burrito! It was dry and not smothered with all kinds of whatever!

I got to try this cute little bar/​restaurant on a Wednesday night while staying in Lakewood for a week. It’s more of a bar than a restaurant as some reviewers have stated. There are some tables and booths but the feel of the place is bar like with the juke box and bar area.
The service we were good as we were served by the bar tender. She was very friendly and helpful with questions in the menu.
The food was the best part. We had two tacos, both types of chicken, which were delicious. The burritos were excellent and flavorful as well. The salsa verde that came with the burrito was amazing. We had sopapilas for dessert and while it isn’t the traditional type it was good with the honey sauce.
We had the happy hour margaritas and they weren’t very strong at all but hey, they were $ 3.
Pros: Delicious food and good service
Cons: Weak margaritas
Bottom Line: Cute spot to meet friends for a casual dinner

Pretty good overall. Service is a bit slow though. The outdoor bar is really nice, decent happy hour.

Tried this place for the fist time. All in all good. Queso was good. They could come up with a way to keep it from coagulating before you can finish. Rocco’s special was good also. Need to add a little more salad to the plate. Not just garnish and meat.
Outside bar is cool and keeps you out of the rain.

Not too bad. My fave is the guacamole tostadas — delish!

After moving here recently, I’ve been here several times over the past month. I have to say, I find the food to be on point. The chicken tinga is top notch and the beer is cold and reasonably priced.
Every time I have been there, the servers have been friendly and attentive, and the food has come quickly.
Overall this is great place for tacos and and happy hour. I will certainly continue to frequent this joint!

Stopped in again and had a much better experience than last time, and an extra star for their efforts. They were short staffed the night we came in, but they did an amazing job covering our table. The Al Pastor burrito was highly enjoyable and the selection of beers was not too shabby at all. Bottom line, this is probably 3.5 stars, but I’ve rounded up for the noticeable improvement.

We stopped here for a «quick» lunch with our nine month old thinking we’d be in and out in no time. It’s tacos, after all. We ordered a salad and nachos… an hour later we were still waiting for our food.
The whole time, the kitchen staff was trying to get caught up while the front end staff was taking care of customers. They were all obviously frustrated with the situation, but were audibly cursing one another throughout the process.
Once the food finally showed up, the nachos were literally black they were so burned. Nothing was outstanding enough to cancel out the miserable experience we had. We will not be returning.

The quality of the food was great but I felt like they were a little «stingy» with the meat & chicken, for that price I’m expecting more. The margaritas, same review. Our margaritas came a small scotch style glass, although very tasty I need more bang for my buck. A good experience overall but for my money I want more and with the numerous Mexican food restaurants in the area I know I can get that.

This place is pretty okay. The atmosphere has a laid back vibe, and it’s nice to have the open side in the warmer temperature that we’re getting. The food was decent — the flavors were pretty good, and the menu had quite a few different types of tacos and such to choose from, and it’s not expensive. Although having had tacos at other establishments, I wouldn’t say these are great, especially when compared to Moontower. However, it’s nice for a casual night with friends. I would say that there were some rowdy, obnoxious, kinda trashy folks at the bar, yelling loudly and making comments about women walking by, etc. That should have been cut off by the bartender imo. But ridiculous customers aren’t really the fault of the business, I guess.

We ate here for date night it was a Friday… the bartender wad super nice but at times she was too busy talking to her friend. It was a Friday night but it wasn’t very busy.
We ordered the guacamole with chicharones. what a disappointment. There was only about a tablespoon of chicharones. For 10.00 bucks really I’d rather you add 1.00 and put more meat… this is the highlight of the meal… get rid of the queso put a little cheese. Maybe you would be busier if you improve the amount of meat and food you give. … we didn’t go back we may try again but reading the other ratings makes me wonder if we would have the same problems if we order something else. Sometimes I even wonder if these restaurants read the reviews… it would be nice to get a follow up or let us know you fixed the problem… then we’ll try it again

We decided to try Rocko’s this past Friday night as it was pretty much the only restaurant we haven’t tried in Belmar. We won’t be going back. Weird restaurant layout, weird service (we were never fully sure who our actual server was), bad food. Margs were ok but pricey for what you got. Not impressed. This place probably won’t make it.

We were looking to try something different because we were in Belmar for other errands, so we decided to give this place a try. Every part of the experience was mediocre, from the service to the chips and guac to the street tacos.
The reason for the one star is I made the mistake of ordering the pescado taco. I knew as it approached my mouth, something was amiss. After one bite, i almost gagged. I put it aside and what made it worse was that the wait staff didn’t even ask about it. It was easily the worst smelling and tasting taco I’ve ever experienced.
If you go, do not order PESCADO!

Got a glimpse of the Tuesday night fun here thanks to the Belmar Twofer promotion. Not only did we get in on the 2-​for-​1 dining, we got to watch (did not participate) the Trivia game on site. This spacious establishment is open till late (2 AM!) and has pretty modern décor.
The food, is American, I won’t even give it Tex-​Mex, but straight up American. We tried the ROCKO’S ESPECIAL ($ 10) with queso, guacamole and tortillas served with chicharrónes. Was told the chicharrónes would be big fat slices of juicy pork belly, it couldn’t have been farther from the truth! These were deep fried, tiny cubes of meat with some fat on, that are so dang hard that you might break your teeth trying to eat it! The queso cheese was served in a square cast iron dish with a golden-​spotted top crust that’s very appealing. It tasted pretty good too, but underneath that congealed top layer is some very watery mess. Normally I’d be turned off by it but I had an aha moment when I thought of putting the chicharrónes cubes in the cheese to soften them. It’s more edible afterwards and the watery cheese got more flavorful so bingo! The house tortillas are weird, period. But the guac is good.
For the other entrée, we asked for a Grilled Shrimp Salad (ENSALADA with camarron, romaine, panella cheese, onions and tomatoes with a side of cilantro ranch). It is surprisingly good! The «panella cheese» combined with the cilantro ranch made it a supremely flavorful salad! I liked the way the lettuce was shredded but wish there was more!
Service is good and the restaurant is clean (from the restroom to the dining room). If you’re looking for a late night spot in Belmar, this should do!

In a shocking turn of events I am once again reviewing a Mexican restaurant.
I went to Rocko’s Friday night with one of my friends, despite my mom telling me it is terrible. I wanted to give it a try for myself, because my mother has no appreciation of the street-​taco style food they serve here. She sees cantina and thinks she is going to get smothered chile rellenos and that’s why she didn’t like it.
I personally love a-​la-​cart tacos, and I frequent Pinche Tacos for the very reason. I love getting to try a little bit of everything and it is always fun to order new things. Rocko’s is similar to Pinche in concept, but it falls short in a few places.
First, I hate the atmosphere. Something about it felt really forced – probably because it is at Belmar. It wants to be charming but you can’t make charm, it just happens naturally. I also really, really wanted to sit outside, but the only reasonable area was the bar and it was full. There was other outside seating in the form of a counter along the railing, but it was literally so low that I couldn’t sit comfortably there. My friend and I are both tall gals, but I don’t think anyone would find those sits very enjoyable. Great idea, but horrible execution.
As for the food, it wasn’t bad. I had a chicharron taco and it was super good. It was definitely the highlight of my meal. The chicharron was so good and the guacamole sauce on it was seriously tasty. I also had a carnitas taco and it was not great. The meat was dry and tough to chew, which makes zero sense to me. Normally carnitas meat melts in your mouth is seriously loaded with flavor. Not at Rocko’s. It wasn’t inedible, but it wasn’t good.
My least favorite thing about Rocko’s is the margaritas. I had two because I was out on a Friday night, but they were not good. Mine was really bland and almost watery. I had the simple house marg, and my friend had a strawberry one and she said all the syrup was at the bottom of her glass and the entire thing was way too sweet.
I really think this place has potential. It’s in a great part of town and some of the food is wonderful. I did find the tacos to be priced a bit high, but with happy hour I left with a rather light check. The waitstaff here was definitely the highlight. Everyone was super attentive and we never had to wait for our waters to empty or to order more drinks.
I really appreciated the staff, but this place is so strange. Mainly it’s the weird atmosphere and horrible patio seating, which I think can be fixed, but I’d rather go to Pinche if I’m looking for some tacos and margs.