Roncone’s

Been in Roncones over the years. But now, New owner Joe, has a top quality chef! Having dinner right now. My wife has eggplant parm. Delicious. Crispy, not mushy eggplant, sweet red sauce. Excellent. I’m having Fra Diablo white sauce with shrimp, sausage over linguine. Perfect spicy! Large portions too. Nice old world atmosphere, checkered table cloths, whole nine yards.
Homemade cannolli, with a touch of lime in cheese. De-​licious. Reasonable prices for quality prepared food.
Bring your appetite! !

I’ve been to Roncones a few times over the past few months and every time its been outstanding. Granted, every time I’ve had the same waitress, Nina. She is so sweet and attentive. The food is incredible and I’m admittedly extremely picky about Italian food. The sauce is delicious and the pasta is always cooked perfect, never over cooked. The service is amazing and the prices are more than reasonable. Its not in the nicest neighborhood and the décor is not fancy so if you’re looking for fancy Italian its not the place but if you want delicious authentic food its well worth it.

Not sure what’s going on with Roncone’s. It was not a good night. 1^st off the menu has changed, it appears scaled down, which is fine but the prices have all increased and you now have to pay for a side salad. The calamari Sicilian was so salty it was not edible. I had to then ask another server for my salad that never came. The chicken parmigiana was good but they but one piece on top of the other then topped with sauce and cheese. The chicken underneath got no sauce or cheese on it at all. Plus something was going on with our waitress. She was running around like a crazy person and the restaurant was not even that busy. Every time we would ask for something she would just run away before I could even finish speaking. I have my suspicions on what exactly was up with her.

Great Italian food and the owner is an amazing man it’s very authentic and the food is to die for will go back again and again !!!

So I’m not sure what’s going on with this place, but I’ve been trying to eat here for the past month with no luck.
Bought a groupon $ 20 for $ 40 deal. They’re been under renovation ever since. Finally called and they said they were open. Came for lunch; was told that the only thing they had was spaghetti and meatballs with a salad for $ 5.95. Kind of wish they had told us this on the phone before we trudged over…
They said they might be re-​open for full business in the coming weeks. Well, I sure hope so… was really looking forward to some Italian.

I loved the food here. I’m sad to say, though, that this restaurant closed for business this past week.

The place is trash. The building above the restaurant is open to every pigeon on Lyell Ave.
If you like the place so much, take a look at the architecture and YOU move in!

The food was decent, but the overabundant, overly sweet red sauce drowned my gnocchi so I had to do a fishing expedition to get them all. There was more sauce than pasta! But it was otherwise decent. The gnocchi were perfect.

The baked spaghetti parm is the best around! They also have daily specials. This is one of my Italian favorites. Not the best part of town, but authentic Italian food, reasonably priced and better hours than the other spots (as they offer dinner as well).

Pretty solid restaurant. Sort of shady part of town I think. We are not from Rochester. There was a real sketchy murder-​mart, I mean mini-​mart, across the street that we went into after.
That being said, food was good, service was better. Really friendly, brought us a ton of bread and oil before the meal. Cool atmosphere as well.
Minus one star for the massive blonde hair one of the group found in his salad. Clearly off of someone’s head which can happen anywhere, but super gross.
Other than that, good spot.

We have been here twice, for lunch and for dinner. The staff have all been friendly and courteous each time. Portions are large. My husband’s lasagna was very good. My greens and beans and sausage on angel hair was good and heartburn free! We will definitely return.

While the food was good apparently there is a lacking of Italians (real Italians) in Rochester. Both Syracuse and Buffalo sport better pasta. Sorry fellas no gay tarantella here…

Best Pasta Fazool in the city. The sauce is good and the service is great. Old school joint and the prices are right.

The Good: The food is pretty good and extremely affordable considering the giant portions.
The Bad: The neighborhood is seriously blighted and I wasn’t convinced the kindly old man standing outside could actually do anything if gang bangers did anything to my car. It’s definitely greasier, red sauce oriented, Sicilian style cuisine, which I enjoy now and again, but isn’t my favorite.
Times I’ve Gone: Once

Roncones exceeded any expectation I had for Italian food in Rochester. The food was delicious, and I’m rating this place so high on the food alone. We had the calamari, artichoke french, and clams piccata. All were flavorful and cooked perfectly. They also do not skimp on the portion sizes.
The waitress was attentive, atmosphere was old school/​casual, drinks were good, prices were great, loved this place.

We’re visiting Rochester so checked Unilocal for an Italian restaurant and decided to go to Roncone’s since it received such positive review.
The restaurant is in a bit of a run down part of downtown. The restaurant was very inviting, you walk into the bar but the dining room went far back. Décor was traditional Italian with red and white checkered tablecloth. We were welcomed with live music.
Service was fantastic, our server was attentive coming promptly to take our order and refills.
The bread is good but the marinera sauce served w the bread was fantastic. Had calamari which was average. Each meal is served with either soup or salad. The Italian wedding soup was delish and tasted homemade. The salad was fresh and nice way to start the meal. Also had the artichoke French, the batter was light and sauce had the right balance of lemon and savory.
We had angel hair w meatball which was a huge portion and big meatball. Had two orders of cheese ravioli, one with marina and other w meat sauce. Meat sauce had both sausage and ground up meatballs. Ordered chicken French which was battered perfectly and served with the most delicious sauce. We also ordered the brocali rabi which was out the world.
Roncone’s is a small business own restaurant that serves homemade Italian food. Great service and yummy food at an affordable price. Definitely recommend if you’re in Rochester!

Really good old authentic school Italian. You can almost see someone’s grandmother whipping up the food. I tried the Sicilian calimari based in other reviews. Pretty good a bit spicy but not what I expected. It was tasty though. The sauce was different. Not bad just different. Artichoke French was really good too.
I had the eggplant parm, gf had chicken parm, a friend had red linguini and clams which was also different. He really liked it. His gf had a massive piece of lasagna that looked great.
Very affordable. Most dishes are $ 9 – 12 and they come with a small salad or soup. Salad was really fresh. Delicious garlic olive oil dippin sauce with the warm bread.
I will definitely be back.

I was introduced to Roncone’s by an older friend who grew up in the Lyell/​Ottis neighborhood. At that time (1950’s — 1960’s) the area was largely dominated by Italian immigrants and the smell of sauce (or gravy) could be smelled wafting from most of the homes on a Sunday afternoon.
Due to the great flight of the middle class from this urban area, the neighborhood no longer has the charm and appeal of a Little Italy. Battered and empty storefronts and homes surround the area. Yet, the dedicated folks at Roncone’s continue to serve up delicious American Italian cuisine, regardless.
Let’s be clear: if part of your eating pleasure is derived from an elegant atmosphere, you may want to pass on this restaurant. This is not where you would take your date to impress. My husband lovingly describes it as a «hole in the wall.» However, if you want to taste AUTHENTIC Italian food at a ridiculously reasonable price, then you’ve hit the jackpot!
I tend to order either the Chicken or Artichoke French. It comes with pasta (with red or white sauce), salad, and bread. If you are able to eat your meal in entirety, you will not be able to eat for the next 12 hours! My husband enjoys their Chicken or Eggplant Parm. Typically we do not order dessert due to their large portions. We did try their cannoli cake several months ago and thought it decent.
I thoroughly relish the eating experience here, and only wish they were open on Mondays (one of my days off) so I could dine there more frequently.
Be adventurous and give it a try. I bet you’ll be happy you did!

I’ve been known to get cravings for all sorts of domestic and ethnic cuisines, but Italian American cuisine is one that never really captured my imagination in that way. It’s not that I don’t like red sauce establishments but I tend to look for things that seem new and exciting instead of the classic and the traditional when it comes to eating out. My fiancée on the other hand has a certain affinity for it and had been asking to go out for this style of food for a while now.
Roncone’s is located on Lyell Ave and is dripping in old school from the valet outside to the dark, wood paneled interior and especially the menu. Simple and strongly focused on red sauce over a variety of pastas and meats along with other classics. Nothing modern and certainly no fusion. Straight up Italian American all the way. We got Italian bread, butter, sauce and hot oil right away and went to town on it. The bread was unfortunately not fresh but dipped in the sauce it was at least edible.
The sicilian calamari got rave reviews online so we started with that and I have to say that they were spot on. Calamari were perfectly fried with light, crisp coating and tender rings of meat swimming in a hot vinaigrette along with olives and some pickled peppers. Surprisingly, the calamari stayed reasonably crisp in the tangy liquid and we devoured the entire dish quickly leaving us very satisfied. I can’t really complain about salty, spicy deep fried goodness and this was a rock sold squid dish.
Our main dish was the gnocchi with red sauce with a meatball and a side of the tripe. The gnocchi came out swimming in the marinara like sauce that brought plenty of acidity and brightness to the dish while not shying away from tomato flavor. I’d say it is pretty similar to a marinara and I liked it a great deal. The sauce was not overly sweet which was a nice change from most and the well seasoned meatball was generously sized for the additional price. Not the most moist but it was a fine version with plenty of herbs that worked well with the sauce. The tripe carried the trademark barnyard taste (as coined by Andrew Zimmern) so, if you are looking to expand into the world of offal, this is more than an introductory step. On the positive, it was very well cooked and tender as I’ve ever had it and seemed to be a very popular offering according to our helpful and friendly waitress. The gnocchi were a bit on the dense and bland side and the whole dish was a bit under salted even with the meatball distributed around.
Despite some of the faults, I enjoyed the dish and our overall experience and it helped to reopen my eyes to what Italian American food can offer when it is done well. I’m not saying it’s going to become a common occurrence, but the next time it gets brought up as an option I’ll be more open to it than I was prior to our trip to Roncone’s.

One of my favorite restaurants in Rochester. After being introduced by a friend, I have been going back consistently. It’s an Italian American restaurant that serves up hearty meals with generous portions at a reasonable cost.
I would agree with other reviewers in that the restaurant is a «hole in the wall». Located on Lyell Avenue near Frontier Field, the restaurant is situated amongst cornerstores and used car lots. While my first impression of the area was that it was probably not the safest neighborhood, I’ve never had any problems parking on the street. Readers should be aware of the «urban» location of the restaurant and should not expect the restaurant to look like your suburban Olive Garden.
In fact, it’s the complete antithesis of such a restaurant. Roncone’s is a family run joint that has been around for decades. The interior of the restaurant reflects this. It is dark, dated and cramped. However, such an unpretentious ambience gives it character and makes it very cozy. Don’t expect white linen tablecloth, but instead red and white striped vinyl tablecloth.
If you’ve read this far, you’re probably wondering about the food. Well it’s good and it’s what brings me back despite of Roncone’s physical location. Simple Italian American that’s done right. Their menu consists of classics such as fried ravioli, calamari, parmesan, linguini and lasagna.
Everything I have tried so far has been good, but I find myself reordering the veal parmesan. The marinara sauce and the breading are perfect. They also have daily specials which usually include a seafood pasta, a cut of steak or a fish dish. I’ve had their prime rib, which was pretty good as well. I regret passing on their ossobucco special, which I imagine would have been delicious.
The portions are huge and it is pretty customary to see people go home with leftovers. Perhaps taking it easy on the all-​you-​can-​eat bread is a good idea. Most entrees are around $ 10 and specials are usually less than $ 20. Combine that with a glass of wine and I usually still walk out paying ~$ 20 for the entire meal, a tremendous value.
The service is also what brings me back to the restaurant. The owner, Joe, can usually be found in the restaurant greeting customers and chatting up regulars. The bartender is also a friendly individual who recognized us immediately after only visiting once before. On a few occasions while waiting at the bar, he allowed us to sample wine before ordering a glass.
The service and food keep me coming back to Roncone’s. I highly recommend this restaurant. While not being the prettiest restaurant and located in a somewhat run-​down neighborhood (thus not a good place for a first date), I would urge everyone to give it a chance.