The Rock Wood Fired Kitchen

So. I was really looking forward to trying this place out. Heard it was good. Here I am with my family and well sad to say it didn’t live up to my expectations. I ordered a pizza figuring this IS wood fired pizza place it should be amazing. well. I was wrong. So wrong. It’s not that busy for a Saturday evening. I got my pizza and it looked great but was soggy and floppy. The taste was good. The cook was lame. Got myself a bucket drink and that was good. My daughters pizza was same as mine. Barely cooked. Rest of the food was warm. Last set of fries was the best. Manager was not the nicest guy. I ate the food but wanted to let them know at the end that «hey you’re not living up to your name». He was rather rude with his comments. Basically I’d go back for a drink and fries.

First time coming in. 330 so it was dead except 1 other table. Cesar our «waiter» acted as though he hates his job. He was just rude and sooo slow. He disappeared for 30 minutes. Had a nacho but was unable to order pizza. I will not be returning so I guess I’ll stick with good ol’ paddingtons pizza. Lame I wanted a new place to go

I learned not to take all Unilocal ratings for granted. We have avoided this restaurant because if the low Unilocal rating. This is the best pizza I’ve had in Salem. We really enjoyed the food, service, and beer. The Crazy Train was a good pie and my wife enjoyed her prosciutto and mozzarella pie. Don’t believe everything you read, try The Rock! Ask for Kristina.

Pretty sure Both me and my girlfriend got food poisoning. I’ve been throwing up all night and morning. She been doing the same all morning. We both had burgers on April 22, 2016.

This want to be HRC has decent service. The want to be trendy «demo» look that wants to be hard rock should have spoke volumes for the food. The pizza was OK. Everything else was horrible. I got «the rock burger», and it did not come with cheese, or any sauce. Just a burnt up hockey puck with lettuce and tomato. It was the worst burger that I have ever paid for in my life. The kids got macaroni and cheese and the cheese was burnt nacho cheese that they mixed up with noodles. .Horrible. I would not suggest going to this bad knock off of a has been café.

Pizza and service is always good… if you sit at the bar. Outside of sitting at the bar top service has been slow.

The drinks are so bomb but depending on when you go, sometimes the servers yell at each other about random BS throughout the whole restaurant. The first time I went the plates were dirty as they were unstacked at the table some food from the bottom of a few plates was sticking to the tops of other plates, they had to be taken away and rewashed. Since then I’ve only gone back for drinks!

Where else would we come for another birthday? Last time for my husband’s birthday the food was amazing and the service great! Not to mention really cool ambiance and décor. Tonight we sat at the bar by the fireplace. It was so cozy with the rain pounding outside. Cori, our server, was right on it, super helpful and friendly! Used my Five Star membership to get my free entrée, the Bang a Gong pizza. The Skillet Shrooms are to die for! The free birthday cookie is over-​the-​top delicious, hot with lots of melted chocolate and ice cream on top! I’m happy to say that our second time here was as good as the first, if not better.

I recently came in and had dinner with a pal and my fiancé. (I had been to one other «rock» in Seattle where I tried a couple of the buckets and dont remember much of the night ;)
This was my first time in the Salem location, which is conveniently located by target (who also got my money when I wandered over to burn off some of the calories… and dollars.
It was wonderful food! I had the garlic brown sugar bread (DO NOT knock it until you try it. I was skeptical but I tried it and HOLY CRAP).
The atmosphere seems intentionally laid back. not «unprofessional» more of an intentional «we are pretty chill» kind of pace. The manager came and checked in, which was sweet. and the waitress was very prompt. the coffee was good, my water glass never raneth emptieth, and the low lights helped my aching head. I felt relaxed and had great company in a positive environment and good food. I’ll definitely go back!

We love this place! Drinks and food are awesome and our server Cory was fantastic! :)

One of my favortite places to go. They have nice staff and good service. Great for families with tweens and or teenagers. The food never dissapoints me.

Cori was the best. We at down in the bar with no idea what we were doing and she was super patient. As usual, the food was awesome and the atmosphere is cool.

GREAT pizza. Awesome drink menu, all while still being fairly priced. Great spot for any occasion. The only issue is the wait. Most times I’ve been there, I’ve felt ignored by the wait staff. Maybe they’re over-​worked and understaffed?
Either way, 5-​stars for the restaurant. –2 stars for the wait times.

SLOW!
You could say we are a little sad. We first visited a location in the Seattle area and fell in love with this format. So we couldn’t have been more excited when we got a location in our neck of the woods.
Our first visit was great! And that was it. The subsequent 3 trips have soured our taste for this franchise. Each visit takes as long or longer than the last. The food has been good (until tonight) but the service has been consistently wanting.
Tonight, it took several minutes to be acknowledged after we’d been seated. Brie finally asked if we’d been helped yet and seemed visibly frustrated that we hadn’t. She’s a saint and I’m glad she took the responsibility, but she was obviously waiting on too many tables and unable to provide great service to any of us. Drinks took 3 passes and the poor girl looked ready to drop our order off at the wrong table. A second round took twice as long.
Just like our last couple trips, orders took forever and the staff just apologized over and over again. We saw multiple tables leaves before their food arrived. We saw two tables seated after us served before us. When out two small pizzas arrived, both were cold and one was completely wrong. The cook even argued with our server about the correct ingredients (which were plainly spelled out on the menu.). It was eventually corrected but, by then, we’d been there too long, my son’s food was gone and my pizza was cold as ice.
There was an attempt by an absentee management team to appease us with free cheesy bread and a couple coupons for future appetizers (with 2 entrée purchase.) But, it just doesn’t make sense. 3 visits spread over several months, all with unacceptably slow service. I think the team members WANT to deliver the goods. So, what is holding them back? (Talking to you again management.) There’s always an excuse why there aren’t enough servers; why they didn’t expect «this much» business.
Anyway, I don’t see why I should drag my family back here anymore. I like the recipes but this poor-​service repetition is insanity. My teenager likes the food but even he says this is crazy. We come all the way the from the north end of Keizer. There are other choices between here and there and we will be checking them out more closely.

I had some reservations at first because I read a number of negative reviews but my experience was great! I will say the server was a little awkward with her suggestions and timing — she let us know she was «very new», but it didn’t make a difference to our overall experience, she was very friendly and tried to be accommodating.
I went with my parents, brother, and partner. Based on some positive reviews we ordered the garlic mozzarella bread, and we were not disappointed. My mom and I had pizza: both were delicious! I had the stairway to heaven (minus the prosciutto) and she had the yellow brick road. Mine was a little awkward to eat with the amount of arugula, but I feel like if that was my biggest complaint that means it was pretty successful. I miss California-​style pizza and this was the closest I’ve had since I left. Dad and partner both had a burger — I forget the name, sorry! But I know they both liked it quite a bit.
The drinks were also great. The atmosphere was not the kind of thing is usually go for, but I do appreciate their commitment to a theme. ;)
I would give it a try! It’s a good addition to Salem.

The Rock Wood Fire Kitchen has good food and good drinks. This location however has absolutely terrible, horrendous, crap bag service. I wasn’t even going to write a review since I put it off for the longest time, but since I reminisced with my brothers of the incident, I decided to go forward with it.
We came in on a Friday night, (oddly quiet for a Friday) and there were a few people at the bar and restaurant. We walk straight to the bar and there’s no bartender present and maybe like 1 server. We sit down at the bar initially for about 10 – 15 minutes. We start to get a little antsy as we have not been acknowledged yet by ANYONE. So we start talking about going elsewhere. So maybe 20 minutes or more roll around and we get up to leave and someone comes from behind the corner and asks if we have been helped yet, we kindly say «no, we have been waiting for a long time now so we we are going to go somewhere else» and all that person said was «OH OK».
SERIOUSLY?! What the crap.
1 star because I know the food is good (even though I didn’t get any at this location).
Lost our respect here, guys. Never coming back to this location… EVER.
Eek! Methinks not.

Meh.
I’ll give it another go, I suppose, but I was not very impressed with my pizza or the service.

This is my second favorite gourmet pizza in town (behind Christo’s). However, the menu is enormous and has everything from steaks & burgers to salads.
Unbeknownst to most Salemites, The Rock is a highly underrated place to watch the ballgame. They have PAC12 Network, which not all providers carry. The bar is huge — lots of elbow room — and unlike many «sports bars» the staff actually knows how to use the cable/​satellite remote. This means they can quickly find your game if you arrive 5 minutes before kickoff. For Oregon/​Oregon State games they will put the sound on too.
The mixed drinks are a little on the weak side, fairly standard for chain restaurants. Your best bet is to avoid the «buckets» and other items on the drink list and just call your own. I usually stick to beer. They have a pretty good Chocolate Stout they brew.

So I really like The Rock but when you pay $ 8.75 for a Happy Hour Mac & Chesse and it’s barely enough for one person to get full, Eff that.

We have been here twice now, both times there were several aspects that we enjoyed.
Atmosphere: the atmosphere was casual, the music was not too loud and the tables are space out decently. The windows (which make up most of the facilities «walls» allow ample light into the restaurant.
Waiter (s): The first time we went into this business our waitress was pretty slow, so we ended up waiting a while, I sort of attributed it to the fact that there were only two waiters which appeared to be working; although they were not swamped with customers, that could have been a reason. The second time we had a different waitress, she was on top of things and quick, the owner? I am assuming brought out food out and asked us if we needed anything else, he also ended up checking to see if we needed anything two more times I believe and even offered to serve us our pizza, although we politely declined.
Location: The location is actually a very good spot, walking distance from the mall, best buy, and target. It is close to bus lines as well, it is also right next to red robins, which is typically packed and you end up waiting to be seated for a significant period of time; so if you are on a lunch break this is a tasty alternative that will allow you to get back to work in a timely manner.
Hours: This location opens up right before lunch for individuals who want to get an early start (1100) and they do not close until midnight for all of you that are hungry after going to the bar, or getting off of work.
Food: The food was delicious the first time we had a 9 inch pie which was half White Christmas (for any cheese lovers out there), half Evil Ways (which was a good vegetarian option). The second time we had again the white christmas, and tried the stairway to heaven, hold the prosciutto, both again were good. Also the fries here are delicious they are crunchy, soft in the middle, and sprinkled with sea salt. I have yet to try the buckets advertised, however they look good so I will be doing so eventually and then updating my review as far as that goes.
Price and Portions: The price for the pies was definitely fair for what you get and the quality of food. Portion sizes are good as well a side of fries were enough for the two adults and two children at our table, the pies were good sized we actually ended up taking quite a bit of left overs home.
The pie crust is chewy, and provides a good base for the toppings; the toppings are not overwhelming you get a good variation, there is not too much of any one thing, so the balance is great.
Good for: This place is kid friendly, both of my children enjoyed the miniature pizzas that were made for them, they also received coloring pages and crayons to entertain them while waiting for their food, a sort of design your own «skull» page.
I would also recommend this place if you have large groups, there are areas to accommodate. I would recommend this place for any age group, in fact I have seen a variation here in those terms.