So finally after almost a year and a half we decided to try OC Kitchen again...our second visit was slightly better than the first time we tried this place out. This establishment is visually pleasing, I love the decor and style...We ordered two cocktails both were very good and we ordered one risotto entreè and one pasta entreè. This time the food served in ceramic plates and not "paperlike" dishes. The food was okay, not outstanding, not terrible....$70 later we still weren't super impressed...we would most likely go back for drinks but thats about it... read more

Very cool building design but a little cramped. The tables are right up against each other but I don't think they have a choice due to the size of the building. Drinks were good but a bit pricey. I think your normal house wines shouldn't run more than $10.00 per glass. Our meal came in 3 stages (because that's what we requested). App, pizza and then a pasta dish. We did not have our kids with us so we wanted to prolong the experience. Parents know what I'm talking about. Our first dish was fried calamari. Good but nothing special which is true with most calamari dishes. 2nd part was a pizza which seemed to be a medium thin crust. Very tasty. 3rd was a pasta/meatball dish which was also very good. You can tell that the pasta was made fresh. My only issue was the noise level. Music was way too loud. I was sitting a foot away from my wife and we could barely hear each other. Would definitely go back but I might ask them to turn down the music. read more

We've been planning a birthday celebration dinner for weeks. The idea was to have great food and drinks at a restaurant we've never been to. From the pictures the reviews and pictures on the website, we were convinced this would be the perfect place to go. We were wrong!!! My expectations slowly started to go down when I seeing the big "Lunch" banner outside like you were at a Chillis. Inside the rocky, uneven table was covered with plastic table cloths. Then the bread sticks they brought over was in the same glass you drink water out of. After calling ahead and being told they were completely booked for the night, it was clear that's something they tell people over the phone to make it seem busy, however when we walked in the place was not even half full (when we left there were even less people there). However, our waitress took so long to visit our table, you would of thought it was packed to capacity. We didn't know her name until we seen it on the check and we learned about the specials from the very attentive waiter serving the table next to us. We could have gotten over everything I previously mentioned if it wasn't for the food and drinks which was the main purpose of going. You would think with it being so slow, they would put more attention into the food and drinks. We ordered the Kentucky Mule which lacked ginger and bourbon, but had lots of sour mix. The the prices you paid for food, it was VERY underwhelming. I ordered the rib eye which was overcooked and bland in taste. My sister, whose birthday it was, ordered the chicken that was stuffed with cheese and wrapped in bacon. The whole combination of flavors didn't work well together, plus the chicken was overcooked and dry. The other person with us, ordered the Salmon. When she received it, it was very mushy and pink in the middle. She asked that they cook it a little, when it returned, it was half the size and DRY. Prior to it going back to the kitchen, she cut into it to test the temperature, the actually only gave her one half of the portion back. When we told our waitress our experience with the meal, it was like she was trying to educate us on food and temperature instead of compensating for dissatisfaction. This is not our first time eating food or being at a restaurant, so not sure why she felt she could explain away why we weren't satisfied. What she should have explained is why the cooks and other waiters were standing in the dining are bored out of their mind (hard for me to call them chefs after my experience), There are several restaurants in West Hartford and Downtown Hartford area that we wished we went to instead. The meal was overpriced, not because we weren't satisfied, but because I wouldn't consider the portions and ingredients "fine dining." I will NEVER go back to this place, It was the first and last!!!!!! read more

The Italian food is very well-prepared and presented. The dressing on the salad was delicious and my risotto was the best with its cheese atop. Bread sticks were like phyllo dough, so light. Excellent Tira misu. A smooth Moscow Mule drink. The atmosphere was well-thought out with painted ceilings and constructed beams. Four of us shared a delightful evening. read more

First time going and had the most excellent service from Massimo. The drinks were great, the food delicious, and the atmosphere was fun. I recommend it to all our friends. read more

Food was excellent. Our server was attentive but didn't hover. Only complaint, noisy. Hard to carry on a conversation. But that aside, worth another visit. Fig martini was amazing read more

Stopped in spur of the moment. Past lunch and not quite dinner so had a lite fare. Wait staff friendly and helpful with suggestions on the menu. Salad was very fresh and pizza was good. Would of liked it alittle browner on the bottom but taste was great. Will be a repeat customer.Oh yeah, great to have you in the Rocky Hill area. Nice to have something different in the area. read more

I love this place! Everything about it is awesome. The staff is so friendly and efficient! The food is TO DIE FOR. Seriously, the salads, pasta, pizza, everything is delicious! And the atmosphere is unique! You can sit outside, or in a room with windows that makes you feel like your outside, or inside. There's so many options when it comes to this restaurant and they are all good ones! Would HIGHLY recommend for a lunch date or even a night out! read more

My husband and I go to this place very often. Everything is amazing - the wines and cocktails, the risottos, and the pizzas. My personal favorite is the risotto with smoked cheese, figs and prosciutto crudo. read more

Visited O C Kitchen on Friday, 6/16 with 2 friends. I had highly recommended it because of my previous two visits. I'm sad to say this last experience was not a good one. The dinner menu changed completely and in my opinion, not for the better. One friend had the Roman Gnocchi. The gnocchi itself was very good but the wild boar sausage was extremely grisly. I had the Tajarin pasta dish which had leeks in it. I popped a leek in my mouth and couldn't chew through the outer layer and had to spit it out. Our other friend had the carbonara pizza. She thought the flavor was good but found the crust to be too doughy. I'm sorry to say we won't be returning and this saddens me because I thought I had found a new great place to go close to home. Also was told you can't make any changes to your dish and wait staff person couldn't answer the questions we had about the menu. After 3 times leaving to get us answers we stopped asking. read more

This is my first review ever. Overall experience was bad enough that I had to go out of my way and create an account just to warn others. Anyways, I went in for lunch with my father and we were the only people in the whole restaurant, so fast service right? Wrong. Took about 10 minutes just for some water. Waitress was ok, she was bland and seemed like she didnt want to talk. Ceasar salad was ok, until i tried the croutons. They were as hard as rocks! I even tried to break it with a knife and it wouldn't budge. I didn't bring it upon the waitress because she obviously didn't make the croutons but she should've checked to see what she was serving. Arancini was ok and calamari was good. Then the chicken parm. It was soggy and tough. Also there was no flavor unless you count the load of seasoning poured onto the top. It was an overbearing amount of random seasoning just piled on top, I had to scrape it all off to get to the chicken. Dont recommend. read more

Happy Hour Prices 4 to 6: LOVE THE FIGATINNIS! You have to try them. We try a variety of different foods when we visit. It is QUALITY FOOD and GOOD SERVICE. I plan on going to OC again and again. read more

Help I was robbed of$21.11!!! I waited months for this establishment open, so I was excited to finally get a chance to go and try the food. I order takeout, from the small amount of options they had available on the menu. I chose the shrimp risotto. I was excited about it, seeing as risotto is one of my favorite dishes. When I arrive the inside was very beautiful and then the waitress brought my to go order to me she handed me a small container plastic togo and said "Here you go you're all set that'll be $21.11" when I took the container out of her hand I couldn't even feel any weight on it, and it looked pretty empty but I didn't want to make a scene. But saying to myself oh my God I'm still going to be hungry after this for $21 I thought I would at least get a decent amount or maybe even a salad or something served with that but that was not the case. When I got home and opened the container I was even more disappointed to find out that the container was barely a quarter full with the shrimp risotto covering the bottom of this to go container. Needless to say I ate the food that I paid for but I was left hungry and disappointed!!! Not only was the risotto under cooked and very chew more so than even al dentate risotto and it tasted more like minced clams!!! Once again let me yell it "Help I've been robbed. !!!!!!! read more

This was one of the worst restaurant experiences I have ever had. There were six of us in our party and my mother in law is gluten free. When she made the reservation she let them know she was gluten free and they were able to accommodate her. When we arrived the woman who spoke with us was unable to read the reservation, maybe due to handwriting, and said "oh I see the reservation. The Italians wrote this.". This caught me off guard but I moved on and we sat down. We had two different waitresses come over to the table and each was unable to answer any questions and both said they were new and it was their first night. We quickly received our apps but the eggplant parm was warm at best. We then waited for another 45 minutes for our food. No one came to check on us or to let us know what was happening. After we brought this to their attention our meals arrived with two mistakes! The others were not great either. My carbonara tasted like pasta in warm milk! Our check then arrived and nothing was removed. They even added gratuity! We complained once more and they removed one meal. We will never go back! read more

This restaurant was featured in the local news on Channel 3. I was excited to try out the menu with my boyfriend, so we went on a dinner date this past Friday. I enjoyed the location and the ambience of the restaurant. However the service was extremely lacking. We were seated down and never offered any bread. My boyfriend was given his beer in a frosted glass. He would have preferred it off the bottle. So that was something the waitress should have offered. The floor appeared slippery and both the manager and customers we're slipping. The waitress took our orders and after our drinks were brought to the table the waitress never came to check on us or tell us the status of our meals. For god sakes I wasn't even given a refill on my soda. Now 45 minutes later and still no bread or salad brought to the table. Finally our meals appeared but there were no salads. We told the waitress but we would have continued to eat our meals and then waited for our salads to come after. Instead the waitress took the plates off the table quickly and stated she was not aware why the plates were brought out cause she did not ask the cook to fired them up. We were unaware what the terms fired up was but at this time we just had enough. Over an hour no bread, no salad, no follow-up and now meals were taken within seconds from the table. I even Googled fired up and when I realized it meant to cook our plates we began to wonder what happened to the meals when they took them back to the kitchen. My boyfriend decided that it was just best if we left. I discreetly ask the waitress to come and cancel our bill. We didn't want to make a scene. My boyfriend even offered to pay for half the bill even though we never eat and all he had was the beer.The manager went ahead apologize and paid for the beer and soda due to embarrassment. But we were just all set. While were walking to the car the manager runs to us and if it wasn't frustrating enough to add insult to the night, he decides to give us a $20 gift card to return to the restaurant. Now let me just clarify that my boyfriend's plate alone was $29 and my meal was $17. That does not include the fee for the drinks or the salad. Needless to say, we will never return back to the place and we would never use the $20 gift card. I eat out very frequently and this has to be by far the worst experience I ever had. We would had better service at Chili's and gotten more food for definitely less the price. read more