Rowland Fine Dining

Cozy intimate setting with excellent service! The talented chef knows how to layer flavors and textures. I had a delish chicken dish with roasted veges over couscous and fresh cilantro. Not your typical tastes-​Better!

I recently went to Rowland on a Friday night for my husband’s birthday. I was excited by their small menu fun cocktail list. We arrived early to have a drink at the bar, but the bartender told us they did not have a specialty drink list. This was surprising since I was just looking at one online, but we had a quick gin and tonic and asked for our table.
The staffing is quite strange at Rowland; there do not seem to be defined roles. There appeared to be 3 bar tenders who also served all the tables, acted as hostesses, ran food orders, everything. This created a bit of chaos since no one knew where the others had left off. We were told by our bartender that she was getting our table, only for another worker to come ask for our name again. Also, we ordered a bottle of champagne, then another worker came to ask what we wanted to drink. I didn’t like this.
To start we had the charcutarie plate and white bean cakes. The charcuterie was nice– a good selection of cheeses, meats, and mustards, but our server didn’t bother to tell us what was what, which bothered me a little. For our dinners we had the tagliatele and quinoa-​crusted eggplant. Both were great– perfect portion sizes, well-​seasoned, just very good overall.
For bar drinks, a bottle of champagne, two appetizers, and two mains, we spent just over $ 120, which is very reasonable to me for a nice birthday dinner. Overall impressions: good food, unusual service. They need a FOH manager and better-​defined roles and this place would run like a machine.

Went here for dinner on a Thursday night and had an overall ehh experience. Took 10 – 15 minutes for bread, and the bar didn’t have pineapple juice to make the cocktail I requested. Our appetizers, the chicken enchiladas and charcuterie board were both solid. Then for some reason, this place ops for a salad course, where they serve you something that simply shouldn’t be served. A few greens, one chopped tomato, some carrots, and a side dressing. And, it’s plated like a 5 year old did it. Entrees were up and down. I had the hanger steak and asked for it medium rare, it came out medium. The pork chop is the thing to get on this menu, delicious. I wouldn’t really want to come back here unless someone really wanted to go.

Really average. Service was decent but food was ok at best. The bread was very bland the soft shell crabs were very greasy and the pizza sauce was just crushed tomatoes. I was really hoping for more… maybe next time.

Matt was so cool as he made our experience comfortable after rush hour afternoon traffic.

Last week we dined here to celebrate Graduation. The server (Linton?) was attentive and the food was outstanding! The soft shell crabs were some of the best I’ve ever had and my daughter loved her pork chop. We didn’t have room for dessert but I would definitely come back on my next visit to Richmond.
The restaurant was clean, and cozy, and just had a really good vibe.

Really 3.25 stars. I’ve lived around the corner from Rowland for eight years but had never been compelled to try it. Surely there’s a good reason for its longevity, plus it participates in Restaurant Week every year I’ve noticed. Well, if our meal is anything to go by, the place is solid. The prix-​fixe menu included vegetarians, which include me. The starter, a salad of cannelini beans and arugula was tangy and satisfying, while the vegetarian main dish of crispy eggplant – which layered thinly sliced, battered and fried eggplant smoked tomatoes and possibly also smoked cheeses – overdid the smoky bit. My companion also had the arugula-​bean salad, and pronounced the salmon on quinoa «very good.» Both of our desserts were serviceable: the chocolate cupcake was a chocolate cupcake, but my apple crostata left in some of the less-​edible bits of the core. Also, the service was a bit intrusive, as we were asked each course whether we were «still enjoying» whichever dish we were eating. What if we weren’t? And while I’m a huge fan of reusing and recycling, it was a little off putting to see that the (white) paper that topped our tablecloth had rings and stains on it. Better to go with bare tables, I think.

The food was pretty good, but the service wasn’t what I expect from a «fine dining» restaurant. My sister can’t have dairy and asked the waitress which items were dairy-​free. The waitress didn’t know and did not even offer to ask the kitchen, and she even asked my sister why she couldn’t have dairy – none of her business! We ordered a bottle of wine for the table, and instead of just pouring a little in each glass and leaving the bottle on the table (like servers usually do), she kept pouring more and more in each glass until the glasses were too full and the bottle was empty. This isn’t a huge deal, but it just seems like she had never been trained on how to properly serve wine. The server dropped a spoon in my mom’s lap. My sister found a hair in her food, and the manager refused to comp it. The person who seated us when we walked in was a little rude. The staff just needs to work on customer service.

It really wasn’t a fine dining experience. The table was wobbly. The bench was uncomfortable. The waiter dropped utensils four times, brought me the wrong food, and spilled water all over the table while refilling our glasses. The food was just okay — I had a salad that had three ingredients and wasn’t really dressed, and followed it with a pasta dish that I could have made at home. What is shocking is that, in spite of all of this, the staff really seemed snooty. Not going back!

Had an amazing date night dinner here. The whole meal fantastic — great flavored, food size portions, great appetizers. I loved my salmon entrée and the fried portobello appetizer. It was just divine. The only star subtraction was our waiter was less than friendly and provided sub par service, but luckily we loved everything else and hope to return!

Sheridan and I met our friends Kaie and Ken Deluca here for dinner in February. Rowland’s reminded Ken and I of those great little family restaurants you find all over Manhattan and Brooklyn, Small, intimate, but NOT loud. The wine selection was top notch, as was the food.
Our servers were great. Always made time for us, and kept every order in his head, no paper. Didn’t miss anything. Between he, the hostess, and the bartender, they worked as a team, so we never felt neglected.
We dined on their Artisian Pizzas. Didn’t know quite what to expect, but we were very pleased with the results. We even had deserts, which again were quite good.
Most pleasant was the $ 70 bill for the whole table. For a party of four on a Friday night out in Richmond, that is quite good!
We stayed for two hours and had a great time! I recommend Rowland’s HIGHLY to anyone!

I will generously award this restaurant three stars.
Why?
1). The chef seemed more interested in drinking than preparing food.
2). The eggplant entrée was very pedestrian in its presentation.
3). The waiter asked if everything was «great». Don’t ever EVER ask me if something is great; ask me how my meal was PERIOD.
The restaurant was empty on a Tuesday night and I understand why.
A restaurant in decline. Sober up and you might be able to save it.

TLDR: Don’t waste your money here. They can’t cook and somehow charged me an extra $ 20.
Attended for new years eve dinner. $ 60 for appetizer, main, and dessert.
Food: Appetizer and dessert were average at best. My main course was the duck and it was absolutely abysmal — extremely overcooked and the accompanying pear sauce didn’t *pair* with the duck at all. It seemed like they had precooked the entrees beforehand and then heated them up to order. That is entirely unacceptable for the premium price they were charging.
Service: Very young servers with little experience. Not appropriate for what they advertise as fine dining.
Bill: Noticed that I was overcharged by $ 20 after reconciling my credit card statement, paying $ 100 total for arguably the worst meal I’ve consumed in Richmond, VA.
Very disappointed.

My husband and I made a reservation for dinner this evening, as this would be the first time to Rowland. Once we arrived, we were promptly seated. Overall the atmosphere is very romantic and cozy; not really what I was expecting, but it was really nice! Our server came over relatively quickly and informed us of the specials. I let the server know I have a dairy allergy and she asked me what menu items I was interested in so she could personally ask the chef if they were dairy free or if they could make them dairy free. When she returned, she mentioned that several of my choices were dairy free and that the chef could make some of the side dishes of the meal that were traditionally made with butter, dairy free by substituting oil. I thought this was very accommodating (surprisingly, places don’t usually offer…)
We both ordered one of the specials, the Roasted Duckling, with brussel sprouts and some kind of caramelized pear side. The food was PHENOMENAL; absolutely amazing! It was a little on the pricey side, but it was a good amount of food and it was expected given the «fine dining» atmosphere. They served warm bread (which was dairy free) with some kind of infused oil; also amazing. We had a good bottle of wine.
Overall, it was a very good experience and we fully intend on coming back! It was nice being at a restaurant where having an allergy wasn’t seen as a nuisance and instead the server/​chef worked with me!

Came here during Restaurant Week. This was the first time we went anywhere for RVA RW, and had high expectations. Unfortunately, we left dinner less than thrilled.
We had a reservation, and it took about 20 – 25 minutes to actually get seated, which was a little frustrating, but understandable given how busy it was. For the appetizer, we had the prawns which were delicious and had me excited for the rest of the meal. For dinner, I ordered the flank steak, and was *really* let down. Small pieces of steak, served on top of rice (that was not properly cooked — it was crunchy/​dry) with two hard potato wedges. The meal didn’t make any sense at all. For dessert, I had the pumpkin cheesecake. It was good, but so small that we ended up going out to Shyndigz for a second dessert!
Considering it was a small menu to perfect for RW, this was pretty disappointing. Definitely better places to check out in RVA.

Came here with my roommate and her friend for Restaurant Week. Although the restaurant is small, it feels spacious. While it definitely is a place for fine dining (as the name implies), Rowland also showed its playful side as there were orange lights and fake bats hanging from the ceiling light/​fan cords for Halloween. Lighting was kept on the darker side, as many fine-​dining establishments tend toward.
Our server for the night was friendly, but he was a bit forgetful. While we were still perusing our menu, he said he would bring over some bread, but he forgot. We ended up having to request bread after we had finished eating our appetizers. The bread was cold and a little sweet for my tastes anyway, although it did come with this great olive oil dip with rosemary and roasted garlic. My soup also came without a spoon, and one of my dining companions kept leaving his utensils on his plates, so when his dishes were cleared, he kept losing his utensils and was unable to eat the next course. An astute waiter would have noticed these small things instead of having to be prompted multiple times. However, I don’t completely fault our server, because he might have been very busy; nonetheless, it stood out because this rarely happens.
All of the dishes were great. I ordered a soup to start, followed by a cod and clam dish as main entrée, and dulce de leche roulade for dessert. The soup was a curry eggplant soup with smoked trout. The soup was greener (in color) than I anticipated (but it may have been the lighting), and the trout was extremely salty; I was definitely vying for bread during that course. The main entrée was very tasty, but again, a bit salty. Finally, the dessert was bite-​sized, and a bit sweet, but not bad.
It was hard for me to judge prices since Restaurant Week utilizes prix-​fixe dining, so I don’t know much about Rowland’s regular menu.
Overall, a pleasant Restaurant Week experience.

Went tonight, was so excited but didn’t know it was RVA Restaurant week and they had a limited menu, maybe that was the issue?
Service and staff — 4 stars
Cocktails — (Rye with fresh ginger and rosemary and their Cosmo) — 5 stars (perfect)
Bread — kinda stale (and you can’t get more bread during RVA Restaurant week) — 2 stars, tasted good, just not fresh.
Prawn Appetizer — 4 stars — delicious topping, rubbery shrimp and cold potatoes
Lamb Meatballs — 1 star — overly microwaved, really tough, sauce was okay, plate next to us had some sort of pesto ring, mine didn’t.
Flank Steak — 1 star — completely terrible.
Squash Lasagne — 0 stars — horrible, old, greasy, so disappointed but didn’t want to complain during wife’s birthday — it was so small and terrible — don’t get it.
Pumpkin Desert — 4 stars, great taste but garnished with way too much nutmeg which can kill anything.
Tres Leche Roll — 1 star, dry, flat, not good.
2.4 stars overall — want to try when it’s not restaurant week but once bitten, twice shy. Go for cocktails — bartender rocks. (Cocktails are $ 12.00 each)

Cool atmosphere. Relaxed. Reasonably priced for a fun date-​night. Small wine list, but sufficient. Service was attentive. We tried the NY strip and it was expertly prepared.
EDIT: We’ve been back 4 or 5 times since the initial review. Still 4 stars. Consistently a great date night. We even took the kids one night for an early dinner.

Rowland is an impeccable dining experience, casually set amongst the southern flair of the Fan District in Richmond, VA, that is sure to not disappoint.
The layout and décor of Rowland looks both like a southern row house and a fine dining destination. The feel is that of charm and hospitality, but also formality. The seating is dense, the space is open, but your table still feels personal.
Tables adorned with white tablecloths and paired with modern chair accents greet you when you are seated by a wonderfully pleasant wait staff. A light accompaniment of Jazz music swarms the room filled with a solid timber of kitchen noise and conversation — still allowing for private communication even in the slightly-​cramped seating area. Overall, minus abnormally slow service and course timings, this is an exceptional dining experience.
When a review starts out with how great the bread is, you may be in store for a wonderful food journey. Rowland is no exception. This freshly made bread, by Virginia Rowland, is amazingly light and fluffy on the interior, packed with flavor, and has an incredible crisp and salty exterior. I recommend grabbing an end-​piece with lots of crust and dipping it into the garlic-​infused oil which will punch your taste buds and throw unexpectedly strong aromas at your palate.
Our first course was a scorching hot pair of lamb sliders accompanied with yucca frites and pickled cucumber salad. The extremely moist and slightly-​too-​rare-​but-​still-​delicious lamb sliders were coated with a curry yogurt dressing and a hefty, bright, and acidic feta cheese. The yogurt and cheese provided a cooling note to the heat of the curry and lamb, while being wrapped in wonderfully light and crisp pita bread buns. The yucca root frites, a starchier and sweeter competitor to potato frites, were unique and tasty but awkward — the puffed fries felt like a churro in texture but had a slightly too dense and chewy exterior.
Accompanying our salads — consisting of some too-​bitter-​for-​my-​taste greens and watery/​light/​bland ginger dressing — was a phenomenally hearty and flavorful carrot soup. I’m not going to judge a restaurant on it’s ability to serve a house salad, but I will sing its praises for the artistic expression that is making a wonderful soup. The soup, topped with a bright flavored oil (unsure what flavor profile), contained a few chunks of braised short rib and was reminiscent of a thick tomato soup but many other layers of sweet flavor.
The final course, a massive pecan crusted bone-​in pork chop with all the fixin’s — but not your grandma’s fixin’s. The buttery, nutty, crunchy finish to the one-​inch-​plus thick cut of moist and perfectly cooked pork served as a wonderful pedestal for a rich slow-​cooked apple topping completing a sweet-​and-​salty entrée. Chef Bruce Rowland has constructed the «Joe chop» with great care and deep flavor. Whether it was marinated in rich apple cider or not, it sure tastes like it. The best compliments to a pork chop: mac & cheese and greens. Rowland’s greens are a complex mixture of flavors from beans, brussel sprouts, onions, and a bit of pancetta (or other pork).
As a desert, it certainly would be hard to top this phenomenal meal and sadly our choice did not — the white chocolate blueberry bread pudding, served with caramel and powdered sugar. For or tastes, the bread pudding was a bit too dense and chewy and did not really feature it’s namesake, white chocolate. The caramel was a delicious addition, along with some whipped cream, but the dish left us wanting more after our amazing journey.
Overall, Rowland deserves a spot as one of the best restaurants in Richmond, VA. Virginia and Bruce Rowland have maintained a rustic and inviting dining spot complete with sophisticated and delicious flavors from the south, paired with influences from around the world.

We had a great NYE meal at Rowland! Each and every course was delicious! The service was excellent! I had the filet and it was cooked to perfection! We will definitely be dining here again and again!