Macaroni Joe’s

Before I went I looked up the online menu & decided on the halibut. When we ordered it wasn’t on the menu. «They were out». I ordered something else that was sub par. Decided to order a bottle of wine, they didn’t have three bottles I selected. If you are going to spend 100 $ or more don’t go here. Go to OHMS Café downtown much better food. Only thing this place has going for it is the atmosphere. Even then the tables are incredible small.

After eating here a few times I can say this is a very welcomed alternative when you are in the mood for a finer dining experience in Amarillo.
Parking is ample but is common to several eateries and may take awhile to get a spit sometimes. Reservations are not needed but recommend as this place gets full. The ambiance and décor are really pleasing and feel upscale-​like dining along a generic European street café. Service for me has always been top notch, and the wine offerings are without match in terms of choice and quality anywhere I’ve been in the area.
Overall, the food is good, not great but good. It consists of an eclectic combination of several Italian regions with other Mediterranean flavors tempered for the American palate.
Anyway you won’t go wrong here, is a great place for a romantic or upscale dining experience in town.

Will not go back. They brought out my plate cold, sent it back, came back still cold. Over cooked the Cioppino completely. Everything on the plate was overdone. And I’m not sure about you, but over cooked lobster and scallops doesn’t taste too great. Left out of there with $ 80 ticket and the only thing worth eating was the queso. VERY DISAPPOINTED.

Amarillo is a pretty sad place, this place was a find. We ate in the bar and it was a great experience. The bartender was great. Great service. We were happy to find that it is locally owned. I would suggest eating here over all of the chain places that W Amarillo offers.

I have dined there a couple of times. Solid four. The halibut is a 5 and my favorite so far. Appetizers are a bit small but tasty. It’s a little too dark to see the menu.

We ate there this evening, over from NM for doctor appointments. The décor is nice but we did not like the food. Our waiter was nice. I guess they think this place is classy because they serve wine. The bread was flat and very dry. The food was not seasoned very well. Not our kind of Italian. I think Johnny Carlino’s has much better food.

After having been in Amarillo for 2 months, this place has the best food I’ve had. It is the closest thing to fine dining available in this area. The service was great, although I would recommend brushing up on the pronunciation of dish names. The mob queso really is delicious along with the ciopino. If I ever have the misfortune of returning to Texas, I will definitely be eating here again.

Wow! Food was delicious, serving size is large. Service was excellent, we arrived when it open at 5p on a Saturday and was seated immediately, the bread is very wonderful, I had the salmon with risotto, it was perfect, grandson had chicken spaghetti and serving was large, he inhaled it.

My mouth is watering just thinking about this place. Delicious Italian and fantastic service. I had a halibut dish and completely cleaned my plate as did my fellow dinners. Yummy!

Would be a great date night place. Great décor and friendly staff. The steak was cooked perfectly and the sides were delicious and far more than I could eat. The waiter was friendly, knowledgable and attentive.

one of my favorite places to eat. I enjoy several of the menu items. recently, I’ve been ordering the tenderloin salad & it is delicious. I add feta & it is my favorite salad in town, for sure.
the green chile farfalle is very good {I order with blackened chicken} & the millionaire tacos are always a win.
I’ve also tried the chicken spaghetti, the steak {santa fe style}, the mob queso, the fork & knife gyro, & the mob chicken & I wasn’t disappointed with any of them.
staff is knowledgable & helpful. the ambience is perfect for business lunches or a date night.

This is a pretty place with HORRIBLE customer service and mediocre food. The waiter kept making offensive jokes. My husband and I were appalled. As for the food, you’re better off getting frozen food from Walmart and heating it up. So, stay home and save yourself the trouble, unless wine is the only thing you want.
Never again for us.

I am convinced that Mac Joes has the best steaks in Amarillo. Their filet is top notch and has always been cooked perfectly. Another thing you need to know: Mob Queso. Try it. Love it. Their sommelier knows his stuff so get a good bottle of wine and enjoy.

Me and my wife went here last week for date night and I have to be honest I was impressed. Very nice resturant for a date. We ordered the Blue Crab stuffed Shrimp as a Starter, it was okay, nothing to write home about. I wish we would have gotten the Mob Queso because that seems like what everybody in the resturant was ordering. The bread is pretty good and the wine was also good. I ordered the Blackened Bayou Pasta and it was really good if you like spicy food. My wife ordered the Chicken Spaghetti and i have to admit it was the best pasta I have eaten in a while. Overall great experience! We actually going back next week for another date night.

Very disappointed all around. It took forever and wasn’t even that good. Very overpriced also.

I had an excellent meal & service here last night. I opted for the bar area since they offered full service at regular sized tables & the bar itself. Nice quiet area. Ordered sea bass with orzo & asparagus. Cooked perfectly, served piping hot & had an excellent flavor.
Impressive wine list– saw several wine awards on wall when I came in. I ordered an Argentinian Malbec & was very happy with my choice. Didn’t skimp on serving portions either. The bartender did a great job checking on me & was very friendly. He even went to the back & brought me some M&Ms when I told him that I was too full for dessert but would sure love a few chocolate M&Ms.
Highly recommend this place & will return on my text trip.

Quaint little place for both lunch and dinner — and their tables always have crisp white table cloths (nice touch).
This was actually the first restaurant I had dinner at in Amarillo over 10 years ago. Nice to know that it’s still a fun establishment where the servers add to the pleasant experience.
I had the grilled salmon but others in my party tried the unique Italian-​Mexican dishes like chicken farfalle in green salsa which was actually very tasty.
Check MJ out and relax.

Ugh, have to be honest. Based on other Unilocal reviews, made reservation here during road trip from California to St. Louis. Honestly, we had a bad foodie night.
I really love the physical space. The name is misleading. Sounds like average pasta place, but menu is extensive, covering pasta and much more.
I was impressed as we waited to be seated that Macaroni Joe’s has received a Wine Spectator Award of Excellence for past 4 years. Couldn’t wait to be seated! The wine list is exquisite. Plenty of notables from every major wine region in the world. I was very impressed. The food was another issue. When we chatted with the waitress and told her this was our first time here, she informed us we could get either the Mob Queso (a spinach and artichoke dip), or a dessert on the house! Nice touch. We opted for the dip. Was served on a plate with the most impossibly light chips that were fantastic. Unfortunately, the dip itself was «blah». Kinda tasteless, missing any spiciness or kick to make it memorable. An unfortunate start.
For main entrees, my wife ordered the steak Diane, and I opted for the Osso Buco reportedly a specialty. My whole plate was stone COLD, the Osso Buco (which was tough and NOT falling off the bone as advertised), the mashed potato, and the zucchini/​squash mixture, absolutely cold. I didn’t want to mess up the flow of my wife’s meal, so I waited until our server asked how if was before I gave her the bad news. I was offered to 1) heat it up, 2) another entrée, 3) soup, or a 4) comped dessert. Appreciated the offers, but the dinner ambiance had been lost by then. The wife’s steak Diane was hot and cooked perfectly medium rare, but SWIMMING in the Diane sauce.
Fortunately, all this bad food was blown away by a 2004 Clos Martinet from the Priorat Region in Spain. What a delightful bottle of wine … Very unusual. There were lots of these great finds on the wine list, and a very knowledgable wine sommelier who expertly took our order, and decanted it and served it properly. 5 stars to the wine experience. My only complaint, was that he left us alone with a half decanter of expensive wine while he waited on a larger table. Our check was at the table when we had to ask if there was any more of the wine. This is a $ 100+ bottle of wine! c’mon, even the server should have been serving the wine if he was busy.
In the end my entrée was comped, and I felt bad for this place, as it appears to be a wonderful wine experience. But we came here to eat dinner, and the food was just not good all around. Chalk it up to a bad night in the kitchen. Major kudos to the wine program.

I really enjoy this place and can’t say that I’ve ever had a poor experience.
The service and food are consistently good, which is more than I can say for a lot of other businesses in town and I’ve never been disappointed on these counts.
I always try to order something that I would never cook at home and I’ve been very happy with my choices. The osso bucco is quite tasty as it literally falls off the bone and melts in your mouth. I’ve also been happy with a perfectly cooked tuna steak and so many other tasty entrees I can’t even really remember.
They have an extensive wine list and the bartenders to back it up. If you’re unsure about whether or not you’d like something, ask before you order. They know their list well and will be able to help you make a selection.
This is probably my go-​to restaurant when looking for a nicer evening out.

With a name like Macaroni Joe’s, I wasn’t expecting much.
Luckily, I was pleasantly surprised by the ambiance, service, and quality of food.
I had the «mob chicken» for lunch which was touted by both of my dining companions as THE BEST THING EVER. While there is no way I would personally every put it in that food category, I’ll say it was a better than average lunch.
What did blow me away was their soup of the day, which was some spicy-​pumpkin thing, but admittedly I’m wooed by anything pumpkin. I think the fact that they brought out a sample to «try before you buy» was a nice touch. I ate my entire cup.
My lunch-​mates each had salads but both had issues with their order. The issues were promptly resolved but it made for a less than flawless meal.
I wouldn’t turn down a second meal here; but I’d try something different.