Romano’s Macaroni Grill

This is my 2^nd time dining here and I must admit I questioned why i haven’t dined her more often. The food was really good and the service was excellent.

The bread was good and the chicken cutlet was good but the pasta sauce was too spicy. I also heard the couple next to us mention the sauce was too spicy. The restaurant needs to change the recipe. I don’t think we will return.

This place is horrible. I showed up and the place was about 25% full. The host told me it would be at least a half hour wait despite the place having so much open space. As I was deciding whether to stay the host sighed as though I was wasted his time. It makes you wonder if there is any management here and it also explains why the Chilis next door is packed. Save your time and money and go elsewhere. One star is too generous.

This place is definitely trying to dig themselves out of a «bad history» hole. My family and I stopped going for a long time after a couple «blah» visits. Gave them another chance was happily surprised. Food was much improved; staff super friendly; overall a good experience. The place was EMPTY though. Not good for them long term if they can’t get their audience back. We will visit again hoping they keep up the new habits.

Walk in around 1 pm. Only 1 other couple inside. Not a good sign. Was seated by our server, Jamie. Didn’t like where we were seated so we moved to another table. Jamie seemed annoyed at this. Not a good sign. For the remainder of our meal, she wasn’t friendly or pleasant. The bread didn’t even look baked. It had a «pale» appearance. Not brown or crisp. My Chicken Florentine salad was delicious though. I would go back but only if we had a different server.

By the looks of these reviews, this roomy, local, and comfortable spot that my parents come to EVERY week is not a favorite for many. Because my parents are regulars, we are always served by Cindy (who has an incredible personality and is super attentive when she is serving you). I recommend seeing her when you come here. The service is average for a chain restaurant like MG.

WORST EXPERIENCE IN YEARS! I went for dinner on New Years Eve at 6pm with my best friend and my 6 year old twins. We arrived to find that the restaurant was at least ¾ empty but we were asked if we had a reservation and, if not, were warned by Cal that there would be a 30 minute wait. There was already a couple (over age 65) waiting on the bench for a table in this quiet space. Did i mention the place was practically empty? Cal grudgingly agreed to seat us in the bar area. We were then given subpar service. We got bread but no silverware or plates until we got them ourselves. No drink refills even when we asked. They had run out of milk? The restaurant did not fill up while we were there and yet we continued to be treated as if they were doing us a favor by letting us eat in the bar area. We will NOT be going back and i was embarrassed to have recommended this place as a nice and kid friendly place to grab an early dinner with the kids. What manager would allow this to happen? Ever heard of a bird in the hand? Last time for us. Horrible experience.

First time to this location. Here with family and a 1-​year old, everyone was very accommodating and nice, food was great and just couldn’t ask for anything more. Brendan our server could not be nicer, very polite and efficient. Great job by all.

I’m not sure why there are so many poor reviews! Here for dinner again and they were very considerate over what table we wanted to sit at (we had a stroller) as well as how long it took us to decide on our orders. Every time I come here, the food is pretty good and so is the service.

I would like to start this review off by saying I do not agree with what everyone else in the reviews is talking about…
My girlfriend and I visited this restaurant while we were on a trip to New York. We arrived at the restaurant 30minutes before it closed…
The servers and staff were extremely nice and knowledgable.
The food was amazing and fresh. The bread was also super tasty and fresh.
It’s either the management of the restaurant did some major improvements or the other reviews are BS
Frankly, this restaurant does not deserve such a low rating.

Sad, reservation line hangs up on you after thanking you for calling. Went there anyway and 75% tables empty, 1^st telling of customer opinions. Expensive but we were here so, ok let’s give it a try. Bread and oil, fine. Apps Mozz sticks –kids liked, stuffed mushrooms, good. Entrees, after a l o n g wait –yuk. Mine might have been ok if it wasn’t as cold as almost from the fridge as a leftover. Sad as it was a baked dish. The place wasn’t even full. Wife’s and other couples –same opinion. Waiter apologized for something which hadn’t happened nor had we complained anyway, while he gave us our check before asking if we’d like coffee or dessert for the kids, which we did –hey kids kid like sweets.
We were here about 15 years ago when they first opened and that was great. We moved and this was first, and last time back.

This place has gone down hill since we first came 1 year ago. I have many issues now, mainly with the food, but let’s be methodical…
Atmosphere: Yes, I know it’s a chain, but there’s one addition that I’m sure no other chain boasts. A table side singer. Imagine you’re sitting and enjoying a nice meal with your date when a random lady comes up to your table and asks if she can basically seranade you. While you are sitting there. They don’t turn the background music off when she comes out so whatever she’s singing clashes with that. And when she finishes the table claps awkwardly and she saunters on to the next one. I don’t know, maybe other people like the kitch of ut, but I just want to be left alone to converse with my dinner mates.
The food: It used to be actually passable for a chain. The bread was fluffy and fresh, the food was fresh… but that’s faded. The bread we got tonight was reheated. Our calamari was extremely rubbery and dry. And my angel hair pasta was so over cooked it broke when I tried to twirl it on my fork. Nope. The chicken was ok and the salad was fresh enough but over dressed.
Service: They have a huge… HUGE cavern of a restaurant and it’s never filled to capacity. Our servers in the past have only been passable in attendance. Tonight was no exception. I could see him, along with all the other waiters just grouped together at a table, chatting and yuckin’ it up. We were ready to pay and they didn’t even notice.
Bottom line: We had a coupon and with out that, the price of the food would have been much too high.

Tonight is the first night we have been here in a while. We were a little surprised it was empty on a Friday night but it worked to our advantage. We were seated right away, excellent service, the manager even came over to check on us and my boyfriend and I both enjoyed our meals. He had the blackened chicken parm and I had the chicken Marsala. We also had the macaroni and cheese bites and the prosciutto for an appetizer. All of it was very good, overall we had a good experience and will be going back.

Prucittio was salty and Mac cheese bites were good. My pasta with my buffalo chicken parm was so amazing they put bleu cheese in there.
Drinks were blood orange and raspberry Italian soda and both were more seltzer than syrup
Everything was good 8 out of 10
Service was good friendly waiters

The menu is expensive enough for a chain restaurant the food is good the portion size is very good and very good for the value I would recommend this restaurant if you enjoy Italian food I had the artesian pizza which was really good and others had the chicken Parmesan who they give it four stars

Went in on a Friday night — walked in and half the restaurant was empty. The waiter said the wait was 25 minutes — wait what? Why? He said they didn’t have enough waiters to help us. Um, bad sign #1.
We ordered the $ 10 calamari app — ew ew. Must have been frozen because it was beyond disgusting and I’ve eaten calamari everywhere. The dipping sauces were so thick — how are you supposed to dip calamari in a super thick mayonnaise and disgusting tapenade? I’m a maggianos lover by the way even though it’s a chain and if you compared the two calamaris, you’d slap the owner and the chef.
I ordered the seafood pasta (zuppe de pesce) — I can’t even tell you how disgusting it was. The mussels were first of all so bad that I spit it out right away thinking i would be puking it up later from food poisoning. There were 3 shrimp in my $ 18 dish and like 1 scallop somewhere swimming around like a loner. The sauce was gross and the bowl was 99% filled with overlooked thick linguine pasta. My husband ordered chicken Marsala and we both swore they just coated in it sugar and weirdo onion sauce. He’s not even a picky eater and will eat just about anything and said it was the worst dinner he’s had in ages! I told the waiter and they refunded my dish which was nice of them. Hubby didn’t complain because he had eaten most of his chicken being so hungry so that would have been ghetto. But I just had to tell them about my unacceptable, terrible, unfresh, overlooked, disgusting dish. Even my poor kids chicken tenders were unseasoned and unappealing. This place will probably be shutting down soon — the food is beyond gross. We could have gone anywhere and we were so sorry we chose romanos with so many choices we had. Never again.

We were not impressed. First, the service was very slow. It took nearly 15 minutes for anybody to even get our drink order which was strange because the place was dead. There was maybe 6 other tables occupied so such a slow response is unacceptable. When the food came out it was underwhelming. My wife’s penne with vodka sauce was just OK but my lasagna and pasta was definitely under seasoned and bland. We won’t be back.

I gotta admit, I’m a little shocked by the poor reviews for this place.
My girl wanted to eat here after shopping one afternoon. I was quite reluctant cause the place kinda reminded me of an Olive Garden… and we all know the Olive Garden SUCKS! However, we did stop in for a late lunch.
The place was practically empty… and this place is freakin’ HUGE! The service was very good, the waitress was very friendly and attentive and pricing was low as well.
The food was good! I’ve lived in Brooklyn for practically my whole life, and while I“m not Italian, I’ve had my fair share of great Italian food. Would I consider this great Italian Food? NO! But, it’s decent… way better than the Olive Garden. The only thing that sucked for me was, they put rosemary on their bread and do not offer an alternative. I fuckin’ HATE rosemary!
I’d come back.

In an odd moment of desperation, we ended up here. The place was almost empty, yet it took a while to have a waiter come to our table to offer drinks. Our waiter probably could not have been more depressed /​bored looking. On to the food.
We got a caprese salad as an appetizer and while the arugula was limp, it was decent tasting as it was drenched in vinaigrette. For entrée, I got the Chicken Parm that came with some angel hair pasta and it was pretty good! My wife got the Butternut Asiago Tortellaci, with added grilled chicken on top, and I thought it was too greasy and heavy [see photo]. I knew this because my wife passed it on to me and ate my Chicken Parm.
To summarize, 2 of the 3 dishes were not good and the service was sub-​par. Therefore, you are probably best off going somewhere else if you can.

The worst customer service I have ever encountered at a restaurant. Service was beyond slow… Over all dining experience time lapse was over 3 hours! Staff was inexperienced. Very disappointed, will not go back again.

Very poor service. Had to wait for our dinner at the table for 2+ hours. Stay away.

Incredibly slow and inefficient. A staff of dozens present but no visible manager, most of them wandering aimlessly on a busy Sat night. It’s been an hour and I still don’t have my main course, although apps and salads showed up pretty much on top of each other. Tried to check in via Unilocal multiple times sitting at table and parking lot to be told I’m too far away (I think its blocked.) Bar service pitifully slow. Apparently it was too cold for the hostess because she threw on an Eagles sweatshirt. Nice and professional, that. Watched a couple next to us start to steam trying to pay their tab for over 15 minutes with no sign of their server and everyone else avoiding eye contact. Way disappointed, whomever is running the show there needs to be fired.

Service is extremely slow. Sat for 20 minutes waiting for the server to arrive. No personality, no speed. Still waiting for dinner to arrive. Restaurant is very poorly managed. Update: food finally arrived — cold and salty! Do not eat here!

Yum!
This is a cute place with normal Italian fare. It’s not gourmet, but I think it’s a million times more delicious than the Olive Garden. They bring you a poofy fresh loaf of bread with a dish of olive oil and cracked black pepper to start. The bread is really good, flavored with rosemary and pepper; really chewy and yummy.
Cute thing about this place is that the tablecloths are just giant pieces of paper so the servers learn to write their names upside down so they can write their names on the tables for the customers to read. There are two colored crayons sitting on the table so it’s fun to doodle while you eat, which deems it a fun atmosphere for children.
The portions are generous and they have a decent wine list.

We came here for a late lunch on a Sunday and I just wasn’t impressed. The food here was meh to ok, nothing special and I would say it’s as Italian as cooking some pasta and throwing some sauce on it. The service was also meh. The waitress was nice but her excesses got a little old fast that or they really had nothing in stock. For our drinks, I never got mine and later the apologized because they were out of what I ordered, which happens but then we ordered mozzarella sticks for the table they never came and after we got our entrees we were apologized to and told they ran out of mozzarella sticks. My one friend ordered ziti and they gave him substitute pasta and said the same thing… Really you were out of all that stuff… Besides that I don’t like how they tacked on the salads. Asking what dressing we like on our salad to get us to order salad is not kosher in my book. If the salad isn’t coming with the entrée don’t try to get people to order it by asking what dressing they would like on it then tacking it onto the tab. I don’t really care about the 2.50 extra as much as it seems like a sly way to do business. The only enjoyable part was the conversations and the crayons where are novelly named after things like florentine, roasted red pepper, and eggplant.
Overall, I don’t think I would come here again.

First, let me say the only reason we came here was my sister gave me a gift card for my birthday. I also could’ve gone to Chilis, On The Border or Maggiano’s as well cause I guess they’re owned by the same multi-​national conglomerate. Actually I had some decent expectations cause we had recently eaten at Maggiano’s and I had to admit it was pretty good.
Welllllll, at Macaroni Grill, like Maggiano’s, the atmosphere is suprisingly pleasant. The servers were professional and courteous. Food arrived promptly and looked appetizing. There was just one problem, nothing had any taste!
My eggplant parm was bland and it’s sauce had no taste or seasoning whatsoever. My wife loves calamari and the $ 10 appetizer she received was fair, but the portion would’ve fit in a small cup and it’s sauce would fit in a thimble! My wife’s entrée of fresh spaghetti pesto came in a fancy bowl amid high expectations and she barely touched it cause it too was tasteless. My regret is that for the price we paid, even with the gift card, we could’ve gone to any number of local italian restaurants and even pizzerias here in Northern New Jersey and had a far better meal. I’ll stick to my neighborhood joints next time…