Romano’s Macaroni Grill

Went here yesterday for the first time. I cannot say enough praises. I haven’t had such excellent service as I received yesterday. Cheryl was our wait person. She was very attentive, even made suggestions from the menu and spent a good amount of time answering our questions. I ordered the Shrimp Portofino (my friend had a chicken dish). I haven’t had Italian food this good since I left Chicago!!!
Want to make sure Cheryl is recognized for her outstanding service!!! Thank you Cheryl for making our visit so enjoyable! We’ll be back!!!

Let me start by saying our waitress Paula made this visit as great as it could be. However on the food side of things I wasn’t pleased. The create your own pasta I had ordered was missing the fresh Mozzerella which was later brought out but adding cold wet cheese to hot pasta wasn’t the best combination. Next there was WAY to much fresh garlic in the two pastas that had it. The lasagna we ordered tasted like it was microwaved and they completely forgot about our fired Mac and cheese bites. But still three stars because service was just that awesome. Without our waitress that would have been a one star visit

Just to clarify, that’s MINUS (-) one stars!
I went there with my travel companion, last evening, hoping to make it simple after a long day on the road. It was a disaster. The server, Satchel, was sweet, but could not properly speak. That is, he slurred his words terribly. He also kept on making lots of excuses when our food was not ready, some 45 minutes after we had ordered. We both ordered the «Steak and Salad.» Simple enough, right?
My partner ordered a simple Manhattan from the bar. We had to keep on asking when that would appear. Finally, the order of gluten free fettucine with pesto arrived, and we split that. We had to keep begging the manager, Satchel and other servers to bring our dual «Steak and Salad» orders. Finally, when they did arrive, my steak was not cooked as I had wished. That’s when I blew my cool. I left, as the manager was comping the meal, save but for the alcohol.
Please read the other reviews on this location should you think that I am being unfair or exaggerating. Most of the other reviews will support my experience.
Don’t waste your time or cash here. There are MANY other choices if you’re looking for fake Italian food. To be fair, the fettuccine with pesto sauce was plentiful and delicious. However, the negatives far outweigh the positives in this restaurant.
Also, there is no Wi-​Fi to kill time while one waits endlessly for one’s food.

We went to this mac grill and unlike the other ones I’ve been to this one was dirty and the food wasn’t good. The table was bent and our drinks were about to fall on the floor and the floor was so sticky my feet stuck to the ground. I wouldn’t recommend this location.

I’ve been back to this particular location a few times since my initial review three years ago. I was very impressed by our last visit although our server was a little slow for my taste. The food was very good. I had an Classic pasta dish with sausage and meatballs which was about as good as any I’ve had. Regretfully our first loaf of bread was not fresh and seemed stale and reheated. It was eventually replaced with the typical hot out of the oven small tear apart loaf. Two other diners with me had shrimp pasta dishes which I thought were also quite good. The scampi however could have used more lemon as it tasted fresh but slightly flat. We dined on a Thursday not knowing that is half price for a bottle of wine night. We were able to order a $ 32 bottle of vino along with our meal. The portions are very large and I would recommend sharing with other diners unless you want another take home left over meal the next day. I like this location in north Phoenix adjacent to the Desert Hills outdoor shopping center. This certainly isn’t the best Italian fare around but it’s the best of the chains hands down. .. Better than Olive Garden or Carrabas

The entire experience was disappointing. After we sat down, it took almost 10 minutes for our waiter to come to our table even though the restaurant was not crowded. When he finally came, he never gave us a drink menu or offered us a drink. We watched all of the tables who came in around us get bread, but our waiter never brought bread. When we asked for bread a few minutes after placing our order, the waiter claimed our bread was in the oven. Since the kitchen is open, we were tempted to go take our own salads from the kitchen. Although we saw the salads being made, our waiter did not bring the salads over for another 10 minutes. Our entrees came out approximately three minutes after we received our salads. Our waiter never recognized that there was an issue with his service, but the waiter who delivered the entrees realized that we just received our salads when he brought the entrees.
The restaurant does not appear to be well managed at all. While there appeared to be managers in the restaurant, they never once came to the table or recognized what a poor job our server was doing.
Overall it was a terrible experience and the food is sub-​par at best. I definitely would not visit this location again and likely would not eat at another Macaroni Grill again. When the service and food are both bad, there is no reason to go back.

My Wife and I came here for a date night, never having been to a Maccaroni Grill we didn’t know what to expect since most of them closed down in MN. Now we know why.
We arrived and were taken to our seats where we sat waiting about 15 minutes for the waitress to even come see us. When she did she asked if we wanted to try the house red. I said yes, since it was only $ 6 so why not. She proceeded to pour it in a regular juice glass! What? This is wine not tang. Lol. Whatever though.
Shortly after another waiter brought us the bread which was probably the best part of the meal. We cut and ate through almost all of it before she came over with their vinaigrette to try on the bread which was gone. Too little too late.
Finally our food arrived and the person who brought it out put the cheese on my Penne Rustica and also into my water glass and walked away. 5 minutes later our waitress comes out with the cheese grater asking if we’d like cheese on our food. Very strange.
My wife got their Chicken under Brick which she said was okay but the potatoes looked iffy and I’ll eat just about anything in potato form. My Penne Rustica was inedible. It tasted like nothing but char and I normally love a little char flavor but this was BAD. The chicken in it was slimy and the shrimp tasted like it had gone bad. I just wanted to get out of there so we paid our bill and left. I had to chew multiple sticks of gum to get that flavor out of my mouth.
I will eat damn near anything if you put it in front of my face but it will never be Maccaroni Grill ever again.

Not sure why all the reviews are so negative on this place. I haven’t eaten in a Macaroni Grill in years, but it is still good. Not the best food in the world, but tasty and a nice atmosphere. I had the blackened chicken Parmesan and it was very good.
We went for lunch, and it wasn’t terribly busy (maybe all of the negative reviews on here are affecting it?). But the service was great. Mikey was our server – he was really nice and plenty attentive. No complaints at all.

Very interesting experience…
My mother and I came in for lunch and a female waitress came to seat us. As she walked us to our table she stopped to help another table and just pointed at the table we were supposed to sit at while she was helping the other table. Very rude.
Next we waited about 15 minutes without our server even introducing themselves, however several servers stared at us and noticed we were there. Finally our server comes to the table and seems to be all over the place. She takes our drink order and brings out our bread and drinks but doesn’t bring any silverware.
Finally she comes to take our order and we ask her if we can use the coupon on the lunch special, we didn’t know because the coupon doesn’t specify. She asks her manager and she says we can. While she’s taking our order she is also talking to two other servers and not really paying attention to us.
She brings us our salads and when she puts cheese on the salad she asks us to say when to stop. I’m waiting to get the right amount of cheese on the salad and she stops without me saying when. She walks away without giving us silverware. Wait another five minutes to ask for silverware.
Our food comes out, my mothers food is cold and mine isn’t even what I ordered. It’s covered in mushrooms, which I’m allergic to. I send it back and the waitress says she accidentally brought out the wrong food. My mom compares her ravioli to chef boiardee.
The whole time the servers are arguing within clear earshot about how many rolls of silverware they need to roll each
Finally our server brings us our bill but she tells us she was mistaken and we can’t actually use the coupon. We ask to speak to a manager, the manager just says he’ll take care of it and we get our modified bill.
Overall bad experience

Walked into complete chaos … From the hostess, to the bar to the constant stream of disappointed guests already seated and complaining. This was an all out mess and after almost an hour wait for a table for two, we decided to leave. Plenty of open tables and employees running like headless chickens just trying to get water to the tables. Clearly an understaffed and scheduling issue. Management needs to take a deep look at the running of this particular restaurant. Granted it’s a holiday week, but a competent managerial group should expect gift card redemption and family parties in abundance this week. If this is typical of this location, I would expect closure is imminent.

When looking at restaurants, I was shocked to see that Macaroni Grill only had 2.5 stars, but now I understand why.
It wasn’t busy and our waitress was inattentive. Or maybe just poorly trained. We had to ask for our waters and they were never refilled.
I tried the mama’s trio which was extremely disappointing. The fettuccine Alfredo was the best thing on the plate (which is handedly the easiest thing to make), the chicken parmigiana was burnt and the lasagna was on par with Chef Boyardee [to be generous].
We were rushed through the entire beginning of our meal. Then, we waited about 20 minutes before getting the bill. We planned to get cappuccinos and dessert but decided against it after that.

Took my girl here a few days before Christmas. She was really in the mood for spaghetti and ordered spaghetti and meatballs. When it came out, which took a long time, she said it tasted like the canned chef boyardee. I started laughing and said she surely must be exaggerating. After I taste test, yes she was right. It tasted exactly like they pulled it out of the chef boyardee can. I know because that used to be mine and her favorites growing up. lol. We’ll I think this place is overpriced for the plate. She did not finish it.
I ordered the penne rustica pasta. It was decent but lacked any depth. The bruschetta appetizer was also decent however they gave me mostly burned bruschetta bread. They couldn’t even do that right. The Baked Prosciutto & Mozzarella was disgusting. I tasted rotten — literally. Both of us agreed.
The only good part. The bread is awesome! The one they serve free with your orders. Not sure what executive chef runs this kitchen and what their standards are.

Update as went back today to try some lunch again.
The food was good, but one issue bugged me. I know they have a 7 dollar 7 minute food menu for lunch because I do research. So when we were seated at the table, that menu never appeared with the two others we were given. I had to ask for it which leads me to believe that nobody gets that menu unless you ask. They don’t want you ordering from that menu, so why bother even giving us «dumb customers» a choice.

If you go with two people, have one order the 7 dollar menu and the other get the 3 course lunch for $ 10 and share the small ceasar, tiny mozzarella triangle and get your rosemary bread for free. My ravioli was normal and average and sausage pasta was deemed good as well. Stick to lunch here and demand that $ 7 menu and I usually like the server to get my silverware, but I had to «help myself» in order to avoid using my hands and eating Ethopian style.

A super great restaurant, the service, the food, the flavor, taste, and freshness; all excellent.
My lamb was cooked a little rare so immediately they apologized profusely and replaced the order and the entire plate with a brand-​new fresh lamb roast that was cooked to perfection. I was thankful for their very respectful service. Me and my date were pleased.

At first glance we thought this place was way to fancy to bring the two little kids to. Seeing our perplexed look the staff convinced us that they were accommodating and we were happy to find out that they indeed were.
I had the Shrimp Portofino 2.5÷5 which lacked depth but did fill my empty stomach. My fiancée had the mushroom ravioli 3.5÷5, which had much nicer flavour. The kids selected the chicken and broccoli ²⁄₅ which my youngest skipped the chicken and the broccoli but did like the pasta that came with it. My older child had the fettuccine Alfredo ⁴⁄₅. And we all loved the bread that came with the meal.

A chain restaurant can be the perfect spot when the service is great. The bar tender Mike really takes care of his customers. We get great deals for signing up on their website so we come in on Thursday nights to get the half price wine bottles.
We sit in the bar area to be served by Mike. He handles a busy bar area very well. Worth checking out!

The food here is great and the bread comes out as little squares of happiness. That is about it,
The staff seemed to be walking in a daze doing busy work. The place was VERY DEAD! There was about 5 waiters, a hostess a manager walking around and a full kitchen staff. They seemed busy but did not get anything done. It was pretty bad that they seemed like they were hiding any emotion and barely talked to each other. They displayed busy work at its finest.
There was a table of people behind us, and two other tables, and that was it. We were in there for almost 2 hours total. We spent most of the time watching the staff walking around from one end of the restaurant to the other with the same things in their hands appearing to look like defeated zombies.
Awesome food, and the bread was hot and fresh. But, the long time it took was unreal.

I was the rating on Unilocal but didn’t take the time to read the reviews, it’s the Macaroni Grill, I know what their food is like and so it can’t be that bad right? Wrong. A Monday night, they were not busy, the waiter was SLOOOW. Good was good, salad a little wilted but overall very good salads, entrees and bread. Took 1.5 hours for the dinner and we ordered promptly. The waiter just took forever in between everything, even bringing the to go boxes, bringing the check and bringing the bill after he finally ran it.
The staff seemed disconcerted, lots of people working quietly and expressionless. Our waiter even dissed his management a couple times. Unprofessional.

This review is for the lunch express. The gimmick is $ 7 lunches in less than 7 minutes or it’s free. My friend got his food in time but mine took about 20 minutes. Food was ok for $ 7. No one said anything about my food taking too long. Would feel like a jerk asking for $ 7 back anyway.

As you can see, the reviews are all over the map for this restaurant.
We would agree, though the three of us came here this past Saturday night and we very much enjoyed ourselves. Our server Dylan was very professional and on top of things. He made our experience Four Stars!
The food was good, «A-​OK» Three and half Stars, while the bill ran us about $ 50 including taxes, but before gratuities. The major weakness of the evening was the reintroduction of an old favorite — Italian Nachos (see photo). There was a lot of chips and puffed raviolis, but very little meat or cheese for $ 9.00. They might want to rethink this one.
The Macaroni Grill chain has been in limbo for a while now, with several corporate owners and varying degrees of focus.
After Brinker (Chili’s) bought Maggiano’s ten years ago, they tried to cheapen the brand, as a way of differentiating it. Think Olive Garden, or Johnny Carino’s. Then it was sold to VC firm Golden Gate which tried to restore the old Macaroni Grill that Phillip Romano had in mind. Now Ignite Restaurant Group (Joe’s Crab Shack) has recently taken over, and it appears that this finally might be a good thing for Macaroni Grill! We hope so.
Houston based Ignite closed on its $ 54 million acquisition of Macaroni Grill on April 9 and has named David Catalano as president of the brand. The new ad campaign will feature Macaroni Grill’s create-​your-​own-​pasta platform. Ray Blanchette, Ignite’s chief executive said. «We think it’s unique to the brand and a compelling message,» he added. «It delivers everyday value. We’re not discounting it. We believe at the $ 11 price point, it’s already a compelling value.»