Maria’s of Royal Oak

I had dinner there tonight or I should say my parents had dinner there and I had carryout but not by choice.
When we arrived it was freezing in the restaurant and never warmed up. My mom ordered just soup and salad, my dad ordered baked mac and cheese and I alfredo with chicken. Bread was brought out that tasted stale and was hard it tasted like it was reheated. Then my moms soup and salad was brought out and about 10 minutes later my dads mac and cheese and my alfredo which was missing the chicken I ordered so I had to send it back and it took another 10 min. Since my mom was finished before my dad and I got our meals and since my dad was finished eating by the time I got my correct order I decided to take it home as carryout.
Besides the poor service with our orders the waitress never checked on us to make sure our drinks were full or to see if we wanted something else. Nor was there any offer for compensation for our bad experience.

Very good food. However, small portions and very overpriced. Waitress didn’t know her pasta’s and was pissing my Italian gal off… LOL!

Dined here with my wife for the first time last night. I loved everything about it — the décor, music, and food. We might have to have a «date night» more frequently just so I can visit this place often.

My current favorite place to eat. Maria’s opened over a year ago and they just keep getting better and better. My favorite is the Linguine with White Clam Sauce but I have sampled there other meals and pizza and they are all top notch. In the last month I have taken four different couples to Maria’s to get this place exposure and they all enjoyed the food. Highly recommended!

i wasn’t impressed and i wasn’t put out. i used to go to marias in ferndale before the current owners took over. i remember loving those meals. it didn’t hurt that my friend’s grandma owned the place and was super nice.
i took a couple friends from out of town here because i hadn’t been yet and they live in royal oak. we weren’t impressed with the coffee cups we got for our byob wine. although, the veal was apparently tastey (according to a companion). the eggplant parmigiana was large but tasteless. my spinach tortellini was not what i remembered. the bread was hot and good.
i hope they can get some better service and get it together. they could be great.
love, juston.

Food is great — except the marina had WAY TOO much garlic in it last night (and I love garlic). However, each and every time we are there, the service leaves much to be desired.

Drive the extra miles to Ferndale’s Maria’s. Stopped in here last week for the first time, and I know better. I’ve been a fan of the Ferndale location for years, and the Royal Oak location is a total misrepresentation of the real-​deal Ferndale location. Please don’t visit here and brush off Maria’s of Ferndale. They are two TOTALLY different experiences. The garlic bread, service, ambiance, menu, everything is better at the Ferndale spot — the Royal Oak’s garlic bread is crap. I’m giving two stars because our server was a really nice guy and the guy behind the counter had a nice personality, too. Food quality = fail.

To the lady with diarrhea for 2 days: I read your review, histated, then read it again with my medical knwoedpge in mind. Most cases of food poisening last 8 hours on average. Rather than 48hrs. Considering the ongoing epidemic of Norovirus in Oakland county, your association is likely related to pure chance rather than causation. You just had stomach flue.
So I ordered the spinach tortilini, made from scratch, to go (13 $). Having lived in Brooklyn & was spoiled by cheap authentic Italian, my palate is very discriminatory. I hate tasetless magiano and only eat at italian at LDV. But, I inhaled this amazing mix of flavors, while fighting off my roommates. Thankfully the portions are big enough for two adults. The bread was a nice surprise…
In summary, this ranks as high as la dolce vita, Detroit. But I only tried the Spinach tortilini.

Had to downgrade my rating a bit, since I’ve eaten there a couple of times since they opened, I can easily say that they just haven’t really found their pace. The pizza is still good but the rest of their food seems to have slid a bit. It seems to me like maybe they are cutting a few corners for the sake of cost, and if that is the case than hopefully they can work that out. I hear they are starting to do brunch which I’ll try but looking at the menu I was a bit disappointed at the lack of an Italian spin.

To be fair — I’d say 2 ½ stars. This was just plain average.
I live in this neighborhood and would love for this place to be a cool regular gem near my home. Yes, it’s in the place where a Little Ceasars was and that’s fine. Others have said it before — this is NOT an extension of Maria’s Front Room in Ferndale, if it was, this would be pure gold.
So, onto the review. We did carry out and the prices are pretty darn good. It was nice to see a menu that is straightforward and not overly complicated. The owner took my order when I called and was great to talk to. The reviews here made me nervous but I want to give this place a chance.
Walking in — the layout is odd. There’s a bar at the entrance that doubles as the greeting area and then a doorway for staff to go in and out of to the dining area, it’s just a poor design. Basically you walk in and see ‘the kitchen’ and whoever is there doing whatever they’re doing. You can sit there but it’s not dynamic, it’s not interesting, anyone sitting there to eat must be easily entertained. The dining area seemed fine, chairs were cheapish looking like they were left over from a banquet hall. It’s got some promise but needs someone with a more critical ‘design’ eye to pull it off.
Onto the food, we had Cannelloni and Spaghetti with Meatballs. Nothing too crazy and seemed ‘stock’ for an order. It came with the garlic bread they say is ‘famous’. The food was totally average. This isn’t being mean, it’s the truth. It was average. The meatballs were not fresh, they seemed dry like they’d been stored and re-​heated on demand. The pasta was rubbery but not awful and the lack of sauce was evident. The Cannelloni redeemed the meal, though I could barely find any veal in them. They were tasty and well put together so that was a plus.
The garlic bread was like a movie that has great previews but isn’t great to watch. Big circle of bread, great garlic smell but the flavor and the airy quality of the bread felt like you were having garlic scented air. I’m serious, if any true Italian had this, they’d laugh. It was closer to frozen pizza dough being re-​used than something they would have made on location.
My wife and I agreed — it was ‘totally average’ and wouldn’t make me want to re-​order from there compared to other places nearby like Maria’s Front Room, Como’s or even Marinelli’s on 12 Mile. Sure, go to Andiamo for great food but Italian is not complicated and can be done if there’s some love there.
The owner was running the show when I got there but he seemed overwhelmed and was waiting tables, answering phones while trying to organize orders. Get a waitress my man, help manage it and don’t give the impression you’re trying to get by on your own. Plus, I saw you park your car in the front spot, why not park 40 feet away so customers get a primo spot?
Sadly, I don’t think that if they are consistently this way anyone will want to go there multiple times. Isn’t there someone in the neighborhood or nearby with an old-​world approach who’s Mom can come in and show this guy how to step it up? The other reviews show that it’s inconsistent but I’ll give him points for trying rather than not giving a rip. It just feels like this is something very new to him and he hasn’t got much experience with running a place that knows success.
If the flavor and quality got better this would be 3 stars fast and 4 stars would be very possible. The décor is an easy update, just put up a semi divider with the kitchen so it doesn’t look like 2 guys and a pizza oven in this big space. Rethink the casual approach of the bar/​greeting area and this place could be gold, you have a ton of people nearby that would love to have great food a short walk away.

Always on the prowl for new pizza to try, I finally got a chance to get a carryout last week and it was just o.k.
First off, I was excited to try it because isn’t it the same people from Maria’s Front Room in Ferndale? Haven’t been to Ferndale in forever but years ago, I remember MFR being pretty good. It actually took over a spot that was a Little Caesars location that went under, was curious to see the layout.
I thought the interior and the ambiance was kinda cool, a little unique and I am looking forward to sitting down some day soon for dinner… but then again, I only saw what I could from the bar. The staff was super nice, they gave me some free bread with my carryout which was cool.
OK, as far as the pizza goes… It was just alright. My wife hated it but (for all of you who read my reviews know) my wife doesn’t like ANYTHING new or different. At any rate, it was obviously fresh and quality ingredients. Super thin, hand stretched, not bad. I have a feeling all of the «true Italian artisan thin» pizza snots will dig this pizza but it just wasn’t for me. Very affordable as well, I don’t remember paying more than 11 bucks for it. The bread was, once again, obviously made with fresh and quality ingredients but it felt like they tried a little too hard. Sometimes, more isn’t better and good bread stands on it’s own. I sound like I am nit picking so I will leave it at that. Decent place, I will try to go again and get an entrée.

We’ve been here twice in the last 3 weeks and have been satisfied both times. It might not be the edgiest Italian food, but I thought it was very good, comfort Italian food for a good price! The atmostphere is fine, nothing to write home about, but the servers and staff were very friendly and accommodating. The first time I had the Chicken picata which was very good, the second time the gnocci which I thought was fantastic. My husband had the pasta puttanseca and the tortellini and was pleased with both. Other family members had the pizza (excellent) and the chicken parmigiana (very good). Again, it’s not going to win any awards for mind-​bending cuisine, but it was very good, a relaxed and friendly atmosphere with solid food. We’ll come again. One last note, they do not have a liquor license, but we brought our own bottle of wine and they opened it for us (served in coffee mugs which was a little odd) with no hassle at all.

Is it possible to have a review with NO STARS? That was the worst meal we have had in as long as we can remember. We both agree that it was the worst meal we have ever had at a restaurant. You know it’s bad when you go home and have to make dinner after eating out. We had the rubber hot dog sausage appetizer with crunchy vegetables you can barely chew with low quality cheese on top, greasy bread, disgusting undercooked spicy gnocchi and my husband ordered cannolini but got manicotti that was like two stuffed noodles with tons of yucky sauce and crappy cheese. Thank you for the free cold coffee for the wait. Yuck! Yuck! Hire more than one waitress so you can remember to bring drinks.
Update: this has been a long, horrible night. I spent the entire evening with nausea and my husband with diarrhea. We have never both been so sick after eating at a restaurant. How could a restaurant be so terrible and be in business?

Fantastic pizza. It equals their legendary pizza from the 80s in Rosedale Park. Price is about the same as the 80s too. I’ve only ordered carry out but the dining room looks nice and there’s a full menu also.

Went here with a few friends, looking for a good meal before we went out. The menu is poorly put together and misleading. The restaurant is BYOB, but is not set up for alcohol. We brought a bottle of wine which they served us in a large water pitcher and coffee cups. When the food came it was very disappointing. The veal was gray, the pasta was to be served with a special spicy sauce but it was the same boring marinara they gave us when we asked for something to dip our bread in. I ordered the chicken parmesan and it was inedible. The serving was too small for the price and I could not even cut it with my knife. I have never sent anything back or even complained about food, but I let them know how disappointing the food was. The staff was nice but obviously inexperienced. The only reason I gave one star is because they did take my chicken off the bill, and offered to make me another much later but I declined. I would never recommended this restaurant, we all left hungry which is never a good sign.

Finally got a chance to try marias as I live right by. Got a carryout order that was ready in about 15 minutes as promised. Owners are extremely nice and proud of their product.
Antipasto salad was definitely fine. Not exceptional but meat was good quality and dressing
Pollo ala Francese was decent. Breading was ok but i think the chicken still had skin on it which messed with consistency. Lemon butter sauce was good. For $ 12 it might be a little overpriced for what you get.
Side of pasta with meat sauce was good, not great but price is right for a huge side portion. They initially left this out of order but were overly accommodating to make it right.
The bread that comes with meal was a little stale and underwhelming.
Overall definitely worth a try and will continue to eat here as they work on kinks

I watched this place struggle to open, then gave it a month or so to work out the kinks before I visited. I’d like to say the horrible ambience, food and service were still growing pains, but I’m pretty sure what my family and I experienced was this restaurant’s death throes. After we patiently waited over an hour to be served, I watched the owner himself (in the reflection of the kitchen off of the front window) carelessly throw together the blandest, most poorly sautéed chicken piccata imaginable. When I personally walked the plate back to the front counter (because the wait staff didn’t care enough to check back after dropping it off), the first thing out of the owner (and cook’s) mouth was to ask if the chicken was raw. Such scary incompetence should not be running a restaurant.