Romano’s Macaroni Grill

Went today with my wife and son for my wife’s birthday lunch. 7 minute guarantee is a joke. It took longer just to get our drinks. We ordered 2 lunches on the 7 minute menu and 1 on the special lunch pronzo menu.
Was charged $ 3.20 for Caesar salad when menu says $ 3. Was charged $ 4.20 for 1 with anchovies; didn’t get any anchovies. Pepperoni Calzonetto was not as described by our server. It was a quesadillo with very little cheese and pepperoni. Pasta was nothing like described. Very little spinich. Caesar salad had dirty and brown lettuce. Major disappointment. Drink refills were very slow. Didn’t get place settings for 3 only 2. Had to beg for 3^rd. Waitress said she would be right back with pepper for oil for bread. Came back 15 minutes later. Lunches were brought out after 30 minutes. Was supposed to get chocolate cake for birthday. Ordered it when asked for check. Ended up paying check with credit card. When given credit card slip told waitress to just give it to us to go along with a drink refill. We waited awhile longer and just walked out. She was busy talking to someone at the register/​food line. She didn’t even notice we left. We never saw a manager in the place or front person when we left so no one to complain to. Our quick lunch was 75+ minutes. Unacceptable all around.

This is the worst service I’ve ever personally received at a restaurant. For starters, my husband and I arrived around 930pm, and with an hour and a half left till close, the place was understandably dead. You’d think the servers and staff would be hungry for paying customers/​tips, but this was not the case as we waited just to have someone notice us and seat us. The woman who seated us was dressed more like a casual guest than a worker, and she dramatically glanced at her watch before even speaking to us. I was enough that I reaffirmed their closing time at 11, and she confirmed. I should also point out that we had to wait an additional few minutes while she got a table ready. Seeing over half the tables empty, I was confused, but whatever, we were hungry. After getting seated, we waited. And waited. And then, I started keeping track of the time. We watched the few other tables served right around us. Nothing. Another couple seated, who were promptly attended by a waitress. Nothing. Half an illustration later and an additional 10 minutes later, still no drinks, nothing. We witnessed the table RIGHT NEXT TO US get cleared off by two different employees, taking nearly 5 minutes. Still, nothing. In fact, nobody even seemed to care we were there until we were almost out the door, but he stood puzzled at our now empty table instead of making any attempt to keep our business. I’m now typing this review next door from Chilis, where we already have our drinks, and orders entered. Macaroni Grill: if you don’t want our money, we will happily take it elsewhere. Maybe there’s a reason why you were so empty on a Saturday evening.

This was my third attempt in three weeks to have dinner here.
Parking lot not very full, dinning room mostly empty, 40 – 45 minute wait. ???
There’s hardly anyone here, why will it take so long?
Talking with the staff, apparently the management doesn’t know how to schedule workers or few of who they’ve hired wants to work.
I’ve been going here for years. Always good until recently. They’ve lost this customer.

Romano’s Macaroni Grill has yet to fail me! I’ve only been here a few times, but each time it’s been a delicious experience! The service and atmosphere are both wonderful, and the food is a great value!

I was not aware that they had brunch until we were looking for a new place to go. Their brunch is on Saturday and Sunday with $ 2 mimosas and bloody marys. I was sold! lol I had the brisket skillet which had skillet potatoes that were crispy with grilled onions, mushrooms, 3 eggs which you can have any style and fonduta cheese. It was scrumdiddilyumptious! It was a great italian brunch. And the portions are big with it being served in a cast iron skillet. I would recommend this brunch because there are not alot of places doing brunch on Saturdays. I feel that is a good niche that needs to be filled.

This place is called macaroni grill and not Italian grill keeping it in compliance with foodie rule #1. I went for brunch with the family and it was surprisingly good! The ciabatta was freshly made with rosemary and olive oil. The mimosas were just right and the food was delish! Everything was prepared to order and was so cheap! I can’t believe I’ve never been here before! This is one of the places for a great first date if you are unsure about how things will go. Since being single is more expensive for guys and girls seem to always get a free meal it might as well be a cheap, good quality one in the event things don’t work out. Not sure if there are any other locations in the city which sucks because I’d be more likely to go if there was a location closer to my house.

I usually stay away from chain restaurants, but made an exception on a visit to Cincy when a group decided to meet up at this Macaroni Grill near Tri-​County Mall. I’m open to trying new things! I had never been to a Macaroni Grill, and now I’m thinking about going back.
First, the atmosphere is a little on the classier side. White tablecloths. When you walk in you can see the open kitchen which is fun to watch. Our server was very friendly and attentive to our group’s needs, even split the check several ways. I ordered the Fig Marsala Pork Chop which I am still thinking about days later IT WAS THAT GOOD. The bone-​in pork chop came served with a white wine sauce and fig jam (amazing) with seasonal vegetables and potatoes. The flavor of the sauce is unforgettable. The pork chop itself was flavorful and perfectly done. I can’t believe I’m waxing poetic about a meal at the Macaroni Grill, but there you have it folks.
A+, would eat it again.

We come to this restaurant at least once a week. Today at the front door was a sign that advertised the happy hour specials. In very bold letters it said MERLOT and $ 3 a glass. We ordered it, the bartender charged $ 9. We mentioned sign at door. He went to look at it and I even heard him tell hostess the sign was wrong. A very young manager comes over and informs us that it was our responsibility to read the small print on the board and the $ 3 special didn’t include merlot, no matter that only wine mentioned on board with $ 3 a glass was merlot. This is false advertising, very misleading and this company is obviously about tricking customers. Don’t know what’s happened to this location, we be regulars since they opened, no more. That manager was incredibly rude, and could care less about customer satisfaction

We had fun, and the food was pretty good. Service and food came out slow on Saturday night, they seemed to be backed up right from the start since we got there at 6 PM and had to wait for our reserved table till 6:20.
Waitperson seemed like maybe her first week of work. Did not know much about bar service or common techniques for bringing the meals (which came about 45 minutes after we ordered). My friends knew what they wanted and the meals were correct, but our server didn’t know about smaller portions and kept asking the ladies if they wanted «childs» meals? No they were seniors and wanted smaller portions.
My Blue salad with chicken was fine although the chicken was probably cooked hours earlier and then thrown on top, it was hard and dry. Dressing and cheese and stuff made it OK.
So me and my gal-​pals (OMG, I didn’t just write that, did I?) had fun and we talked up a storm since we had time on our hands. No complaints, but we didn’t get out of there till 8:30 so maybe that’s why the long line at the door?

My mother and sister (mom #2) decided to throw me an engagement dinner… And we stressed about catering, renting rooms etc. When Macaroni Grill came up, everyone was on board. Kelly is amazing, we really appreciated her attention to detail and service was top notch. Our family will always remember this event, the catering, the ease, and her helping us make a memory. I work in the service industry and people like her directly affect the guest experience, whether in store or catered events. Thank you!

We went to Romano’s for dinner on a Friday night. We were seated right away. Once our server came to our table, I had a feeling we were in trouble. He was a bit clumsy, dropping things on the table. He brought out our bread, which was a little too hard to really find enjoyable. They also pour out some olive oil and seasoning for dipping.
We started with the Mac & Cheese Bites with Truffle Dip. These were a little disappointing — the macaroni filling seemed a little low-​quality. We had also ordered the Baked Mozzarella Fonduta, and this was taking a while to come out. Finally, what I assume is a manager stopped by the table and said that order hadn’t been put in, and they would have it out to us shortly and our appetizers would be taken off our bill. Once it finally made it out, it was okay — nothing memorable. We were so full by the time our entrée of Mushroom Ravioli actually made it to the table, we basically had him box it up straightaway.
There were some service missteps, but I think they corrected for them appropriately. The modern Italian interior is pleasant, and it seems fairly large.

The Macaroni Grill was a mistake. That’s the only way I could possibly put it. Within the first 3 minutes of arriving, I should have known better not to stay. First of all, there was no hostess when we got here. When she finally arrived, she called for a party, ignored everyone standing and waiting just to be added to the list, and then just walked off. We had to actually get her attention to be added, and were told there was a wait, despite the fact that there were MANY empty tables. The same girl eventually came and asked for our drink orders long after she had seated us. When our server finally arrived, it took him a long time to bring our bread, and he wasn’t back to take our orders until after we had FINISHED IT. We waited even longer for our food, which was average… The only thing above ONE STAR about this place. Overall a generally horrible dining experience.

The worst service that our family has experienced at a restaurant in a long, long time. It took nine minutes for anyone to acknowledge us at the hostess /​host stand on a slow Sunday night. After ordering, it took thirty-​seven minutes for our food to arrive. The other tables seemed like they experienced similar wait times for their food. Entrees were OK but not up to the high service standards that were the hallmark of this chain in the past.

Food is fine, but the service. Leaves MUCH to be desired.
My instinct is that the kitchen is the root of their disorganization/​service issues. First indicator of this: when the waiter told our table (party of 8) that we were only permitted 3 «create your own» pasta dishes per table. (I’m sorry … What?!) Odd.
Anyway, after waiting nearly an hour for our food to come out, 2 members of our party (including my 85-​year-​old grandfather) ended up receiving their food a FULL 15 MINUTES after the rest of the table. Like … My pasta was cold by the time their food came out. What a bummer. :-/​
In the end, the General Manager (Todd) was very kind, even coming out of the kitchen to apologize for the delay in our service. He told us that they would be compensating part of our meal, which we absolutely appreciated, but … the experience still left much to be desired.
It sounded like the waiter did everything he could, but the kitchen staff is really struggling with deployment during busy times. Get it together, guys. Get it together.
Very disappointing, Macaroni Grill. :-(

A friend and I went for Macaroni Grill this morning for brunch. We were the first people there so there was no wait. Our server was friendly but couldn’t get my drink order right-​I asked for club soda, he brought plain water. He then brought me club soda, but after I took a couple sips he refilled it with plain water. Then he brought me tonic water.
There was no brunch/​lunch menu, so we had to order dinner entrees. I ordered a side salad with my meal, I think $ 3 for a bowl of lettuce with some grape tomatoes is a little pricey. Some cheese or cucumbers would have been nice. Our parmesan crusted fish was very good.
About the same time we finished eating the chef started yelling at the other cooks like he thought he was Gordon Ramsay on Hell’s Kitchen. It might make for good TV but it doesn’t do much for your eating experience. If you have a problem with your staff talk to them privately.
I doubt if we’ll go back.

It’s probably been 10 – 12 years since I’ve been to Macaroni Grill. Typically, we don’t choose pasta places when we go out to eat. I was invited for a special occasion.
Service was really great. The restaurant was beautiful but not remotely busy. Menu is small and focused but I feel like some Italian items were missing.
The bread was good — dipping oil was «eh». My son got a meatball «fatbread» and I got the Rigatoni bake. I’m not a fan of chunky tomato sauce and it was everywhere. Meatballs were good — I could have done without the big, honking pieces of sausage. I liked the ricotta baked into the Rigatoni but it needed more mozzarella on top. A very average meal.

Well, this was disappointing. Our first visit to Macaroni Grille in more than fifteen years will likely be our last. Our local MG closed some time ago, so when we found ourselves hungry and in the tri county area, we thought we’d check it out for old times sake.
Whoops.
The service was well-​intentioned and sort of friendly, but this location was seriously under-​staffed. The shift manager was running around like a headless chicken trying to help serve. Instead of, you know, actually managing.
It took forever to be greeted/​drink order, forever to actually get the drinks, forever to place our order, and forever to get the food. The hostesses were quoting hour+ waits, but there weren’t so many people there — it was due to the fact that they couldn’t turn tables over.
The food was acceptable if unspectacular. If the service had been great/​fast, this would be a 4 star. Really, the experience deserves one star, but I’m giving two because the staff was trying. Someone… the GM doing the hiring/​staffing, or the corporate hack setting the labor budget… earned this poor review. YOU, sir/​madam, have hamstrung the staff into an impossible task. They had no hope of providing us good service tonight, through no fault of their own.
We won’t bother to return. The food wasn’t worth dealing with the other hassles.

Never expect anything from catering from a chain — except when they totally come through for you! I helped to plan an event recently and we needed to feed 12 people on fairly short notice due to something falling through. I called Macaroni Grill and placed multiple orders to feed 12 people — for pick up in 3 hours. Not only was it ready before I got there, but everyone enjoyed the delicious food. Is it the greatest Italian food you will ever eat? No. Is it perfectly good food, available on short notice? Yes. And that’s why you might consider them :-)

If I could give 0 stars I would. Our server Donna was probably one of the worst servers I have ever had. Rolling your eyes at my husband is not a good way to earn your tip. Reaching across the table and never saying excuse me is not ok. Asking customers to basically bus their own table, um no. Bringing the wrong food and just being plain rude, not cool. Just sent an email to the manager to let them know about my horrible experience. I did not pick this restaurant, my cousin (the birthday girl) did, and I am sorry that she had such bad service for her birthday. I would NEVER go here again.

For a chain restaurant this place is pretty good. We had a gift card. We both got quartinos of wine. Their wine list is pretty solid for such a generic place. The menu has good options at reasonable price-​points. My wife got the carmella’s chicken, which she liked a lot, but which was a little heavy on the cream sauce. I got the lasagna, which was great. Service was slow but friendly and gave great recommendations. We were in no hurry. Both our entrees were large enough for us to save half for lunch the next day (and we’re not normally people who can do that!). Overall, I’d say it’s a great value for the price.