Romano’s Macaroni Grill

My experience at the Timonium location Sunday, June 12^th
We were seated and a waitress arrived, said that she would be serving us and proceeded to take our drink order.
The another server showed up to take order. ok no big deal
Appetizer was ordered first to avoid main course arriving while still eating appetizer (Which has occurred before)
Some time passes and server returns to take order, oblivious that the appetizer not arrived.
Upon making him aware, he proceeds to the kitchen. Judging by the interaction between server and line cook, order was never placed or cook forgot.
Bear in mind it was early and restaurant was not busy
Waiter returns to dbl check on what was ordered. Maybe he should have written the order down?
Appetizer arrives overcooked.
Food arrives without the salad, which is what he came back to double check on. Suprise… He didn’t even notice!
Are your server’s actually trained?
Food was warm at best. Then we had to ask for grated cheese which I thought was customary. Server was busy hanging out talking with other employees. Is that part of his job, rather than paying attention to customers.
Finally bill arrived and of course the salad that never arrived was still on the bill.
Long story short, the staff at this location is poorly trained/​managed and inattentive.
Will I return NO
Btw then table next to us experienced a similar situation with same waiter.
Manger didn’t seem overly concerned.

Update: Love the cheaper high quality menu items, makes it easier to dine here on a regular basis without draining your pocket all the time and no quality of the food is sacrificed. The new table sized Mac and cheese side dish is probably the best Mac and cheese I’ve ever had and that’s saying a lot. This place just earned an extra star from me based on improvements they have made with the price structure of their menu. Also our waiter was super attentive. It was nice leaving knowing we hadn’t spent much for an excellent meal. Will definitely return!

My daughter and I stopped in for a late lunch because we had a coupon. Sheri, our server, was a delight — very friendly and attentive. Sheri started us off with the Rosemary Peasant bread with a nice olive oil dipping sauce. We ordered the Spaghetti Bolognese — a hearty bowl of spaghetti topped with a tasty meat sauce and the Sausage Rigatoni — a huge portion of rigatoni topped with sausage, mushrooms, and Romano cheese in a creamy Alfredo sauce. Both dishes were delicious and satisfying.

My husband and I come here fairly often, maybe once a month or so. We eat out a lot and other newer places catch our eye in between, and some a lot more expensive too, but we never stay away from here long. Even though it’s mid-​priced, they do what they do very well. We always love the food, and the service is extremely good. We always ask to be waited on by Bruce, who is the old-​fashioned type of professional waiter you usually find at much pricier places and always remembers us even though we don’t come that often. Today I stopped in by myself between the lunch and dinner rush to get a carry-​out order of Parmesan-​crusted sole, my favorite menu item because I just happened to be in the neighborhood. The hostess took my order but then informed me they didn’t have anymore sole. Since I had my heart set on that, I thanked her and left, but the cook came outside and told me he had one piece (an order is two pieces). He said he would make it for nothing, which was perfect since I always eat half anyway. They even put a loaf of their famous rosemary bread in my bag! They would not take any money so of course I tipped the cook. The hostess was super nice too. It’s clear they place great emphasis on service and have great people working for them. We will keep coming back.

The first thing we saw when we walked in was a sign for happy hour. We asked specifically about happy hour and were told to sit in the bar area for special rates. We ordered a couple glasses of wine but we’re not informed that the wine we ordered was not included. We had dinner which was pretty good. He asked if we wanted more wine since it was still happy hour. Fortunately we said no. When we got the bill, my $ 3.00 wine was around $ 12.95 and my friend’s was around $ 11.95. Whoa … Must’ve been a mistake since it’s «happy hour.» The bartender told us that our wines were not the specific white and red for happy hour. What kind of shenanigans are we dealing with? He never told us anything about that. I have never paid that much for a single glass of wine… ever! He claims he told us the list but no… It did not go down that way at all. He lied. I did not make a scene, paid the bill and will never return to a macaroni Grill.

I came to the restaurant with the whole family to celebrate my sisters promotion. She wanted to use the bathroom and she didn’t know where it was and accidentally went to the kitchen entrance. An employee started yelling at her saying what are you doing why are you going in there. And other employees were surprised and came after my sister asking what was going on. They came to apologize to my sister and the employee came by for a second saying sorry and ran away. The manager said he will come by for the past 20 mins and still hasn’t come by to apologize and check if my sister is ok. Don’t go here! They suck!

Was there yesterday for a table of 10. Service was a bit slow. Empty water glasses, and drinks unattended to. I had to get up and find my waitress to have water filled and another round of drinks. Food came out and the food was good. As we were waiting for the check a waiter there was setting up another table for probally 10 people. As he was setting up the table he dropped a silver ware roll wth napkin on the floor. He picked it up and rolled silverware back into napkin and placed it to be used. I confronted him after I paid the check and he says I was wrong for what I saw with my eyes. Food was good. Service was a little slow. Ethics are seriously questioned.

Wow
I love this place
Such friendly service
The free bread they give you is hot fresh and delicious.
They top off your glass before its empty. And with a smile
In fact the bartender Alicia is the sweetest thing in Maryland. My mom step dad and I have been sitting at the bar for the last hour and I don’t think she had stopped moving or infecting the all of the bar patrons with her friendly smile. It goes on for days.
They have a great happy hour and the food is cheap and delicious.
Eat here, at the bar, or fail.

One of the fine restaurant in cockeysville. its a total value for money and time.
Their ambience is beautiful with friendly staff and good music. must try their oven fresh bread and pasta.
This place is a must visit. i highly recommend this place for good Italian food.

Horrible experience, save your money, the kitchen is terribly slow and the manager is too good to come over and apologize for the slow service. Food is mediocre.

For a chain, it’s great food. 10 years ago, this used to be the place I’d ask to go when I got a good report card or for my birthday dinner. As an adult, it’s the place I go occasionally for a consistent and easy create-​your-​own pasta. I’ve been here an unhealthy amount (according to Mint). However, I have recently had multiple poor experiences — primarily surround curb-​side to go and eating in the bar area. To-​Go is just really ‘iffy’ on experience. Macaroni Grill corporate ‘took care of me’ so I won’t hold that against them — just beware. The bar area is understaffed — simple as that. The poor guy working the bar area has to juggle more than a ½ dozen tables AND the bar tops AND making the alcoholic drinks AND getting the food from the kitchen. I can’t hold the poor service against him because he’s a nice guy and does the best he can. This is managements fault.

Save your money, and goto a real Resturant. The wait service was terrible, waiting 10 minutes for glasses of water and 1 soda. and there was a fly in 1 drink. The food presentation was messey… the pasta and sauces were not hot, lasagna was cold, asked for a side of sauce and it was brought our right away, but it was ice cold. It’s an Italian Resturant, Shouldn’t there be a pot of red sauce on the stove at all times? Where did then even get cold sauce?
Took us 1 hour and 20 minutes from start to finish, no liquer or drinks, no appetizers, and this was on a Thursday !!

OMG. $ 7 in 7 minutes grilled cheese … NOT. $ 7 in 37min maybe
First, the wait staff had no idea how to use the quick system for the rush service. The person who tried wasn’t authorized for the register. So we ordered and waited.
They bring the sandwich and the hot grilled cheese with ham has a warm bun and ice cold cheese. Not sure how they managed to melt cold cheese.
We ask for it to be heated or remade. Gave them the choice. 5 minutes later the manager comes and says, you didn’t like your sandwich?
So we wait another 10 minutes.
This is not my typical experience at Macaroni grill, but if reviews are indicating this is a problem
Does anyone from corporate
the grilled cheese had cold cheese but a toasted bun.

My penne rustico I was very good, my wife’s eggplant parma was too. Service was friendly and adequate but light due to a no-​show cook, so the poor waitress had to do some of the prep herself. But overall a nice evening.

We came here last weekend and had a great experience. Lots of negative reviews on here, but we were very pleased. Service was excellent! Our server was very attentive and very nice. We ordered a bottle of the house wine to start along with the meatball and mac and cheese bite apps. Both were very good. I ordered the penne rustica, which I would def reccommend. It was delicious! The boy got the chicken under a brick, which he loved. I tried it as well and it tasted great. Overall, we had a very nice experience here.

This restaurant WAS my favorite, now, nothing would give me a chance to visit it again!
They were used to have fresh pastas, but now it seems that they cook from ready made pasta which is bought from Walmart !!

Food was delicious, wine was half priced and very good, environment was nice. If you like Italian, this is definitely a place to go!

I don’t think these reviews give enough credit.
I dined here last night and actually I really liked the décor and found the staff to be very attentive and nice. We were very well taken care of and the food was very yummy.
Because of some allergies we had to modify our orders and the kitchen easily complied and none of us got sick which means none of our allergies were triggered. I go to lots of fine dining places that make me sick after I tell them I’m lactose intolerant and this dinner surpassed my expectations.
All these reviews are not accurate, we had great service and delicious food, and the ambiance is pleasant and bright!

I like to stop here before or after visiting family in the area. Last friday will be my last visit. I’ve noticed a slight decline in recent months and now I’m tired of coming back in hopes they would change for the better.
I ate lunch around 12:30-the restaurant was a empty, a few older people were dining in as well. I ordered Fettuccine Alfredo with chicken and shrimp along with their house white since it was half priced due to their Uncork Summer event. Their house white is ok if you like a generic dry white. Its certainly not worth is normal price tag of $ 30. The complimentary bread was over salted on the top. I was surprised when my meal came out exceptionally fast.
My first couple of bites I noticed that there were large cut chunks of raw garlic in the dish. I’ve never had an Alfredo dish that had raw garlic in its sauce. Their grilled chicken is always done well but the shrimp are small and do not have the char marks like their chicken does. When I was almost finished with my meal and went to take my last few bites I noticed a short curly black hair in my food. I have long red hair and it was pulled up so it was not mine.
At this point I was so fed up I just wanted to leave. I promptly got my check, paid and left. I’m not sure if these problems are just at this current location but next time I’m in the mood for Italian I’ll stop in at Carrabba’s.

I love the seafood pasta, the house salad with the house dressing and the calamari. The service was OK but friendly. It wasn’t very late but it wasn’t packed. Far from what I remember when I would go there in the past when it was always packed up until around 830 or 9 on a Friday night. Overall the meals were great and the experience was good.
If you like Italian food are in the mood for something simple and predicable, try this place out.
Thanks for reading my review. This review is based off of my personal experience and opinion.