Babe’s Macaroni Grill & Bar

Management responded quickly and apologized for what had happened and offered gift certificates to make up for it. Will most definitely give them another chance on a Friday night to go. Thank you management for listening to my comments and I hope I won’t be let down the next time! Looking forward to a great meal from a wonderful local restaurant.

Always come here when in Utica but was very disappointed in the fare.
Hopefully it was just an off night

Had the 14oz New York strip. Cooked to perfection and was delicious. If I’m ever in Utica again I’ll definitely be back.

On our way home from Buffalo to MA and wanted to find local place to eat. No chains. No highway rest stops. It took a while to find a place open on Labor Day but this place was! The interior has a sports bar feel with live plants and a large dining and bar area. Definitely kid friendly. The menu is extensive and the food was fantastic and came out super fast. Friendly staff. Reasonable prices.

I’m still sitting here in the booth at Babes and hate to break it to you… Babe is more like ButtaFace. Was expecting some better food here and idk if it’s a chain or not, but the food is worse than chain restaurant quality. Can’t believe I’m admitting this… But we should have chose the Applebee’s down the street.
Took a good 20 mins before we saw any food action, even a bread basket which we had to say ‘yes’ to. The app sampler is a joke yo. Spare yourself the change bc what the actual hell. It’s straight up frozen app stuff put on a plate and it was pathetic for the price. We were starving tho after unpacking a college dorm room and just shut up and ate it.
The entrees we were holding out hope for.
Well… It was another titanic situation.
My fried shrimp was hella gross in thick ass batter that my thick ass did NOT need. The haddock dinner was ok but why is there fish skin still left on here? Kinda grossed out my mom. The chili was a step above hormel canned so you can take a wild guess at that ish. The buffalo shrimp Alfredo was so effing thick and greasy that it was affected the colons in my party almost immediately. Hope you stocked up on pampers before ordering that.
All in all: waitress was super sweet and attentive, food is WACK (or at least the items we ordered were) and I didn’t find the joint to be that clean either.
Thanks Utica, but you really are the butthole of NY.

This restaurant was recommended for lunch and it didn’t disappoint. Great service… my colleague and I requested a space to work and we were placed in a corner round table with outlet access to set up our laptops to get some work done. We had plenty of room to eat and work… thanks Babe’s!!!

I apparently dropped my iPod there and Manager Mike held it for me! That never would’ve happened in my hometown of NYC! Shout out to babes for being downright nice people!!!
Food was pretty good though I’d prefer a more nutritious lettuce in my salad I enjoyed my meal.

If I could give it zero stars, I would. The most horrid meal I have ever had out. There were five of us and not one of us received a palatable dish. My salad was white. The service was horrendous. Don’t waste your time or money on this place.

If you’re like me, and find yourself in Utica on a Sunday, your options will be fairly limited. So many of the famous (or at least beloved) institutions are closed Sunday.
Babe’s is open. So they get a bonus star just for that.
Not only were they easily able to accommodate our party of seven, they had plenty of circular tables just for such large parties. Circles are great, because they really help bring people together. Long rectangular tables can be awkward, especially when you have a lot of catching up to do with family, or for keeping an eye on the children to make sure they are behaving.
Speaking of kids, Babe’s was able to deal with all the special requests of those little angels without batting an eye. It’s a great place to bring the family.
The kids meals were pretty unremarkable. But the three adults were here to experience the foods of Utica. We’re not from these parts. So we got the Utica greens, chicken riggies, and hats with sauce.
I can’t say I’m an expert on any of these dishes. It was only my second experience with Utica greens, and my first in the city of their birth. But everything was tasty, and the bold flavors of the dishes really instilled a hunger to try these Utica classics in as many places as I can find them.
Not only that, but now I want to start cooking with hot cherry peppers at home. Those things are fantastic. Utica, you really know how to season a plate of food. Bravo.
Thank you Babe’s for a mighty fine introduction to a city’s cuisine.

There was a nice large selection on the menu. We came here for our team dinner. A few things to point out here.
— They take tax exempt form for collegiate sports teams.
— They have a huge selection of food. And it’s inexpensive.
— Plenty of parking.
The only negative was the long wait. But it was busy though.

I am not from the area but do enjoy sampling the different riggies Utica/​Rome has to offer.
I rate it 4 stars just based on the chicken riggies alone. It was perfectly done with the right mixture of pasta and veggies. The meat was not overly cooked enhanced with a hint of smokiness from the grill to spike up the taste. The consistency of the sauce was perfect to my liking.
The rest of their Italian meals was well done but it was nothing special. The calamari was average at best.
Loved their all-​you-​can-​eat delicious soups.

Ordered the sampler platter for appetizer and country chicken salad for lunch. The chicken in both dishes was paper thin and burned to a crisp. Also coworkers sandwich was soggy. Might be ok for pub food and drink.

We almost didn’t go here due to other reviews, thank God the hotel clerk set us straight.
The beer was cold, the waitress was great and the food was FANTASTIC!
We travel over 20 weeks a year on business and we know and like good food, this place has it.
I had the ChixRiggies, wife had boneless ribs, both were wonderful, but the bread knot with whipped garlic butter is to die for. A tad noisy, but what the hey…
Go, enjoy and have fun, you won’t regret it based on my experience.
BTW, almost had it with Unilocal reviews… not really fair in many cases, JMO!

It’s been a beautiful weekend but unfortunately I have to work through the weekend… finally have a chance to dinner, but the choices are some what limited on a Sunday evening here. Found this place which seems ok, ordered the French onion soup and shrimp riggies, the soup was not bad, the riggies has a light sauce which tasted like vodka sauce, although I was not planning to have anything spicy, it was a welcome surprise… if spicy is not your thing, be warned. The pasta was cooked just right!
My waitress was very friendly and attentive, great service! Oh, if you like 80’s-90’s pop, this was it… at least while I was here.

I haven’t been here in a while, but decided to lunch with some friends. The food is always good, you wont be disapointed.

Let’s start with the good news… You can always get a table… lol
Our group of six went in for lunch and started with a couple of aps the first was their sampler platter which was terrible 3 over cooked little chicken tenders, 3 potatoes skins and 3 cheese sticks served with bland sauces. We also ordered the chicken nachos buffalo style let me know if you get chicken on yours cause ours was lacking /​missing the chicken.
In our group there were 3 burgers ordered 2 regular and 1 turkey remember everything here is an additional charge so for 8.99 you get the burger if you want fries add almost 3.00 for about 10 fries. The chicken pasta salad was alright just keep in mind that what is listed isn’t really what you will get. The wrap sandwiches seemed to be the big winners with our group as they got the best ratings which was a good…
Overall service was pretty good the waitress worked hard to try to please us but she is working for an average restaurant with average food. The prices for the area and quality of the food would have to say is high.

This place was just okay. Nothing seems homemade.
I tried the Utica Greens here and they were very far from the best but they were fine.
Next was steak and chicken. Again, it was decent but nothing to rave about.
Last, I tried the Hot Apple Crisp. This is what kind of ruined it for me. It tasted, looked and felt like it came out of a microwave. How hard would it be to have real apple crisp? My friend had the chocolate cake and he said it looked and tasted store bought.
So nothing was bad but it was only okay.

Went to Babe’s for lunch today with two other people — ordered water, salad with Italian dressing and chicken riggies which were the lunch special.
salad — wilted and I couldn’t figure out if the green round thing was zucchini or a cucumber
asked one waitress if she could get us our water — she went to get our waitress who took another 5 minutes to get our water… It was WATER!!!
riggies arrived and my plate looked like the exxon valdez spill… should not have eaten them I have been regretting them for the last 6 hours.
Food gross, service awful — can’t see a reason why I would ever go back.

Stopped in while traveling. Ordered the Utica Greens which was an appetizer and seemed interesting. Service was good and the portions were large. Would stop in again.

Food sucks. Ordered a burger medium well and it came out medium rare. My nephew said it was gross because his burger was bleeding. The Spaghetti and meatballs was missing spaghetti sauce. We had to ask for sauce. The burger bun was hard as a rock. This place sucks. Better food at McDonalds!