Maggiano’s Little Italy

5 Stars for Non expensive Italian food which is still savory !
5 stars for the awesome menu which for $ 20 you can eat a full plate there, and they will let you take home something else,(in that section) for later for FREE!
Smartest idea ever !
They have a good happy hour !
Peroni $ 5, a good Pinot for $ 5 and flatbreads for $ 5!
I am giving 0 stars for the amount of times I have called up there (7) to ask if the patio was available for seating, nope closed 6 out of 7 times ! The 6 times, have been beyond perfect weather days, BEYOND. they could make a ton of money, the one day they are open, it is humid, mosquitos are everywhere, and they didn’t even send us the waitress we were promised, that we wanted because she was too 5 servers in the restaurant that week/​month.
Anyways. Definitely give it a try, I think the upstairs balcony is pretty amazing too, maybe put down a $ 100 deposit so they know you are spending that much, to be able to reserve it, and open it to everyone !!!
But for now it is just for events and banquets ! Sad sad

My bride of 24 years and I celebrated our anniversary at Maggiano’s. Making the reservation via open table made our arrival a breeze. Requested two glasses of Champaign be waiting at our table when we arrived … done! The hostess was welcoming. Our server, Sierra, was the best. She was right there when we wanted to order the next course or the wine. The dessert sampler was over the top. Do yourself the favor of indulging. For the reasons thus far, we enjoyed our evening.
The salads and main course meals were just «okay» with little Italian flare for flavor. Since we arrived early for dinner, the manager continued to carry on with a meeting with the wait staff, which could be heard by all of the patrons that were present. Despite the small list of shortcomings, our celebration was memorable.

Will definitely return. Everyone at our table was very pleased with our different dishes. No disappointments in food. Bar service was good, & a great Happy Hour as well. Only had 1 complaint: when we were seated at 5P there were only 2 other occupied tables in the dining room, but service was very lacking. Why? Because they only had 1 waiter on duty, because it seemed all the other wait staff were in a regular staff meeting on the other side of the ½ wall partition, being introduced to new dishes & current specials. While I applaud Management for providing such training, & recognize the need for it, do it somewhere else or at another time. Diners DO NOT want to listen to this stuff while trying to enjoy their meal. It seems such an OBVIOUS consideration that I am surprised a customer would have to complain about it. Otherwise, everything was 4+ stars.

It seems like when I come to Maggiano’s, it is always for a group even in other locations aside from this one in Houston.
Maggiano’s is located near the Galleria, about 2 minutes from the mall. I would recommend reservations, for this place gets busy. Private parking lot has plenty of spaces, but there is valet if needed.
FOOD:
Complimentary bread with oil is decent. Just make sure it’s fresh, not hard.
Chicken Manicotti (3/​5, Italian Cheese Blend & Asiago Cream Sauce): Lover of cheese? Order this. I actually liked it the first few bites, but it gradually became heavy and too much for me.
Chicken Marsala (Mushrooms & Marsala Sauce with Spaghetti Aglio Olio): I tried a few bites of the mushroom, which was seasoned well and delectable.
Linguine and Clams (2/​5, Fresh Clams, Chopped Clams, Red or White Clam Sauce): This entrée was ordered with the white sauce. Honestly, I was disappointed. Pasta was on the drier side, and the taste was more bland than what I imagined. There were about 8 clams with assorted chopped clams dispersed throughout, but that was what made this dish.
Tiramisu (4/​5, Ladyfingers Soaked in Espresso with Mascarpone Cheese): I love my tiramisu soaked! The tiramisu, from the appearance, looked like it was dry, but I was fooled. It was decently moist, and the espresso powder on the top was a great balance taste wise. Good texture overall! However, my acquaintances thought the espresso powder slightly overpowered the tiramisu. I agreed, so we just took some of the powder off before indulging into the cake again.
Vera’s Lemon Cookies (5/​5, Lemon Frosting): I love anything with lemon, my pure weakness. These were an absolute delight. Lemon Cookies are usually served for birthdays here so inform the restaurant if it is someone’s birthday to try these.
Service was okay. On my recent visit, our waiter was slow because it was a busy dinner night. Understandable but the wait for our check seemed like eternity.
Reasonable prices with a lot of food/​great portions. Try its family style — definitely recommend for huge groups. In addition, there is Marco’s meal for 2 — choice of appetizer/​flatbread, entrée of two classic pastas, and dessert with two take home pastas included.
Would I come back? Not on my own. Again, if someone had a group dinner here, then sure.

Maggiano’s will now forever hold a special little place in my heart. In 2006, I came here for my high school homecoming. Fast forward 10 years later and I just had my wedding rehearsal dinner here. This is the place to come celebrate, folks!
I was incredibly impressed with how easy all the staff made it for us to plan our banquet here. They were quick to respond, professional, knowledgeable and friendly. We were able to customize our own menu and they were very accommodating to special dietary requests (ie. vegetarian, eggplant allergy, rosemary allergy, strawberry allergy, you name it… we got it).
Their family-​style banquet meals were perfect for our group of 50 and everyone was raving on how delicious the food was. The portions were huge so there was no shortage of food that night. Some favorites were the fried ravioli, chicken parmesan, balsamic glazed salmon and of course, their chocolate cake dessert. The staff was on point that night bringing out the food on time, clearing plates, keeping water glasses full and the like.
Thank you Maggiano’s for making our night so special!

We love this place… always consistent great food and service! Some of my favorite are the mozzarella marinara, lasagna, chopped salad and the apple crostata!

So to start, this review is a year old. However, since it’s now or anniversary, it reminded me to leave a review. I had a fantastic time here and was glad I chose it for our venue. I thought the minimums were very fair, and they had different room options to accommodate different party sizes. We had a wedding of 50 people, and it was perfect and the room never felt empty.
Before the event, we had a complimentary gut busting food tasting to go over menu items and choose what we would eat. The entire menu was fantastic, and we constantly were getting complimented on the food. One thing I was a bit unsure of was I felt the bar tab was very high, but we had an open bar so there was no way I could check the tab. I also feel like for how much people were drinking, the drinks had to be watered down. But maybe that was for the best.
All in all, I felt this venue was a very crucial part for making our wedding the best day of our lives

I booked a table for 10 through ‘opentable’ online a couple weeks prior. My husbands birthday dinner was on Sunday, April 3^rd… Pretty busy night of course.
Reservations were for 7pm and we were not seated until 7:40ish. That is obviously an issue because, hey, what are reservations for? I didn’t complain because we had very patient guests and our time flew by sitting at the bar and talking. (I suppose I won’t complain about the lack of alcohol in their alcoholic beverages)
We were seated (at the very back) which was fine; very cozy and quiet for the most part. I forgot the gentlemens name (younger African American with a flat top hairstyle) who waited on us, was very accommodating. He was very prompt with orders, requests, and we didn’t have to wait long for out tickets to be paid.
All in all, the food and service was great. My husband complained of the small portion of the salmon but besides that and the 40+ minute wait time after our reservation time we enjoyed and will be back like always.

I enjoy the veal Parmesan.
It’s a nice, Italian restaurant. People come in in jeans some in slacks so it’s not uptight. I’d dress it up a notch for the evening. Price tag was ok, not cheap. There are many other Italian restaurants in Houston that are upscale dining if that is what you want. This is nice for familes and dates and groups all around.

One of my very favorite Italian celebration restaurants. This place is always very accommodating to us when we celebrate someone’s birthday or anniversary.
We usually order the family-​style meal, often times getting the tender calamari and the scrumptious crab cakes. A favorite entrée of ours is the gnocchi, and the chocolate cake is sinful. All this food usually ends us up with tons of yummy leftovers to enjoy later.

Went there won’t he Valentine’s Day… the ambience is nice but did not quite like the food there. I expected more as it was little pricey

I had been here for lunch prior to my dinner experience, but I didn’t feel I had enough to review at that point. Now I can definitely say it’s a solid 3 for me, and if you like pasta, their lunch deal where you have 1 there and get 1 to go may be a good deal for you.
After getting a gift card and signing up for their emails for another $ 10 off (do this!), we had to give this a try for dinner. As spoiled New Yorkers, our expectations weren’t overly high though.
We went here on a Saturday, and the crowd was… interesting. It was a huge mix of families and dressed up couples and very loud music. I was honestly kind of confused as to its identity as we were waiting.
When we were seated, I was happy with the booth we had and that we were far from the music. The service was good (3.5), and the waitress recommended some dishes for us to try.
We enjoyed having some bread to start, which was good but not particularly memorable, which I feel is essential for a good Italian place.
Appetizers:
Lobster risotto balls (3.5) — These were good! There were 6 of them and while I forget the exact price, but we thought they were a good value. You could see the lobster pieces, and they were very enjoyable. They were not particularly «special» though.
Spinach & artichoke dip (2.5) — Really guys?!? Fellow Unilocalers only occasionally lead me astray, but I was so excited about this dish based on a few reviews, and it was pretty meh. It was a «chunkier» version of the dip with a lot of vegetables, but it wasn’t special at all in my opinion, and Houston’s is WAY better.
Entrees:
Chicken francese (2) — This was a total fail. We LOVE chicken francese in New York and hadn’t had it in Houston, and now we wish we never did. This dish had absolutely no flavor. We couldn’t taste any of the buttery lemony flavor we were expecting. It was a real disappointment. The potatoes it came with were also SUPER salty. We couldn’t have more than a few due to the salt, but they were overall decent. I would highly recommend you ask for them with no added salt.
Shrimp fra diavolo (3.5) — This and the risotto balls were the winners of the night. This was one of the waitress’s recommendations, so I was excited to try it. It came with pappardelle pasta that went perfectly with the dish. There were so many shrimp that the value may actually be a 4. The sauce, though, definitely isn’t a 4. It’s very solid, but it’d be a mistake to believe this is a true Italian treasure.
We were absolutely stuffed after this meal, and when we saw the bill, we were pretty surprised that it not overly inexpensive. We hadn’t particularly taken note of the prices when ordering, but we just couldn’t imagine wanting to come back without the coupons to have this level of food at this price. That being said, we wouldn’t mind coming back here if friends wanted to go or we had a particularly good discount. We would definitely try other dishes though.

Horrible experience. We made a reservation for Saturday night and arrived on time but had to wait about 30 minutes to get a table. Waiters were good but they seemed heavily understaffed. We waited a long time to get our food, a long time to get our to go plates/​deserts and even the check. What should have been a 1.5 hour dinner turned into almost 3 hours…
The staff is good, the menu is good (you can get decent food as well as a to-​go portion for $ 20)…management needs to step up though.

My friend and i went there to have late dinner, we arrived five minutes before closing time, yet the staff welcomed us and served us with a smile although they were cleaning and preparing to close. The food was delicious and the decorations take you away from houston busy life into an old place in italy, i am definitly going back there.

Service was absolutely horrendous. I understand it’s busy, but you should be more focused on customer service than trying to pack as many people in as possible to make a profit.
We had a reservation for 8:00, but we didn’t get seated until around 8:40. Yes, that’s less of a wait than those without a reservation, but why make a reservation at all if we are going to wait 40 minutes? We would’ve been happier going somewhere else.
Then, our waiter took an eternity to bring us water and bread. He didn’t even give us straws. The forks were dirty, as another Unilocaler has mentioned. By no means am I condemning our server. I understand he was weeded and doing his best, but the managers should not have placed such a burden on their servers to the point where they could not properly take care of their tables.
We ended up eating for almost 2 hours because of waiting to order and waiting for food. We even had to ask 3 times for our to go food.
Despite the awful service, the food was hit or miss. The calamari is really good. The crab cakes are okay (we got them as an appetizer; it’s definitely not enough to fill you up as an entrée).
The meal deal was a really great value. You get an appetizer, 2 entrees for here, 2 entrees to go, and a dessert. However, my Fettuccine Alfredo tasted like a frozen dinner. The noodles were even getting hard and sticking together. There were also random items that did not belong in my meal. The lasagna is sooo cheesy. Not much else.
Tiramisu? It was okay. Olive Garden’s tiramisu is way better.
All this said, the other entrees were good. The linguine di mare was good, and the chicken piccata was good. I’d suggest ordering the higher end entrees on a slower night for a better experience.

Happy Hour: good prices and service is AWFUL! The bar seemingly has no system for service. Some tables got dedicated waitstaff. Others not so much. We had to eat our dinner off of bread plates. We never got water, red pepper, etc. The waiter asked us if we were saving our empty wine glasses??? We asked if they clear tables?
We watched people waving their arms to flag down waitstaff like they were at Minute Maid Park wanting a cold beer on a summer day with the roof open.
We would still be there if it weren’t for one guy who stopped to check on us. And on a Monday night. I cannot imagine a Thursday or Friday.

Food was mediocre and «restaurant chain» tasting. For the prices you pay this is definitely not worth the splurge. The waitress was awesome but unfortunately the food was not. We started with mussels and caprese salad. Mussels were chewy and fishy tasting. Caprese was pretty good but not hard to have that be good. I got the chicken fra diavolo that had barely any noodles and mostly chicken with no taste. Boyfriend had the New York Strip which was sub par. Cheesecake was probably the only thing I enjoyed there.

First time here for a birthday in December.
This location was packed, valet is free, live music on a weeknight by a duo, bathrooms were extremely clean and nice, waiter was attentive and made no mistakes. Our waiter also sang Happy Birthday and brought out lemon flavored pastries to celebrate. Valet brought our car back super fast and we got the meal where you take one home for free. Refills were prompt and bread was abundant. The to-​go bag shows up hanging on the back of your chair before the check comes.
The downside: it was packed and the food was good but not amazing. Maggianos understands good service, efficiency, ambiance– unfortunately the two downsides mentioned make it just okay for me. Not my type of place but I can definitely see the appeal for some.

Not so great experience at this place. I went here with a group of co-​workers after a long day of meetings this week, and we decided we wanted something nearby the hotel.
We ordered the spinach artichoke dip appetizer. It was pretty darn good!
That was pretty much it. We ordered Chicken Parmesan, Lasagna, the Gnocchi dish, and something else I couldn’t remember. Nevertheless, we all agreed that the food wasn’t all that great. My experience was with the Gnocchi and Sausage dish. The gnocchi was very dense and heavy so all I could get out of it was the sausage before stopping completely.
We were there at 6:30 PM, and we didn’t finish until close to 8 PM. It seemed like it took an excessive amount of time for them to bring our food. Therefore, service was really slow even though it looked like they had an army of wait-​staff.
Environment was typical, nothing fancy.
Overall, I’ve had better, and kind of wished I went to this other place near Dillard’s that I heard about. Oh well, you live and learn, and you won’t know until you experience it for yourself. Give it a try if you want, and decide for yourself!

We spent about $ 200, I would say it was worth about $ 60.
We ordered a bottle of wine, the J. Lohr Tower Road Petite Sirah. Perfection. Absolutely delicious.
We chose a Caprese salad as our appetizer and the balsamic glaze was a tasty counterbalance to the rich slices of mozzarella… rich, sweet vinegar reduced to a silky glaze Sadly, it was so good that the subsequent fail of the entrees came as a sad surprise.
The entrees: Mark ordered the Tenderloin and I ordered the Lobster pasta.
Mark’s tenderloin had that mealy texture that occurs only when a meat has been over-​marinated. Tenderloin needs no marination. It is by nature tender, and requires only good seasoning.
My lobster tasted like it had been defrosted and refrozen… it was strangely spongy and had a bizarre texture.
Our waiter, Koby, was great and offered a different dish. I chose the Chicken Picata. It was okay. I would say if Denny’s made Chicken Picata, it would taste the same.
The tiramisu was good, and the chocolate cake with Sambuca mousse was exceptional.
I finished it all off with a nice tawny 20 year port. My husband would probably tell you I really didn’t need that last glass (Wazzzz up!!!) but after the poor meal I had, I felt I deserved it.