Romano’s Macaroni Grill

It seems like any restaurant that opens in Huntsville, and does well, gets complacent, or just doesn’t care if they stay doing well. Seems like success calls for cheapening up a once great menu with cheap ingredients and vastly reduced portion sizes. To all of you, you could go the way of Lone Star Steakhouse, a classic example.

We have eaten at Macaroni Grill on numerous occasions and have always liked the restaurant.
Most recently, we had the shrimp portofino. It was very good, the pasta was cooked to our liking (not overdone) and the meal was well seasoned. There were 8 large shrimp in the dish and also cooked perfectly.
The caesar salad was also fresh and, as requested, the dressing was added with a light touch instead of too much being thrown on top.
The restaurant has changed over the years, perhaps because it is located next to a mall that is much less popular than it used to be so there are fewer restaurant customers. We used to go in at lunch and there would be a waiting list. We frequently sat in the bar area if there was a booth available and on occasions it would be full.
The last several times, the restaurant is much less busy. At 1 PM on a weekday, we were the only people eating in the bar area. Perhaps as a result, the service has suffered as well. Yesterday, the first order was brought out but it was a chicken dish and not the shrimp portofino. The shrimp dish did come out shortly afterwards but we asked if our salad was going to be served after the entrée.
The waitress did not write down the order, apparently forgot about the salad and entered the wrong order. The general impression was that some of the people working there were not that interested in their job. Perhaps with the dwindling clientele, some of the better workers have left for greener pastures.
So, the food is still good. The service has gone downhill, at least on this last occasion. In general, it seems more poorly managed. The restaurant does not seem to be as interested in serving their wine (which is good) at lunch anymore as it used to be placed on the table to make it tempting to order and the server did not seem to care much if we ordered it or not. The lackadaisical attitude shows but still liked the food.

I tried to give this restaurant another shot, but was displeased again. There used to be this dish on the menu but it was no longer there. I asked the server if she could ask the kitchen if they could re-​create the dish, she asked them and they said yes. I explained to her that I would like a ton of goat cheese on this flatbread. When the flatbread came to the table, there was no goat cheese at all. I simply asked if she could send it back and have the kitchen re-​create the flatbread that I was craving. She brings back the flatbread, the original flatbread that I already took a bite out of and all the kitchen did was plop cold goat cheese on top of the flatbread. If you are looking for good Italian food with great service this is NOT the place to go to. I refuse to ever eat here again.

The worst Italian food I ever ate and worst Sangria I ever drank. This is my first time eating there and I will never go back. The waitress was good and after showing her my raw steak and telling her how horrible my salad tasted, she took it off the bill so kudos to her for being decent. The balsamic vinaigrette they use left a bitter taste in my mouth and the Sangria wasn’t sweet, tasted like they added a shot of vodka to it. My boyfriend said the meatballs were good but the speghetti sauce taste like vinegar. I quit eating mine after 3 bites and all he ate was his meatballs. It was a total waste if money. $ 30 for speghetti and a glass of wine

I haven’t eaten at this location in years. It has really gone downhill in service and quality of food. We will not be dining here again.

I love the food, but the service wasn’t great what so ever. There were at least 7 – 8 servers here yet no one could find the time to seat us, and our server took over 5 minutes to get our drinks back and I had to sit here for over 10 minutes waiting for a refill. I love the food but not the service.

Very slow service. Had a reservation, but they weren’t that busy. I ordered pizza and added onions. I got 4 outer peelings of onion, laying on top. It was tasteless, had almost no sauce. Just awful.

I had always loved this place as many times I have been here, but all it takes is that one bad time before that changes a 5 star rating to a 1 star. I had come here with my family for my birthday back in August and nothing from the start was great. It took 13 minutes before a server came to our table, 6 more minutes for the drinks to hit our table. The food for everyone was messed up and mine had a piece of foil in my chicken. YES FOIL in my food and I chewed it and noticed something was not right until I spit it out. At that point I requested to speak with a Manager. The manager was somewhat nice and willing to help. We share the same name if that helps out too. I do not think I will ever come back, and I was never offered anything like a dessert or anything since they knew it was my birthday.

Still no response from anyone from either Corporate or local location… I am convinced that they do not care to hear the truth… In the future I will eat berries and wild grass from the median of I-​65 rather than set foot in this place.

A lot of other places I’d rather go for Italian but there are not many options that excite me in Huntsville. This location can handle larger groups and they are pretty good for children, they provide crayons and coloring place mats along with reasonable options for kids menu items. On my last visit we had a family meal, 6 adults with two children. The food is not awful, but there is nothing about it that makes me want to return, the Rosemary bread is a sharing loaf unsliced, tough to cut with your butter knife without handling what with be other people’s pieces served with olive oil and pepper. Olive oil is fine but how about some balsamic vinegar? I asked for some, and got a dipper of salad dressing, vinaigrette. I created my own pasta dish, so if it is not good my fault, right? Pick a pasta, sauce, toppings, however it turned out spicy red pepper flakes and seeds, nothing I chose was supposed to be hot, which was by design because I don’t care for spicy. On top of the spicy food I never received a drink fill which these places are usually really on top of, the staff was friendly, groups of eight are a lot to handle, so it’s not a huge deal, but at the end of the day the next time the family gets together in Huntsville I’d rather try some place else.

Service:
My wife and I love (d) Macaroni Grill. The food was always great, service was fantastic, and they always have a great wine selection. We have been numerous times in the past year, I would guess 10 – 12 times. The last 3 – 4 times we have been, service has progressively gotten worse. We went on April 26^th for my wife’s birthday and it was terrible. There wasn’t a hostess to be found, there were only 2 waiters working the entire restaurant (although it was rather dead), they both saw us standing there waiting to be seated and didn’t even acknowledge us. I had to hunt down the hostess just to be seated. Once seated we didn’t get service for a good while, had to ask 3 times for bread (normally I don’t care about asking multiple times for something if the restaurant is busy, but there were only 4 tables that were occupied), and our waiter was extremely unprofessional, it was obvious he didn’t want to be there.
Food:
The food was great as it is every time we go. Hats off to the chef. I love the chicken Milanese and the calibre steak.
Note to Management: Get your act together at this establishment or you will lose a lot of loyal customers like myself.

The place was super packed when we were there for dinner last night. We waited 35 minutes for a table, which is a little too long when you’re hungry. Our waitress did take a while to come to our table, but she apologized and explained that she was a little behind. The fresh bread was good; it was warm, had a crispy crust, and was so soft on the inside. We had the calamari fritti for appetizer. Loved it, and loved the two dips that came with it. The pasta di mare that I had was very good.
Heard one of the servers telling the manager that table no. 2XX said their calamari is bad, and he thinks that it’s not bad, just weird. And that they probably just didn’t want it. He could have been more discreet. I don’t think we should have heard that, especially while we were eating the calamari.

I was there Saturday night and they were out of bread… seriously, how do you not have any bread on a Saturday night? No Bruschetta, no flatbreads, no bread to have with olive oil prior to the meal. The only way this can happen is from piss-​poor management and employees who don’t care. Save yourself the trouble and skip this poor excuse for a Macaroni Grill. Our first clue should have been when we approached the hostess stand and the host took 3 phone calls prior to acknowledging us. No offer for a free dessert or anything to make up for the lack of any bread in the restaurant. We should have gone to Carrabba’s instead like we had originally planned on…

Parking lot has some nice shade trees to park under. Not as crowded as it used to be. Bread was cooked perfectly. We ordered our steak well done. It came quickly, but was only cooked medium. For this Sunday lunch, my wife and I split a Calabrese Steak, and had 2 coffees. Total bill was $ 28.89. This is still a classy place. It probably deserves more business, especially at weekday lunchtime when prices tend to be lower.

My husband and I came here for Easter dinner. Being Easter, there weren’t many families out. This is our first time at a Romano’s Macaroni Grill. It was a pleasant experience! Their customer service is to be commended. Kristin was our waitress and Jeremy might have been the Manager. Jeremy came around twice to make sure we were doing good. Kristin had a very friendly personality and recommended some yummy dishes, upon which we ordered and really enjoyed. I had the chicken scaloppine and my husband ordered the penne rustica. I also had a side soup: Tomato Basil. If you like tomato soups, you should try this.
The atmosphere is inviting as well as romantic. I tried one of the yummy moscato house wines. Overall, I would say our experience was a good one and we would definitely return!

Awful is the only word I can think of describe our experience. We went for a birthday celebration. We ordered some classic favorites as well as some new dishes. No one enjoyed their meal. My food was cold with way too much sauce on my pasta. The mozzarella sticks tasted like chicken fingers. Our server was horrible. No refills on drinks until we asked. First time I can remember leaving only a 15 percent tip. Will never go back which is sad because this used to be my favorite chain restaurant,

So it’s just another day out in the town, so I decided that I would try out the macaroni grill.(Even though it is a chain I’m not going to hold that against them.) So we went on inside and saw the hottest and took our seats.
The waiter was the usual acting nice and neutral taking our drinks and our orders in under 10 min.
I ordered the Mushroom ravioli while my mother ordered the Alfredo with shrimp in it.
My dish was ok but the sauce was somewhat to sweet for my taste but the after flavor was perfect.
My mother’s dish was VERY salty, almost to the point of adding sugar to combat the effects of its nature.
I decided that a cannoli would be pretty nice to have so I ordered some.(6 $ mind you for two) they were actually very small for the price I paid for them, but good none the less.
Prices were high, my ravioli was very thin, but other than that it was an ok experience.
Nothing too special except for what they charge.

Great food and service! I didn’t like that they put all the customers in one area but I understand the waiters are assigned to sections it just felt a little cramped. There was no one at the host station so we waited a little bit but once seated we got a great server Anthony who was helpful and knowledgeable about the menu and food was out pretty quickly.

Worst service ever. Stood at reception area waiting and waiting for a hostess. Waiters would zip by, say nothing… Finally one stopped put down her plates and took me Tina seat. Said my waiter would be right with me.,. Never happened, after 15 minutes with not one person stopping to offer water, drinks or take order… I headed out. Did see the manager on way out and told him that after this long of wait, I’m out of here.
Keith

Good service, but overwhelmed at lunch.
We were very quickly seated and not at all pressured to order right away. We were waiting for our customer — who never showed. That happens. I requested a gluten free menu, which the charming server brought quickly. She was very knowledgeable. I did have to coach her on the salad dressings, which is not at all unusual in any restaurant.
Coffee? Bleh. A little cold. What’s up with that? Still, the gluten free chicken under a brick was quite nice even gluten free and as someone who triggers at trace amounts — they clearly know what they are doing here.