Romano’s Macaroni Grill

out of the chain italian places I would have to say this is my favorite– i hate that they did away with my original italian nachos appetizer but it is still good. The fried macaroni and cheese app is great. I always get the same chicken and pasta dish with onions and cheese sauce… forget the name. and I like the self serve wine. Usually it is busy this location is not for whatever reason so I like it.

The service was awesome (Jordan was the server) the lobster ravioli was very good. Reason for one star was the shrimp scampi tasted like sausage… very weird but had never tasted shrimp scampi like that in my life. Server quickly took that off my ticket and management apologized. Will definitely be returning.

Food was pretty decent, but our server, Emm, was rushing us the entire time. The restaurant was not full by any means, she never asked if my son wanted more milk (please note he was done way before he was halfway through his meal). Not even 15 minutes after we received our entrees she was already offering to go boxes. Maybe a different server would’ve made this Easter lunch a better experience, but if she will be the one serving us, I will definitely request a switch.

Weird waiter. No social skills. He reminded me of Joaquin Phoenix during his rapper period. Fettuccini Alfredo was tasteless. I think this establishment makes it’s business off unsuspecting mall shoppers. This experience makes Olive Garden seem like real Italian food.

Had dinner here with one of my girlfriends tonight to go over some plans for a friends baby shower. We love coming here because the food it is good and it’s super relaxed.
Our waitress, Madison was so sweet!
We both ordered a side Caesar salad and made our create your own pasta bowl. The food was delicious and came out very timely .
I really enjoyed mine, the only reason I didn’t give 5 stars is because they forgot the chicken in my pasta, they did being it out later and it was good.
Will definitely go back!

Enjoyed a quick lunch with my mom.
Seated quickly and waitress promptly waited on us and brought our drinks.
I ordered the tomato soup and bibb & blue salad. My mom had their 3 course lunch plus minestrone soup.
Tomato soup was dense probably used an emulsifier, not too creamy probably no cream added as it was a deep red. There were chunks of onion, tomatoes, and herbs. The flavor was good and tomato dense, though could use a bit more salt.
Bibb & blue salad is my fav here. It has bibb lettuce and iceberg with plenty of dressing. It is topped with crumbled bacon, french fried onions, pickled onions, blue cheese, and pecans. I like the tartness from the cheese and dressing, the vinegar from the onions, and the crunch from the nuts, fried onions, and bacon. This comes in a big bowl and lunch size portion.
My mom enjoyed all her dishes and the 3 course lunch is plenty.
Also, I love their rosemary bread served with olive oil. I could easily make a meal off just the bread.

Let me start of by saying that I am a big fan of the Macaroni Grill chain and concept. They seldom disappoint, and I always enjoy the experience whether I am «a bachelor» on a work-​related trip or with my beautiful wife when we are together at home or on the road. When it is the «bachelor» situation I mosey on into the bar where there is always space, frequently sitting at the bar itself and ordering dinner with a glass of wine (or two!) and/​or a house cocktail. This was a habit at the MG in Ann Arbor, MI where I would go once or twice a week. Got to know all the staff and there were always good specials (½ price wine, $ 5 cocktails and free appetizers if you returned in less than 30 days). Love it — home from home — gym at the hotel first, dinner and schmoozing at MG and then back to the hotel for work (bah humbug) or TV. The only thing better than that is when I go and enjoy with my wife. I guess that my favorites aren’t always anything approaching true Italian (Chicken under a brick for example) but whatever I order it is always more flavorful and enjoyable than another common Italian chain that we all know (by the way I never did like olives — and the omega-3’s in olives are no way near as beneficial as long chain omega-3’s from fish, krill and algae — just a scientific side note!!!).
This Macaroni Grill is the closest to home and is clean with friendly, polite, helpful service and is up to the nationwide standard for sure.
All of the above said I just want to warn my fellow Unilocalers to be VERY careful. They have a very tempting BOGO Sat/​Sunday brunch deal at the moment. Went to try this last Sunday and I couldn’t resist the look (in the pic) of the farmhouse skillet. I should note that I always enjoy my breakfast eggs «over easy» which my wife won’t touch because of the potential health risks — she always goes scrambled. So my skillet comes along with the three eggs in it. I started eating (the ages sit amongst cheese, vegetables, bacon, sausage) despite the fact that the eggs looked VERY «shiny» and likely underdone. Sure enough after a little eating I see that the egg «whites» are in fact clear, colorless and essentially raw. Had our waiter bring over the manager who apologized and said that there is «no excuse» for serving like this. After a little further exchange our BOGO became BNGT (buy none get two) but within minutes I started to get the «food poisoning headache» and had to rush home, swallow two activated charcoal pills and lie down for 3 hours before the headache dissipated and without nastier side effects.
Why still 4 stars? I love the chain, the restaurant and the manager did totally the right thing. Warning remains — if you have a skillet either order the eggs scrambled — or check the done-​ness of the eggs before you let the server leave your table!!!
Review #1 for 2016

It was over priced, soup was tangy, not worth my money I could have gone to olive garden instead.

First time at this location! We came in for brunch Our waiter, Gary was awesome! He loves his job and is very personable! He always makes sure the guest is taken care of!
The food didn’t come out pipping hot or warm. Just temp. ready to eat. The steak and eggs was really tasty! Wish the menu read chicken fried steak, as that’s what it seem like what it really was and not «steak & eggs.» It was a pretty heavy dish for one person. I could only finish half. Overall, the dish tastes really good with the poached egg on top!
If we ever return to this location, we just may ask for Gary again!

Waited a little bit on our waiter but was in no rush. Tried something new the feta cheese appetizers and they were amazing! Can’t wait to go back!

Great service, great food, kid friendly! Server Paul was exceptional. It doesn’t make any sense how GOOD the Buffalo Chicken Parmesan dish is! Amazing! Can’t wait to go back! We moved here from Dallas, happy to know a familiar restaurant is good here too!

The food is amazing, it tastes fresh, good portions, and great taste. However, I’m giving a 3 star rating because the service is terrible. First off, our waitress, Kaitlin I believe, had such an attitude it put me in a bad mood, our drinks were brought out with our food, and we’re never refilled. I don’t think I will be coming back for a while. I’ve worked in plenty of food places, so I make a point to be very respectful to the people who handle your food and take care of you, because I know how they get treated normally, and I don’t think I should receive an attitude for being kind and respectful. Absolutely ridiculous.

Macaroni Grill is always a top choice for classic Italian food. I was meeting a girlfriend for dinner, and this hit the spot. I’m not a huge pasta person, but the Penne Rustica was awesome!!! Don’t go look up the calorie content, just enjoy.
The environment is great, bread and oil are on point, and the meals are quick, delicious, and filling.
Our service was also good. We had a new waiter (or so we believe) who made quite a few mistakes, but it didn’t affect our food so who cares! Lots of things he mixed up, but we got it sorted for him and it was all fine.
The best part about this location is that it doesn’t get nearly as crazy as some of the other spots around the mall!

16^th anniversary I took my wife back to the restaurant where we had our first date. (Originally at the Willowbrook location) What a huge mistake! The service was fine, but the food was awful! The complimentary bread tasted as if were previously frozen and the «Italian butter» did not use coarse ground fresh black pepper. The chicken scallopini I ordered was bland, the artichokes were cold and too large to eat without cutting and the chicken had no flavor. My wife’s baked chicken entrée tasted like something prepared from a pre-​frozen state as well. My son said his chicken alfredo pasta was bland. We ordered a side of pasta with no sauce for my daughter that cost $ 5.75.
None of us finished our entrée and we surprised our server when we refused her offer to box it all up to take home for later. I don’t want to experience that awful meal again. I can only assume that someone with a low level of cooking skill prepared our food. How do you screw up pasta? $ 75.00 later we will never return. True disappointment. Thanks for lousing up what was supposed to be a romantic meal with our kids after we bragged how good the food was to them.

Just walked away… hostess less than enthusiastic about seating me. WAITED 6 minutes for server to order a drink and ask for clean table 1^st table visible debris from last people. 2^nd table same 3^rd table. worse. Silverware was also retreated with food and menu as well. I decided to go ahead and leave… This was my 1^st and last visit.

2 Strikes. First attempt anniversary dinner waited 45 min on our order for it to arrive at table cold. Not room temp but cold. Pork Shank their specialty. Entire meal comped by restaurant. Second attempt last night sons B-​Day Dinner. Slow night not many patrons. Bar ran out of Vodka for Martini. They sub’d Gin with out asking. Ordered Pork Shank again 45 minutes later arrives warm. Ceasef salads had no dressing not just a little but nothing at all. Chicken Parm was so fried all u could taste was grease. Complimentary B-​Day cake choice was chocolate so dry it was like having grains of sand on your tongue. 1−½ hour later we leave. Mind you it was a slow night. Will never return.

I’m not a frequent guest of the Mac Grill but I was given a gift card and we ended up here to have a quick dinner.
We were seated right away but it took the waiter a while to come to the table. There was no House wine on the table or glasses. We were seated at a booth and the bottle was behind the booth-​so it wasn’t easily accessible. Back home, we always drank a glass of the house wine that was on the table so we wouldn’t have to wait on the server but some reason…
Finally when the waiter came to take our order we were still trying to decide on a main course. But it took him forever to come back to get our order. By this time, we ended up just ordering something we could share because we thought if we ordered too much we would be waiting forever.
While dining we kept seeing and hearing plates crashing to the floor. In all, three plates were broken by the clumsy servers? Probably from the greasy plates. So it was noisy and chaotic. One was broken right by our table. So either the waiters are clumsy or they have way too much olive oil sliding around in their hands.
The rosemary loaf of bread was brought out but it wasn’t sliced. I don’t mind cutting it, but it was topped off with oil and when you’re trying to hold the bread with your hand while slicing… well, you can imagine… yep, a handful of greasy oil all over your hands every time you tried to slice. How inconvenient and annoying. So if your trying to avoid carbs… here’s a good excuse.
Overall, here’s a quick run down.
Heavy rich butternut squash pasta was good but a few bites was enough.
Rosemary bread not sliced and it was greasy
Service was super duper slowwwwww
Happy hour on Thursdays (the day we were there)
Shared portions work best
Caprese salad was really good-​we shared it
Tiramisu creamy and it was just okay-​needed more cocoa powder
Kis menu is always a plus with options like pizza and fettucini alfredo
No house wine or glasses on the table.
The slow service was the real downer on this night.

So I took my Lovely Wife here to have dinner a couple of nights ago and was actually blown away with service here. It was a slow start, but once they noticed us (perhaps we were being stealthy?), 2 servers attended to us with great care and were very warm towards us. It was almost closing time, so not only was I very impressed with the dedication of the staff, but the fact that they stayed overtime without a saying a single thing about it was absolutely wonderful and really let us enjoy our late dinner (kind of a rare thing these day!). One of them (Christopher?) was very helpful and really guided us through the menu (it was our 1^st time here); the other one (Forgot his name! :’() was equally excellent and informative. I must say that they made our night!
To start, we shared a plate Prosciutto Wrapped Cheese in red sauce… it was VERY tasty. For the main course I ordered Seafood Pasta for myself and Lasagna for the Wifu. We exchanged bites. The Lasagna was excellent, but the Seafood Pasta… oh boy, that was GOOOOOD. Worth every penny.
Now in terms of service, this place was top notch. Very good & competent staff here. I loved the service.
The décor is great, nothing too fancy, it’s just right for this kind of joint. The nicest thing about the décor was how you can draw on the tables with crayons. They have giant sheets of paper on every table that serve as both the table cloths and fun as hell drawing station. My Wifey being the artist that she is drew up a storm. I on the other hand opted for weird/​funny things such as writing under the bread bowl «Bread was here» or drawing an outline of a fallen lime and labeling it «Lime Scene, do not cross». It’s really loads of fun and is great, especially while you wait for your food.
The food came in a somewhat timely manner, so if you’re really hungry, keep in mind that you may have to wait 4 – 5 minutes longer than most places, but that whatever you order it’ll be fresh and extremely hot. Which, to me, is totally worth the extra couple of minutes.
To end off, I will absolutely be coming back here. No doubt. It was a truly stellar experience and I would highly recommend dining here. And if you’re lucky, you’ll be serviced by 2 of the best servers I’ve dealt with in a long time.
Thank you guys for the awesome time and great food!
Arrivederci!

Was a part of a very large group (around 30) that reserved a side room. Was given a single waiter who seemed overwhelmed by taking care of us all. Took way too long to order drinks, and to order food. No method of delivery as food randomly came out off timed and wasn’t all that hot. Because the event was not about us I, and I didn’t want to cause a scene we didn’t send back.
Never come with large groups, they just cannot handle it.

Always have a fabulous server experience. They are always extremely polite and prompt. They have an ever-​evolving menu that is always primed with new and tasty additions.
It’s a chain, so the «atmosphere» (I hate using that word) it’s meh/​just alright but the food way overpowers all. I actually prefer Macaroni Grill to Carabas (my mother would kill me if she heard me say that).
They have great wines, too. Sometimes they have half off wine bottle nights.
Recommended for families, parties, and even dates. My finance and I frequent here.
They’ll even sing «Happy Birthday» in Italian by an operatic singer!