Romano’s Macaroni Grill

The service is great but the food is blah. Chicken tastes like processed chicken. The shrimp tastes pre frozen. The meatballs are rubbery/​frozen and definitely not home made. You’re better off eating frozen Bertolli dinners than you are this.

Just walked out tonight. Two (!!) people took drink orders, 10 – 12 minutes later no drinks, or any check back besides water and bread-​oil. This all while restaurant was 15−20% full. Very disappointed, mgmt needs major review.

One of the best restaurants I’ve been to in a long time.
First off — before the typical review, I have to mention that our waitress Jess was outstanding.
We started off with the stuffed mushrooms appetizers which were amazing. Absolutely overflowing with sausage and stuffing. We then had the bread with a second loaf for free! Went well with the wine and soda.
We ordered Carmela’s chicken and Mushroom Ravioli. Both were incredible. To this day we still talk about how high quality the food is for a chain establishment.
For dessert we had the chocolate cake which is essentially a molten lava cake with ice cream.
All in all an amazing time — and we now go back weekly and for takeout.

Very delicious! Good bread, good mozzarella sticks, penne rustica is amazing and create your own pasta is the best! The Bloody Mary’s are great also! I love this place

The restaurant was rated ok for us we were a party of 3 its nothing that you want to order here that you can’t have any place else we went around 3 o’clock in the afternoon there was more staff then there was customers. Very lack the flavor. Not a fan don’t think I’ll be coming back.

I went to the Macaroni Grill for the first time tonight. We went for an early dinner around 4, so we were seated and served quickly. I had the chicken florentine salad. It was delicious– but a little smaller than I expected and it came out with some ingredients in it that weren’t listed on the menu. The atmosphere was nicer than I’d expected for a chain. If you haven’t been before, you can sign up online to receive their emails and get a $ 5 off coupon. With so many restaurants in the area, I’d probably try somewhere else next time.

WORST experience ever in a restaurant. Supposed greeters in front gave death stares. Movie Zombies show more life than the employees I witnessed. The twinkle toes manager stood around staring at customers, he reminded me of Jeffrey dahmer. Laughing and giggling employees and 5 minute wait for simple drink. I wouldn’t dare try the food. Incredibly awful experience. DO NOT GO HERE until they have hire appropriate staff.

Worst place ever. I went here because me and my daughter saw the pictures of the food and we thought hey this looks good. We should give this place a try. I wish I would have read the reviews before I went there. We went there on a Saturday afternoon, it wasn’t busy at all. So I figured it wouldn’t take long for us to receive our meals. I was dead wrong. We ordered appetizers, the spicy meatballs which didn’t taste homemade at all. When we finally got our food we had to send if back because it was not good at all. I guess we lost our appetites because of the long wait. My suggested we go to Chipotle which they can never do no wrong. On the upside of this experience the waiter made sure we did not run out of our drinks.

It’s very close to our house. One of our favorite place to go. However, the portions are becoming smaller and smaller.

Food was delicious! Previous visits I was let down. Our waiter was very nice and attentive. Bön appetite

We walked in on a Sunday night when most surrounding restaurants were on an hour wait for 2 people. The place was pretty much dead. The waitresss forgot my salad and never brought it until we asked. I ordered a pasta dish with garlic cream sauce which was disgusting. I am pretty sure the dish had just sat in the window for 10 – 15 minutes. The service was slowwwwwwww and the overall experience was just… horrible. Needless to say, we will not be back.

So my wife texts me, asking what we want to do for dinner. Which is code for «what are you making tonight?»
Not really up to the task, I say «Let’s go out to eat.» «Where?» she replies.
«Let’s go to Macaroni Grill,» I say.
«Really?»
That should have been my hint, right there, that I wasn’t thinking straight. See, I got Macaroni Grill and Carrabbas mixed up, but by the time I realize it, the food has been ordered and delivered.
And it’s easy to see how one can mix these restaurants up, outside of the food. They pretty much look the same on the outside and inside. The wine bottles on display, the faux Italian prints, you get the deal.
So we get seated, 2 adults, 2 kids. I see the menu, and that’s when I realize that I wanted to go to Carrabba’s. Oh well, I figure, we’re at a nice place, and I’m not about to drag the kids out into the cold to go somewhere else.
Bad decision #2 of the night.
We order a couple of apps. The Crispy Fresh Mozzarella is actually pretty tasty. The Calamari Fritti, unfortunately, is not — and on top of that, it was served very cold, so it probably sat for a little while. After two bites I left it and asked for a replacement, which was delivered, eventually, and hot the second time. But flavor wise, can’t say I was all that impressed, and it had a distinctly fishy flavor.
On to the main courses. Wifey has the Shrimp Portofino (jumbo shrimp, capellini, spinach, mushrooms, pine nuts, lemon butter). I go with the Classic Italian Bake (homemade meatballs, italian sausage, rustic tomato sauce, rigatoni, roasted tomatoes, creamy ricotta, basil). Looks good on paper, at least.
The Shrimp Portofino, it gets delivered and the pasta is cold. And it’s not even tossed with a touch of garlic — no self-​respecting Italian is going to do a butter-​pasta combo without a touch of sauteed garlic. It was a bland, buttery, cold mess.
The «Classic Italian Bake» should only be called classic if your vision of classic involves cafeteria food. Seriously. No WAY are the meatballs homemade, they tasted like compressed mush. The Italian Sausage, I am pretty sure they boil it to cook it and then let it sit in a bain marie, because it was just soft on the outside — no crispness at all. The tomato sauce was straight from a #10 can (I guess they call it rustic because it comes in a metal container) the pasta was cold, and the ricotta was just a spoonful cold lump on top. They could have done a lot better, simply by making sure the bake pltter was warm. If you are going to call something a «bake,» it should be delivered as a nice, hot, bubbling mix of cheeses, sauce, and other goodness. This was mass produced flop.
Pros of Macaroni Grill:
– we were seated quickly.
– the drinks all had ice in them
– waiter was a nice enough chap
Cons:
– ugh. Where do I start?

I had the chicken Marsala. Very well proportioned mushroom and chicken. I like that the flavor of the Marsala wine was not overdone. Highly recommend chocolate cake with the chocolate dip. Yummy!!! Not sure why people feel like they cannot review chains well cause it still can be good food.

My husband and I frequent macaroni Grill locations and we love the spot just as much as all of the others. The food is typically pretty good. Every now and then something isn’t quite right but the staff is always quick to fix any problems we have. I love their gluten-​free menu.

I really like Italian food so this was a great place for me. We were seated right away, I went around 1pm on a Saturday. I really like that the «table cover» is paper and they give you crayons so you can draw or play hangman or whatever you want while you’re waiting. The waitress wrote her name on the table so you wouldn’t forget it, which is really cool. The food is EXCELLENT, although I wasn’t fond of my waitress but maybe just personally. She was very attentive, maybe too much so. Overall a great time.

I went back to Romano’s a few weeks ago when my girlfriend was in town. We were seated promptly by the host, and that is when the good service ended.
After sitting for ten minutes without anybody stopping by our table, I went back to the front and informed the host that we had not yet been waited on. After he checked with the waitstaff, he informed us that the waitress he selected for us had left for the day. While I found this extremely unprofessional, as the host had no idea who was even working tables, I decided to stay and wait longer for their food, which was delicious the previous trip.
Another ten minutes went past before the waitress finally came to our attention. We ordered the food and drinks, and saw the waitress zero additional times that evening. The server’s assistant ended up refilling our beverages after a few minutes of no drinks, and someone from the kitchen presented our meals.
I was very disappointed with my second trip to Romano’s. The unprofessional experience my girlfriend and I had will likely lead me to choosing other establishments when she is in town. I was embarrassed that I brought her to such an inattentive restaurant.

My girlfriend and I decided to go to Macaroni Grill for dinner on new year’s eve 2012, and the experience was awful.
7:00pm — We arrive and are told it will be a 30 minute wait, even though there were empty tables in plain view. The hostess was also dressed like she was about to go to the gym.
7:40pm — The hostess takes us to our table — in the bar. We could’ve sat there when we walked in and not had to wait 40 minutes.
We look over the menu, and no server comes by. We wait. And we wait. And we wait some more.
7:50pm — The manager (I’m assuming) walks by our table and notices we still have our menus and no drinks. He asks if we had been waited on, to which we reply no. So he takes our order, both drinks (water) and food choices. A few minutes later he comes back to the table with our water, then a minute later with the complimentary bread.
We eat the bread, which was good, and then we wait. And we wait. And guess what… we wait some more.
8:25pm — Haven’t seen the manager in over a half hour and still no sign of our food. From my position I had a clear vantage point into the kitchen and could see everything being prepared.
8:35pm — Still no food, still no sign of the manager, or any other server except the ones coming to the bar to pick up drinks for their tables. We deduce that it is conceivably possible that we could be waiting for nothing, and that we had been forgotten about. We decide to leave and go elsewhere, so we put on our coats and leave.
I wonder how long our empty water glasses and bread plate sat there before the busboy came by to clean up, no one ever knowing we were even there and our business taken elsewhere.

Dissapointing service. We were abandoned by the waitress. I had to get up and walk to the bar to get some cheese to grate. It was just sitting on the bar, kind of like a «help yourself». My wife’s sauce was cold, and she felt it was tasteless. Just smashed tomatoes. Wa La! Tomato sauce. On the positive side, I had a meal on special and I was happy with it.
I ordered the «seasonal raspberry lemonade». It might as well have come in a Dixie Riddle Cup. 12 oz glass filled to the brim with ice, with a shot of lemonade — no free refill. The reason? «Because it has real raspberries in it.» Ok, it has about one single raspberry, all broken up into little pieces to look like something neato. I can’t see this being a big issue.
The Macaroni Grill that existed in Willow Grove was incredible for service, and good food. Sadly, this one did not hold live up to the quality of that now defunct store. My wife and I will not be going back.

Not good. Salad was not at all fresh. Pasta was bland. Chicken Parmesan was also bland, but worse the Parmesan crust wasn’t properly cooked – burnt on one side and very under cooked on the other. The pre-​meal bread was definitely the highlight.
Added one star because I was able to keep the food down.
Very disappointed. I used to really like Mac Grill, but I can see why they’re all closing. Oh well.

OMG Romano’s is just AWFUL. Yes, it’s a chain. Yes they serve sub-​par bitter (often rancid) carafes of inedible olive oil on every table. Yes, the food is loaded with salt.
No, this is not what Italian-​American food should be. No, I do NOT want to ever come back here.