Romano’s Macaroni Grill

Out of Business in Oregon due to franchise going bankrupt.

I went once about 4 years ago and I can’t remember that experience but my latest one was kind of horrible.
We ordered bruschetta and mac ball or something for appetizers the mac balls were fatty and delicious but the bruschetta threated to break my teeth. I know it’s supposed to be on harder bread but the construction was just tasteless and unedible.
Being broke I ordered plain fettuccine but it came to me kind of glued to the bowl, flavorless and grainy for some reason. I ate about two bites then just drew on the table for the rest of the meal.

To be honest, the type of food on their menu was not for me. I LOVE pastas, but the food on their menu did not sound appealing, but my husband and I stayed and found something to order. Our waitress was great. She was super friendly, talkative and always checked on us. I’m a water drinker so I love the fact that they keep a pitcher of water on the table.
Four stars because the food wasn’t terrible and the service was fabulous. I won’t go back, but that’s only because I couldn’t find anything on the menu.

My girlfriend and I are both servers, and like to come here to sit at the bar for their late night (9 — 10pm) happy hour. We always chat it up with the bartender and often talk to the blonde girl that works on Sunday nights. We have always experienced great service and a nice, relaxing atmosphere.
Tonight, Friday, we were meeting up with a friend and decided to go to this Macaroni Grill. We sat down a couple minutes before 9pm, right before the start of happy hour, and ordered a couple glasses of the house wine. The brunette girl that took our drink order got busy with her other tables so we ended up talking with a male bartender about our entrée choices. He took our order very quickly and we didn’t hear from him again we were almost done with our food and our drinks had been empty for awhile. Meanwhile when I finished my wine, the glass was taken away without ever being offered another glass. This is especially strange at the Macaroni Grill where they are known for their endless wine.
Then when we asked for our bill, we see that our wine was charged the normal price instead of happy hour. We were aware that we placed our order about one minute before 9pm, but I asked the guy about it anyways. When we brought this up to the male bartender, he said he knows that we didn’t order during happy hour and, in fact, that we were there WELL BEFORE the 9pm cutoff. We were so shocked by his rudeness, and his pure dishonesty, we tipped him less ($ 8 on $ 52), instead of continuing to argue with him.
I have worked as a server for 6 years and I know how people can be stingy. I also know that we are not at all that kind of people, but that it is inexcusable to talk to customers the way this man spoke with us.
We used to love coming here; Its only 3 blocks from our apartment. I doubt we will be back.

Loved it.
The happy hour menu was very good.
I came here with the girlfriend after walking around downtown portland.
We were wanting to go to Chipotle, but they were closed.
We were disappointed at first that we were going to spend over double the amount to eat, when we weren’t looking to. We enter the restaurant and it said $ 5 pizzas.
I had the pizza before and I enjoyed it. so I asked the server if this pizza was of different size. or what, and she told me that it was the normal sized pizza, just for happy hour price of $ 5.
Knowing this. I immediately became a lover of Romano’s happy hour.
Thank you for saving me money, and giving me delicious pizza.

[+] Came here with my girlfriend around 9:30pm-ish and got seated fairly quickly; at near bar around the fireplace. What’s better than dinner next to the fireplace? Happy hour food– $ 5 pizzas of course! Yum! Our choices were: pepperoni, Margherita, and Italian Sausage Pizza. We picked and shared the sausage pizza and the Penne Rustica. Absolutely tasty! Oh, we also got a loaf of bread as well! YUM! Total on our bill: $ 19.00. Probably the cheapest dinner I’ve had in a while, given we DID share everything… it totally filled us up! The service was great, she came and refilled our water when it was low; she checked on us every so often to make sure everything was okay. What more can we ask for?
[-] Well, we DID have to remind our server about the bread, so we didn’t get it until our meal had arrived. Would have been nice if it had arrived while we were waiting for our food. Um… my girlfriend also had to hunt for the balsamic and vinegar…
[?] Yup, I would definitely go back despite the minor details. Overall, had a great dinner during happy hour and enjoyed our time at Macaroni Grill. Love the atmosphere. If you’re old enough, try to get the seat around the fireplace. A great experience!

When I was in college, 15 years ago, I thought that Macaroni Grill was a fancy restaurant. Clearly, my opinion of fine dining has changed. Over the years I have only visited Macaroni Grill out of sheer convenience and/​or lack of better options.
I went tonight with my 3 year old, which is the only reason I chose to eat there. The food is so sad. Even the bread, that I remembered as being tasty, is dry, dry, dry. We ordered a garden salad and we were about 2 bites in when our entrees came. Seriously? Who’s firing the courses in the kitchen? And the pasta was no good. I ordered the butternut squash tortelloni special. I asked the server if it was good to which she exclaimed «Oh, yes! It’s delicious!» It was lukewarm, leaden, and greasy. Barely tasted like squash. My daughter enjoyed her pesto pasta but then again, she’s 3.
Service is fine, the joint is gimmicky and not good. Won’t go back.

My sister’s and I went here this past weekend for a ladies getway and we the best time!
The happy hour was slammin! $ 5 processco bellinis that got us buzzed and delicious parmesan fries $ 3 and $ 5 pizzas. Yum and yum.

Sadly, I cannot say my only visit to Romano’s Macaroni Grill in downtown was a good one.
My husband and I rarely get date nights; and we were so disappointed to be seated at a far table beside their open kitchen. We could hardly hear ourselves think, much less converse. To make matters worse, a portly waitress loudly bad mouthed her customers and swore at a bus boy for turning some scalding hot water on.
We were moved to another table, but that waitress kept giving us dirty looks for «snitching» on her.
Needless to say, no amount of lemon passion cake will make a bad meal better. They really should do away with that table.
The only saving grace was our waitress, Alysa. She was gracious and ever so willing to please.

I visited this Macaroni Grill a couple months ago in the evening and it was just terrible. The service was bad and the food looked and tasted like it was under the heat lamps for 10 minutes.
I thought I would give it another try cause every place has it’s bad day. Not the case for this place. Same bad service and same dried overcooked pasta. They even charged me a dollar for their hard crusty bread and dipping oil.
Steer clear from this place if your looking for a hot, fresh meal.

I have to tell you how little I expected from this place, and how pleasantly surprised I was by how good it was for being a chain.
I was out shopping with a friend when we decided we needed to refuel and that carbs were the ticket to do this. I had never been here before, but she had, and was completely expecting something in the realm of a busy Olive Garden, or «White trash Italian» as I generally refer to it. This was completely different and much better. Don’t get me wrong, I frequent the OG enough not to knock it down too many pegs, but it’s definitely not at the top of my list if I’m on the good side of the river and want something a little more complex.
Ok, complex might not be the right word for this place. We both ordered the classic spaghetti with meat sauce. Pretty hard to ‘eff up. But this completely hit the spot after a long day of shopping. The sauce was delicious and wonderfully basking in just the right amount of olive oil and seasoning. I devoured it in a carb-​lovin’ frenzy.
The bread that accompanied the pasta, however, was lacking. I was starving, and therefore pretty excited to see a gob of herb-​ridden bread plopped down in front of me with a side of EVOO. I was hoping for a splash of Balsamic in the OVOO, but was too hungry to wait for the waitress to come back to ask for some. The bread seemed like it started out on a good foot, and then someone butchered it. It was almost like it was deep fried. The crust was crunchy, which is usually a plus, but it was swimming in oil which overpowered any of the yummy herbs and the original texture of the bread. Fail.
Instead, I abandoned the bread to wait for my pasta and spent the next 10 minutes drawing what I can only decribe as Van Gogh-​esk art on the tables along side M.A.S.H. games with the crayons supplied for the white butcher paper. I don’t care if I’m 23, that stuff’s the bomb. I’m now married to Keanu Reeves, we live in a Shack, with 14 children, I drive a gray Range Rover and I am an award winning Novelist. A girl can dream, right?
I’d dream the 14 kids away for a start.
I’ll definitely be back here. It’s fast, delicious, inexpensive and conveniently located right across the street from Pioneer Place. I’ll have to try the Happy Hour sometime; it’s too bad you can’t take advantage of it in the dining room. However, the bar looks like a pretty cute area, with a fire pit attached and lots of window watching.

Came here for lunch on a Sunday after some shopping. We sat in the bar at a window table. Our waitress who I won’t mention the name was attentive at first but then forgot about us towards the end.
Here is what we ordered:
Italian Margaritas — sweet and strong just the way I like it made!
Crab Stuffed Mushrooms — one of my fave appetizers and I was not disappointed of how they made it here. Came out hot and the mushroom caps were filled with cheese and crab meat.
I ordered the Shrimp Portifino — it was SO good if you can get past all the oil at the bottom. Shrimp pieces were large enough and the sauce was delicious. I’m getting hungry just thinking about this dish again! Lol :)
Décor/​cleanliness — 4.5 stars
Food — 4.5 stars (my fiancé ordered something okay tasting but would not order again)
Drinks — 5 stars
Service — 3.5 stars
Atmosphere (Bar area only) — 3.75 stars
Value — 3.5 stars (a little pricey for lunch)
Overall Experience — 4 stars
This was our second visit to this restaurant chain, the first being in WA which was sub-​par, so the rating may be a tad high but we would go back again so that should stand for something.

I generally avoid chain restaurants, especially when traveling. However, the lunch place I was really looking for (Salad World) was closed, I was hungry, the place was close and looked nice. I was pleasantly surprised to find a really nice warm spinach salad with scallops. Scallops were sauteed to touches of light golden brown, salad had also sauteed garlic, was attractive and delicious. Also advertised at some 300+ calories.
My wife had a grilled skewered chicken with vegetables, also very nice.

It’s a chain restaurant so you can’t go too wrong. I had the spaghetti bolognese and it was good. I’m a big fan of the variations offered at California Pizza Kitchen so I can’t say it was my favorite but it was good and convenient for what we wanted.

I am not impressed. I like the ambiance of the restaurant but the food could be a whole lot better. The prices say upper quality, but the actual meal is bland and under quality. I ordered the Mahrgarita Pizza adding sauted mushrooms… it came to me with canned mushrooms atop the pizza. YUCK!

I don’t understand how this chain restaurant from Texas is the only Italian restaurant I’ve visited that automatically brings out a warm loaf of bread and oil. It’s almost enough reason to come here instead of one of my local Italian faves. Almost.
I’ve never had a bad meal here. I’ve never had a great meal. I’m not mad at Romano or his grill. I mean, I love the bread. Let’s call the whole deal A-​OK and be done with it.

Just saw a movie at Pioneer Place on New Year’s Eve and not much time to eat before heading off to partyville. What we had right in front of us was Romano’s Macaroni Grill, which I associate with suburban mall chain restaurant food. Hmmm. Menu looks OK and the prices are very reasonable, especially for downtown. But holy moly, it’s packed and I mean packed. Got on the list and got a beeper (I love the beeper system), waited a bit. One of us had a hot date and we didn’t have much time so we were going to bag it and but the friendly hostess assured me that they could get us in and out in plenty of time. OK, we’ll wait. Buzzzzzup, we’re in.
They have an army of servers here, really well organized and efficient. Menus, drinks, bread, order, dinner. Wow, they really keep things moving, I’m really impressed. And you don’t feel rushed.
Food…the food is OK, not great, but certainly OK, typical American «Italian» food (you wouldn’t find any of this in Italy, but that’s not why we came here). The salads are best skipped. The entrées were well presented and good. Thankfully they’ve resisted the Portland trend of over-​salting and adding cayenne.
Box up the leftovers (nice foil pans and the lids have reheat instructions, very nice), pay the bill and we’re out the door. Look at the watch, wow, they did it, we had a full meal with drinks and we’re out the door in really good time.
High marks for efficiency, friendly service, excellent value (especially for downtown), ambiance, decent food.

I haven’t been to a Macaroni Grill in ages. I know why; it’s the caloric content of their food and the customer shuffle of a chain restaurant.
Jens’ is absolutely right on about the Macaroni Grill’s food: Rosemary, rosemary, rosemary. It’s difficult to avoid rosemary if you step into this shop. Good thing I like rosemary. Unfortunately, almost any dish here will leave you thirsty because they over salt.
I had the pork chops, which were delicious, but a bit too salty. It tasted even better as leftovers. My dining companion had the grilled shrimp which was skewered on rosemary branches.
The service was good and reliable considering the vast amount of dining patrons enjoying this chain restaurant the same night. They are good with large parties and kids.

What a great find downtown for a late dinner on a Sunday evening.
When we didn’t want to be stuck in post-«Wicked» traffic, we decided to set out on foot in search of food. We came across the Macaroni Grill and loved it. Plush interior, great service and decent inexpensively priced meals.
We started out with house red wine and the warm loaf of read the waiter brought. I dug into the bread though the amount of rosemary in it was overbearing. JP remarked that he never noticed rosemary in food until I started (frequently) commenting on it, and now he doesn’t care much for it either. I did the same thing with him as to shredded lettuce.
Tonight, JP had the seafood linguini. I thought it was really garlicky, but he thought it was just right. But this is somebody that puts garlic in their scrambled eggs!
I had the chicken marsala ravioli. It was marvelous. Just loved the cream sauce and bits of asparagus.
Not sure what had happened beforehand, but the waiter came over and asked us if we liked beer. We said, of course! So he handed each of us a cold bottle of Corona with a lime as freebies. Didn’t matter that we were already drinking wine!
We will be back!

Disgusting. None of that food is fresh, everything gets a ladle-​full of a butter/​oil mixture thrown on top (for «gleam» like on the commercials) and two coworkers have gotten food poisoning there in the last couple of months.
Romano’s Macaroni Grill is not real food. You might as well eat MacDonald’s.
Portland has so many awesome Italian restaurants, why waste your cash on a corporate germ-​haven like this?