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| - Summary: It's not anything special and there are better places, including corporate restaurants.
Service - 3.0: My wife and I opted to eat dinner at the bar. Our bartender was great. He was professional, friendly, fun, and even engaging at times. He was the best thing about the establishment and I give him 5 stars. Everyone else around sucked. We had a white floor manager and a black server talking in front of us about an interest a girl. The conversation itself wasn't offensive, but the white floor manager did an impressive "talk like a stereotypical black guy because I'm talking with a black guy and I want to relate" voice. It was annoying. We were serenaded the entire evening by floor managers and employees discussing side work and moving into minimal staffing for the evening. I've worked front and back of house at corporate restaurants and that's behavior that we didn't allow--it's unprofessional even at a corporate place. It's especially unprofessional at a place that tries to be classy. I also didn't like the timing of our meal. The apps and salad came out super-fast while the entrees took a very long time. I would have given service a 1.0 if our bartender had not been such a great host.
In an attempt to up the service level, they pop new customers into the POS system as "new guest," which signals the kitchen to send out a couple slices of bruschetta. I'm not a fan of the gimmick. It's supposed to make you feel special, that you receive food compliments of the chef, but really it's just execution of a corporate policy. Further, it's just a menu item, not some special amuse bouche created that day. The practice is lame.
Ambiance/décor - 3.0: I'm going to nitpick because this place tries to look fancy--it attempts to give off an upscale and classy feeling. Our bartender wore a tie and suit vest and the servers all wore dress shirts with black ties. The walls are lined with dark wood and the tables are dressed in white. However, the walls also display signed pictures of random celebrities and menu posters about family style meals. Apparently the menus are remnants of an earlier time when the restaurant was trying to be a fancier looking Buca di Beppo. The wall candy contrasts too much with the upscale feeling the restaurant wants to portray. It would be a 4.0 if the
Menu - 2.0: It's Macaroni Grill food at a higher price and without the option to create your own pasta. There's nothing original or special that sets the menu apart from any other generic Italian joint. The décor tries so hard to be classy but the food is uninspired. I didn't see anything on the menu that excited me. Apparently most of their customers enjoy the "classic pasta" category of food because, for about $12 to $14, you receive one pasta dish to eat at the restaurant and a second pasta dish of your choosing to take home. At least the menu provides an opportunity for cheap eats.
Food - 2.5: It's just not special. The food doesn't seem to consist of the cryo-vac disgusting that one might encounter at am Olive Garden, or Applebee's; however, it wasn't anything to write home about. We ate bruschetta, a chopped salad, an 18oz veal porterhouse with broccolini, and a lasagnia (a classic pasta dish). We took the Bowtie Aglio as our take-home pasta. The food seemed mostly fresh and the seasoned properly. Nothing was over-salted or bad tasting, but it's no better than the Italian food you would get at any chicken parm serving Italian restaurant. The pasta was a tad overcooked, but that's done with dry pasta at most corporate joints. What really caught my attention is how the restaurant gives its diners the take-home pasta already refrigerated. That most likely means all the classic pasta dishes are essentially pre-prepped and just reheated at service time. I find myself wondering if they pasta dishes are prepped off-site or if they make the pasta dishes in-house. I couldn't tell either way, but it's a curiosity I now hold. The veal was also topped with a ton of garlic, but the garlic wasn't strong. That means the garlic they use isn't fresh.
Overall - 2.5: I didn't factor in any corporate aspects of the restaurant into my review. However, save a few bucks on the entrees and just go to Macaroni Grill if you're seeking a corporate meal. It's the same owners, thus a similar menu, but Macaroni Grill isn't playing pretend fancy with the restaurant concept and the food quality is exactly the same. Macaroni Grill can sometimes be home to high level of customer chaos that doesn't occur at Maggiano's, but that's really all that Maggiano's offers. If you want actual upscale Italian, don't be a cheapskate. Go somewhere that offers a real upscale vibe or somewhere that serves from-scratch, chef-driven food.
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