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| - Never again, I say. My in-laws insisted on having their 50th anniversary dinner party at Romano's Macaroni Grill (I-17 and L-101 area) last weekend with 20+/- attendees. I would like to say that this experience was most likely an anomaly; however, this is my third consecutive disappointing experience at a Phoenix-based RMG (all different locations in Phx-metro area) over the last 6-months. Never again...not even with a free gift-card will I set foot in a RMG. I am very sad because RMG used to be so good and dependable.
Issues/Concerns:
1. Dinner party was seated 20-minutes before any water or bread was brought out. First came the water, then 20-minutes later the bread, then 20-mintues later the drink order, then 20-mintues later the meal orders, then 20-minutes later the appetizers, and so on. I'm okay with a leisurely dining pace, but this was ridiculous.
2. Initially only one wait-staff was assigned to our group of 20 until we complained to someone. From that point on, we had 1.5 wait-staff assigned. I don't fault the wait-staff; they appeared to be doing their best.
3. We were very lucky to get the separate dining area, so had a lot of privacy after the one other occupied table departed. For the entire duration of our stay (over 2-hours), that dirty table remained loaded with dirty dishes and uneaten food even though the restaurant was relatively slow.
4. We never did see the shift-manager. One would think that with a party of 20, a $400 dinner-tab on an otherwise slow Sunday afternoon, with a guaranteed 18% gratuity included in the bill, that had been pre-booked for 2-3 weeks in advance, that the management would exert a little extra effort to make sure our party was taken care of to make it a memorable event given it was such a special occasion for our parents.
5. Brother-in-law requested the waitstaff to bring one bottle of red and one bottle of white wine for each of the two tables upon initial entry. 30-minutes later, after he asked again, it was brought out and set on end of the table with no offer to pour or serve. When we rang-out, we were surprised to see the normal house-wine charged at $30 per bottle...seems very high for house wine.
6. We were all instructed to use the crayons and circle our menu choice on the menu sheets, like we were in 1st Grade. Very classy...not!
7. Appetizers were generally tasty but portions seemed small.
8. Many of the main course meals were disgusting (undercooked, cold, poor flavor, lacking any passion). For example,
-I ordered Chicken Parmigiana. The angel hair pasta had vinegary-taste and was generally inedible. My Chicken Parmigiana entrée was edible, but i would submit that it was not to RMG's old-standards of excellence...I have had better hospital food.
- My wife ordered a shrimp-based main course; her food was literally ice-box cold.
- My son ordered lasagna; however, 10-minutes later they reported they were out of lasagna...really, RMG out-of-lasagna on a slow Sunday afternoon? He ended up with Pasta Alfredo, but the noodles were grossly underdone to the point of being crunchy. Same with my daughter-in-laws noodles.
- I could go on, but you get the point.
In my opinion, there are too many other dining choices in the Phoenix-area to waste any more of my time or money at Ramono's Macaroni Grill. Again, this makes me sad because I had some great dining experiences there when they first opened. In my opinion, the fish-stinks-from-the-head-down...this is a management issue that needs to be fixed by corporate.
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