Romano’s Macaroni Grill

Rating is only for the Loaded fries. Will add another after we ear our food. The loaded Fries aren’t so loaded. This is a huge dissapointment as the last time we were here they were really good. They need to double or triple the sauce to match the picture. Very skimp pm the prosciutto too. Sucks. We were so excited to get them again. Won’t bother to complaint tbough
Ok. 3 stars for the overall. My lamb chops were absolutely gross. Tasted sour and spoiled. Let my spouse try it to be sure, and he spit it out immediately. The salmon save their rating. It was delicious. the manager and waiter Isaac were nice.
Best part of tonight is my husband’s company. So really a the bad stuff is erased. for me.
BUT DON’T ORDER THE LAMB YUCK

Came here for lunch the other day with our friends. It was a decent lunch. This place still has decent food and ambience. I’m not sure why they have struggled over the last few years.
The bread with olive oil and balsamic is still good as ever. Their dishes weren’t bad either.
The mozzarella sticks were good as well as the calamari even though I really don’t eat calamari.
My buddy got the Pasta Milano a dish that is no longer on the menu but still good. He enjoyed it and had no complaints.
My wife got the steak salad. She said it was cooked well and the veggies were fresh.
I got the simple Fettuccini Alfredo with Chicken. I have had better. I think I can actually make better but it was still decent.
Service was also good as the people there are very friendly and got whatever we asked for.
No complaints.

My girlfriend, Cindy and I dined in the bar area last night and was served by DJ. He was fantastic and took excellent care of us. He used to be a cook so he knew the dishes and made winner recommendations. He served us a yummy drink called the Ultimate Bellini and it certainly was! We had a great time and thanks to DJ for ensuring it was the «ultimate» evening!
DJ, take care of your hand my man so we can see more of you :). By the way, love that mustache.

I just have to say i love coming here with my coworker for lunch and we enjoy having Perry as our server. He is amazing!
He understands that we are on lunch and provides excellent service.
We generally try to do everything within an hour so we dnt extend our day too long and he always checks on us and goes above and beyond!
He is definitely a server to have, and always checks on us and makes sure we have everything we need and bring us anything we asks for!
He even rewarmed my soup when i let it sit for a while, whole i was trying to write this review!!!
Thanks Perry for providing amazing service, it makes the rest of day go by so smoothly!!!

Mehh… Macaroni Grill has seriously gone downhill. I used to come here years ago with my family quite often because we enjoyed it. But we came here the other night for Mother’s Day and boy… it was not good. You cannot call this Italian food at all.
We put our name on the list and sat down at the bar to get a couple of drinks. My mom and I both got drinks which were very weak and very sweet. So there’s that. Then we were seated and our server was taking so long to do everything. She was very nice but every single thing was taking forever and it wasn’t busy at all since we were there at an off hour. She brought us our wine and then she was gone for ten minutes. Then she brought us the oil and vinegar for the bread and then was gone for ten minutes. Then she came back to order our food, which we did, but we still didn’t have bread but we had tons of oil and vinegar. Then she finally brought the bread.
Two people at our table ordered salads which came, and then when they brought our main entrees, they also brought more salads and an extra entrée. I’m not sure what was going on but it was kind of a mess. And one of my pet peeves: they didn’t bring out everyone’s food. They brought out four meals and we were still waiting for two more to show up. And finally when all the food did show up, it was bad. My pizza was worse than pizza hut. It’s absolutely not Italian, that’s for sure. The penne pasta was undercooked… way too hard. The only thing that was sort of good was the Butternut Asiago Tortellaci, and it wasn’t that good. Everything was overall bland and as un-​Italian as it can get.
Overall, don’t waste your time with this place. If you want real Italian food near Cerritos go to Dominics in Cypress, A’Roma in La Palma or Buca Di Beppo.

I go there at least once every other month when I’m in the Bay Area and I get the lobster ravioli all the time I was there last weekend with a friend and we had the calamari appetizer we order macaroni cheese balls but they did not have it that that day, so we ordered the meatballs for the first time and I was not disappointed very good. next time I will order the meatballs again I love their bread it’s called Rosemary peasant bread I believe. I wish they had a Macaroni Grill out here in Monterey County like maybe in Salinas or maybe in Seaside or better yet Marina California. And whenever there’s leftovers I take home they are so much better the next day after you warm them up specially the Lobster ravioli.

Debbie is wonderful :) food is great and even better deal $ saving on their $ 9 dinner express
Eggplant Parmensan is always my favorite
Classic Italian bake is big enough to share
Parmensan crusted sole is small in portion
Kids love their kids menu
Sad … 1 star off as the manger does not honor «the $ 9 express dinner with less than 9 minutes 0r Free»
Debbie serve all plates «Together» at the same time 20 minutes later after we order, After the appetizer … Since only 2 dishes are $ 9 dinner express, but the rest is not.
We were not given an option to serve main dishes at different time to take advantage of the «$ 9 deals»

The 2016 Unilocal 500, Review #038:
The waitress was Erika… I will not say I came to be disappointed but, after reading all negative reviews before my drink was delivered I made the commitment to seeing this through and I am glad that I did.
Big note of thanks: Who ever cooked up the blackened chicken needs to be commended… for all I know it is a premixed seasoning packet, but, it still had to be cooked and left moist not a briquette.
On to Erika … She was amazing and met my first rule of meal enjoyment… she was not overbearing and invasive, yet kept the drinks topped off.. If I return here (I am on vacation), I am sitting in her section again. Generally it takes two visits to get 5-​stars in my reviews… There are exceptions thought. So just think of this as a 5-​star review waiting to be born.

3.5 stars
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I was quite smitten with my $ 10 lunch trio. You get a fried mozzarella triangle with marinara sauce, a Caesar salad, and a pasta dish. I chose the gorgonzola fettuccine. Everything was quite tasty. If you like bleu cheese, definitely try the fettuccine.
For the kids meal I think the best option would be the spaghetti with meat sauce. We’ve tried other kids meals but they weren’t as tasty. Although my son argues that the meatballs were pretty darn good.
The one thing I’m sad about is the disappearance of the twice baked lasagna. Yes I know that was from way way way back when, but I used to absolutely love that dish. Please bring it back! Also, the service could be a little bit better here. I have yet to encounter a super friendly staff member. No one has been downright rude but no one has been downright friendly either. In all honesty, sometimes the fakeness of some servers shows through too much making me feel a bit uncomfortable and unwelcomed. But it’s close to home and a quick lunch fix for the family so I don’t make an issue of it. And I’m leaving my favorite dish until the very end of the review so read on!
My favorite pasta I have here is the shrimp Portofino. The couple of times I ordered it I was quite surprised at the abundance of large, yes large, fresh shrimp that I got in my dish. For a chain restaurant that is awesome. It would be something I would expect from a private little posh restaurant. I usually ask for this dish with a splash of white wine to be cooked in it and then I asked for a lemon wedge and sprinkled some juice on when it is served. So so good. The abundance of ginormous shrimp make up for all the negatives, so I’m giving this place a 3.5!

Kris was very personable.
Attentive, friendly, checked on us frequently
& dining experience was over all good.

Not a good lunch at all. Started off decent enough, they cleaned off a booth to accommodate my wife and I. Apparently this is where the trouble began. We sat for awhile before getting any service. When we finally got any help from a server, Kris, we quickly got the feeling he wasn’t interested in serving us. Not sure if we weren’t supposed to be his responsibility or if he just wasn’t interested in having people that look like us in his section (felt like we had the wrong skin complexion). Never asked if we wanted appetizers, took our drink order but waited to take our food order 10 minutes later. Never checked up on our table during our entire meal. The people next to us and behind us seemed to have a totally different attentive dinning experience.
The food was bland the service was biased overall it was an epic fail.

My family came in on Sunday night, January 24, 2016.
Pros
–the girl singing happy birthday in Italian was very good.
–the vanilla gelato was potent and exhibited natural vanilla flavor.
Cons
–despite an almost empty restaurant, it took a while for an employee to seat us.
–there were no place settings for my kids, and we had to ask in order for them to have utensils to eat.
–The calamari was chewy and cold. It came with a lemon peel stub that had no lemon juice.
–I asked the server her thoughts on lobster ravioli versus the promoted «Rosemary ribeye.» She said the ribeye is really good. On the contrary, the ribeye was really bad. It was chewy, tough, and low quality.
–they forgot tomato soup for my dad and I. We had to remind her to take it off the bill.
I love good food. I love describing good food. It saddens me when there isn’t a glorious, delicious, memorable meal to describe in detail. It’s not fun reliving a bad meal, but just as I want people to share in a great meal, I also want to warn them of a bad one.
To give you a frame of reference, I recently gave TGI Friday’s 4 stars (located near Macaroni Grill in the Cerritos Towne Center). I recently gave an Olive Garden 3 stars. Against similar types of restaurants/​locations, Macaroni Grill really disappointed.
You may be thinking, why order steak at an Italian place? In that case, pardon me for thinking that if a restaurant puts something on their menu, it should be top quality, not inferior to the rest of its menu.
Overall, it was quite a lackluster experience. I won’t be back to this location anytime soon.

In my opinion, Macaroni Grill is one of the better chain Italian restaurants. The bread is delicious and always served hot and fresh. There’s a wide selection of options ranging from wood fired pizzas and pastas to salads and seafoods. If you’re going for lunch, they usually have great specials at a very reasonable price.
Service when I went was good but not great because almost everyone had a trainee shadowing them. The wait time on a Saturday was only 20 minutes and we were sat within 10 minutes.

I’ve been to this location three times. It felt like the service just degraded poorly on my second and third (now last) visit.
To start, the meals themselves are solid. Nothing spectacular but nothing horrible.
This review is based off my third visit which was terrible. My waitress Erika was hardly around. And only came by to collect plates, that was the only time we would see her. Even when our plates reached us, she did not once come and ask how things were.
We asked for a refill on water, and received water that tasted similar to Sprite/​7up. Probably from poor «cleaning» on their part to maintain their pitchers.
My last issue was our bill. The total for 5, was $ 133. $ 40 was suppose to be charged on my Visa, $ 25 on a gift card, and the remaining cash. I didn’t even receive my copy of the receipt to sign. After waiting for 10 mins I had to wave Erika down so that I may get my copy. I signed for $ 40, but on my bank statement it was overcharged by about $ 73. My card was charged $ 148. An extra $ 15 more and she did not inform me of this, that there was an issue with their machines until I called.
I will be returning only for reimbursement for overdraft charges if Macaroni Grill fails to correct this issue before my bank charges me fees.

This is the WORST food I’ve EVER eaten. Total waste of calories and money.
Upon entering, the entire place smells like char and burned food from a bbq. The kitchen was on fire. The cooks were rushing and there was smoke everywhere. Yuck.
I ordered a steak salad and the husband got spaghetti and sausage.
The salad tasted like the plastic bag it came out of. It wasn’t washed. The steak was waaaay over cooked. This salad was the saddest salad I’ve ever seen.
The spaghetti was literally the worst I’ve ever had. It was soggy and the sauce came out of a can. They forgot to add the sausage.
We sent the food back. So did several other tables.
Manager was accommodating however, we still had to pay full price for our 2^nd dishes. They were just ok.
I will NEVER eat here again, at any location. Save yourself the calories and money and go somewhere else.

My boyfriend and I came here for lunch and sat at the bar. We were greeted right away by a very friendly bartender (didn’t catch his name). I kind of had low expectations because of the poor Unilocal reviews, but we ended up having a great experience!
I ordered the $ 10 lunch special, which I thought was a great deal. You get a salad and a full entrée. I went with a small caesar salad and the ravioli alla vodka. The only thing that could have used more flavor was the caesar dressing. But the ravioli was actually super delicious. I was pleasantly surprised. I would definitely order it again.
I tried the house Chianti and it was really tasty and only $ 5.50 a glass! On Thursdays, a full bottle is only $ 15. Normally it’s $ 30.
The service was really good, so was the food and the wine. I will be back!

I would place Romano’s just a bit above Olive Garden, but still very much a chain restaurant with overpriced, mediocre quality food.
Service was fine, the restaurant clean and well maintained and our food came out really quickly.
I had a chicken salad and while it was fine, it didn’t wow me in taste, freshness or presentation, the value for the money just was not there.
My husband had the parmesan crusted chicken and spaghetti and it was ok, again not stellar.
Not really worth coming back for, way too many better options in the area.

The service was really slow. There weren’t that many tables either. It was really hard to get their attention when we needed to order or needed other things.
I ordered the chicken marsala. Pretty good but somewhat salty. I was pretty disappointed though because on of my chicken pieces were undercooked and still somewhat raw.
Calamari is quite rubbery but not horrible.

Everybody loves Raymond. Rodney affectionately «likes» Romano’s Macaroni Grill
BOGO $ 9 Express Dinner (served to-​go daily, dine-​in Mon-​Thurs)
Our first visit to RMG, we were impressed with the restaurant environment. Very dim lighting in the ample main seating area, with the bar and a semi-​private room on the west side. After being seated, we were told we’d have to order at the Kitchen Counter to redeem the coupon, hospital cafeteria-​style.
After debating upon the most enticing selections, we placed our order. Unfortunately, bread is not complimentary with Kitchen Counter Express Lunch & Dinner. Just $ 1 extra, we went for it.
Order placed at 12:34 pm. $ 9 Express Dinner in 9 minutes or it’s free. I’m counting down the minutes. Tick tock, tick tock
Chicken Milanese panzanella–
Lightly breaded chicken breast, roma & yellow grape tomatoes, arugula, pickled onions, parmesan, Mediterranean vinaigrette & crispy parmesan potatoes, the chicken Milanese panzanella clocked in around 4 minutes. Reminding me of chicken katsu, the breast was large, flaky & good. The menagerie of veggies added contrast & brightness. Dipping in extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) & balsamic vinegar enhancing the flavor quotient.
Pork belly & chicken carbonara–
Pork belly, grilled chicken & creamy carbonara tossed with spaghetti. Clocked in at 7 minutes. Dag nabbit! I was hoping for free lunch *sigh* A very hearty, filling dish, the thick cuts of pork belly & chicken were succulent & tender. The spaghetti was slightly al dente, and the carbonara made that much more creamier with a liberal dousing of EVOO, balsamic vinegar & a few dollops of butter by your’s truly, along with grated cheese by our attendant. I was quite happy with this dish.
Rosemary peasant bread–
Can’t go to an Italian restaurant w/​o the prerequisite crusty bread. Arriving last, the rosemary peasant bread had a tough outer crust hard to cut into via the table knife, but the interior was airy & soft. I restrained myself by only going for a few buttered EVOO/​balsamic vinegar soaked helpings, since I’m already carbing up on spaghetti. Refills are included.
During our meal, a few of the staff came to our table & told us don’t worry about the bill, we got it. Perplexed, I asked why? They said our order wasn’t completed within the 9 minute allotment. The bread! It was the bread! I assumed only the entrées were held to the time challenge. Yes! Free food! Someone just came up, baby!
Service was good. The cashiers took our order accurately, and the waitstaff were quick with the bread refills, red pepper, butter etc.
Ample seating inside, with a few tables al fresco by the main entrance. Outside, lounge/​swing style music played on the speakers, including a rad cover of Oasis’ «Wonderwall». Haven’t heard that in years. Oddly, no music inside. You’d think there’d be some Rosemary Clooney, Dean-​o or Frank in the background, but no. Parking is in a private lot shared by Trader Joes, Wood Ranch Grill, Pieology etc.
We had a wonderful lunch, made all the more better by being comp’ed. I found the Express Dinner menu to be a great value for those in a hurry, as well as for those who aren’t. With an inviting ambiance & delicious food, Romano’s Macaroni Grill has a new fan. I’ll be back, probably to redeem my birthday month coupon ;p
Highly recommend!
NOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOMNOM

3.5 stars
Attended a PaintNite event at Romano’s Macaroni Grill last week. The event was tucked in it’s own area with about 40 – 50 seats available. The seating was a little too close to one another so it was difficult with all the painting supplies PLUS our food and wine.
We had a designated server for our area, although there should have been two. It was hard to request anything since we were sitting way in the back and he had to assist everyone else present as well. Our server made up a «$ 15 all you can eat selected appetizer, pizza and wine» deal. Our party of 4 all participated, but soon realized we didn’t have much time to eat while painting and it was difficult trying to order more with only 1 server around.
We ordered (to share) the bruschetta, baked mozzarella fonduta, fried mac & cheese bites, half pepperoni/​half margherita pizza, and a glass of chardonnay each. I did enjoy the crust of the pizza along with the drip provided.
Parking was easy to find. Located near Trader Joe’s and almost right off the freeway.