Maggiano's Little Italy

11/20/09

Bad Customer Service

by BlackJack21 at Citysearch

I am getting married next fall. We are having a very small wedding and thought this would be a nice place to have the reception. Our first meeting with the event organizer she was late and disorganized. I still felt like this could be a nice place...everyone has bad days. She was going to email me pictures never did until I emailed her for them. Several months later we had picked a date so I emailed her that I wanted to put a deposit down to hold the date. Two days went by no email so I called. She said she would email the contract that day. That was four days ago. I guess I'm moving on. To many red flags for me to ignore.

• Pros: Nice Venue
• Cons: Bad Service

07/29/09

Nice atmosphere; Average food

by joshb2j at Citysearch

Decided to try this out while in Denver. Good location in the Denver Pavilion. The restaraunt is nice and has a more relaxing and subdued feel than a Buca Di Beppo. The food, however, was average. It just didn't have an overwhelming taste. I had the baked ziti and sausage. It was okay. My wife had the chicken pesto linguine and it was rather bland. I would say the food here was no better than an olive garden. All in all, if you aren't a food snob and are visiting Denver for a convention or something and want easy, this is your place. Otherwise, I would try something else. I would have given it 3.5 stars if that was an option.

• Pros: Great atmosphere, good service, decent prices.
• Cons: Food is average, better suited for larger (4+) parties

06/23/09

terrible food

by rvn6570 at Citysearch

I did not like the food or the service at Maggiano's. The portions were small compared to most Italian restaurants. I was not impressed with the service. I am a local resident and love to experience new restaurants. This is not one I would recommend.

• Pros: location
• Cons: terrible food

05/26/09

Wedding reception

by Feepster at Citysearch

My new husband and I had our wedding reception here and it was wonderful. maggianos has seperate banquet rooms and we had the Calabria room with it's own antique bar and beautiful crystal chandeliers. Guests raved about the food and the service was outstanding. We had one guest notify ahead about a gluten allergy and they were easily accomidated. The chef came out to talk to her personally about menu options he could present her with. In addition, last minute we found out we had a guest who was Vegan. Once again, the chef came out to discuss options with him and easily accomidated him. They added candlles and decorations to supplement where we we lacking with no additional charge. They accomidated my request to bring in an outside vendor for wedding cupcakes, and set up and broke down everything without a single extra charge. Because guests were having so much fun mingling during the cocktail hour, they extended it until I told them to proceed with serving dinner, no problem at all! The food was served piping hot, never ran out and even the bar never ran dry despite a large number of heavy drinking young guests. Planning was a breeze as they were always quick to return phone calls and emails, generally within hours. The reception was really the easiest most stress free part of the whole wedding. Can't beat them in terms of pricing either. No site fee, just a food and beverage minimum that was easily met bu the number of guests alone. Just under $61 per person covered an appatizer/ cocktail hour, two kinds of salads, bread, a pasta course with two kinds of pasta, 2 entrees, two side dishes, coffee, tea, sodas, 4 hour premium open bar and all of this was all you can eat and drink. They even let us substitute our favorite liquors/ beers without extra charge for what was on their usual premium bar list. Maggianos delivered far above and beyond what I expected and I would not hesitate to send anyone there for a wonderful extremely memorable wedding reception that won't break the bank.

• Pros: amazing customer service
• Cons: none

05/18/09

Little Italy

by jackspire1 at Citysearch

I've had a few experiences at the downtown Maggiano's and none of them have been bad. I understand its a step above a casual dining chili's and below a Barolo if you will. My favorite dish is the Riggitoni dish they have wish an alfredo sauce, mushrooms, and chicken. Its just so fulfilling that every time I need a box. They have a low to medium priced wine list but my favorite is the Banfi Brunello at around 100 dollars. Do understand that this restaurant is fast paced and in the end you do feel like just another table rather than the only table. However the fast paced feel also reminds you of Little Italy in the 1950's in NY, busy busy busy.

• Pros: I have to admit I like the food
• Cons: Impersonal

Family-friendly restaurant serves up enormous portions of southern Italian favorites in a nostalgic setting.

by Contributor at Citysearch

In Short
Family-style portions and red-checkered tablecloths create a casual, congenial vibe, drawing families and large groups to this feast of Italian-American nostalgia set to a Sinatra soundtrack. The made-from-scratch menu is brimming with traditional dishes, from starters like fried calamari, Parmesan garlic bread and Tuscan-style mussels to spaghetti with meatballs and manicotti with chicken and spinach. For those with room to spare, a piece of sweet tiramisu and a strong cappuccino help finish the meal.

06/13/08

Every visit is wonderful, allthough I dont go THAT often

by nicoami at Citysearch

We usually only dine here (downtown location) 2-3 time's a year, due to price, parking and wait time's. If you have a reservation it helps, but you will still have to wait at least 15+ minutes to be seated, I've had friends wait over 2 hours. The lighting is a bit dark during dinner, the walls are covered with"famous" people and old italian pictures, generally it's a nice atmosphere, however it get's very busy and loud during rush's, not a great place to go for an intimate dinner, unless you settle for an early dinner, table's are tight, not much seating on the dinner floor or bar during rush's. The staff is very nice (once we've gotten the rude waiter, actually the whole staff who ignored our request's and was troubled by us being there, and was appaled we did'nt provide him with a $50 tip, this was the south location, beautiful building, we've never gone back) Most everything we've tried has been very good, and large portions, we always have more then half to bring home, the Potroast was dissapointing, but no complaints on anything else we've had thus far. Pricing is, on the high end, but when you look at the portion size, it's resonable. Drink's from the bar are average, I dont see the obsession with dipping bread in oil but to each thier own. Tables are tight for the multiple plates you have, specially if dining with friends/family. Parking is horrible, if you can find a meter, otherwise there is a garage below, but they do not validate parking, I think only the Movie theater does, up to 3 or 4 hours.

Overall I like it, I look forward to going to the downtown location, and have only once been unsatisfied in the 5+ years we've gone

02/23/08

The food is always great, but the wait is forever, even WITH a reservationA

by paullette at Citysearch

The food is the best - service fantastic and friendly. You ALWAYS have to wait though, even with a reservaton....from 15 minutes with a reservation, to over an hour without one!

• Pros: the food, the service
• Cons: the long wait for a table

12/29/07

Very disappointing

by oyelunaluna at Citysearch

After making a reservation for a Saturday night, we still had to wait over 15mins after our reservation time for a table. We realized as we were finishing our meal that everyone around us was eating bread and olive oil which we were never given. A waitress, hostess, multiple servers never noticed that we did not have bread? The prices were too high for the portion and quality of food. My eggplant parmesan was overpriced for eggplant that was not breaded and fried as the menu description read but mush with a lot of bland red sauce. There was no side of pasta as most good Italian restaurants offer. The braised beef cannelloni was filling but also very bland and not worth the $18. Maggiano's a very overrated and is not even close to authentic Italian food; it's just another chain restaurant that lucked out with a great location.

• Pros: Great location on 16th street mall
• Cons: bland food, poor service, poor value

10/03/07

Cheesecake Factory's quality is more consistent.

by chewbuffa at Citysearch

I usually order the garlic shrimp on shells. Earlier this year, they changed the dish to garlic shrimp on linguine, and substituted the fresh tomato base to canned tomatoes. In February, I ordered my regular, not realizing the switch, and had to take the carry-out order back the next day because the shrimp was barely pink and the linguine was overcooked to the point of being pasty. I was assured by the executive chef that I wouldn't have to pay for my meal. It is now October. My $20 was never credited back to my card, despite a follow-up call to the executive chef and a call to the parent company. Even though I was perfectly nice about the whole situation, I now feel the chef never intended to refund me, otherwise he'd have done it on the spot instead of jotting down my card number. Now I don't even care about the refund; I'd rather share my experience with consumers who care about the honesty and integrity of companies that care about customer satisfaction.

• Pros: Lots of food, if you're into that.
• Cons: Taste suffers from shortcuts on quality of ingredients.