When the Olive Garden grows up it wants to be just like Maggiano’s. The menu is essentially the same, but instead of screaming children flinging spaghetti across the tables and college kids scrounging their last pennies for unlimited breadsticks in the suburbs, it will have a bar and be in a posh urban surrounding where it will draw middle-aged woman wearing dresses that last fit them well over a decade ago and their eager husbands searching to consume as many carbohydrates as possible for the minimum dollar yet still make the middle-aged ladies feel as though they are being ‘taken out.’ Whew. That was a long sentence.
I’ve actually been here several times as I dated a fellow whose family insisted on giving him Maggiano’s gift cards. Never one to turn down free food, I went along. As with most family-style Italian joints, the food is more ample than tasty and the usual Italian American items fill the menu. I did try a special once, the butternut squash ravioli. Unfortunately it tasted like cream sauce. After a few other tries I came to the conclusion that there are two flavors here: red sauce and cream sauce. The dishes have different names but they will all end up tasting like one of those two things, so pick your poison.
While I cannot convince you not to try Maggiano’s when the situation calls for feeding a large group family-style Italian, but I highly encourage you to consider cooking this cheap and simple food a feasible alternative.
more