Restaurant: Maggiano’s Little Italy
Location: Domain, 10910 Domain Drive, Austin, TX 78758 Map
Phone: (512) 501-7870
Price: Dinner: $15-$35
Hours: Mon-Thurs: 11am – 10pm, Fri-Sat: 11am-11pm, Sun: 12pm – 9pm
Food (7/10)
(6/10) Eggplant Parmesan
Provolone and marinara sauce with a side of spaghetti pomodoro. The portions are generous. Unfortunately, the eggplant was missing some oomph in the flavor department. It was cooked well and had a nice texture. The spaghetti was yummy and the two complemented each other well. This was a ho-hum dish, but since it’s part of the “Today & Tomorrow” specials – it turned out to be a great deal. For the price of one dinner, you get one entrée today and another partially cooked one packaged to go! We got the ziti for our second “to go” dish.
(7/10) Taylor Street’s Baked Ziti
Italian sausage with four-cheese blend, cooked in a pomodoro sauce. The pasta was cooked inconsistently, as some pieces were hard and other pieces were soft. The soft pieces were of course better. There wasn’t adequate sausage to balance out the pasta, but when we were able to find them they were delicious. This dish was just cheesy enough, which is nice because several Italian restaurants over-cheese their noodles. Overall a decent dish, but we were still hunting for one that would leave an impression on us.
(8/10) Four Cheese Ravioli
Ravioli stuffed with ricotta cheese, cream cheese, mozzarella and provolone filling, sprinkled with house cheese, then browned in the oven and served in pesto-alfredo cream sauce with a touch of marinara. The ravioli was savory and fun to eat. We did have to ask for more pesto-alfredo sauce – which went very well with this dish. We could have eaten the pesto sauce as if it were a soup – it’s really that good. Again, the portions are generous and the food tastes fresh. Alas, we found a winner.
(7/10) Broccolini (Side Item)
This vegetable was seasoned with salt, pepper, butter and little pieces of roasted garlic. It doesn’t get too much better than this as far as vegetables go! It was definitely a healthy alternative to all the carbs we consumed earlier, and balanced out the mouth-watering garlic bread we had as an appetizer. The garlic bread was super addictive and practically melted in our mouth!
Service (8/10)
We were part of a large birthday group that dined on a weekday evening. The hostess seated members of our party with a smile on her face. Our waiter patiently took our orders, and Maggiano’s agreed to splitting our checks. The restaurant even let half our group order family-style and the other half order from the menu. Our waiter seemed a little flustered at times and didn’t explain the Today & Tomorrow Special very well, so someone else came out to clarify. The food came out in a timely manner. Waters were refilled effortlessly and we were checked on several times by different wait-staff. We observed the wait-staff to be very courteous.
Ambiance (9/10)
Maggiano’s Little Italy is located in the Domain and could be considered upscale casual with warm ambiance. Parking is available in the free garages, or if you are lucky, in a spot right outside the restaurant. The décor features mood lighting, richly polished mahogany woods, high ceilings adorned with crystal chandeliers and walls decorated with framed family portraits and cartoons. The lavish rooms have tables with checkered red and white tablecloths, and crisp white table-runners. It’s reminiscent of what a cozy Italian restaurant would look like several decades ago. It’s good for groups who want to dine family-style, but can also be great for an intimate date night if seated in one of the side booths. If you have a hankering for some good Italian food, Maggiano’s has a wide-variety and seems to have something for everyone.
I’m dismayed to see the overall review. I would have expected at least nines on all sections of your critique. Nonetheless, Maggianos is still highly recommended on your posting and to that, I am sure still made a great impression on your behalf. However, readers should be aware that Maggianos had only opened its doors for the first time on March 01, 2010 and thus was on its second week of your review/posting. Which coincides to why the first server may have not known the details about the Today and Tomorrow section of the menu. Given that not only is it a recently opened restaurant but it is also the first of its genre (1st Maggianos) here Austin using a complete scratch kitchen (homemade). Most Maggianos fans would tell you how highly they value and regard the food and even more so the service. Another thing to note is that Maggianos thrives on providing outstanding guest hospitality and in order to accomplish exactly that they rely on team work, which answers to why you were checked by several different wait-staff. However, at two weeks of practice with real guests, I’m suffice to say that it wasn’t plenty of practice for them to be that of the level of expertise, knowledge and professionalism that a Maggianos guest is accustomed to. On top of that you reviewed some of the average entrees, in my opinion, from the restaurant. Even then they scored somewhat high, but the house favorites are vast and do vary from the favorite signature dish-Rigatoni “D”, to my favorite the spicy enticing combo Rustic Chicken & Shrimp, the delicious Chicken & Spinach Manicotti, zesty Grilled Salmon Lemon & Herb and also tasteful Grilled Beef Medallions or the new heavenly Chicken Fontina!! Not to mention fantastic appetizers such as the delectable Barb’s Spinach & Artichoke al Forno, Stuffed Mushrooms or the favorite tender Calamari Fritte! There are also many other sides that compliment the meal than just the Broccolini, the tasteful crispy red potatoes, sauteed spinach, Green Beans with Bacon & Crispy Onions and many more.
To sum it up I would encourage you to go treat yourself and try some if not all of the items I just mentioned and top it all off with the best part…the desserts which are not at all mentioned in your review! One knows that coming form a homemade kitchen the desserts are always the best part and should definitely be tried! Uncover how much better that restaurant has grown and still grows with the passing of each day- all thanks to Austinites.
You can ask for some of the outstanding servers such as Elliot, Matt, Jason, Sarah, Zach, Tommy,Jacob, Chase, Colt, Reuben or even myself…Abraham! I wish you a great day but an even better rest of the week as I am sure you will have especially if you come back for another visit…and many more after that!
Abraham,
Thanks for your comment. We appreciate your opinions and your insight as an insider, and definitely plan on trying more dishes soon. Especially the dishes that contain chicken or fish, since those are the more popular ones. Now to address some of your concerns…perhaps you are new to our site, but “8” on service and “9” on ambiance are pretty high. Check out our other reviews and see for yourself, and then you would enjoy Maggiano’s score better! Being checked up on by several waitstaff was a positive, not a negative. But in our opinion and several others in our group thought this as well – for this caliber of restaurant the waiters should be more fully prepared to answer questions and explain simple parts of the menu. We were aware that Maggiano’s opened in March (that’s why we were eager to try it), and that there may be some kinks to iron out. But that is also the reason we cannot give it higher than an “8” for service during our dining experience there. We ordered the broccolini because it is one of our favorite side items at upscale restaurants. Oh and we’re happy that you are able to recommend so many outstanding servers to us and our loyal foodies. Hope you have a great week too!
Their food is good, but they are very stingy. They give very little amount of food on your plate and have a limit bread refills. They catered our company today and most everyone got their food already. They left out to go containers for anyone and people were going in to get leftovers to take home, and as soon as I get there, they all of a sudden change their “rules” and stated that I had to wait until a certain time of when they can stop serving before I could take any leftovers home. Why didn’t you tell that to all the other people who came up there and got leftovers? Was it because my skin color was different? Well sorry I am not Caucasian! Stingy A-holes. They didn’t even bring enough dessert for everyone. I won’t be going their restaurant or ordering anything from them EVER! Rude racist customer service losers.