Maggiano's Little Italy

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CLOSED NOW - Opens at 11:30am

I like the one in costa mesa better!!! This one seems a lot smaller. The day I went wasn't busy for this restaurant and yet the service was extremely slow. Our waitress kept forgetting to bring our bread, and refill drinks. So it was just alright...

I've been to this restaurant a few times. The place is very nice and clean, parking is not a problem, the wine tasting is great. The only thing is the food, the few things I've tried I have not enjoy too much.

this used to be a reliable place to have an enjoyable meal. they have changed the menu to a family dining experience and taken some of my favorites off the menu. it was ok but definately not what it was a year ago, i guess the economy has caused them to have a much narrower selection, kinda reminds me of ""the sizzler"" of italian restaurants, so sad

Inattentive waitress, SLOW service - and this is while the restaurant is fairly empty. Just imagine what that means when it is crowded. The food...was so bad. Flavorless and had a weird aftertaste. What made it worse is that everyone who spoke to us, including our waitress, kept telling us ""how good the food is"". Come on don't lie, that's false advertising. THE worst Italian food I've ever tasted, and I've tasted a lot as I am a lover of Italian food. You can't even call it Italian food. DO NOT BE FOOLED by the fancy decorative atmosphere; you will regret it.

This is a first-rate, mid-priced restaurant.

Anyone who complains about this restaurant has something wrong with them or is possibly a competitior leaving negative comments.

I dine here a few times a year and the food is always great for traditional Italian American cuisine.

What makes this restaurant stand out is the restaurant's cool / romatic garden courtyard (request to be seated outside), it's quality of food, and a friendly and professional staff.

It's the best restaurant at the Grove that's not too hard on the pocketbook.

Definately a very nice dining experience!

If you can handle parking at the Grove! Maggiano's is a chain but it is fantastic. Best deal and best way to try a lot of stuff is to do family style. Also, a great place for small banquets. Food is delicious!

You'd think a place like this coukd keep their bathrooms clean... I wonder what the kitchen looks like? Staff was too busy swapping head shots and audition stories to bring bread to my table. Seriously? The food was OK, poor attention to detail. The value is there for big eaters and their all-u-can-eat ""Family Style"" plan, but there too much wrong with the place to really enjoy the experience.

I ordered a drink three times. It never came. The waitress never brought plates for appetizers -- I had to get them myself. Nobody ever refilled the water. The menus weren't even picked up from the table. Simply horrible. There are so many good options at the Farmer's Market -- why would you waste your time at Maggianos? Overpriced, mediocre food, terrible service. Avoid at all costs.

The service... Perfect!
The service is professional, and the servers are genuine... ABSOLUTELY PERFECT!
The food comes out SO FAST! It's unbelievable.
It's hot & fresh.
Huge portions.
Great value.
THE MOST FLAVORFUL FOOD I'VE EVER HAD. Not overdone at all..Just right!

I am so picky..but this place was the best I've ever had! We started with the chopped salad w/chicken...Then had the Ziti with HUGE & TONS OF CHUNCKS OF Meat..and Crispy Grilled Salmon on Spinach, with the best juice!! I AM CRAVING IT AGAIN RIGHT NOW!

The restaurant & ambiance are sooo nice... and It's huge in there!! Walk around.. private rooms.. Big tables.. Cool, fun bar scene.. EXCELLENT GREETERS, SERVERS... Really top quality, in every aspect.

Great food! Great ambiance on the patio! Fantastic for large groups! We had a bday party of about 20 people and the staff was really on top of things.

My only complaint was in the bar area before we were seated for dinner. A few of us arrived about an hour before our dinner reservation, so we decided to sit in the bar area and have a drink and a small appetizer. I'm not joking when I tell you that it took the waitress 40 minutes before she took our order. She saw us and just kept walking by us like we were glass. After 15 minutes of watching her walk back and forth without acknowledging us...we finally got the attention of the bus boy and asked him if she was our waitress? He confirmed that she was indeed our waitress. Then we told him about how long we had been there just waiting for her to take our drink order. He was very apologetic and said he would go tell her that we were waiting. 5 minutes later she walked right by us again without stopping. We began to take it personally until we saw several other tables in her area...with people fuming as much as we were, because we couldn't get her attention to take care of us.

Finally after 40 minutes she came to our table claiming to be flustered and super busy because someone called out sick at the last minute. Her story wasn't flying with us or anyone else. We never saw her carrying any plates or doing anything that indicated that she was actually busy DOING anything. We put our drink order in...30 minutes later we were still waiting for our drinks. By this time it was time to be seated for our dinner reservation. We ended up having to have our drink delivered to our dinner table from the bar. That is just how long it took for us to deal with her. She was AWFUL! We should have told the manager but we didn't.

Thankfully everyone else there, was fabulous and on top of their game.

First let me say that this place is amazing for large groups of 10 or more. 18 people from my work made plans to celebrate a birthday at the Cheesecake Factory nearby (which won't take reservations). We showed up at Cheesecake and the hostess laughed at us and said it would be at least 4 hours to get a table. We literally walked across the way to Maggianos completely unnanounced, and the manager was happy to accommodate us. We were seated (all 18 of us!) in less than 15 minutes!!! On a Saturday night!!! The staff is apparently well-trained to deal with large parties, and were not flustered one bit by the size of our group. They made the night fun and special. I also found the family style dining to be helpful with such a large group. Ordering about 8 or so ""refillable"" platters served family style was much easier on us and the staff than having each person order a separate entree and worry about splitting the bill or food coming out at different times.

The food is a different story. Most of the items are very average and just okay. The pasta dishes are especially boring and bland. There are only a few things they excel in, specifically their Fried Zucchini, Bruschetta, Chicken Francese, 4-Cheese Ravioli, Lasagna, and their namesake and spinach salads.

Stick to those dishes, or go with a large group and you should have a decent experience. The back patio is VERY nice. And they have a kickass happy hour with $3 drinks, live jazz, and $2 appetizers (including the aforementioned fried zucchini and bruschetta).

My gf and I just got back from this place. I've never written a review before and I wouldn't if just one aspect of it was bad but the entire experience was horrible. Our waitress seemed indifferent and more involved in chatting with her friends. She checked on us about once and it took us about 10 minutes for her to come over to us to start with. The place was dead. There were tons of waiter staff standing around. Maybe since it's so slow they are generally unhappy because they aren't making money but if you have a table you'd think you'd try to make the most out of it. The food was also very bad. My gf felt sick on her way home from the Mac and Cheese and I ordered the Lazagna which was tasteless and dry. I still don't understand how lasagna could be dry but somehow this place pulled it off. I think our waitress knew we were unhappy and tried to only give us 1 copy of the receipt so we couldn't have a copy ourselves. All in all, just avoid this place.

TAKE OUT PORTIONS ARE 1/2 SIZE OF WHAT YOU GET IN THE RESTAURANT BUT STILL YOU PAY REGULAR MENU PRICES. VERY DISAPPOINTED AND WILL NEVER ORDER TAKE-OUT AGAIN.

My boyfriend was craving an italian food, so we went to Maggiano's at the Grove. I was impressed by
nice outdoor patio atmosphere. Very nice watress took an order, server brought GIGANTIC portions of
food (I ordered eggplant parmezan). It was extreamly greasy, no taste of eggplant at all, layers of refried bread crums and tastless tomato dressing. My stomach reacted funny right away. SO, IF YOU ARE INTO
HEALTHY FOODS, GOOD OILS(THERE WAS NO TASTE OF VIRGIN OLIVE OIL, I AM NOT EVEN TALKING
OF EXTRA VIRGIN OIL..), DO NOT GO TO THIS PLACE, THEY USE BAD OILS OR BUTTER, REFRIED MANY
TIMES...ATMOSPHERE IS VERY NICE, FOOD - POOR QUALITY INGREDIENTS, VERY GREASY FOOD NOT WORTH YOUR MONEY, UNLESS YOU WANT TO PAY EXTRABUCKS TO SIT IN THE NICE PATIO...

I have been here many times, the food is always consistently great (pesto chicken pasta, YUM! Service is always great, attentive every time. Very busy though, expect to wait for a table, but we've always managed to sit at or in the bar area and eat if there is a wait for the dining area. A word of caution, if ordering pasta, always ALWAYS oder the ""haf order"" Otherwise you will be eating pasta for a week, the regular is an ENORMOUS size.

this place is great. the food is awesome, the atmosphere is great and the patio makes you feel like you're in your in an Italian villa backyard.

completely worth every penny.

Maggiano's rates superbly in terms of service, food quality and ambience. This is perfect for more formal occasions.

We, a group of 11 people, went to Maggiano's on a Sunday night. The wait was LOOOOONG (got there around 6:00pm and were sat at a table around 8:00pm) as we expected. We neglected to make a reservation, so can't complain. Other than the wait, the experience was great. Drink refills were done frequently, without having to ask. Also, we ordered a dish but when it came out, it wasn't what we thought it was. So we asked the waiter if it can be taken back. The waiter did not hesitate a moment and gladly accepted our request. I regret not getting the name of the waiter, but he surely made all 11 of us come back to the restaurant. Overall, it was a great dining experience (great food, great portion, excellent customer service), but next time, I'll make sure to make a reservation before going.

I used to work here and hated almost every minute of it. So, with that being said, my review might be slightly influenced by this. The food is fine, but it is nothing special. If you are vegetarian it is kind of hard to get a decent plate of pasta. Everything has meat in it and when you remove the meat the dishes become rather plain and bland. A lot of the dishes are very heavy on the butter too. If I ever went back I would get the gnocchi, it is definitely the best thing there. The portions are HUGE, a plus for some people I suppose, but it is just an overwhelming amount of food if you ask me. You will definitely be taking some home with you. It is very crowded on the weekends, always a wait of usually an hour. It can be like that at a lot of places, but it is good to know this before you get there. I would strongly recommend reservations. The service seemed to be so, so. Equal number of complaints and compliments from guests when I worked the host stand. The management is very good about trying to satiate unsatisfied customers. If something goes wrong I would definitely ask to speak to management b/c they will usually be able to ""fix"" things for you. Its fine, but I am just over it and think there is better pasta in LA. Try C&O Tratorria on the west side.