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Maggiano's Little Italy
Rating Details »
- Price Range:
-
$$
- Accepts Credit Cards:
- Yes
- Parking:
- Private Lot
- Attire:
- Casual
- Good for Groups:
- Yes
- Good for Kids:
- Yes
- Takes Reservations:
- Yes
- Delivery:
- No
- Take-out:
- Yes
- Waiter Service:
- Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible:
- Yes
- Outdoor Seating:
- Yes
- Good for:
- Dinner
- Alcohol:
- Full Bar
18 reviews for Maggiano's Little Italy
For Durham, this is a decent restaurant. This place was recommended to the boyfriend who was in town for a training course.
We were seated in a horseshoe booth. I love the bread they give you with the oil to dip in. Our server informed us that they are a scratch kitchen (so I guess it's one step above Olive Garden, lol) so everything is made from scratch. I got the chicken marsala and the boyfriend got the lasagna--both were good. They had more interesting items on the menu but we felt like sticking to the basics. Too bad we didn't have a fridge in our hotel or I would've tried the BOGO pastas. I couldn't finish my chicken but that's probably because I couldn't stop eating the yummy bread.
Good food, great server--I'm glad I live near one back home so I can go back.
As far as Italian chain restaurants go, this place definitely tops the list. They have a pretty wide variety of dishes and the quality is all pretty good. I'll echo everyone else and say that the portions are huge. You can easily split a pasta dish and a salad between two people and be stuffed.
It's also reasonably priced, you can easily get by on $15 a person and sometimes they have really good specials that you can take advantage of, like right now where they have some dishes buy 1, take 1 home for $13.
Yeah, I know. It's Italian like PF Chang's is Chinese. I ain't Italian, but I grew up in an Italian neighborhood, I know how Italian is supposed to be. My brother's wife is Italian. This is Italian meets Marie Callender.
It's a chain restaurant in a mall, what the heck was I thinking?
Stopped by with family to grab a nice sit-down dinner. Phffft! They wanted pasta, I wanted a martini and gnocchi aioli. None of us expected an hour wait, initially 20 minutes. Food arrived rather tepid and tasteless. Stuffed shells, lobster ravs, gnocchi aioli. Cafeteria-grade at its finest.
On the nice-side(and the reason for two stars), the piano player has a classic(Bing Crosby/Perry Como) voice and helped mellow the mood.
If you can swing it, snack in the bar, enjoy the piano, lubricate your conversation with a beverage or two.
I went to this place last weekend while I was visiting some friends! Great place. Great food.
I love Maggiano's. I went there for most of my dates and special occasions with my boyfriend. The price is reasonable and the atmosphere of the restaurant is very nice. The most important thing is that the food tastes great! My favorite used to be the lobster fetuccine but unfortunately last time I went there this dish was discontinued, so I ended up with lobster ravioli instead( I was really disappointed...). But overall, most of the food there tastes great. I love some of there appetizers and desserts and love them all. I will def. go back again n again=)
I'm Italian and having eaten at numerous Italian restaurants I'm pretty picky. However, I feel as though Maggiano's is fantastic. The service is always great, the food is always exactly what you want and then some. The portions are HUGE, but I guess that is sort of to be expected from a chain restuarant.
My favorite is their happy hour appetizers. My husband and I love to cozy up to a lounge table, order a couple of drinks and have some yummy appetizers. Their calamari is fabulous and I love their chopped salad. Their lobster ravioli is some of the best I've ever had!
Four of us went here for dinner on Sunday evening after a movie at the nearby theater. We arrived earlier than our reservation, and fought our way through the mob to the host station, only to learn that we could not be seated until our reservation time. We were seated promptly on-time in the private dining area, which was quieter than the main dining room (a plus), and we shared a great brushetta, wine, and dessert. For entrees, we had the chicken franchese and salmon, both of which were great! For desserts, we shared a Tiramisu and a Creme Brulee. We had a really nice waiter; however, the coffee never arrived, which was disappointing. On the plus side, they had a fantastic pianist who made the night somewhat special. It's a big, busy restaurant; however, it's still the best Italian meal we've found in town! And, at $140 for four, we got our money's worth plus had a great evening.
The DH and I had dinner here our first night in the Triangle on vacation...we wanted something fairly leisurely without a big bill...and I had a bunch of Darden gift cards to use!
Surprisingly, we only waited about 5 minutes for a table...though a few people after us were quoted wait times of an hour or longer. Service was good, but not spectacular. I often feel that this location isn't great at turning tables. I like to linger a little, but we waited nearly 15 minutes from the time we finished the dessert until we got our check...we didn't even see our waiter to try to flag him down.
The chopped salad is great, but since it's so chopped up, it'll make for awful leftovers. My chicken francese was good and the accompanying red potatoes and arugula were very good! My husband enjoyed his pasta dish (a light cream sauce with chicken & mushrooms). The toasted poundcake dessert was just okay...smaller than many of the ones they offer and the bananas weren't really carmelized. I'll go back to chocolate cake for my next visit.
1 Previous Review: Show all »
-
8/31/2008
Had dinner with some co-workers here last week. At 7 pm, it was a 45 minute wait for an inside… Read more »
Mi Piace Molto. Having been to other Maggianos in San Jose and Maryland/Washinton DC, I have to say that this one is the best. I think when you are in the 'burbs, you do as the 'burbians do...that's why we ended up here today for a late lunch. I called at 124 asking for a reservation at 145, which they had for 4 ppl - score! We parked at the mall and only had to wait a few minutes before we were seated. I heard from the reservationist that other parties had a 30 min wait (it sure pays to call ahead).
We sat at a round booth on the side of the restaurant, which was beautifully decorated with trees, wreaths and pointsettias. We asked for the family style lunch, and we chose the 2 salads, 2 pastas, 2 mains and 2 desserts for $16.50 a person. The maggianos and cesar salads were so good, we got refills. We had the zitti and the spaghetti with meatsauce. Both were good and we got a refill on the spaghetti. We also had the eggplant parmesean and chicken marsala. We of course finished all of it and got a refill on the chicken. For dessert, and fearing too many calories we requested a fruit platter (not on the menu) but they were able to whip up a really nice plate of fruits. We also had the spumoni ice cream (pistachio, cherry and chocolate), which we finished. Everything was delicious and we had enough food for dinner to take home!
My girlfriend and I both really enjoyed eating here. We found the children's menu to be healthy and varied. Also, when we informed the maitre-de about my girlfriend's daughter's severe allergy to peanut we were assured that everything would be done to ensure she was safe. Our waiter then reassured us further about the contents of the food and promptly brought out the chef to talk to us and make sure that we were happy with everything and felt at ease. This made a huge difference to our dining experience, as it allowed us to relax and enjoy our meals without fear that the staff hadn't taken our concerns seriously.
The food itself was delicious. We ate a Caesar salad, a children's chicken with mash and broccoli and some Gnocchi. All three were very tasty. The Gnocchi wasn't traditional in that it contained spinach and ricotta, but the waiter explained this to me as I ordered it and I was very pleased with the result.
All in all, a very pleasant dining experience.
I was here for a work function about 18 months ago and was pleasantly surprised with the food and the service. We were in a private dining room with a set menu.
When I heard that we would go back here for another funtion last week, I was happy to try Maggiano's again.
Ugh...not so good. The food wasn't nearly as good as it had been on the last trip. Everything was mediocre, at best. Food was warmish, not hot. The veggies were overdone and drowned in butter. Our bread seemed a little stale even.
I do have to say that the G&T I got at the bar was fabulous. I don't know why. I was just a regular ol' G&T, but it tasted great as the tonice was super fresh.
(Maybe I just really needed a drink after a day of meetings!)
I'll pass next time.
Pretty decent italian food served family style.
At first I didn't know what that meant.
It means you can eat as much of each course as you want before moving on to the next course.
The dishes generally were good, but can be on oily or salty side.
Great to come with a bunch of hungary friends. It is usually very busy.
My family recently went to celebrate three birthdays - mine, my brother's and my mom's. We ordered their family-style dinner, where you pick two appetizers, two salads, etc. You get unlimited servings of each but once you move on, you can't go back to the previous course. We weren't expecting it to be so much food - we all have relatively small appetites so we were full by entrees! But we liked it a lot, so we plan on going back when our hungrier relatives come into town.
Also, we went during off hours and the restaurant was still crowded - it's popular, so expect a wait over 20 minutes.
I went here for the first time about a month ago and was shocked at how much food appeared at my table.
I ordered the family dinner which was only $25 per person. Everyone eating gets to choose their own appetizer, salad, main entree, pasta dish, and a dessert. The waitress advised ahead of time that it was going to be a boatload of food, so I chose to have the salad and pasta boxed without bringing it to the table. Even with those two dishes boxed there was more than enough food between the appetizer, meat, and dessert to take home and box as well. I left stuffed and delighted.
The chocolate cake I chose for dessert was pure wonderful, might I add. It was HUGE and I wanted more than anything in the world to finish it, but I hardly made a dent...talk about painful to leave that slice of heaven behind.
The food and service were supreme - I'd eat there with a huge appetite any time.
So why am I writing up the "Maggiano''s Little Italy" in Durham, North Carolina and *not* the "Maggiano's Little Italy" in San Jose's Santana Row a mile from my house?
Well, silly, becuz I never *ate* at the one a mile from my house! But here are my workmate and I in the Raleigh-Durham Research Triangle Park area for a week - and we've just got in off a grueling 6 hour SJ-to-Phoenix-to-RTP flight - and the concierge at the Marriot Courtyard Inn suggests trying the restaurants at the Southpoint Mall a few minutes down the road.. and we get there and are going.. "Gee.. this mall has damn near *all* the *same* trendy stores and restaurants as Valley Fair and Santana Row.." ...and *goddam* I suddenly suspect that what I previously considered to be my reasonably unique, eccentric, personalized and idiosyncratic California-flavored existence is in fact a whole lot more market demo-graphed, templated, and just plain *goddam* banal than I ever thought... sigh.. I'm worker bee, I'm a drone.. consuming whatever left-over bread and circuses the powers that be see fit to enable me to access...
..but I digress...
*This* Maggiano's was... *actually very nice!!!!* .. with patrons a little more laid-back .. and less numerous.. than the ones you need to fight past at its franchise-clone/cousin in Santana Row. I had some very nice baked trout laid out and done just right on a nice bed of spinach.. and not *very* expensive.. $11.95 for the small trout.. which is actually not that small.. plus 2.50 for coffee and a 4-dollar tip from Mr. Generous.. uhm, $19.43. (I'm expensing it, of course).
I might even consider trying the one in Santana Row someday..
Maggiano's is my favorite restaurant at Southpoint - as long as you have a reservation or it is not crowded. The waits are often over 45 minutes even though they have a lot of seating. The food here rocks. The portions are gigantic (1/2 portion is enough for two people to split, usually, depending on dish) and I have never been disappointed. The prices are good for the portions and high quality. The atmosphere is upscale casual and very pleasant. A very good restaurant.
We had a group of 20 for a business dinner and had selected the menu and food ahead of time. We had a private room. The food was great the service was exceptional. Everything came out at once well prepared and hot. This is as good as it gets for large groups. I would highly recommend.
I loved this place. It actually has Italian charm...something like you'd feel in Philly or New York. The food is outstanding. It is definitely better than the typical chain restaurant like Cheesecake Factory. Good food, good service, and nice decor. I will definitely go back.
