My wife Kelly had been singing the praises for Maggiano’s since we first met, but unfortunately it took us just over 2 years for her to finally take me there!
We went on Saturday night, and arrived at 7:00 PM, the place was packed, fortunately for us we had a reservation at 7:45 and there was a seat open in the bar. We took a seat in the bar area and relaxed while we drank some tasty beverages (mine was a Blue Moon Hefe, her’s was a Coke). At just about 7:45 our pager went off and we were quickly seating in the middle of a huge open room that was full of couples, families, and parties chowing down on Italian food. We looked over the menu and my eyes immediately saw the appetizer of the night, Parmesan Garlic Bread, that I didn’t know at the time, was served with some of the best marinara sauce I’ve ever tasted. The bread was perfect except for the fact that we ordered a full order that was way more then the two of us could finish and still eat the rest of our meal, so we packed the rest up to eat the next day. We followed the delicious bread with a half order Caesar Salad that was big enough for 4 people to enjoy. Then came our main dish… I was a little on the fence after looking through the menu, I had my mind set on two items that sounded good, one was a normal menu item, called Rigatoni D, which was described on the menu as; Rigatoni pasta, herb roasted boneless chicken, mushrooms and onions, tossed in a light Marsala cream sauce. And the second offering I was thinking about was on the specials menu, it was a Penne Pasta with Chicken and Shrimp, along with a light asiago cheese sauce and caramelized onions. I went with the later and. Kellly went with the Chicken Parmesan, which is always a good choice as long as they make it fresh. My meal was great, the bowl came to the table piping hot with the perfect look of baked pasta on the tips of Penne. I took a bite and enjoyed the mix of flavors of large stringy chicken pieces and medium sized shrimp. Unfortunately I was already pretty full from the bread and salad, so I only ate about 1/4 of my main entree, because I didn’t want to be stuffed. Kelly’s chicken consisted of 3 chicken breast halves that were lightly breaded and just slightly dark, probably from the mixture of frying the chicken and then baking it with provolone cheese and marinara sauce. The menu said her’s was supposed to come with parmesan chips, so either Kelly was holding out or she didn’t get them, but it was more food then any human could eat in one sitting anyway, so it wasn’t an issue. Along with our main dishes Kelly also ordered us some Garlic Mashed potatoes that we took a couple bits of, but weren’t able to make a dent in due to already being stuffed! So you may ask, what did you do with all this food after you were done? We’ll we did what any smart 20-30 something couple would do with it, we have them box it up and ate it for dinner the next night; which made for a fabulous Sunday dinner that recooked up well in the oven.
Now for a couple observations, our waiter was subpar, I was more impressed with the busboy, since he kept checking on our plates and table to make sure things were cleared or we needed our food packaged up; I’m not deducting points for the service, because overall it was good. The place gives Buca and Macaroni Grill, and probably comes out ahead in the long run, except for how busy they tend to be when you want to go just on a spur of a moment.
I highly suggest Maggiano’s if you are looking for a good, from scratch cooked Italian meal, but just be ready to make a reservation.
[xrr rating=4/5]
Maggiano’s Little Italy
3333 Bristol St
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
(714) 546-9550
