Macaroni Grill

Last Friday was a very special day for me. It was special because for the first time since our group's inception, we were all available, and we had no extras, no special guest stars, no star trek red shirts, no add on luggage, no carry on's, it was just the four of us. We decided on Italian, well sort of, more like Americanized Italian, which was cool. We picked Macaroni Grill in Cerritos, located at 12875 Towne Center Drive Cerritos, CA 90703-8585. It was right off the 91 Freeway, in a shopping plaza, fairly convenient to get to. I arrived at 8:45 pm and everyone was already there and had already started ordering.

The place was fairly large, the decor from the outside looked like a barn though. Inside it was contemporary, with an open kitchen. The setting was definitely family oriented, it is a step up from say Denny's but not nearly the level of Maggiano's. I liked the way they casually leave bottles of wine around, I was tempted to garb one and help myself.... They also serve Italian wine, which was rare for a restaurant of this level. The waiters are their number one asset imo, friendly, professional, and some have the makings of being great singers.

They served us bread and we ordered a few ceasar salads, which for 2 bucks it wasn't bad at all. The bread wasn't very good though, it is passable if you dip it against your dish and use it as a plate cleaner. For drinks, I ordered La Crema Pinot Noir, which was surprisingly decent. The girls had ordered their drinks ahead of time from the bar, and I found out that Z actually had the same after I ordered... oh well.

So we ordered our dishes. B and E both decided to create their own pasta, but they both decided to have Parm Chicken as the main protein. T and Z were both drinking Pinot Noir, so it was natural that they too ordered chicken dishes, so it ended up everyone was a chicken...I mean had chicken. T ordered Penne with Oven Roasted Chicken, and Z ordered Pinot Grigio Chicken. They had on their menu a very tempting picture of Berry Tiramisu, we gave in and ordered just one to share. They promptly took our order and our meal got to our table within 15 minutes. That actually got my hopes up a little as I thought it meant they dont precook their pasta. Well, to be honest, I don't know if they do or not, but it sure taste like they do. I had my Penne, and I tried B's linguine, and it was not al dente... the sauce and flavor were ok... actually, it was good, but the pasta was lacking. Simply there were no bite to it. The breaded parmesan the girls ordered were slightly too brown, which meant they need to change the fryer's oil. It tasted good though so the girls didn't mind. The Tiramisu was very nice, and actually looked like the one from the picture, we should have ordered 2.

All through out the evening we kept hearing waiters singing birthday songs in Italian(I think its Italian), and E and Z were yearning for it, it was just so obvious. It was also very obvious that even though they had several singers, they both had their eye on this one(the one with hair) Anyhow, it got to the point where our resident compulsive liar E decided to just go for it, and told our waitress that it was Z's birthday(so that she can say she did it for Z......Right! and I'm Tinkerbell). The gamble paid out, not only did they not card anyone, they gave us a small chocolate cake, and they got the singing waiter they wanted. To see them drool...priceless.

Overall

Location/Parking*************************** B(it would have been an A-, with parking so plentiful, but when I left I found someone left a couple bags of used fast food under my car)

Atmosphere/Environment******************* A, thank the waiters

Food ************************************** B, the pasta needs work

Drink**************************************A- nice wine selection

Price************************************** B+, for Italian it was inexpensive, about 14 dollars a person

Overall************************************B+