Maggiano's Little Italy

For the previous 3 weeks we have had Asian food, so it was definitely time for a change. Last week we have decided to go to Maggiano's Little Italy, located at 189 The Grove Drive Z80, Los Angeles, CA, 90036. It is an upscale casual dining establishment, and since it was also close to B's birthday, we took the occasion to celebrate her downhill free fall :) We had with us the full BETZ team, plus special guest star Mrs.V and Mr J, and of course, the extra E. The 7 of us arrived separately, parking was plentiful for LA, as described previously on the Cheese Cake Factory post, it is in the same plaza/mall.

Around 9:15 we were all there gathered around the bar area. It took about 15-20 minutes for us to be seated. I had studied their wine list ahead of time and ordered a glass of Malbec, B had a sourapple martini, Z ordered pinot noir, Mr J had beer, the rest had soda. It was not inexpensive, but I can say that they had selected the best available for daily wines, and upcharged it about 3x retail, still they had a good list and hey they need to pay the rent, so it was fair.

We had ordered appetizers to start, like before, we decided to each order something and just share. We had ordered Mozzarella Mariana, Bruschetta, Barb's Spinach & Artichoke al Forno(who's Barb?), an order of fried calamari, and a Caesar salad to start.

Did we over do it on the appetizers, yea I would say so, but they were worth their cost, especially the Mozzarella and the spinach & Artichoke. I am not a fan of Bruschetta personally, but then again I don't like bread in general. None the less, it was vaporized shortly, and the calamari was huge in portion, as a note, any of these "appetizers" would be enough to fill a normal person, so watch yourselves or you may ended up not being able to enjoy the main course.

For the main courses, even though we were all suppose to order different dishes... 3 of us picked the herb roast chicken... we ended up ordering 2 orders of the whole herb roast chicken, an order of Chicken Parmesan, and order of chicken pesto linguine, (looks like everyone was a chicken lover that day), and a side of mash potato. The herb chicken was amazing, the smell of pine mixed with red potatoes and garlic along with the light sauce, cooked to perfection, it was stunning, and even though we could not finish it, and had to take most of it home, even after reheating it in the oven(following the instructions on their to-go tray), it was still stunning. If I had to make a complaint, and this is truly nit picking, then it would be it was a little too oily.

The pesto linguine was extremely popular on our table, it was huge, just like everything else that were served, the pesto sauce was smooth and flavorful, add that with chicken, pine nuts, and a taste of lemon, it went well with the pasta. However, you would have to eat that one quickly as the pasta will soak up too much of the flavor and lose the Al Dante in the process.

The Chicken Parmesan were 3 breast breaded, fried, and topped with provolone and Mariana sauce. I was already filled when I tried it, and since we all had the mozzarella earlier, and the dish is basically the same except it was with chicken, it kind of got bypassed by everyone. I shared a piece with B and personally, I liked it. The bread was not overly heavy, but not too light either. It didn't taste like it was pre-made, I suspect they breaded it themselves, probably using frozen breast though. It had a fine bite to it, it wasn't as stunning as the roast chicken, but it was a well made dish.

The mash potato added and enhance the experience. We ordered desserts, and tried their 6 assorted sampler. It was decent, but no where as good as the main or apps.


As far as Italian food is concern, personally, I think it is a match to La Fontana in Glendale(that's my favorite Italian restaurant btw, and in some cases, such as the roast chicken, I think it even surpasses them). The table we had was set for 8, but it was just too small even with just 7, we kept dropping forks and knives due to the compact space. It was like fitting 7 in a compact car, I personally would have prefer a nice long table, but this was not the case. For what we had ordered, just in terms of their plate size alone, would not have fit the table.

Overall

Location/parking********************Since it is in the same place as the Cheesecake Factory:For LA, its an A, B if you compare it to say...orange county?

Environment***********************A-, if it only closed later, it was a drag to start at 9:30ish and see them start packing up by 11, almost felt like we were being rushed to leave.

Drinks*****************************A-, they had the standard fare for liquor, but they did a good job selecting a wine list, with a decent line up of Italian wine, plus a few more from Chile and Argentina, it wasn't just California wine, I wish more restaurant does that.

Food*******************************we didn't really sample the variety, but for the chicken dishes we had, it's definitely an A. I liked it, and I want to go again to try some of their veal dishes, and maybe seafood as well.

Price*******************************It was basically about 25 bucks a person with what we had ordered, tip included. I would rate it as a B.

Overall, this is a very decent upscale casual restaurant, and so far with only the chicken dishes, it showed to be worthy of being an A- in our book. This one is definitely to be continue....