Maggiano’s Little Italy (Boca Raton)
***** Maggiano’s Little Italy, 21090 St. Andrews Boulevard, Boca Raton, Florida 33433 (561) 361-8244.
Let’s start this review off by getting you to Maggiano’s website at www.maggianos.com.
Maggiano’s is a national chain of “up-scale-looking” Southern Italian Restaurants. The website will give you menu/pricing/locations…If I have read the “map” correctly, Maggiano’s is currently in 22 states which includes 4 locations in Florida…Boca Raton, Jacksonville, Orlando and Tampa.
Maggiano’s decor is as “handsome” as most of South Florida’s “top-notch” Italian and steakhouse restaurants…the website has photos which will give you some idea as to what I am talking about.
Now let’s talk food. Maggiano’s menu is loaded with all kinds of appetizers, soups, salads, pastas, meat-veal-seafood-chicken entrees and desserts…sorry, no pizza. The food (now get this) is absolutely delicious. There are 2-ways that you can order…individual…or family style. Hopefully “individual” speaks for itself…Maggiano’s has a “Family Style Lunch” and a “Family Style Dinner.” Now stay with me…when you order “Family Style” the whole table picks various appetizers, pastas, entrees, desserts, etc., which are then shared and (here’s the great part) the amount of food is all-you-can-eat. Trust me, Maggiano’s has this Family Style-All-You-Can-Eat thing down to a science…it is basically a variation on the old Chinese proverb: 1 from column A, 2 from column B.
On my two outings to this joint, I “sampled”…fried zucchini, lasagna, chicken marsala, veal parmigiana, chicken cacciatore, shrimp oreganata…everything was absolutely delicious.
Now for the kicker…this joint makes a dessert called Apple Crostada that is absolutely fantastic…you can read the website for details as to how it is actually made… but for right now, “think” McDonald’s “fried apple pie” covered in vanilla ice cream…by the way, McDonald’s replaced the “fried apple pie” with “baked apple pie” in 1992. Anyway…this dessert is incredible and it alone is worth the price of the meal. One final thought…if you order “Family Style” you can have all of the Crostadas that you want.
Although Maggiano’s is done-up as a fancy looking joint, tee shirt/shorts are just fine. Individual prices are no more than your favorite neighborhood “mom and pop” joint…”Family-Style” ordering is going to run you about 25 bucks a head.
Maggiano’s is open 7 days a week for lunch and dinner. It is always jammed.
jeff, last night i used a gift card that i received. this would not be my first choice for an Italian meal. the chopped salad, roast chicken, lasagna and fried zucchini was very good but the chicken parm, nocchi and fried mozzarella wasn’t good. they have a deal where you can eat all you want for $27 but it is more quantity over quality. the food is a mixed bag and the bill for 3 of us ran $90 before tip and taxes. for that kind of money you can get a better meal attons of restaurants.
we also tried that apple crostada that you mentioned it was ok but nothing great same went for the spumoni. service was very nice and last night the restaurant was quite busy. when you eat here you know that this is part of a “chain”. it looks very attractive but you know that all of the old photos are phony. i wont be back real soon.
Yes, I agree that the food is good, but not as good as Carraba’s. However, having gone to other Maggiano’s chains, I’ve found that this staff and manager to be the snootiest, nastiest, and non-caring group I’ve ever encountered. Tried it 2x. Once with my guide dog and got such a horrid treatment that I ended up actually crying!The manager behaved very badly and his attitude was beyond belief. I wrote to the home office and they disciplined the staff and manager and gave me a free dinner. I tried it again (without my service animal) and it was still as snooty as ever. I’d go to Carraba’s where they actually care about the customers.
very good chain. as good as most local places.
Terrific food and prices.