Maggiano's Little Italy

I've been to Maggiano's almost 16 years ago and I remember it vaguely, but there was a time you order an Italian meal like lasagna, fettuccine Alfredo or baked ziti and you get a duplicate cold, for microwaving to go. It was an amazing deal. However, that was a long time ago. Today, as I came in, things were different. There wasn't this deal anymore sadly. It was an amazing deal although very fatty and high in calories. Interior was immaculate, hearty and beautiful to look at. The decoration, the layout, the people and space were all decorative and colorful. I felt like I was inside an imperial palace. Most of the seats on the perimeter were booths and the middle areas included regular tables and wooden seats. Service was pretty good. Waitress was great! Not outstanding, but great and she was delightful to have as a server. Food quality is excellent to outstanding. I ordered the chicken Marsala. It was lighter than Cheesecake Factory. It came with a pasta with garlic, olive oil and Parmesan cheese. It was not a whole lot, which was fine because the chicken and mushrooms on my plate were plentiful. The taste and texture was absolute pristine. Other orders were a spaghetti and meatball. Boring! A shrimp scampi, meh! And a clam linguini, not bad. I liked mine the most by far. The price of my chicken Marsala was like $30. I'm like, dang that is a lot, but it was filling and delicious. The spaghetti and meatball was $25, the linguini was $35 and the scampi was $30. It came out to be over $115 with the tip and tax etc. The overall experience was more or less, happy, exciting and wonderful. I recommend coming once in a blue moon. Its exotic nature and ambiance are what I classify as special occasion. We came to celebrate my friends birthday. Most other people were there for birthdays, graduation parties and business meetings. It's not for people who come regularly. It's a high class restaurant and I enjoyed the entire time I was here. It is one of my favorite Italian restaurants that has survived this far. Enjoy!

I tried to eat here with my mom yesterday, 2/23/25. We wanted to get food before seeing a musical. To preface this, we left the restaurant before eating. We got there at 5 PM, there were a ton of people outside the restaurant. I went on the website and made a reservation at 5:30 PM. We decided to wait outside with the other people. Eventually we went to sit inside the restaurant and wait. The restaurant was dimly-lit, loud as ever and crowded. My mom went up around 5:20 PM to the hostess, to let her know we are here and waiting. The hostess said the table just needed to be wiped, only 3-4 minute wait. We waited another 10 minutes, watching as big groups were sat before us. My mom went up again and a different host said 3-4 minutes still. The host said we would get a text when the table was ready. At this point, lots of people finished their meals and were leaving. People who arrived after us were getting seated first. We were pissed and frustrated with the service! I used to be a hostess at a restaurant, so I know firsthand about seating reservations. If the restaurant was so busy, they should've taken down reservations online. A reservation is not a suggestion. We waited patiently, all the people who we waited with got sat. No problem with that, but people arriving after us with big groups got sat before us. I felt like asking for the manager but we just left pissed and hungry. I got a message 30 minutes later that our table was ready. This was a terrible experience and I didn't even get food! I wouldn't bother going here again, how you get treated regardless of food speaks volumes.

Nice Italian spot located on the corner of Bristol and Sunflower in the South Coast Plaza parking lot. Lots of parking. Clean bathrooms. Indoor seating only. Came for a party. Nice private room. Service was average. Most of the food was excellent. Appetizers- Spinach Artichoke dip and bread 6/10Fried Calamari 6/10Maggiano's Salad 8/10 - lite dressing, not overpowering Main Course - Mom's Lasagna 5/10, too runnyChicken Piccata 8.5/10 - cooked well, good flavor, tasty capers Blackened salmon with Calabrian Shrimp 10/10 - amazing flavor, texture, and taste. These 2 paired together was superb! Dessert - Tiramisu 8/10 great presentation, tasty Cheesecake 8/10 delicious Overall, a nice place to celebrate an event or have a nice dinner out. Moderate pricing.

My fiancée and I have been coming to Maggianos for year and decided to spend our 10 year anniversary at the Costa Mesa location. It was a spur of the moment decision so we didn't have a reservation, but we sat in the bar area and had a great waiter who was attentive and helpful. When he heard about our anniversary, he gave us a complimentary dessert plate with lemon cookies and champagne. The food was delicious and always and we've never had a bad experience at this location

We hosted my mother in law's 60th birthday celebration at Maggiano's, and we cannot say enough great things about our overall experience! From the beginning, Gabby Ruiz, made the planning process very easy for us! We have never eaten at Maggiano's before and we were very impressed! There is plenty of parking! It is close to the mall. The inside of the restaurant was decorated so beautifully for the holidays. It looked very homey and comfortable. We had the private event room for 20 guests. They allowed us to put up some balloon decorations. We had our own server, who was absolutely amazing! She was very attentive to all of our guests and made us all feel so comfortable. The food was delicious! I personally got full just from the appetizers. The main course was delicious also! We initially thought that each person would have to choose 1 item from each course. But it was more family style! We loved this because everyone was able to try everything. My personal favorites were the calamari, lasagna, rigatoni "d", and the butter cake. The rigatoni "d" was stellar.Would love to emphasize again how much we appreciated the excellent service! Our server felt like she was apart of our family. She was warm and made sure everyone was taken care of. Thank you, Maggiano's, for making our celebration so special! We already want to come back.

I'll give this place a passing grade of C, C+. I had never tried Maggianos until now but I had heard great things. Therefore I was a bit underwhelmed by the food. Table bread- honestly it tastes like recycled, day old bread that's been reheated too many times in a microwave. You get balsamic vinegar and olive oil with your bread, the bread desperately needs it. Ceasar salad - just ok. It has a weird deli meat/ham smell to it even thought we didn't order it with protein. A shareable size is almost $20. Not worth it. Chicken piccata- I wouldn't be able to distinguish this meal from something served at Cheesecake Factory, which we all know is frozen food. Some of my pasta was al dente, some was well done. The texture was odd but at least it was redeemed by how flavorful it was. The chicken was probably the best part however the breading was a bit soggy.The total for 2 people who shared a starter, came out to almost 100, after tip, about $120. Given the average tasting food, I'd suggest going to a chain restaurant.

I had the opportunity to dine here through a professional sponsored event. I liked that Maggiano's has a three course meal style approach to their dinners. This was my first time ever trying something like that. I'm not sure how much their dinners cost if you were to dine through reservation, but it seems like a great and intimate location to eat for two or for a family/celebration. I would love to come back in the future with my significant other someday. Really hardworking servers as well.

The restaurant has easy parking and food is delicious. Went at Christmas and it was very beautiful and my food was fantastic Great service and the young girl that waited on us was excellent. The picture is Xmas with friends on my birthday

Been to this location twice and had a good experience each time. Service and food are both consistent. Really hits the spot as a carb lover!

Went last night with family and friends as we have been going to Maggianos for well over 15 years. Sadly they have changed their family style menu which was highly disappointing. Would have cancelled the reservation if we had known this earlier. Price has gone up which is understandable these days but the menu is now more of a chefs choice menu and not a family style menu. You don't have food options or choices, and the menu lacks many of the traditional italian dishes, like the fried mozzarella, cheese raviolis and chicken fettuccini. The main reason we always did the family style was because it accommodated large parties, the kids loved it and it offered great options so that everyone had their favorite dish. No longer, not a fan. We had a party of 9 and everyone was disappointed in the food and I would not recommend doing family style with this new menu specially if you have kids. Big Disappointment.