Massimiliano's

06/23/2007 Posted by clbell

After entering this very nice-looking restaurant, our waiter, Robert, said he would be right with us. He proceeded to visit with other customers. When he finally got to us, he took our drink orders, and our food order, since we had waited at least 10 minutes for him to get back with us. After taking our order, our drinks arrived about 10 minutes later. BTW, we attemped to order Pelligrino, but no one we spoke with even knew what it was even though there was a bottle on a nearby counter. We gave up on that. Bread, which came with our ordering, was always going to "be out in just a minute"...about 30 minutes later it was out! "Bread" was two breadsticks that had been dividing in half served on a plate with what tasted like theatre popcorn butter. UGH! We waited all that time for THAT? Next our "salads" arrived...house salad was romaine lettuce with parmesean cheese and raspberry dressing....that is all it consisted of. Finally, the food arrived...we are about 1 hour into the meal. Pizza, ordered by our boys, was undercooked. The sauce was too sweet. I had inquired as to whether it was Italian or pork sausage and the reply was it is "our regular sausage". It was Italian sausage. Not our kids' favorite. Manicotti and lasagna were mediocre, although the meatball served with was pretty good. None of the food was overly warm, perhaps caused by the sub-freezing temperatures of the restaurant. Wanting to cut-bait and run, we again waited with dirty dishes on the table for Robert to bring our bill to us. None was forthcoming, so we headed downstairs to find him and our bill. After paying, I spoke with the manager to find out they had run out of sauce, hence the wait. Would have been nice to have been told! I explained all of the above to the manager, adding that the wait-staff were chewing gum, extremely unprofessional in my opinion, and she apologized and attempted to give me a card with 20% off our next meal. Gave back, we won't eat there again.

Pros: nice band playing downstairs

Cons: mediocre food, terrible service, unprofessional, lazy staff

05/16/2007 Posted by dillionw

On entering the establishment, you get the immediate feeling that you are in for a treat. The modern look and touch of class leads you to believe that you are going to receive great service and great food. Unfortunately, that's where reality sets in. With only one waiter, you quickly realize that service is not a top priority. Once seated, you are given a "cheesie" menu that was self-printed. There are not many choices and zero variety. Menu selections are "pizza parlor" items, like your basic pasta dishes. You will not find any creativity or original recipe items. Massimiliano's does not have a "Chef", they have a cook, and you can certainly tell by the taste of the food. It is very "short order style". We were able to view the kitchen from our table. We watched the cook using pre-prepared, frozen commercial items most likely purchased from a food supply giant. Nothing homemade, nothing original. On to the food. We started with a bread, receiveing 4 slices of "store bought" bread and a canned dipping sauce. Next, we received our salad prior to the appetizer. We tried the "house" dressing which was a pepto colored rasberry walnut dressing. It does not belong with this menu and its flavor was lacking. The salad was simple lettuce with one cherry tomato. We finally received our appetizer, Calamari. It was well over cooked and cold, served with a terrible version of marinara sauce that was extremely bitter and over powering. Finally, we received our main course after about 55 minutes. I had pasta with a meatball and sausage; my partner had the lasagne. The pasta was cold. The sauce was seriously over-powering with too many herbs and as bitter as a lemon. The meatballs are surely bought from a food distributor. The sausage was not impressive. The 7 layer lasagne must have been a joke. It was beyond dry, over cooked and even "crunchy" with little content or flavor. Poor management, poor menu, poor service and poor flavor. A Bust!

Pros: Nice ambience, great downtown location.

Cons: Poor food, poor service and horrible management.