🚀 go-pugleaf

A review of the Romano's Macaroni Grill on Westheimer, between Bering
and Augusta.

Macaroni Grill is a relatively large place with Italian kitsch on the
walls and in corners. It is a chain outfit, I know there are locations
in Dallas, and it has that chain feel to it.  You know, you could go
to any location and have a hard time distinguishing amongst them from
the decor.  Macaroni's main gimmick is that when you ask for wine,
they bring you a big jug of house labeled wine, and you pour your own
on the honor system, telling your waiter how many glasses you have
drunk when the meal is over.

My conclusion after having eaten there twice (once in Houston, once in
Dallas, both times the place was selected by someone else) is that 
everything about the place is palatable, but unremarkable: the wine,
the food, the service, the decor.  I could see this outfit doing real
well in some suburban areas.

The red wine was not-too-sweet, not-too-tannic jug wine.  Mediocre, but
drinkable.  That's okay though, because in that respect it matches the
food.  My wife and I each had a pizza.  They were baked in a wood
oven, and unfortunately, tasted *too* much like that.  I don't know,
maybe we got some small pieces of charred wood in the pizza.  The
pizzas were ostensibly neapolitan style, with little or no tomato
sauce.  I had the grilled vegetable pizza and Debby had the spinach
and prosciutto pizza.  Their idea of grilled vegetables was some
yellow onions, mushrooms, and red and green bell peppers.  The pizza
was mostly crust and cheese though.  Bland, except for the burned wood
taste.  The spinach and prosciutto pizza was equally unremarkable.
Some others at the table had ordered a penne pasta dish.  The pasta
was also adequate, but unremarkable, and the pasta itself was much
more prevalent than the other ingredients in the dish.  This is fine,
and probably closer to the proportions that the Italians eat, but
since the other stuff in the dish was not very flavorful or
interesting, the whole effect was ho-hum.

My wife had a side house salad with a "chianti dressing".  This
sounded interesting, but it appears that the chianti they used was
much closer to vinegar than wine.  The salad was so astringent that
she left most of it on the plate.

The service was acceptable except for a few annoyances.  The server
offered to grate some Parmesan cheese for each diner.  He used a flat
grater and a large chunk of cheese, instead of a Mouli grater or a
bowl of recently grated cheese.  As a consequence, he had to lean over
each diner and do some relatively large arm motions to grate the
cheese.  We all had to lean out of the way to avoid being hit in the
face by the guy's elbow as he grated.  One of the people in the groupo
had difficulty ordering a drink because she asked for a "Coca-Cola".
It took the waiter about three tries to understand her, because as he
said, he was used to people ordering a "Coke".  He then forgot to
bring it to her, and wandered by at some point and asked her if she
wanted something to drink.  She repeated her order and he dashed off
to get it.

The prices were moderate:  $6-9 for entrees, about $3-5 for
appetizers, wine was $2.50 a glass.  Since I can pay about those
prices or only slightly more for much better food at Grotto,
Cent'anni, Carrabba's, Sfuzzi, etc., I think I'll stick to those
places, given the choice.


-- 
Joseph A. Watters, Jr.		jaw@owlnet.rice.edu
Rice University
Houston, Texas