Maggiano's Little Italy — Restaurant in Denver

Failed to meet the minimum standard for an Italian restaurant. (Average would be three stars, this is a 2-2.5) I would not recommend and here’s why:

Food is overpriced, not described correctly and WAY more American than Italian. The food is the same quality as Olive Garden and honestly it’s hard to tell the 2 apart.

She ordered a pomegranate martini, was told it would be “super sweet” and it was tart like nerds candy, very fake. Not good. I ordered a whiskey sour and they did not have egg whites so you mean a whiskey with lemon and simple? I did try it without but it was awful. Also…no eggs in a restaurant???

We got bread and oil and balsamic to start, the oil didn’t have any flavor, the balsamic was sweet and the bread was more like an American dinner roll than Italian bread. For the app we ordered bruschetta, it was good, tomatoes tasted fresh but the bread wasn’t Italian bread (which the waiter did state that the food isn’t authentic Italian, so whatever) also it was a bit messy to eat bc of the way it was put together. Flavor was good. Best part of the whole meal. For my main I ordered Chicken Marsala, very disappointed. The texture of the chicken tasted like chicken skin and I was so turned off by that. Apparently they bread it and then dunk it in the sauce and it gets soggy. On top of that the waiter described it as the breading created a “scab” over the chicken, which is an awful way to describe food I’m about to eat. Also it came with spaghetti that was supposed to be flavored with olive oil and garlic but it was mostly dry, and had a hint of butter. The one positive was that the waiter had my dish remade with grilled chicken, which was okay, but obviously not what I had in mind. My date ordered linguine with clams in a white sauce and it was VERY soupy, like a melted stick of butter sat at the bottom as soon as she dumped that out flavors were much better. Some other negatives were: • The waiter talked too fast and jumbled his words together, needs a lesson on customer service and slowing down when he speaks • the tiramisu contains pork so I was disappointed that I couldn’t enjoy that for dessert and I skipped it all together. • Also my date ordered a glass of wine and the waiter comes to the table with two glasses of red wine in his hand, stands there for about 20 seconds trying to decide which goes to which table and still gives my partner the wrong one. 🙃

The atmosphere is a caricature of an Italian restaurant…it’s just really American and NOT Italian at all.

Listen, skip it....

I hesitated about leaving a review on this place, because they made me feel so uncomfortable :( When I first arrived, I had a friendly & polite greeting from the host. Everything seemed ok at first…My friend & I sat down, & were promptly informed that they have no cocktails, or wine because they are remodeling the bar, & if we wanted some wine, we would have to buy a whole bottle. Wouldn’t that have been good to mention on the phone, when we made the reservation?? This place is pricey, & you can’t even have a drink with dinner. The waiter was very attentive, which usually I would prefer, but this time it was a bit much. I have to say this was one of the strangest dining experiences I’ve had. I was asked why I chose the restaurant, & why I’m in town upon arrival. Then I had the waiter ask me more than multiple times why I chose the restaurant, & why I’m in town. I was feeling that the amount I was being bugged, checked on, & questioned was getting a bit excessive. My friend & I haven’t seen each other in 5 years, & they interrupted our conversations more than multiple times throughout our meal. It’s ok to just check on the table a couple times, more than 4 or 5 times gives customers zero privacy to talk. Then it got really weird. The manager came up, told us we look tired, & asked us why we aren’t finishing the food?! Excuse me? I find that pretty rude! Why are you spying on your customers & harassing them for not finishing dinner? The manager only stopped at our table & the table next to us. I felt we were being treated much differently than other customers. We both felt harassed & confused. Never coming back here, I have a suspicion that I was treated differently for my looks. I look very alternative & this looked like a fancy restaurant, who may have been judging me, since I looked out of place. I didn’t finish my food because they made us feel alienated & very uncomfortable. Customers deserve to be treated equally & have...

Updated Review, April 2025

I originally posted a one-star review a few years ago, after I had A LOT of problems with this restaurant. However, there was a period when I gave it another chance… and they actually improved. I svwn found a regular manager who addressed any issues I had himself, who was very kind and courteous, as well as attentive to my needs as a disabled patron.

That manger now no longer works here… and things have sadly regressed to what they were before.

I’ve had isolated incidents in the past, but never have I had an audition where I explicitly told the staff I needed extra help, then told them about my food sensitivity/allwrgies… only to still be served entrees that I couldn’t eat because they included an ingredient I was allergic to. It also didn’t help that I was dining with a larger group, which I’ve noticed usually gets me ignored as a blind person who needs additional support.

All I can say now is they: a restaurant who disrespects my disabilities, dodges questions, and then ignores my allergies and simple food safety standards, is simply no longer worth my time or money. I basically left dinner early, went hungry, and had to cut multiple glasses of water just to ensure that I don’t have any after-effects of eating something I couldn’t eat… even though I asked to be served a different plate when I made my allergies vary clear, DIRECTLY TO THE CHEF.

I’m done with this place. If you have better luck than me, more power to you, but I’d rather go all the way down to the DTC and pray they don’t treat me like crap and ignore everything I tell them.

BS service. Have...