Maggiano's Little Italy — Restaurant in Hackensack

Ok first of all let me start by saying I’ve been to this location no less than 10 times. I come here because even though the Italian food is no where near the quality that is available from an independent “authentic” Italian restaurant, the quantity has been great for the price. This makes it a great value when feeding a family of 5. What’s been great is when the servers see that you have eaten all of a particular item, they bring more. Well at least this is how it’s always been. We were at the Bridgewater location about 3-4 weeks ago with some extended family where it was just as I’ve described. I wasn’t looking to go back to Maggiano’s after only a few weeks but I was out voted so that’s where we ended up. We all ordered the family style meal. As mentioned, we are a family of five. They brought the food out so fast that we didn’t have enough time to enjoy our salads and cold appetizers. So while we did that, much of the hot food got cold. We kindly asked them to slow down bring out food so we would have time to enjoy it. After the five of us ate the three meatballs that they brought out, we asked for more. We were told that Maggianos no longer offers “refills”. We were told that this change took place some time in December.

Not sure if it’s a company wide thing or just certain locations but three weeks ago at a different location (end of January), this was not the case. They brought out more food each time we requested it.

They did end up bringing out more meatballs when we complained about it. Then when they brought out the chicken parm; they brought out only two pieces of chicken. Yes you read that correctly. Two chicken cutlets parmigiana for five people. Again we complained and this time the manager came over and apologized. He explained the change in policy again. I told him that it’s one thing to cut off refills but to bring out two pieces of chicken for five people is laughable.

Also, other than the meatballs and calamari which were both excellent, the food quality has gone down a bit. Still not bad but not worth the price at all.

I wouldn’t mind this policy change if we were told about it before we ordered. When we were initially greeted by our server, he asked if we have been here before. We all said yes. Many times over several years. This would have been the perfect time to say - ok since you have been here before, I’d like to take a second and explain some changes. This didn’t happen. We didn’t find out about the change till after we ordered and started eating. Before we ordered, a few of us at the table including myself considered ordering off the menu instead of family style. We all decided that for the price, family style is a better value because not only do they bring out more food when requested, but we could even take food home. Sadly we were wrong. Had we known this ahead of time, we could have ordered differently. Or maybe would have even chosen a different restaurant. Maybe that’s why they chose to be deceptive to their loyal customers.

We no longer see Maggianos as a good value and as such we will make sure to let others know of this change in case they are planning on visiting Maggianos in the future. Social media is a great thing. We will be sure to spread the word.

Besides that, I really can’t say anything negative about Maggianos at Riverside Square in Hackensack. The staff is wonderful and attentive. It’s just unfortunate that Maggianos has lost its status as being a value for a family dinner. I spent just under $300 for a family of 5. One of the five in the group is only 4 years old so we didn’t even pay for him. $300 for dinner and only one person in our group had one glass of wine. Everyone else drank water and iced tea. That’s an expensive dinner for something that’s really not much better than...

Thanksgiving 6:00 pm reservations, we were given a one page Menu (ala Carte) 3 courses. A complimentary 3 tiny pieces of bruschetta which was stale and no tomatoes. Waitress was extremely nice apologized for making us wait 10 minutes before bringing menu or taking our drink order.stated it was very busy.She came back to take our order, I asked if I could order a salad to share, she said yes but I could only get one side, which was fine. I ordered Turkey, mashed potatoes (came w/ giblet gravy) and stuffing. My husband was able to order two sides because he didn’t substitute. Our food took 25 minutes to come out (waitress again came to apologize stating the kitchen was backed-up. Within the next 5 minutes our food came out, the whole dinner was COLD and there was no gravy. We sent them back and waited another ten minutes when it came out it was only warm so we requested additional gravy , thinking it would be hot but that also was only warm. We ate a couple of bites and pushed the plate aside, a Manager came by our table to see how everything was, I explained the dinner was cold, (2x) and the Turkey was extremely rubbery, and it was quite apparent this was not a fresh Turkey but indeed a Turkey roll. She offered for us to pick another dinner from the menu, but added they had no more ham, we said NO. She then said what about dessert, I ordered the pumpkin cheese cake and my husband ordered the apple Crostada with vanilla ice-cream. She stated she would personally get them herself ,she came back to the table within 5 minutes to tell us they ran out of pumpkin cheese cake and had no more ice cream. (This went from bad to worse) before we knew it the waitress was at our table with 2 orders of tirimasu and 2 apple Crostada (large) no ice cream, and the waitress again apologizing for the complete dinner mishaps and then informed us she grabbed the 2 Crostada’s because there were no longer large ones and only minature Crostada, and as she apologizing the Manager was now at our table w/ another small tirimasu and a minature Crostada. We were so disgusted and just requested our check and wanted to leave. We received our bill which had 2 charges of 5.95 for each salad and 8.50 and 9.50 for desserts. When I questioned the waitress noted salads are extra, (then why wasn’t I able to get my extra side) the menu never stated extra charge for salad, the desserts she said were not included in the ala Carte. Neither were we told about that and it was the Manager who insisted we get a dessert. I tried to find the Manager to ask her to explain the bill, but she was busy in the kitchen I was told. We were so disappointed in our Thanksgiving Dinner being a disaster we left. We have eaten many times at Maggiano’s and love the Italian food. You were clearly not prepared to serve a Thanksgiving upscale meal, and running out of food at a 6:00 pm seating is...

Made reservation in full advance for an early brunch at 1:15 p.m. for a group of 10 since my husband and I got married on 2/14/22; Valentine’s Day.

First, the young lady that greeted at the door entrance is definitely the type of person that has no people skills and absolutely no customer service., the type that sabotages anyones company (the saying is 1st impression says it all). I greeted her respectfully, well manner and gathered she didn’t understand that I had a confirmed reservation. Once, I saw her confused facial expression I’d asked her to get the manager. Since she seemed to disregard that I was in standing in the lobby in my wedding dress with 10 other people. I then got seated by the manager who mentioned that the server wasn’t on shift yet, which I found odd to even care to hear. I’m a customer like any other and shift situation(s) has nothing to do with me or the next paying customer in my opinion.

Everything went down hill from there. I was embarrassed to the point I didn’t eat any food after tasting the cold spaghetti/meatball.

Insane how I had to cut the one meatball in 4 little pieces to feed 4 adults on my side of the table, which again one meatball cannot feed 10 adults.

The food served in my opinion just wasn’t enough. Cold spaghetti and one meatball for that many adults. I don’t drink tap water yuck 🤢 and that’s what the manager served giving no options of any preference in water bottle the restaurant may offer its customers. My guest were making comments and I was stuck at that point., the shrimp scampi was not enough for the 10 adults. My son and husband both didn’t eat. All 3 of us left hungry after paying the bill. I get the portion control, but this should be mentioned to people prior to making reservations for the amount of food served for that group setting adults given.

Like the 3 small slices of cheesecake that only fed 3 people out of 10 … it was the WORST EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE LET ALONE ON MY WEDDING DAY! I am highly disappointed with this horrible experience. The server was the only person that was okay; the rest is definitely not what I expected at all! Interesting how the manager must of figured it out on her own and gave me two complementaries to return back to their establishment without me even exclaiming any of the above mentioned ~ NOT!...