Romano's Macaroni Grill — Restaurant in Honolulu

First of all, I don't typically slam wait staff, because having worked in similar style restaurants myself, I know it's a tough job. However, I do believe there are those cut out to be courteous servers and those that simply cannot cut it, unfortunately.

Let me start by saying it was a post dinner crowd time frame, therefore only certain sections were open with limited wait staff (that's fine and explains the 15 minute wait, though tons of tables were open). Hostess was emotionless with absolutely no personality or desire to be there, which made for a very unwelcoming environment. When she did speak it was so quietly I had no idea what she was actually saying. Was seated in a section covered by a very nice young lady, I will say. She had maybe two other tables when we were seated, one being a table of 6-8 people. We waited and waited as this waitress was entertaining a conversation with the larger table. She finally swung by the table to briefly tell us she'd be right back. A good 10-15 minutes went by, still no water was provided until I got up and finally asked the manager if we could get some. He finally brought us water and bread. We continued to wait after this until the waitress finally came over and took our order. Then proceeded to stand there and talk to us for an unnecessarily long time before putting in the order. Three create your own pasta dishes, a chicken salad and an artichoke dip appetizer, plus four iced teas. We finally received our food after about 20-30 minutes and two of the orders looked like they had been sitting ready to be picked up and had completely dried out the pasta. This was completely because the waitress was back at the large table talking. I know for servers it's typically a sure thing for receiving a nice gratuity, whether or not it's automatic or an extra additional tip for a larger party. This being said, you can't forget about your other customers, especially those willing to leave a better than most tip if the service is on point. This didn't happen, cause we were essentially ignored for the larger table and the talkative conversation. - We never received the appetizer, at least it was completely forgotten and wasn't even on our bill. I asked for the bill and we waited another good 10 minutes where I finally had to get up and grab the first server I could find. I explained this had been one of the worst dining experiences I have had in an extremely long time. He was very apologetic and took my bill and credit card and gave it to our waitress. I was finally able to pay the bill but I chose to leave absolutely no tip since everything from the moment we walked in was as if we were moving upstream in a strong current, having to proactively ask for every little thing. The manager never came back to ask if everything was okay, were things better, or anything. Was only in Hawaii for one evening and it was seriously an unenjoyable dinner due to the complete staff failure. Managers are supposed to ensure the rest of the staff is on task, which as a supervisor didn't happen.

We were excited to come in to have dinner but left annoyed. We won't be returning to this location again, there are too many options in the immediate area to attempt another...

This platform is all about exerience, let me start out by saying there is not enough STARS to rate the experience at Romano's Macaroni Grill Ala Moana that we received on Sunday 30 April 2023 from 530 to 830pm. I decided to surprise my wife and daughter by hosting a dinner for our daughters 16th birthday at Macaroni Grill. The event was not only a success, it was memorable, loving, filled with color and life, thanks to the staff who accomadated us through the entire process. Stacy Porras was our event coordinator and was extremely helpful, kind, proactive and passionate to get every detail right even through some shortfalls on our end. Brad the general manager called me a few hours before our event to confirm and let us know that we would be in great hands, things would be amazing, and those hands he left us in was our Brilliant Waitress Ronnie!! She was amazing, a real hustler and so kind and generous to everyone of our guests, she was like part of the family and we were very impressed with her memory and attention to detail, all with a smile and a genuine loving aura of support. Brad checked in often to make sure we were doing well and ensured we received what we needed. The staff did a great job, the Cooks prepared an amazing meal for us, including salad, Fetuccine Alfredo, Spaghetti with Meatballs and Chicken Parmesan, we enjoyed the delicious Chocolate cake, one that all enjoyed and commented on. We also, sang Happy Birthday twice, the entire restaurant including other patrons/customers joined in twice!!! Everyone could feel the family style dinning experience you'd expect from home with a great ambience of italian themed flare and lighting. Our photos and videos and filled with Laughter, Smiles, Lei's, sincere joy and tears or joy thanks to this amazing staff and our family making this work together. I chose this venue also because of their continued support to our military, and providing a High Level of Service and making us feel like family the entire time. This is something my family and I, especially our daughter shall never forget. We are grateful and appreciative to Brad and his Team for perfecting their crafts to achieve such a high level of quality food service. We will definitely see you again soon and we hope you also enjoyed our company and celebration.

Love you all...

4/25/24 and opinion below remains unchanged

If I could give 0 stars I would. Have been in Honolulu a while but never checked out Macaroni Grill. Thought tonight would be a good night to try. I was wrong.

We (party of 2) waited about 30 minutes for a table before we saw a table of 8 come in, get a 15 minute wait time, and be seated in 10. Another party of 8 came in right after that and got a 30 minute wait time from the hostesses as well as the manager who the hostesses called to estimate the wait time. Then when we asked how much longer they said 10 more minutes (would've been a total of 40 minutes waiting when our estimated wait time was 30). When I told them that didn't make sense that we had 10 more minutes when the party of 8 took 10 minutes they said bc it was a big table that was available. That would be a reasonable explanation except for the fact that I heard them speaking about pushing tables together many times. I said to them it just doesn't make sense the estimated time for these large parties. I got no response / apology / really anything.

We left and went to California Pizza Kitchen which had a 45 minute wait. There was open seating at the bar and our drink order was taken within 30 seconds. Service was fantastic. Food was great - carne asada pizza, caesar salad, diet coke. Always great service and food. There are many good options at Ala Moana - unfortunately Macaroni Grill does not appear to be one of them.

Update 1/18/2020: Completed the response as requested by owned below and no reply to that yet.

Update Again on 3/13/2020: no reply from anyone regarding this incident! Shows you how much they care about service and doing the right thing.

Update 12/13/2021: never received a response from the restaurant or corporate and have not returned to...