Marco's — Restaurant in Lewiston

I really appreciate honest reviews because nowadays going out to eat is a luxury that's getting harder and harder to enjo be it financially or customer service, so many things have changed since 2020.

This may be harsh as I was in the industry for over 20 years. It was my heart and passion, until it wasn't!

Made a reservation online, once the restaurant opened, the reservation went through, annoying Google texts trying ever 30 minutes not necessary, oh well not Marcos fault.

Walked in party of 2'for 530 pm on a Thursday. One person waiting in front of us , looked like she hadn't been greeted. A couple minutes later a young woman greeted her and took care of her. Our turn! Ixhad stated we were a reservation, she didn't even ask my name so maybe I was silly anticipating needing reservations, the parking lot seemed to have quite a few cars in it, up on walking to our table notice many open tables. We got to a sectioned off room with four other couples . Sat down, and we're sitting talking for a bit before a gentleman came over very polite and said he would be over momentarily. A good 5 minutes go by and he comes over with water and bread and again so politely says he would be right over, very nice of him to just get us started. He comes over takes our order , we were very ready at this point. I understand he might have been busy. I order an alcoholic drink, an appetizer our meals. Drinks come french kiss yummy !! appetizer comes spinach and artichoke dip. It was good. No juicy details just good. Server, still super polite and trying to be respectful of us not finishing our appetizer had to ask if salads were ok to come now....we had been ready for them for quite some time. Salad was good fresh . Parmesan peppercorn dressing was yummy I got a special the braised short ribs and my dining partner got tortellini. I was surprised, My braise short ribs were not like ones I have had before , they just tasted like my pork shoulder I cook in my crock pot over the course of a day. Carrots were huge, had a good flavor . Mash were nothing special I asked my dining partner how here was, she gave me the "meh" look I tried getting more it of her and the result was "bland". Server checked on us, we said everything was fine and needed boxes.

I stopped him at one point to ask about dessert. We got the extensive list and asked for tiramisu.

I appreciate the server telling us he was going to check on it to see if it was ok, he came back saying it was perfect and served it to us.

Same feeling as my ribs...I have never had tiramisu taste like that before, and I have had my share.

Sadly I feel a little gelato shoppe in Norway puts out better Italian food than Marcos.

I wasn't disappointed, I just won't spend my surplus budget here. It just didn't come together right, didn't feel Italian, server was perfectly robotic ( no personality, until the dessert part ) I did overhear he wasn't having a good night from another table and so I hope it got better and I sincerely understand if this is why our service was impacted . Tip not impacted as I stated before there are 4000 reasons why a night out could go wrong and not many of those are the servers fault.

I just wish this was a better review, on...

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I could easily leave it at that but I'm Sicilian so here comes the very long story................... The place was dark and a little outdated looking but was highly recommended by the girl at Mardens. She said it was a lot like Olive Garden. OK, worth a try. So I look at the very worn menu, noting the incredible prices. "Are these real?", I thought to myself. Judging by how worn the menus were I guessed the prices on them had to be completely wrong. Nope! The waitress confirmed they were real prices! OK, so the portions must be teeny tiny but whatever, we were hungry so we ordered and well, we suddenly found ourselves buried in plates of hot, delicious and very authentic Italian food!! If someone was screaming profanities in Italian I would have easily believed I was at Grandma Luciano's house having a meal!! It was that authentic!! From the portions to the taste and freshness, it was all exactly how grandma would have done it! We walked away with a huge bag of leftovers and completely stuffed to the brim! We could hardly walk out!!!!!!!! Lasagna, side of Mac N Cheese, fresh hot bread with olive oil, loaded sausage parm, massive cob salad, lemonade and a huge bowl of broccoli cheese soup all for $45 before tip!!!!!!!!!!!!! There were 3 of us dining out today and we literally had enough food for double that amount of people! I was reminded of my Grandma Luciano making an entire extended dining room table of food for one priest!! I told her we were expecting 1 priest and not 100 priests!! LMAO!! So yes, we will be going back again for sure!! As for Olive Garden, sorry to say they have nothing on Markos!! Markos is a thousand times better than Olive Garden ever thought of being!!!!!!!! Il meglio...

Update: visited with a large party, not my choice. Got food poisoning this time. Eat here at your own risk.

Service even when it's not that busy was on the slow side for the bread, apps, drinks, and main course making for a long evening. We didn't mind that much, but it's just something to be aware of. The calamari was OK, the bruschetta was made with Whole grape tomatoes, which if you have ever tried to eat a crouton with whole grape tomatoes, they were on the table, the floor, the bowling alley next door..... And it was a crouton with those tomatoes. That's it. very little flavor. The Salads were delivered with 3/4 inch thick "slices" of cucumber - WHY oh WHY do restaurants think I want to spend 15 minutes re-cutting all the vegetables in my salad so they are actually BITE SIZED?!! When I did get my main dish, it was the WRONG item, which they did offer to remake, but I had no interest in NOT eating while the rest of the people in the party finished their meals before I got mine. What I did get was Shrimp Scampi which had ZERO flavor. It was shrimp cooked in oil with pasta tossed in oil, with a few slices of tasteless mushrooms and onions. That's it. They did take the item off the bill which is small compensation for the rather miserable meal and ruining my evening. As for the other 5 star reviews, I can only conclude that these people leave a very sheltered life and simply don't know what a 5 star restaurant is really like and would give Taco Bell a 5 star rating. If they didn't mess up my order I would have given 3 stars. The Lewiston/Auburn area does not have a 5...