Gianni & Mac's Ristorante — Restaurant in Marietta

Update to this review:

We’ve been back 4 times since the first review, so it’s obviously become a favorite.

Order the Norcina, but request Buccatini instead of Taglierini. I didn’t realize it was an option. I’ll try this next time with the Cacio e Pepe. Should be spaghetti, but you gotta do what you gotta do. I’m a buccatini guy myself so I’m good with it.

Great cocktails. They make a perfect old fashioned (skip the smoke) and my wife loves the Incanto, a lemon gin sort of thing.

The servers have started learning the menu. They’re all very young, and the last few trips they’ve known what was up.

My son loves their Chicken Parm. Only problem is that it’s so large he hurts himself eating it all.

I haven’t tried the pizzas again. I’m scared to, really. Everything else has leveled up.

Last time in somebody stole our reservation. The hostess started by saying we were incorrect, so I showed her the confirmation. We had to wait a bit but they made room for us. No harm, no foul. They really should turn the screen so it can’t be seen when people walk in.

Long story even longer, it’s become a standby.

The space and the staff are great. A welcome and very good addition to the square. The only weak points are the food, and the servers knowledge of it. Firstly, it’s obvious they haven’t had a tasting for the crew. We made our second trip last night, and our server had only eaten a couple of items on the menu. Couldn’t offer much in the way of descriptions or recommendations. This is easily resolved by the management. If they don’t fix it it will fix itself with time. The food is delicious, but there are weak points. They don’t know how to use the pizza oven. It’s a beautiful oven, imported from Italy. They don’t seem to be running it hot enough. Our pizza came out and the crust was basically a fluffy pita. Zero crack on the crust, and no black spots as a Neapolitan pizza should have. The oven should be run at 750 degrees or above. I’d think a team trip to Antico would be good for the staff and give them some direction. They’ll fix it. Next is the use of fresh pasta where they shouldn’t. Fresh pasta is super impressive on paper, but can lead to a less than impressive end result. Fresh pasta shouldn’t be used in Cacio e Pepe. While the table side prep is cool, you wind up with a very unattractive pile of mush. Tastes amazing, texture and appearance not so much. Same goes for the Taglierini Norcina. One of the least attractive dishes, but at the same time is delicious. But it also suffers from the fresh pasta. It’s a delicious pile of mush. They should be using dried pasta and less of the sauce. The sauce is amazing, but when it’s absolutely swimming in it and they’re using fresh pasta, it’s just mush. Delicious mush, but mush. The calamari fritti was also truly delicious, but there’s a reason it should be served on a plate or platter. Served in a bowl, it steams and loses any crunch and when you get to the bottom of the bowl, it’s just calamari with the breading falling off. Again, it’s delicious and the quality of the ingredients was perfect, but failed on the final execution. The stand outs were the artichoke appetizer and the chicken parm. Both perfect and delicious. My wife is an artichoke nut, so we’ll be going back just for that. The cocktails were great and on par Mac’s. Well worth the trip. And the charcuterie offerings are the best in our area, hands down. A great variety of meats and served beautifully with large portions. This is not your average charcuterie board. So to summarize a much too long review, they need a bit of work but everything but the pizza was delicious. And I feel confident they’ll work that out. A work in progress,...

I’ll caveat this by saying I really enjoy cooking the dishes we ordered tonight at home. Learning to cook has been an eye opening experience and going to the much anticipated new Italian spot on the square was quite an educational experience

Overall- I would say Gianni and Mac’s is a good spot on the square. The atmosphere in the restaurant is chic and the wait staff are highly attentive. This is a beautiful restaurant that is on par aesthetic wise with some of the nicest spots in Atlanta

Bread service was good overall. The first bread basket we got was cold but passable. The second basket was fresh baked and still warm. This combined with the olive oil/balsalmic mixture was a lovely appetizer while we waited for our entrees.

I’ll start with the Penne a la vodka- of the two dishes we tried - I thought this was by far the best. When I cook this as home , I typically use Riggatoni but the Penne I feel like makes the sauce in each bite much more intense due to how the sauce is distributed across the surface area of the pasta. Additionally, the higher use of red pepper in this dish complements the acidity of the tomato in the sauce and vodka perfectly to create a subtle kick with each bite. I’ve taken mental notes for the next time I make this at home- this dish was fantastic, well worth the price even if it uses ingredients that arent inherently pricey

The other dish we got was the Carbonara. If I didn’t know better, I’d say this is a good dish. However as I’ve been making this at home for a while now using a different recipe, I found this restaurants carbonara to be incredibly lacking for the price. My biggest gripe with the dish is I am 99% sure that the restaurant used bacon instead of guincale that is typically served with this dish. In most carbonara I’ve either cooked or tried at other restaurants, the guincale is diced into cubes and pan fried in its own fat. This gives you a nice salty,smoky, crunchy bite that cuts through the Parmesan/egg mixture. It is one of the defining ingredients in traditional carbonara. The menu said it was guincale but I am doubtful based on appearance and taste, it looked and tasted like thin cut bacon; Incredibly disappointing. The egg yolk served as a garnish on the side is a nice garnish but I don’t think it leads to the sauce being as great as it could be- you want the egg and Parmesan to blend together typically before adding the pasta. Additionally, while adding cream into the sauce certainly helps thicken the sauce to a really nice velvety texture, I found the flavor diluted compared to what I make at home. Pasta water and adjusting the egg/cheese mixture can have the same effect while keeping the rich flavor in the sauce. I can make this dish for two for about $10-$20 worth of ingredients at home where I’m even making the pasta from scratch. The $30 per plate that Gianni and Mac’s charged for this dish for one person felt really high in comparison given the poor quality of the dish. This is not a dish I would be willing to pay for again.

The last thing I’ll say is that despite some issues with the pasta above , I found the drink pairings were perfect. The wine cut through my carbonara perfectly and my wife enjoyed her cocktail and sangria she ordered. Both the chophouse and Giannis have great wine and cocktail selections!

The tiramisu was my wife and I’s favorite part of the meal. It’s $8 and big enough for two and the flavors are incredibly rich and exactly what you want this to taste like and then some. This is something I’d honestly come back for right before they close to enjoy the late night ambience and a glass of wine or dessert...

Overall we loved it. We had been to Gianni's Cebo i Beve restaurant in Sandy Springs, and he told us he was opening anew restaurant on Marietta Square. We are so happy we found it! Food is amazing! We went for my husband's birthday had a nice 2-person table and our waiter, Joshua, was wonderful. The ambiance is nice. The build out is truly beautiful, but it does get noisy as it fills up. We got good bread with olive oil, herbs and balsamic vinegar right away. The drink menu is huge and very nice but we're not big drinkers so we just got a glass of Chianti, which was perfect. We ordered the artichokes and eggplant parmesan appetizers, and a Caesar salad to start. The Caesar was underwhelming. It had out of the bag croutons which we took off. The dressing was runny and meh. I would have expected better on both. The artichokes were sooo good and the eggplant was fantastic! The red sauce was so incredibly flavorful! Truthfully, it could have been our main course.There was so much. For dinner I ordered the pasta that was prepared tableside in the cheese wheel. That was really, really cool to watch it be prepared. However, it was way too cheesy and got thick and cool so quickly that it kinda turned to a pasty glue. My suggestion is that you ask them not to put so much cheese in it. I had ordered it with chicken, which they forgot and had to bring later. My husband ordered the ravioli, which was incredible! Unfortunately, it was not hot enough when they set it down. So he ask them to send it back and warm it up. We're not sure what happened, but it took 20 minutes to get his dish back! It should have been back within 5 minutes. We don't know why it took so long, but it was pretty frustrating. Once he got it back, it was absolutely delicious, but we were so full, we took most of it home! Again the red sauce was just wonderful. Since it was my husband's birthday, they brought us out a free piece of tiramisu. Let me just say we have been to Italy and the this was one of the best pieces of tiramusu we have ever had! Major kudos to the pastry chef! We also had cappuccinos that were good. Overall, it was a great experience and we will definitely be back. It is pricey but not any more thsn any nice restaurant these days. We felt it was a good value. (Plus we have enough leftovers for another dinner!)

After dinner we walked through the restaurant. They have a small private room, which is really nice for small parties. Then we walked outside to the back patio area. Wow is all I can say because I want to come back and eat out there. They also have a grassy play area for kids. Really nice build on this restaurant, and it is a welcome entry to...