Maurizio's Restaurant — Restaurant in Morgan Hill

I know a lot of people really like this restaurant. It just wasn't for me. I wanted to find a great place to go for our third year anniversary and wanted a really nice Italian place. I looked at the reviews for this place on yelp and a lot of people recommended it and really liked it. So I decided to give it a try. More and more I am finding that I prefer the Americanized version of food. I am Italian and love Italian food, but when I eat really authentic Italian I don't care for it much. For instance, I LOVE Olive Garden and Macaroni Grill, but hated Maurizio's. I ordered the Eggplant Parm and really disliked it. They left the skin on and it was really mushy-just not what I'm used to. And my husband ordered steak-it was ok but we've had better. I really wanted a romantic place as well and this place was packed but really small and I got a claustrophobic feel. So I wouldn't go there again. It might be perfect for some, but for me I really like atmosphere and more popular Italian food. On the plus side, we made a reservation and got there an hour early and were still seated immediately and they gave us a complimentary anniversary dessert....

The service and accommodations are so good I really wanted to give it five stars. And even though the food wasn't absolutely perfect, I would have...only the prices are pretty high for the food that isn't quite perfect. The rib eye was good but the potatoes were so dry roasted they were close to stale and the cheese was melted weird on the roasted veggies (which there weren't enough of). My husband's stuffed pasta was good but it lacked some aesthetics. These are things I wouldn't normally ding at a mid-priced places but if I'm paying $40 a plate, it should at least look nice, right? We also ordered an orange soda and lemon soda. We we're expecting an Italian cream soda. We basically got orange and lemon juice in some soda. And the lemon wasn't fresh squeezed. I grow lemons; I know the difference between fresh squeezed and the bottles of lemon juice. These are all small things, right? Like I said, the small thing matter when you walk out having paid $115 for the experience. But we had a nice time and the service and staff were...

Food: 4 Decor: 3 Service: 2

Came here with my brother for a weekday lunch.

Scampi di Gamberi Sautéed shrimp, butter, capers, lemon, parsley, crostini 8 ~Pretty good. Shrimp was cooked nicely, and the other ingredients all came out strong.

Cavatappi Con Salsiccia Penne pasta, Italian sausage, mushrooms, spicy tomato sauce 12 ~Pretty good. Pasta was cooked a nice al dente, and the remaining ingredients were good. Sausage might have cooked a few seconds longer since they were a bit pink in the middle.

Pesto rigatoni with chicken, mushrooms, and sun-dried tomatoes special, 12 ~Pretty good. Tastes just as you'd imagine.

Service was rather disappointing. Pacing for our shrimp scampi was awkward since they didn't bring out the crostinis until a few minutes after the shrimp came out. My tablecloth was also dirty, and I had to request twice to have it replaced.

It was nice that they kept on bringing hot bread out though, although I could have used a bit...