Marina's on the Square — Restaurant in Murfreesboro

Yet again the Square comes alive! Quaint and trendy in its antiquity style, this Italian ristorante boast plenty of atmosphere and its quite cozy. I went on a very, very, cold day. (5 degrees!) Even the old hand blown glass panes in the window frames seem to scoff at any dismal thoughts entering let alone the chill. The serving staff is very informal yet looked the part of a true Italian restaurant. Our waitress was attentive and fast. We ordered Soup (to fight the freezer burn from the other side of the windows we just endured), My partner ordered Baked Ziti, and I the Chicken Parmigiana. The soup came to the table with some of the softest warmest bread I have had to date and was extremely good. (potato and sausage soup, I'm getting hungry just remembering) After the soup our entrees came out and looked and smelled wonderful, piping hot and ready to go! The Chicken Parm. I had was a delight, perfectly tenderized, breaded and baked with the sauce that is obviously made from scratch, Robust and tangy but never heavy, smothering it and a side of pasta. needless to say it didn't remain on the plate very long. The baked Ziti on the other hand while also smothered in that wonderful homemade sauce was less than I expected. It really was just ziti pasta sauce and cheese and nothing about it was baked. A little bit of a let down as this could've been much, much, better but still due to the delightful sauce not a failure. To finish we ordered Tiramisu and though I asked if it was homemade and was told it wasn't, the waitress said it was "very good". While not bad, it was typical run of the mill pan ordered Tiramisu.......

This place would rock with a huge expresso machine and Italian coffee with an Italian pastry chef making delights from scratch with its ambiance and atmosphere you could almost believe it was in the heart of Italy. Not bad at all and with a few "polishing touches" could be the jewel of the Boro...

We ate at this establishment 3 weeks ago. The service was slow and unfriendly. I had to ask 4 times for a refill on water and never received my glass of wine. My chicken was undercooked and soggy. The server said it's because they buy it frozen and precooked (not sure if that's the case). We had a party of 6 including two children under 12. They did have decent choices for kids. My husband had the lasagna which was runny/watery. My mother in law had the eggplant which was basically raw. My father in law had their spicy pasta dish. It was so spicy that all you could taste was the heat from the spices. I know it is spicy pasta, but it should be edible especially when you really like very spicy food. My daughters ordered pizza. The crust was doughy and the cheese wasn't even melted very much at all. I asked to replace the chicken parmesan for pasta marinara. The sauce was decent, but it was cold. My server told his manager the issues. The manager didn't come to our table or speak to us when we were leaving. The server had to argue with the manager to remove the chicken parmesan from our ticket and replace it with the pasta marinara as he/she tried to make us pay for something that was raw. The whole experience was terrible. Wait time for food was over an hour and 15 minutes. Wait time for appetizers was 45 minutes. We ordered desserts, but after waiting another 40 minutes, we just cancelled them. It wasn't even a busy night. There were only 3 tables of 2-5 people. I was highly disappointed because I have heard great things about this resturaunt Food was very subpar especially...

I don’t know how this place stays so busy—Marina’s in Murfreesboro left me underwhelmed. First off, they don’t serve cocktails, so I guess they don’t have their liquor license, and their drink menu is limited to just wine and beer. The bread they serve is nothing special—just a mini loaf of white bread that tastes like something you’d get at Walmart, served with butter packets. It was bland, and honestly, I was surprised they thought that was okay.

The Caesar salad was disappointing too. It was just large pieces of iceberg lettuce with a couple of croutons from a bag, and the Caesar dressing was fine, but I’m used to my Caesar salads already tossed in the dressing. The chunky bits in the dressing looked like powdered Parmesan from a shaker, not freshly grated cheese, which was a letdown.

On the plus side, the Dante’s Inferno was flavorful and had a good balance of spice and meat, so that was enjoyable. The eggplant parm was surprisingly better than it looked—while it didn’t have much visual appeal, the taste was decent. However, the side of pasta and sauce was a no-go. It had an odd, off-putting flavor that was hard to enjoy.

Overall, I don’t understand why this place is so popular. It’s not bad, but nothing special. For the price, you’re better off trying other Italian restaurants in the area—honestly, even Olive Garden is a better option. The quality of ingredients also seems questionable, with everything feeling prepackaged and reheated rather than fresh. I’d recommend looking elsewhere for a more authentic...