Ramando's Italian Grill — Restaurant in Myrtle Beach

NYC born and raised I am very critical of Italian restaurants because Ive grown up on the authentic Italian restaurants in Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Staten Island. A friend referred this restaurant while I was staying in Myrtle Beach so I gave it a try.

When I walked in I was impressed by the decor. This was how the Italian restaurants looked in the 70s and 80s in NYC. Since this is not a chain, I can only assume they haven't decorated in about 50 years, but it felt like the Italian restaurants I grew up with.

That was the only thing this place had in common with authentic Italian cuisine. I dined with a party of four.

The first red flag went up when my daughter requested a chicken parmigiana hero instead of an entree with spaghetti. The server said, they couldn't do that because they were out of Italian bread to make a hero. Yet garlic bread was continuously served. You can tell that the garlic bread was pre-made from some restaurant supply store (restaurant depot or similar store).

I ordered the pizza and you can tell it was a store bought dough by the way it tasted and the sauce was tasteless and the mozzarella cheese was the cheapest variety (you can always tell a cheap mozzerella by how oily your pizza is). The oil on this pizza was excessive and had to be drained off and even doing that it was still oily.

My daughter opted for the eggplant parmigiana entree with spaghetti. Never have I seen eggplant parmigiana made such as this. She received 2 slabs of circular eggplant about an inch thick. Eggplant parmigiana is made with thin slices of eggplant layered with cheese and sauce (about 4-6 slices of eggplant would be an inch thick in an authentic parmigiana, not one). Needless to say she didn't even eat half of it.

My other daughter ordered the lasagna. When it came out, you would have thought she ordered off the kid menu because the piece was about 3" X 3" (definitely not worth $16).

My wife ordered "The Shore Platter" which comes with shrimp, scallops, and filet of grouper and fries. At $20 for this entree, it was laughable as it was a bed of fries with a side of seafood. When I questioned the server about the location of the scallops, he was very helpful and counted the scallops on the plate: 3 fried scallops the size of a quarter. 6 fried shrimp and a 2-3 ounce piece of fried grouper.

It took me a half hour to get my server to bring me the check. When he asked if I wanted to take home (the abundance of leftover food and pizza), he laughed when I told him: " I wouldn't take this home because I wouldn't even feed this food to my dog".

In NY, we make fun of Olive Garden because it is NOT authentic Italian food and we all know it. But, even the Olive Garden knows its not authentic, that's why you're paying restaurant chain prices, not premium prices.

My advice to NY or NJ residents looking for authentic Italian cuisine in Myrtle Beach: Do Not eat at Ramando's. Go in, take a look around and get the nostalgic feeling of the old Italian restaurants from NYC, then go to eat at the Olive Garden because if you're not going to eat authentic Italian cuisine you might as well pay...

We came here for dinner at the direction of our concierge at our resort. I had a large group of 12 people. The concierge for our resort gave us Bogo coupons. The best thing about Romando's was probably the atmosphere. The building is quaint and I thought we were going to have a good night. But I was incredibly wrong. We had 8 adults and 3 children 12 and under. My children ordered the spaghetti with meat sauce, ravioli and the fettuccine Alfredo. The meat sauce on the spaghetti was just sauce. Red sauce with no meat. The same went for the ravioli, which my son only received 2 pieces of ravioli. The adults ordered an array of food, all prices well over $22. 3 orders for the steak and pasta were made, with the menu stating they'd receive a baked potato and bread as a side. They only got that after I demanded they fix it because they only had the steak and pasta. But it was only fixed after the waitress started giving attitude to my child. In front of a table of underage children, this waitress was rude and yelling. My sons girlfriend only ordered the ceaser salad. I told this to the waitress and she talked us up to a ceaser salad with chicken. The croutons were stale on the salad! The manager admitted to them always leaving the croutons open. Then came the bill. I stated over and over again we had issues with the food and service. Our bill was a whopping almost $300!!! The manager was great at first, but when I was questioning why the bill was so high, she mysteriously went into hiding. She was nowhere to be found. So instead, I had to deal with a waitress and waiter. Both of whom talked down to me, leading the waiter to explain to me that the service and cost is like pumping more expensive gas. The only savings we got, were for the less expensive meals which did not sit well with me. We should have been able to choose which dinners we used the Bogo coupons on. I even told them that I actively review on Google and they would be receiving a negative review. They just lack overall empathy. Not to mention that the manager came up to our table and asked us again about everything which I repeated and her answer: I'm firing the waitress. The food was okay. The service was terrible. Save your money and go elsewhere!!!! I will also be reporting our horrible experience to concierge and telling them to stop the referrals! This place should...

This place has a classic vibe..meaning it's dated from the 70's. Needs a refresh. Was seated immediately on a Thursday at 7:30 PM. Not busy at all. Server came.and asked us for drinks. Brought them then asked us for our meals. Then she disappeared for 15 minutes before coming back with garlic bread (very good, not oily). Then the meals came out maybe 15 minutes later. Server never checked on how was the food. When she did, just asked if we wanted dessert and refilled our sodas which we didn't ask for because they charge you another $3.50, its not free refills. So 1st pic is Chicken Tuscana ( chicken was hot, veggies and cream were barely room temperature and it wasnt good), Chicken Fettuccini (it's not Alfredo sauce. Zero cheese, not good), chicken parm (that was good) and chicken piccata (that was good but they gave me a side of pasta in red sauce when I asked for it in the piccata sauce). Told the waitress who came back at least 15 minutes after asking us if we wanted dessert. Told her about the issue. Was gonna talk to the chef. They said they would take off half of the Alfredo dish since my son ate half.

Says in the menu they add gratuity for parties of 6 or more. We got our bill and couldn't figure out what this one charge was. Asked the waitress who said it was an 18% gratuity added. We were a party of 4. If the service was great, then fine. This wasn't. This was 15% if you felt generous.

This place seems like youve seen it on an episode of Kitchen Nightmare. Again, 2 of the 4 dishes were good, not like wow just good.

If you're not from NY/NJ or don't have Italian grandparents, then you may find this place "fantastic" as some of the google reviews show. If you do, you know what good Italian food should be and this isn't it. I mean seriously, how do you screw up Alfredo sauce? Main ingredient is cheese and you forgot to add it? Maybe we got a different chef or they had an off day.

I would trust yelp reviews. This isn't even top ten there, it's 14th. I didn't and now I wish I did. Would...