Maggiano's Little Italy — Restaurant in San Jose

All I can say, is that I should have gone to Ausgustine instead. This place sucks; not a good place for a date or Anniversary, rather a great place to break up with someone or get a divorce. Here's how it went.

I walked in to see a group of employees at the Host stand all gossiping in Spanish to each other. I waited for about 30 seconds before someone looked up and smiled at me. Strike 1. After Michael smiled and greeted me, I told him I was waiting for a guest and waited at the bar. I could hear the bartender gossiping in Spanish to a coworker and it took 30 seconds to a minute before they greeted me. While I was waiting on my date I looked up at the TV and saw the UFC was on. TVs in restaurants are always a bad idea for an elegant experience and UFC, seriously?! I love watching that at home but my beautiful date doesn't. After the bartender greeted me she got me a water and made no attempt towards engagement. I would've happily ordered a couple shots of tequila but her priority was gossiping with coworkers. The next Bartender arrived and they KISSED, put hands on each other and then went to cutting fruit. Thanks for the PDA and food safety violation, now I definitely didn't want a drink. Both Bartenders talked to each other and excluded me. Strike 2 and 3.

Side note, Service staff aren't supposed to gossip in front of customers and the way they circumvent that rule is by talking in Spanish or a different language. That way, if a Manager says to keep it quiet, the gossipers will say they are talking about 'work things' or they say it is discrimination that they can't speak Spanish. I dont care if you are speaking English, Spanish, or Chinese as long as you are talking with your guests. Even if you all are speaking my native language, I dont want to hear a bunch of gossip. Pardon the side not but it was a cacophony of sounds listening to all that high-school B.S. Back to the experience.

I started looking around at the state of the restaurant and saw debris swirling around on the floor. I guess they dont have a broom or a vacuum. I watched the different Staff members; everyone has an earpiece (tacky) and there was a server, Mr. Cool wearing his purple-lensed sunglasses inside the restaraunt 😎. Sorry, but not sorry, that looks tacky as hell. I watched Guests arrive for a Banquet and instead of walking them to a Table the Host with dyed blonde hair (probably recruited from Hot Topic) gave them directions where to go. "Go all the way down to where it say 'Banquets', then turn left and you are the second door o the right". That is astoundingly lazy, if someone is paying for a private room or banquet, you walk them to the room. The highlight of the experience was when my date arrived. We were sat at the table promptly.

Michael, the only person who greeted me at the Host stand was our Server. He was kind enough but its hard to be excited about the service when everything so far has been a belly flop. When we sat down, my fork was on its side and the knife was backwards, this means that the tables were set in haste without attention to detail. We ordered 6 dishes and the Salmon was overcooked. Garlic bread and Crab cakes were awesome. Fun fact, there are recommendations from a 'Master Sommelier'. The average bottle was about $70 with only one bottle barely exceeding $100; that's how you know you are in a low budget restaurant.

Thank you Michael for being an adequate Server but why wasn't our table set up properly? Thabk you for being the only one to greet us. And Michael, you seem like the diamond in the rough here, youre probably better than I make you seem but your coworkers are better suited to work at Chuck E Cheese. Thank you to the Bartenders and the former, Hot Topic Host for letting me know right away that this restaurant is an absolute dumpster fire, im never coming back here again. Go to...

We had heard about this restaurant for a while but never ate there until yesterday for a family dinner. The host had a private room with 5 tables; expecting about 50 guests to show up. When we arrived about 6 pm, the restaurant was completely full, while a line was forming at the front door. We set down and were greeted by cordial servers who seemed untrained. There were two Sterno warmers for appetizers; one had crab cakes in it and the other one had zucchini fritters. We were hungry so we grabbed a plate; trying to look for the serving tongs. There was none on the buffet table until a guest asked the manager who eventually brought out two tongs. At the same time, he was instructing the servers (waiting staff) how to set up a buffet table. We set down beginning to eat. The crab cake was warm, texture was ok, not great. But the thinly sliced zucchini was over-fried ; batter was too thick and the bread crumb was so hard, so I decided forget it. Then I saw the butter on the table, but there was no bread on the table. So I asked one of the servers if we can have bread, when she told me the bread was not part of the menu. I had worked in the hospitality industry for 9 years during my school days, I knew what the butter was for. My wife was on my case for being fuzzy! Just a few minutes later, another waiter along with the manager brought out 5 bread baskets with cut french breads and put them on the tables. To make it short, the staff was not professionally ready, the tables were not properly set. The bread should have been on the table along with the butter. But I do give them a point for being very polite and cordial.

The host had spared no expense and ordered a lot of expensive dishes; including salmon. sautéed Asparagus, Linguini with clams, and spaghettis with meatballs. To cap it off, tiramisu and strawberry cheesecake were served for dessert; which were the two best item at the dinner by the way. Here is my personal opinion: Service: Staff, seemed unprofessionally trained, unorganized. Food: Asparagus: too skinny and dried, it tasted like straw! Linguini: The clams were not fresh, the pasta was lukewarm and bland. Now my wife actually realized my culinary skills! Spaghetti meatball: Again lukewarm, the bowl of pasta looked like it was prepared hours ago and the meatballs looked flat and dead! The sauce tasted like bare tomato sauce. Yep! really that bad! Salmon: That was about the only entree that in my opinion was palatable, except a bit too done for my taste. That being said, it is strictly my preference.

Summing up my review, will I go back? If my intent was to socialize with friends and not for the pleasure of enjoying great Italian food, I may consider going it a second chance,. But if I had to spend $50 for an Italian dinner, this place is overrated. Perhaps I am being too critical with my culinary background. I just can't give it a 4.5 star review,...

I unfortunately had a very poor experience on Saturday night, 9/27. My husband & I are semi-regulars— we dine here about every month & a half or so, but we will now be looking elsewhere. Our waitress was Andrea, who really missed the mark entirely that night. Upon sitting down, we were immediately offered water (no mention of any other drinks, alcoholic or otherwise. This was not ideal, as I was really wanting a soda & had to wait about 15 minutes till there was a chance to ask for one). She did not ask the occasion (like usual), and almost immediately asked if we were ready to order. We rushed & did so (still did not offer drinks). Without even looking at us, she brought out 1 loaf of bread (when it’s usually 2). Her dropping off things at the table without even glancing at us was a repetitive habit throughout the night. Never did she ask how we were doing, if we needed anything, etc. We sat at the table for AN HOUR & A HALF, without her ever checking on us. This was an absurd amount of time for us to be waiting on our meal— especially with zero updates, no concern & never checking on us. Once the tables that arrived later than us, ALL received their food before us, she then told us the manager was going to check on our food. The manager brought out our meal with a very clear attitude as if we had done something in wrong. Something to note is that we never gave staff attitude or complained about the wait. We were patient until met with attitude by the manager. The wild surprise was that we waited an hour & a half for a meal that was half incorrect & cold. My meal was hot, but my husband’s was cold & several of his items were incorrect. Nor did they offer to correct it once we brought it to their attention. It truly felt like we were forgotten about that entire night & they threw our meal together quickly at the last minute. They did comp his meal, but the manager’s & waitress’s attitude was very obvious. We felt extremely uncomfortable & unwelcomed… for errors that were not our fault. Santana Row has plenty of other options that we love & frequent— we will likely not be returning to Maggiano’s after...