Restaurant: Macaroni Grill
Location: 201 Waikoloa Beach Dr #1010, Waikoloa Village, HI 96738. (808) 443-5515
Date: April 6, 2019
Cuisine: Italian American
Rating: Corporate
This write up is from our five day early April 2019 visit to the Big Island of Hawaii.
On our way back home we wanted a quick place, not in the hotel, and Italian, so this was about all we could find.
It’s in a mall near the Hilton, right next to where I rented my road bike a couple days before.
Very corporate style interior — like many mid market chains, but not typical of the type of restaurant I go to in LA (at all).
The menu is generic Italian American, a bit like Olive Garden.
Rosa’s Signature Caesar. Romaine, romano, creamy caesar dressing, rustic croutons. Looks pretty generic.
Bibb + Bleu. Bibb leaves, gorgonzola, walnuts, crispy prosciutto, crispy onions, pickled red onions, buttermilk ranch. This was okay though. I would have preferred bleu cheese dressing, but it was still decent.
Spicy Ricotta Meatballs. House-made beef, veal, pork + ricotta meatballs. Caramelized onions, red chili, arrabbiata. Exactly what you’d expect looking at them — but tasty enough.
Grilled Salmon. Grilled salmon filet, Calabrian honey pepper glaze, spinach sun-dried tomato orzo. Sauce was on the side but it looks a tad boring.
Osso Bucco. Tender braised beef, Italian brown onion gravy. This really was gravy. Not by any means my favorite osso bucco.
Vanilla Ice Cream. Extremely freezer burned. Had clearly melted completely and been refrozen and then half melted again. If I had gelato like this I would have tossed it in the garbage.
Macaroni was about what I expected. It’s not really too bad for this sort of Olive Garden – esque kind of place. Probably even a little up market. It’s not good Italian though.