First Impressions: Macaroni Grill

Macaroni Grill logo

I’ve been wanting to try out Macaroni Grill ever since I found out that their Spaghetti and Meatballs with Meat Sauce dish was voted the worst pasta dish in the US for having over 2400 calories. They opened up at The Avenues awhile back and tonight I finally got the chance to try the place out and its pretty cool. Since I got food poisoned from Johnny Carino’s I’ve been looking for a replacement and I think Macaroni Grill is it.

The service was very good, the atmosphere inside the place was very cozy and most importantly the Spaghetti and Meatballs dish was amazing. It really doesn’t taste like 2,430 calories! I’m definitely going back there again.



Related Entries



21 Comments, add your own...

  1. 1. chikapappi | March 28th, 2008 at 11:28 pm

    I don’t think anyone has anything good to say about Carino’s! I went once and at was the last too

  2. 2. Asooma | March 28th, 2008 at 11:43 pm

    try the steak from them, its called tuscan ribeye I think.. there is only one steak dish anyway..
    its sooooo amazing .. I LOVE it

  3. 3. ??? | March 29th, 2008 at 1:21 am

    So basically if you eat one of these dishes and have two cups of coffee from Starbucks in one day then you will gain one Kilogram as you only need 3200 kcalories to do so!

    I hope you did a lot of push-ups after having that Mark.

  4. 4. 3azeez | March 29th, 2008 at 1:29 am

    Mark been eating a lot. I can imagine seeing him very soon stuffed on a table with a tomato in his mouth. lol.

  5. 5. amagad | March 29th, 2008 at 1:46 am

    Johnny carinos have amazing food. If you think they suck then your not ordering the right things.

    Next time if u ever go to carinos get a steak, the lemon rosemary chicken etc. those dishes are amazingly good.

  6. 6. sfsa78 | March 29th, 2008 at 2:54 am

    Carino’s has the best NACHOS in the whole wide world. Try it… you wont lose any thing. I always go there just to order thier nachos.. its the best.

  7. 7. Yousef | March 29th, 2008 at 4:49 am

    I have always loved their spaghetti bolognaise!

    Mark, next time try their infamous starter, the mushroom ravioli, its out of this world!

  8. 8. Mark | March 29th, 2008 at 12:01 pm

    I’ve tried like everything on johnny carino’s old menu and had been a customer of theres for like a long time. But their new menu is crap with one of the worst fish dishes i’ve ever had. i swear one fish dish i ordered tasted like i was eating cardboard. Anyway i got FOOD POISONED badly from them so I will never go back. Do you guys know what food poisoning is? Do you know what it means when you get food poisoned from a restaurant? Can’t believe you guys are recommending me dishes!

  9. 9. LunarDream | March 29th, 2008 at 1:13 pm

    About food-posioning:
    KFC food poisned me a couple of times and I’swore that I’ll never eat or recommened it again to anyone, not even an enemy. U don’t know what it feels like to have a busted stomach for a couple of days, making the toilet ur best friend. One of our guys at Rehab complex passed away from KFC food posioning, now that u gotta know.
    The last two times I’ve been to Carino’s has been awful. Their table cloth and towels smell!! One time we came in like around 3:30 PM or 4 PM and we ordered mozrella sticsk for starters, it took them less than 3 mins. to bring it which seemed very suspicious and we ended up eating re-heated flat-tasting sticks using a microwave. Talk about fast food biz syndrome

  10. 10. Armani Exchanger | March 29th, 2008 at 2:20 pm

    Surprisingly, i was excepting this post to be graded with stars … but disappointedly there wasn’t ….

  11. 11. Aloosh | March 29th, 2008 at 2:35 pm

    I agree with Mark on J.Carinos… when I first moved to Kuwait someone recomended it so I went.. didn’t feel well after that .. gave it another go with my hubby.. ended up both in hospital… how nasty is that.. I’m shocked it’s still open…

    Tried M.Grill.. not bad.. a bit oily but not bad..

  12. 12. Mark | March 29th, 2008 at 5:10 pm

    Armani I barely ordered any food there just a single appetizer and main course so i wouldn’t be able to properly review the place. I only review a place after the first visit if I am with a friend and we order a whole variety of dishes.

  13. 13. sfsa78 | March 29th, 2008 at 6:45 pm

    I have a very sensitive stomach, but never had food poisoning from carino’s… however all i order is the nachos.
    I would still put my life on the line just to eat their nachos. sorry! ;p
    The worst food poisoning i’ve ever had in kuwait was from the “99″ next to salhiya.
    The other case was around 9 months back.. had hardees the night before my dubai weekend… lets put it this way. My ass literally never left the toilet seat.. sever dehydration, high fever, and constant vomiting. My ass was like a waterfall, except it wasn’t water, lol. Had to get a doctor up to my room. Fucked my whole trip up.

  14. 14. LeP | March 29th, 2008 at 9:26 pm

    The dessert at Johnny Carino’s…hmmmm

  15. 15. anonymous | March 30th, 2008 at 2:02 am

    how does food poisoning feel ? i’m not sure if i had it before or not! mmm …!

  16. 16. jooj | March 30th, 2008 at 8:28 am

    Mark; I am assuming they had mac and cheese at macaroni grill? Mm.. i love that cheesey (pun intended) all american, pointless, dish…

  17. 17. zaydoun | March 31st, 2008 at 3:23 am

    Johnny Carino’s is as low as you can possibly go for food that pretends to be “Italian”. It’s a crappy American chain from Texas for f**k’s sake!!

    The fact that Carino’s is still open while many better restaurants fail in Kuwait is not a good omen

  18. 18. pearls | March 31st, 2008 at 8:29 am

    I didn’t like their food. If I go there again it would be for their asparagus because it was the only fresh ingredient in my order.

    I had the simple grilled salmon, it wasn’t that great. The mushroom soup wasn’t tempting and it didn’t taste good either, it had so much mushroom in it. Everyone else didn’t like their orders. Maybe we just went for the wrong dishes, madreee. People that were coming in seemed to like the place …

    I would give it 2 out of 5.

  19. 19. pearls | March 31st, 2008 at 8:31 am

    ooh I tried the green salad too, the dressing tasted like the Italian dressings you’d buy from the co-ops or sultan centre.

  20. 20. Rakan | April 2nd, 2008 at 1:01 pm

    Great Service

  21. 21. anonymous34 | June 18th, 2008 at 3:01 pm

    right. im not a fan of johnny carinos either. the only dish that i am absolutely hooked on is the scampi shrimp. its so good. otherwise, i agree. its not much of a restaurant.

    as for mac and grill. today would be my first time tryin it. so ill see how tht goes.

Trackback this post  |  Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed



Commenting Rules: Any comments that are personal attacks towards other users will be deleted. You are also not allowed to post with the name Mark or Nat since that might cause confusion. Finally, no advertising is allowed, you can't advertise your products or websites here unless its beneficial to the topic thats being discussed. One more thing: We are not responsible for readers comments!