Restaurant Review: Maggiano's in Cherry Hill, New Jersey

My daughters fell in love with Philadelphia's lively, noisy, always-crowded and popular restaurant Maggiano's years ago. Lately, this Italian restaurant has been branching out, with an outpost in King of Prussia Mall on Philadelphia's Main Line, and, most recently, across the bridge in New Jersey. On Monday, March 2, 2009, Maggiano's Cherry Hill restaurant opened its doors - despite a blinding snowstorm.

Was this Maggiano's offshoot worth its much-anticipated wait?

We dined there on Saturday, March 7, 2009, a party of four. One thing I will tell you immediately: If at all possible, ask to be served in the evenings by Basil, the waiter. Basil - who hails from perhaps the Bahamas, Jamaica, someplace exotic - has a wonderful smile, terrific head of carefully pulled back dreadlocks, and a very charming accent that matches his personality.

Now that I have my waiter recommendation out of the way, let's address some other issues of fine dining: service, wait time, and, of course, the quality of our meals.

One of my girls had, thank God, made a reservation for a 7:30 seating. When we arrived at 7:10 PM, the place was mobbed. Those who did not have reservations were told that there was a three-hour wait for a dinner seating. Three hours. After checking in, we were given one of those electronic beepers that will light up and vibrate when your table is ready. The woman at the reception desk was very pleasant and professional, despite the crowds - some patient and friendly, many not so much (this is New Jersey, after all) - surrounding her. One issue that I had: there is no formal waiting area. There was literally one high backed chair in the lobby. Your other option was to stand, or to have a drink in their bar area, which was quite busy as well. Every seat at the bar was taken, every booth in the bar where food was served was also occupied. It's a pretty, fashionable bar area done in black and white tiles. Overhead televisions were tuned into sports channels.

The restaurant itself is visually quite stunning. Oddly enough, the lobby/foyer is quite large, certainly large enough for more than one individual chair. The entrance's revolving door may pose a problem in the future, as kids departing with their families found it highly amusing to spin through those doors like ... kids would do. The ceilings are high, the entrance floor marble, and the color scheme again is black and white, with several very attractive fresh floral arrangements around. As you enter the foyer, to the left is the bar area. To the right (we had plenty of time to explore as we waited!) is a long corridor, off of which are four or five separate large dining rooms reserved for large parties and groups. We saw only one 'large' party of about ten or twelve people occupying one of the rooms. This seemed odd. If management was turning away a really high percentage of people due to a three-hour wait for seating, why didn't they just open up one or two of these reserved dining rooms? Lots of 'bling' was taken into account in the decoration of these rooms: gold sconces, gold faux marble columns, color photos of Italian street life, etc.

We were seated shortly after our appointed time, by 7:40 PM. The main part of the restaurant is broken up, as it the style in restaurants these days, into a warren of rooms and sections. Booths of varying sizes lined the walls. There were numerous tables seating anywhere from two to eight people at tables scattered throughout the interior of these warrens. We were, luckily, given a comfortable booth. We also had the unfortunate proximity to a table of eight adults, who were literally squeezed cheek to jowl into one of those interior tables. As my husband pointed out, it was a miracle that they could actually eat, so closely were their chairs pushed together.

Maggiano's menu and 'philosophy' are listed online at www.maggianos.com. I'd strongly suggest that you take a look at their menu offerings before you make a reservation of your own. It does NOT list prices for any menu items. You can make a reservation at any of their locations right on line, which was a plus.

Maggiano's is not inexpensive Italian fare. Our entrees averaged $15 each: sausage and peppers, spaghetti and meatballs, chicken Francaise and chicken Piccate. We also ordered the fried mozzarella appetizer.

Water was poured promptly. However, there were no napkins at our table, nor was there sufficient silverware. We each had a bread plate and presentation plate. There was some urgency implied in taking our orders.

If Maggiano's has one constant, it is their wait time. It is terribly, terribly slow in getting meals to the table once they've been ordered. We waited 20 minutes for the mozzarella to arrive. We waited 30 minutes for our entrees to arrive. Had it not been for the bread plate, we would have fainted from hunger. The bus boy did, thankfully, refill it.

Also keep in mind that what many of us have become accustomed to as part of an entree - a side salad or perhaps soup - is not done at Maggiano's. Soups and salads are priced separately and are not part of the meal.

If I had to rate the food, on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being truly excellent, overall I would give their food a 5.

Bear in mind that this was the first full weekend that Maggiano's was opened for business. That most likely accounted for the massive rush of people trying to get a seat. But that shouldn't affect the quality of their food, which is identical to that served in Philadelphia.

The mozzarella was enjoyed by two of us; the others thought it dry and a relatively small serving. The spaghetti and meatballs portion was huge. Absolutely monstrous in size, it could have served two hungry men easily. There were four meatballs the size of tennis balls in the portion. Unfortunately, the taste of the meatballs could also draw comparisons to a tennis ball as well. Two-thirds of that entree was taken home.

Both chicken dishes drew mixed reviews. The Francaise was served, as noted on the menu, with radicchio and 'potato balls'. When the entree arrived, three-fourths of the plate was covered in raddichio (with a few tiny tomatoes halfheartedly tossed in). Since some of the greens had taken on the white wine sauce in which the chicken was cooked, it was actually quite a tasty little way to get some greens into my meal, and I ate all of them. The potato balls? Three dark, fried discs of potato, each literally bite-sized. The chicken was artfully covered under the greens. It consisted of one cutlet, fairly thin, that appeared to have been re-heated rather than freshly cooked, as it didn't retain much taste of a fresh white wine sauce to the meat itself. The chicken Piccate was a big hit because of the spinach plated on the entree, also covering most of the plate. This dish had three small servings of chicken hidden under those greens. The daughter who had ordered it felt that it was dry and dessicated and actually left one of the cutlets to be taken home. The sausage and peppers was a lively dish in both taste and size, although the peppers far outnumbered the amount of sausage.

While seated in our comfortable booth, we watched as desserts made their way across the room. The portions were huge, and there was literally a chunk of dark chocolate cake whose slice appeared to be perhaps one-fourth the size of your average homemade cake. Having picked our way through our entrees, our hearts just weren't into dessert.

Would I recommend Maggiano's? Yes and no. If you're going for a light meal - say, a salad, or for coffee and desserts, or, as many people are doing these days, making a meal out of appetizers, I'd say give it a try. Definitely make a reservation! The service was harried, rushed and very slow, but also genuine and kind. The surroundings are certainly pretty enough, with high ceilings and black and white vintage photos adorning the walls. Would I want to host the next family birthday dinner there? Probably not. If you're looking for more 'genuine' Italian food at one-third to one-half the cost, head down to Sal & Joe's on Moorestown's Lenola Road, in a strip shopping center, for the real deal.