I will say outright that I am not a fan of Italian chain restaurants. I find it hard to produce food with the right ingredients on a large scale. To me, Italian food is about quality cooking and ingredients, and chain restaurants can't possibly be meeting that.
That said, I tried Macaroni Grill once with a group of friends. We were seated at a table with paper on it for drawing on. We were greeted by our waitress who poured some olive oil out of a bottle and called it "Italian Butter" for our bread. I don't know if that is a standard at this restaurant, but I found it grossly gimmicky.
For my entrée I ordered something which consisted of fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and basil. I was disappointed with my order because it only included a few miniature sized balls of the fresh mozzarella. In the end, I felt as if I could have done better going out and buying my own fresh mozzarella, tomatoes, and fresh basil. Aside from my disappointment, the rest of my group seemed to be happy with their orders. Additionally, the desserts that we ordered were very good.
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