Trying 24 Of The Most Popular Menu Items At Romano's Macaroni Grill | Delish

Hello! You are so far away from me and then you're gonna get really close. I don't know why I don't know why I ever complain. Welcome back to the final season of Julia Tries Everything. We have finally made it to Romano's Macaroni Grill. It took us a four-hour drive. What hour are we into the drive? This is hour two. We have consumed a half a box of Cheez-Its and a lot of gummy bears. A lot of I feel like we're gonna regret doing this because we're about to eat so much pasta. But we are finally here and we're gonna try everything on the menu. That's appetizers, cocktails, wine, pasta. So much pasta by the way. I'm so excited. Desserts. Am I forgetting anything? Cake. Cake? Sure, we'll try everything. All right, let's go. Can't waste any more time. Bye-bye. Oh, I'm jogging. That's fun for me. It's tradition that your server, waitress, waiter writes their name upside down for you when you're about, when they come to your table with the crayons. So I'm gonna do that for us today. Can you do it? No, no, I'm just, I really want to make sure I do the J the right way because the rest are all easy. Is that the right way? No, that was Lulia. Oh. J. But it also looks like Tulia. Okay, I think I just don't know how to do the J. I, I'm, I'm going fast. That's right. Yeah. That's right. Wow. I'm so sad I messed up mine. It's actually a lot harder than I thought it'd be. Anyways, Julia chose macaroni. Does it look like a three-year-old wrote that? Yeah. Every summer, I would go see my grandparents in Maryland and whenever we went, it was like once a week, we went to macaroni and grill. I keep saying macaroni and grill. Macaroni. Macaroni grill. Yep. We would go to macaroni grill once a week at minimum and it was just like our place to hang out. I would sit here and draw over the entire table and I would be like, can we get another piece of paper? Cause I'm not done with my creations. Oh, all for me. Julie. We're starting with the rosemary peasant bread that you get for free at your table. I think you can ask for as many as you want. Um, how my grandma used to do it when we would come is that she would take one of them when they, as soon as it arrived to the table, put it in her purse. She would then tell them like, oh, we ate it all. Can we have more? And they'd give her more. Like she did this every single time we came here. Then, you know, that person who is our server just knew what she was doing. She brought a special purse, like her, her macaroni grill bread purse to do this. Anywho, that's how good it is. It's so good that very kind, sweet grandmas will steal it. I feel like I'm in a rosemary herb garden and you get this really great saltiness, butteriness. Oh, I think there's cheddar biscuits. Then I think there's the macaroni grill bread. They're two very different things, but of the free breads you get, those two king to me. I'm going to start off even stronger with the blood orange Cosmo. We've got some Grey Goose Vodka in here, orange juice, and blood orange. This is a fan favorite here. So wait, I've never drank a macaroni grill before. It's only been a childhood place. This is my first alcoholic beverage. I've already spilled it all over this table. Wow, that's delicious. I really need to stop spilling it. You know how little kids have their orange juice at their table? This is the adult brunch version of it. It really is reminding me of a mimosa, but a blood orange mimosa. It's very chuggable, extremely chuggable. Questionable how much alcohol is in this because I can't do it. That's going to sneak up on me, I can tell. We have these signature mac and cheese bites. This looks like the same crusty crust that we had on the bread. Like, look at this and then look at the bread. Don't they look really similar? So we dip it into this, oh, a truffle alfredo sauce. So a fried mac and cheese ball, and then you're putting into truffle cheese sauce here for a good time, not a long time. Oh my god. These are so dangerous. Oh my gosh. It's almost equal parts macaroni and cheese. That's very impressive. The breading is super crispy. You get the perfect crunch. It's cheesy and delicate. If you love your cheese and like that umami flavor, wow. I could pop those in one after the other and then be like, I don't know where they went. We have the stuffed mushrooms. Mushroom caps filled with sausage, goat cheese, ricotta, and spinach, and I think those are whole ass garlic cloves. So you're not having this on a first date. Got it. Am I eating this whole thing? You can if you want. Though I am gonna be at four hours in a car with you. Okay, I'll have half of it. I will be courteous to Chelsea and not have full garlic breath the whole time. It reminds me of how breakfast sausage tastes. You know like the Jimmy Dean package in the grocery store? My Meemaw used to make, use those huge, like it'd be like a pound of Jimmy Dean sausage. Just a scary log and be like, here's breakfast. She cooked with it. It wasn't just like a log for breakfast, but it tastes like that kind of breakfast sausage. Hang on, there's some fire back there. Oh yeah. I am distracted. Oh yeah, that's, that can be one of our fun facts. Fun fact. Macaroni and Grill, all of their kitchens are open kitchens, so you can just watch your food being made. And this is how, this, this is, this, this has been something that Macaroni and Grill has done. Macaroni Grill, not Macaroni and Grill. Okay, Macaroni Grill. Since 1988, since they've opened, they started in Texas, they've had the open concept kitchen. This was like before it was even cool. And I find it amazing. As a child when I came here, because you're drawing, you have to draw on the table, you get to watch your food being made, it's very entertaining. Like you're not just stuck at the table just listening to people, you get to like look and play with things. Anywho, that's what I'm about to do with this mushroom. I think these are better than the mac and cheese bites. What? I mean, I just gave those such high praise, but these mushroom, the stuffed mushrooms are even better. It's mainly because there's more complexity and the flavors, you're getting a little bit of a spiciness, you're getting a little bit of a lightness, where this one you're getting just pure creamy, cheesy, happy, glory life. I don't know what to say about that. Calamari time. The calamari looks really, really similar to, where was the place? You had such a good time when we went there. Carrabba's. Chelsea had a blast at Carrabba's, like I've never seen you just so happy. But this looks really similar in the coloring. It's not like super deep fried golden brown. It's actually kind of lighter, which makes me like it. Typically, I like it more because that means that the breading isn't like taking over the whole thing. This is a Calabrian pepper pesto. And then we have the citrus black pepper aioli. We'll do one of each. This little pepper pesto looks super cute, has just the right amount of like punch that kind of hurts the back of your throat, but you want more. I like the legs the best. I know it looks like a scary Halloween, like contraption or a spider. But it has all the crispy bits on it. It's the best part. That's an aquatic arachnid. When people tell me, what was it? Oh, how the shrimps are cockroaches of the sea. I think I said that. Yeah, yeah. Like squid are kind of like the spiders of the sea. The aioli has a really like strong citrus flavor. If you've ever had kind of like a ponzu, where you have your regular soy sauce and you have a soy sauce that has more of that citrus flavor, it's reminding me of that kind of like it ups the ante on it. We have the bruschetta. It has grilled rosemary bread, whipped ricotta, Roma tomatoes, garlic, and basil. The bread feels really soft and delicate. It feels like it has a little bit of a fluffiness to it. That feels great in my hand. Beautiful assembly. Thank you. This by far is the most easy going appetizer of the bunch. Like a crowd pleaser, fresh. It's also possibly one of the more shareable items on the table, I would say. You can have, I think each person, if you had a table of six, you each get one bite of this. I think that's honestly enough. Sometimes in the summertime, you just want your tomato and your basil, a little bit of salt and pepper. Boom, done. That's this. This is the bib and blue. Bib leaves, gorgonzola, walnuts, crispy prosciutto, crispy onions, pickled red onions, buttermilk ranch, and you can add chicken or shrimp. We didn't add either because we're eating a lot today. Oh my gosh. I think I have to have crispy red onions way better than crispy just regular onions. Oh, the prosciutto. It reminds me of how thick beef jerky is. Like those are thick prosciutto bites. This is definitely not a healthy salad in any way with all the blue cheese and fried red onions and basically big-ass pieces of bacon for all intents and purposes. I'm enjoying the crap out of this. If you wanted this for your lunch where you're adding chicken to it, I think that's perfect. I think that the shrimp would get overpowered by all the blue cheese and the really, really thick pieces of prosciutto. So if you're adding a protein, add chicken. Stuffed mushrooms are number one. So far, we've only had one cocktail, but this cocktail I think is gonna be really, really hard to beat. And then it's the mac and cheese bites. Wow, we bumped macaroni. I know. I started out too strong. I hyped it up way too quickly before trying the rest of the food. I am so sorry for doing that to you. That was reckless and careless of me. Would you like some fresh grated cheese? Fresh grated cheese? Yes. All of it, please. Okay, chicken parm time. Hand-breaded milanesa-style chicken breast, imported pomodorina. Oh, I can't pronounce words. Imported pomodorina, mozzarella, and capellini. Wow, look at the little tomatoes. You know when like you would have your little personal pepperoni pizza as a kid, you have the perfect little placements? That's what I'm seeing. It's just like one big flat disc of meat. I'm just gonna do the chicken on its own. Crispy, crunchy, not even crispy, crunchy, like extreme crunch. It's like burnt ends, but for chicken. Oh, it's a very mellow tomato sauce. It doesn't have like a lot of herbs in it. It's very much more of a pure tomato sauce in that way. Slightly sweet. All right, let's do a little bit of the pasta with it. A little bit of a fun fact, I suppose. Small fun fact. They serve over 250,000 of these a year, so this is one of the most popular menu items. Usually the most popular menu item is one of the more safer options, I would say. I have a feeling that these other dishes are going to be way more punchy and be a little bit more exciting than the chicken parm. I love chicken marsala. It has with the white wine, has a citrusy feel to it, it's punchy, and like it's buttery and smooth too with the pasta on it. I can't wait. Chicken breast, mushrooms, marsala, wine sauce, roasted garlic, and capellini. Look at these mushrooms. They're so golden and roasted. I bet they're like icy. You could do a mushroom marsala dish here, actually. Like that on its own. I don't even know if I need the chicken. Oh my gosh, are those more pieces of garlic? Y'all are trying to kill me. I think they're trying to kill me. That is true. This with a glass of wine, it's almost... You can cut the chicken with your fork. That's how tender and moist it is. The marsala wine sauce... wine sauce? The marsala wine sauce is just giving you that little bit of a tang that you're looking for. I already like this better than the chicken parm. Like this to me is way more interesting and has like just more layers to it. We have the sorrento lemonade. This has gin, soda, basil, and fresh lemon. I have a feeling I'm going to love this one. It just seems so simple and easy and fresh. This tastes like a lemony herbaceous old man. It's good. I'm just saying it tastes like an outdoorsy old man that loves lemon. Maybe he's sunbathing and he just had a really good shave. That's what that is. I'm still gonna drink it. Just, that's what gin tastes like to me. We have the chicken scallopini, chicken breast, artichokes, mushrooms, capers, prosciutto, lemon butter, and capellini. When we were looking at the prosciutto on this, we were like, what is that? Is that just sun-dried tomatoes? Is that pepper? No. Yet again, really thick pieces of prosciutto, which means it's gonna be extra salty and crunchy. Holy s**t. I'll build you a bite. Give me your fork. Thank you. You remember the dish that you like that's called marry me chicken? Yes. This is really similar to like a marry me chicken. It is so delicious. It's so good. How is this not the most popular menu item? I don't know. I would order that. The pasta's here to collect the sauce, but you really don't need the pasta. I'll, I mean, I'll just, I'll humor you guys. Oh my god. It's the right amount of salty, tangy, lemony. I mean, there's a s**t ton of butter in this. Let's, let's, let's make that well known. There's a lot of butter. Anytime a dish tastes this good, you know that there's like a stick of butter in there somehow. That is phenomenal. I can't believe we still have to try the shrimp portofino. Sautéed jumbo shrimp, capellini, spinach, mushrooms, garlic, pine nuts, lemon butter. Here we go. Oh, beautiful. Okay. This is hard. Now I'm getting confused on which sauce I like better. This is what I get paid the big dollars for. I don't know. Six pieces of jumbo shrimp in here. So that's actually the right amount for the amount of pasta you're getting. So you're getting a piece of shrimp with every bite. Good amount of spinach, mushrooms, of course. I think mushrooms are like almost in every dish here. Let me describe the sauce. Let me be better about that. I think it's just so simple. It really is just a lemon butter sauce with a little bit of basil maybe. But it's so delicious. It's like a salted lemon butter sauce. This one you would finish the entire plate. This one would be really hard to eat the entire thing just because it is heavier. I love when we have a hard round like this where I'm kind of fighting back and forth of which one I like more. That's a good thing. When it's too obvious that there's only one good dish on the table, that's a problem. We still have another round to go with pasta. Lots and lots of pasta. This is, I swear this is every person's dream to have this much pasta in front of you and just being like eat it. I've had so many times in my life I wish I could do this and now I'm getting to do it. We have the ultimate Bellini. It starts as a floater on the top and then it just drops to the bottom. So we're going to start with that one. I'm actually going to mix it up. Bacardi rum, bubbles, house white wine, peach and black raspberry. Bubbles means champagne I'm pretty sure. Yeah okay so there's three alcohols in here. Three alcohols and one blended beverage. What could go wrong really when you think about it? And you really can't taste any of them. It's like an Italian pina colada. That's the best way I can explain it. I'm not a rum girl but it's not bothering me at all with this. It's a peach colada. That's how I'm going to describe it to you. It's also an adult slurpee. Like if I was going to 7-Eleven I would ask for this. We started. We already started with the fettuccine. Parmesan, butter, cream, a little bit of cracked black pepper. That's all you need. This used to be one of my favorite dishes as a kid. It's so simple. It's a crowd pleaser. I actually like this more than the chicken parm because the parm in this is so salty. I don't know where they get their parm from that makes it. It tastes different. I swear to god the parm at Macaroni Grill tastes different than the one that you get at home. You know also the pre-shredded stuff that you get at the grocery store? That's not this. You can tell it's like it's been like cut off a block or something. Okay that's a brick in your stomach. Delicious. It's just how I remember it from when I was a kid. We have our pasta Milano. Roasted chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, rigatoni, and a roasted garlic cream sauce. You know that cream sauce is going to be amazing. There's no way it's not going to be phenomenal. Yep. If I had just birthed a child and was in labor for like 48 hours this is what I would request after. I'd be like I've been working so hard just give me this. Sun-dried tomatoes deserve to have a comeback. They deserve to just get the spotlight again. This dish is a perfect example of that. Love you. We have the penne rustica. Roasted chicken, shrimp, prosciutto, rosemary cream, and parmesan. Three meats in here. Also rosemary cream? Are we kidding? This is kind of wild. Chicken, shrimp, and prosciutto all in one dish. I don't know how those play together. This is something I'm noticing here at Macaroni Grill. There are about like six or seven ingredients so to get the perfect bite you got to really sit there and pay attention. Okay. The chicken with the prosciutto and that rosemary cream is like such a good like tight click of a group and the shrimp is like trying to join. It's like come on like let me join the party and they're like no and that's kind of how it's happening. Chels, camera up here. We have the butternut tortellacci and that is tortellacci stuffed with four cheese blend, asiago cream, butternut squash, prosciutto, and parmesan. So we have prosciutto, parmesan, asiago, which means that cream sauce is about to be deadly. There's no way it's not going to be. It just smells like richness. It smells it smells kind of like um truffle. How truffle would? I don't think there's truffle in it. Maybe there is. Smells like it. Holy it might be a new favorite. I hate to do that to my rigatoni to just cast it to the side like that. This is a much more simplified dish but it's way richer and creamier. Let's say you're having a date night and you're trying to impress them. I would come here, order this, bring it home with me, put it on a plate and be like I made this for you and they'd be like oh my god marry me. Of course and then you're stuck in this lie for the rest of your life. Okay I was writing down my notes for this wine on the no you can't see it secret. Okay this is the this is the Romano's This is their special house red wine that you can only get here and it's actually should I do my fun fact now or should I take a sip? Doesn't matter. I'll take a sip first. I have a very long-winded fun fact so fun fact time. This wine is made by the Candone family which I don't want to say this. Macaroni Grill has two different wines a red wine and a white wine. It's their house blend and you can only get it here at Macaroni Grill. The wine is made by one family in Italy the Candone family. You can't even get it supplied somewhere else. It's specifically made for here and you can also buy it here. They used to bring you the bottle or the jug pour it for you and then they leave it at your table and then you have your little crayons here and as you drink your glasses of wine you're pouring it for yourself. You just take a little tally mark at the end of the table and that's how they charge you for your wine at the end of your I was going to say at the end of your shift at the end of your meal and I still remember my grandpa he would like take the crayon and he was so rigid about it he'd be like did you just pour a little bit more in your glass like does like half a tally anyways getting doing like tallies as you're an adult it's just fun to play with wine like that and let me taste another sip. I'm pretty sure this red wine is going to go with everything it's like a super super agreeable red wine. Was that is that a fun fact at all? Yeah. Okay like what is fun anymore? We have mom's ricotta meatball and spaghetti. We have one with the bolognese sauce and then we have the other one with the pomodoro sauce. So we're going to do the bolognese first. The mountain of meatballs that they give you one two three four five six seven eight eight meatballs on this one dish. Let's see if I can get some of the meaty sauce. I will say that this is a really sweet tomato sauce not much spice to it. I think if you wanted to if you could do red pepper flakes in it I think that would add a little bit of like an oomph. We're gonna do slow-mo. Oh. Time for a slow-mo. Why you do this to me? It's time to let the light in you shine. There is a hero inside. I can't tell this is controversial but I don't think I need the bolognese sauce. I like the pomodoro sauce more than the bolognese because it is a little bit fresher lighter. It reminds me of the bruschetta that we had in the first round how it just felt like actual pieces of tomato. Like you can see like it actually does look like the bruschetta. It's hidden. It looks just like the bruschetta that we had in the first round. You can even see the pieces of tomato in there. I really like that. It's just like juicy fresh. I have to say something other than fresh at some point. That was a good one. That was a good one. If you're thinking about getting spaghetti and meatballs or fettuccine alfredo because those are kind of like the plain ones that you're probably deciding between. Controversial maybe. I would go with the fettuccine alfredo. I just loved the creamy and saltiness. I couldn't get enough of it. Lasagna bolognese. Bolognese sauce, Italian sausage, ricotta, mozzarella, imported pomodoro. That is also a fun fact that we should say. Fun fact. In the same vein that we were talking about the red wine is that most of the ingredients are actually imported from families in Italy, different companies and brands. So you're getting a lot of authentic ingredients from the home country. I find that fascinating. Lasagna. Something I never ever order when I'm out. I don't know why. Look at all those layers in there. Oh my gosh. It's really nice. It's like an Italian birthday cake. That's all I got for you. The ricotta is so smooth and creamy. Almost reminds me of like how like you would have a bechamel sauce with it. It's pretty similar to the meatball when it comes to the seasoning in there. It's tender. Oh my god. It just evaporates on your mouth. This one just goes down so easy. The best red sauce I'm gonna go with the lasagna. I never order lasagna when I'm out and this is making me change my mind. Of the white sauces... If you're really into butternut squash and a fall type flavor, you need to do this dish. But if that's not your thing, then the rigatoni. You will not be upset when you get that rigatoni. I got too excited and I ate too much pasta and I want to eat more. I really don't want to do the dessert round. I want my lasagna as my cake. Isn't this a cute little round? It's so adorable. I just discovered that Julia might be my favorite person right now because she got me two spoons. I knew that you were gonna need them. Okay, we are in the last round. There was a moment where I was like, I don't think I can keep doing this. There's a brick in my stomach. But we got an extra 10 minute breather between the two rounds so now I'm feeling a little bit better, feeling alive. Do I admit, do I tell everyone what happened? Oh no. Can I tell people? Yeah. We had a really great break between pasta and dessert round because Chelsea was shooting the really gorgeous beauties of the limoncello and just knocked it. Just straight up went like and it went all over the table into the key lime pie. I'm so sorry. I have a video footage of it, don't worry. That's why we are well rested. Thank you, Chelsea. We have the decadent chocolate cake, intensely rich chocolate cake, layered chocolate ganache, chocolate buttercream, fresh whipped cream, and toffee crumbles. Oh, look at the chocolate sauce in there. Can you see the puddle? Oh, oh my god. Wait, let me just lick this off. It's like melted chocolate chips instead of like chocolate sauce. Chocolate chips. It's all over your teeth. I haven't done that in a while actually. I used to love doing this on a date and this is why I'm single. Are you like, anything on my teeth? And if your date doesn't laugh, leave him. The toffee crumble is essential. It's giving you this wonderful little crunch and it also gets kind of stuck in the back of your teeth to the flavor for later. It sounds like there's a lot of chocolate on here because there is, but it's actually surprisingly light. There's some chocolate that we've had where it's just so intensely fudgy where you have one bite, it's almost too bitter. This is almost like a chocolate pudding, like a snack pack chocolate pudding flavor. Very light, easy going. The chocolate sauce gives you that extra like, extreme chocolate flavor. The Heath toffee crumble bits, I would ask for like an extra side, extra little cup of it and just having it for every single bite because that's like, adding the pizzazz. Okay, cannoli time. Crispy pastry shells, rich ricotta filling with cinnamon and chocolate chips. What's the accurate way of eating a cannoli? Slow-mo. It's a really spicy cinnamon or like, there's something about it where it's like a perfumey cinnamon flavor and it's really strong. I thought it was just gonna be a dusting of it, but it's an intense cinnamon flavor. You have to really like cinnamon to be into this. I think the texture of the pastry itself is that right amount of crisp at a first bite, but then it has that right amount of sogginess. When I say soggy, I think the word itself doesn't sound alluring in any way, but you want your pastry shell to have just a little bit of it. Just gives you a little bit of bite, you know, like dipping your cookie into milk and letting it get just a little bit soggy. Same thing here. Rosé is obviously rosé strawberry puree, agave nectar blended with fresh citrus. Also, you can see the specks of strawberry in there and I love when you can see that. It just makes it feel like, okay, they actually tried and it's not just, you know, strawberry. You know when you get the strawberry pump syrup? Don't like that. Like it, love it, want more of it. I don't know why this is reminding me of Valentine's Day. The pink. It's a frosé. Who's drinking this on a Valentine's Day? This is what I want to drink on Valentine's Day. Speaking of fun fact, Valentine's Day hearts. In every single macaroni grill, they have a heart-shaped stone that you have to find in the restaurant. Well, you don't have to find it. Why? You don't have to find it, okay? But you should find it. I couldn't figure it out because I thought it was going to be a really specific heart shape, like cartoon, but it's actually an organic heart shape, which makes it much harder to find. But we found ours. It's over by the bathrooms. Chels will get a great shot of it. Phenomenal heart-shaped shot. Put it in. Basically, every single location you go to, you can go search for it. It's always in a different spot. Make the kids do it. This place is full of activities for the children, really. We have the Key Lime Wave. Look at her. She's beautiful. She has a tart key lime curd, classic graham cracker baked crust, fresh strawberries, strawberry sauce, and fresh whipped cream. I love that it's a curd because it's going to be like extra potent and tart. I could say so many things about this. One of my favorite things about this is that the graham cracker to tart curd ratio. You are so close. You get closer. Don't let them see my pores. The graham cracker to key lime ratio is perfect to me. I always want more graham cracker. I can never have enough. So this, I really enjoy. I know it looks kind of super flat and like squat. It's almost like eating a stick of butter, but a key lime pie butter. I like that consistency. We have the limoncello. I might kind of taste these back and forth because I feel like there's something happening here. Nothing too crazy to... It's limoncello. It's imported from Italy. Smells like a pine saw. So my mom makes limoncello and I obviously have to say hers is the best, but she will just knock back a shot of it when she's tasting it because there's kind of a process when you're making it where you're like, is it ready? Is it right where I want it to be? And so she'll just be sitting there. She's like, takes one back. I'm like, you know, that's ever clear. That's just ever clear that you are drinking and making it socially acceptable by calling it limoncello. This is the flavor combo. What if I dipped it? No. Okay. That's karma. Oh man. You know, order both. Have the experience. It's fun. The key lime pie is always going to be my favorite anywhere we go. I feel like anytime you give me something tart, sour, graham cracker crust, I'm always going to like it. If you're not into the key lime pie, this cake is delicious and surprisingly light considering how big it is. So you could split it between two people and probably be fine. Are we done? Yeah. We did it yet again. Have your bite. Enjoy it. I am like just so... I'm so high on pasta that I don't even care that you're eating all the desserts. I'm not even like upset about it. This is our last season of Julia Tries. Write down below every place that you think that we should go. It's like a bit of a bucket list. Last places on our list. We're going to take all of our leftovers. I know. Where do the leftovers go? Who's to say? We pack them up. We put them in the car and we drive them home. Chelsea and I are going to roll out of here. We have a four hour car ride ahead of us where I am loaded with garlic and cream and it's gonna be a good time for her. Maybe you're driving me. Maybe I'm driving. Yeah, maybe you're driving. Okay, can I leave? Yeah. Okay. Bye. Oh my god. Oh, Chelsea. Okay. You're lucky I'm just so f***ing strong. What would you do without me? Where'd the leftovers go? I wonder. Right in the car. Ah, f***. I forgot Chelsea. Chelsea!