Maria's Italian Kitchen - Pasadena

HeatherB a month ago

Maria's is a great place for Italian cuisine and the staff is friendly. This used to be our go-to spot for lunch, but since they started adding a 3% surcharge to all bills for "operational costs" we have stopped going. We don't even know how long we were being charged that until one day I noticed it on the bottom of our bill. When we asked our waiter about it, he seemed embarrassed. I could see raising the price of your food to cover your costs, but an additional 3% on every bill is a bit greedy in my opinion especially when the customer isn't seeing any improvements or upgrades other than the fancy tablets used to take our orders which the staff don't even like to use, by the way. What a shame.

Chris U 3 months ago

Came to this location based on the reviews and I was not disappointed. Such friendly service, delicious food, and a cozy venue. Bruschetta is a must have to start off with and I wasn’t able to decide on one thing so I did the pasta duo on their Summer Menu. Penne Pomodoro was my favorite of the entire meal. If you got a sweet tooth then I recommend finishing off with their tiramisu. I have no choice but to come back to try the rest of their menu.

Greg Kimura 5 months ago

I'm a huge fan of their baked ziti! I ask for extra cheese and have them cook it until it gets a little brown! That's really good! Service is good too. We feel we're treated well and the staff is nice and friendly. The atmosphere is nice. There's regular indoor and there's also an area that's not outdoor, but not indoor either - like a covered outdoor area. Prices are okay. We've been eating here for 10 years now - can't believe it's been that long. As with all restaurants, prices have gone up, but that's to be expected. Overall, it's a great place to go to get some Italian food here in the east side of Pasadena!

Alicia Lawrence 3 years ago

Quick disclaimer—this restaurant seemed to be incredibly under staffed with only 3 wait staff for the entire restaurant. For this reason, I will refrain from reviewing their customer service. I will say that the wait staff were incredibly friendly and knowledgeable. Now…about the food—we had calamari and garlic knots for the appetizer. While the calamari flavor was ok, they were severely undercooked and therefore chewy. The garlic knots were ok. My daughter loved them. I did appreciate the presence of real garlic and the bread did taste as though it had just been baked. Now onto the entrees. I hate to say this, but I honestly had the worst meatball sandwich I’ve ever had. There was very little to no flavor, and the flavor that did exist was not very palatable. Too much cheese, flavorless sauce, and bland meatballs. I’ve honestly had better meatball subs at subway…😬👀 My husband had the vegetarian pizza. I tried it and it wasn’t bad. It was actually ok—about a 6 out of 10. The crust was just way too thin for the ingredients and please keep in mind, we didn’t add anything. These are the ingredients that come with. I also would highly recommend against using salad tomatoes to top a

Steven Lockwood 7 years ago

I love this place. Great location, they have much more parking in the rear than the front. Service is stellar, but the interior needs a revamp. The food is sensational. I did have to ask for more marinara sauce, other than that no issues. Desserts were also top notch, the cappuccino was lovely. We’ll be back most assuredly.