Didn’t see this coming: the Macaroni Grill in Great Falls is closing. Only ate there once – was standard fare, nice decor, but nothing too exciting.
Some of the comments on the KRTV Facebook page are puzzling – several of them are upset that without Macaroni Grill, there’s no Italian restaurant in Great Falls. Um…how about Rikki’s? I love their baked cheesy ziti! And of course there’s the usual calls for Olive Garden and Hooter’s and such.
So apparently it will be replaced by a non-chain restaurant called the Moonshine Grill…can’t wait to give it a shot when it opens in January…will be interesting to see how it stacks up against my current fave, the Montana Club.
Seems like just yesterday that the rumors began about Macaroni Grill coming to town…and by “yesterday” I mean – holy cow, more than five years?
I was actually hoping for a Texas Roadhouse. Oh well.
Was hoping for Outback Steaks. Hopefully this will go well for the owners.
No great loss – we had ‘em in Austin, and rarely ate there. It’s Americanized pasta – not Italian. People who think it is, don’t know what good Italian food really is. We need somebody to open a really good Italian food restaurant here.
A friend introduced us to Macaroni Grill right after it opened. The first few times we went there, it was really quite good. Then my $14 salad shrunk by nearly half, and the service became spotty. We tried again once or twice, same bad result, haven’t been there in well over a year.
I have heard that the Macaroni Grill changed corporate ownership, which might explain a lot.
I am disappointed to be getting another steak house. Kobe Steak House is just opening, there’s Eddie’s, there’s Jakers, Dante’s, Suki Steakhouse, the Montana Club and other places for slabs of flesh. I am jonesing for something DIFFERENT. We do not have a gourmet restaurant in Great Falls. We don’t have any east Indian food. No tapas bar, no whole foods hippie place, no Vietnamese, no ‘seafood’ specialist, and a lot of local dinner places that serve “some” ethnic food attempt to wedge it into the menu.
There is a great space up at our airport that would attract locals, too. I am old enough to remember Victor’s restaurant at the old airport (hey, I was like 5 years old, but I DO remember). I’m not a fan of chain restaurants, but I understand their appeal. An Olive Garden would clean up at the Great Falls International airport.
Never ate there. Not interested in another chain Italian type eating joint. Based on what I’ve heard about service at MG, management had better address that if they plan on keeping everyone to work at the steakhouse replacing MG.
I’m happy to see that the franchise and the limitations of that are gone, but it sounds like another steak house. Hello, I want some variety folks!
TOTALLY agree with Claire!