Maggiano's Fall 2024 Menu Review: Fancy, Fun, And Delicious

Upscale Italian-American restaurant chain Maggiano's Little Italy debuted some significant changes to its menu in September 2024. Altogether, the lineup of new or revamped items now permanently on the Maggiano's menu includes an Antipasto Board, a Truffle & Honey Whipped Ricotta appetizer, a Mozzarella alla Caprese appetizer, a new Caesar salad recipe called the Chef's Signature Caesar, a Riserva Veal Parmesan entrée, a Chicken Saltimbocca entrée, a Rigatoni alla Vodka pasta, a Fettuccine Bolognese pasta, and a Dessert Trio Platter. Coinciding with the debuts of these new items is an addition to the wine menu called the Master Sommelier Selection consisting of six wines curated by Master Sommelier Jason Smith.

The decision to update the Maggiano's menu followed the hiring of Michelin-starred Chef Anthony Amoroso as Vice President of Innovation and Growth. These new menu items, then, are meant to showcase the culinary future of the Italian chain under Amoroso's leadership.

Maggiano's invited me to my nearest location to try most of its new fall 2024 dishes. Overall, I had the opportunity to taste every new food except the Fettuccine Bolognese, which is available only on Tuesdays during National Pasta Month in October, and the Chicken Saltimbocca, which features chicken breast cutlets with prosciutto and lemon butter sauce and a side of Spaghetti Aglio e Olio. Join me as I relive my culinary journey with individual reviews of all seven dishes I ate during my visit.

The Truffle & Honey Whipped Ricotta appetizer simply consists of — for lack of a better word — loaded ricotta and some pieces of crostini bread. One order costs $16.99 at my local Maggiano's, located inside the Fashion Show mall in Las Vegas, Nevada.

As straightforward as the Truffle & Honey Whipped Ricotta may be in construction, its flavor is anything but. First, as its name indicates, the naturally mild ricotta acts as an sort of blank canvas for its honey and truffle components. It's also topped with sundried tomatoes and basil. Altogether, the foremost flavor is sweetness, presumably from the honey blended into the ricotta but also extending to the sundried tomato topping. The pieces of bread, meanwhile, are surprisingly chewy — they're not as crunchy as typical crostini bread, and that texture is preferable to what's normally a more brittle bread preparation. Paired with the softness of the ricotta, the combined texture of a cheese-and-bread bite is pleasant. Plus, another reason you should be eating ricotta cheese is for its health benefits.

I enjoyed my order of Truffle & Honey Whipped Ricotta quite a bit. Its bold, sweet flavor and standout texture elevated the dish well beyond a standard ricotta appetizer into something wholly unique to the Maggiano's menu.

Listed under salads on Maggiano's menu, the Mozzarella alla Caprese starts with a classic combination of thick tomato slices, whole basil leaves, and an orb of mozzarella cheese. What makes the Maggiano's caprese unique compared with a simple caprese salad recipe is a balsamic glaze on top of each tomato slice, some pesto within the mozzarella, and a large parmesan crisp atop everything. One order costs $16.99.

From among the additions to the classic caprese salad recipe, my favorite was the balsamic glaze. It's not so strong that it completely overpowers the freshness of the tomato slices, but it imbues the dish with a bold flavor atypical of a standard caprese. The parmesan crisp also stands out for adding a crunchy element to what are otherwise texturally soft bites. The most surprising thing about Maggiano's alla Caprese is how indulgent it is. Normally, tomato, mozzarella and basil make for light eating, but the added pesto and especially the balsamic glaze contribute a distinct oiliness. As is the case with the Truffle & Honey Whipped Ricotta, each surprising element is pleasant and helps elevate the Mozzarella alla Caprese beyond a mere Italian restaurant staple to caprese done the Maggiano's way. Most importantly, its uniqueness isn't just for the sake of doing things differently. It genuinely makes the dish better than a more basic interpretation.

Maggiano's Antipasto Board includes a mini serving of the Truffle & Honey Whipped Ricotta appetizer, mozzarella slices with the balsamic glaze, Genoa salami, Prosciutto di San Daniele, aged parmesan cheese bites, green Calabrian olives in a spicy house marinade, and ample pieces of the chain's quasi-crostini bread. Each order in-restaurant is $10 per person with a two-person minimum, or $40 when ordering takeout.

Unsurprisingly, the variety at play on Maggiano's Antipasto Board is its greatest strength. Both the meats and parmesan cheese are relatively mild in flavor but of high quality. For that reason I prefer eating the meats on their own. If you attempt a bite with cheese and bread, the meats' subtler flavors can get overpowered. Meanwhile, the spicy olives are quite possibly the platter's standout — in addition to a very strong olive-y flavor, their spicy, oily marinade turns each individual olive into a flavor bomb. 

Paired with essentially the same balsamic mozzarella from the Mozzarella alla Caprese and a serving of Truffle & Honey Whipped Ricotta, everything on the Antipasto Board justifies its presence handily. In a theoretical dining situation where I could only pick one appetizer, I would take the delightfully unique Truffle & Honey Whipped Ricotta over the more standard Antipasto Board. That said, anyone who might rather prioritize the Antipasto Board's variety should find it a delight, from its quality meats and cheeses to its spicy olive centerpiece.

The Chef's Signature Caesar isn't the first Caesar salad on the Maggiano's menu, but as my server explained to me, a new version of the classic dish replaces the chain's previous Caesar. Nevertheless, this new Caesar is as simple as can be, consisting of romaine, croutons, parmesan, and dressing. A side serving costs $9.99 and an entrée-sized portion is $18.99.

While I may not have ever tried the old Maggiano's Caesar, I felt like I understood with my very first bite why the chain debuted this new recipe. Simply put, it's a really, really great Caesar salad. First off, as is the case with Maggiano's crostini bread, the croutons are not excessively crunchy. That helps them integrate into a typically soft salad bite better than a standard crouton. The standout ingredient in this Caesar, meanwhile, is its house-made dressing, which seemed fresher and creamier than a typical salad dressing. Caesar salads can include some surprising ingredients, and I'd guess that the Maggiano's recipe uses anchovies, which in my opinion elevate any Caesar bold enough to include them. Unlike the other new Maggiano's appetizers, there's nothing all that unique about the Chef's Signature Caesar, but it's so expertly crafted that it's arguably just as impressive.

As a press release about Maggiano's fall 2024 menu explains, the term "reserva" is typically used in the wine industry. Simply put, a reserva wine is higher in quality than wines without the label. The Riserva Veal Parmesan consists of a generous veal chop, breaded and topped with a standard combination of marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese, and basil. On the side is a simple arugula and cherry tomato salad. One order costs $46.99.

Altogether, the sauce and cheese on the Riserva Veal Parmesan are both pretty standard in flavor, not necessarily impressive to any significant degree — but that's okay because they take a backseat to a truly excellent 14-ounce bone-in veal chop. As an ex-vegetarian who still cares somewhat about the ethics of the meat I consume, I appreciate that Maggiano's is vocal about sourcing its veal from a free-range farm that purportedly prioritizes both animal welfare and sustainability. That care is clearly reflected in the veal chop's quality, showcased expertly by its preparation. All in all, it's tender and rich in flavor. Plus, the breadcrumb coating tastes great and contributes a textural upgrade. For what it's worth, the arugula salad is nothing more than serviceable, but that's not why anyone's ordering this dish. On the strength of just how good the veal chop tasted, the Riserva Veal Parmesan ended up as my favorite dish during my Maggiano's visit.

The new Rigatoni alla Vodka at Maggiano's is a somewhat straightforward take on the dish, consisting of thick rigatoni tubes in an orange-colored vodka sauce made with caramelized onions and Calabrian chilis. A bowl costs $26.50.

My favorite thing about this Rigatoni alla Vodka dish was its chili component, imbuing the creamy vodka sauce with a satisfying kick. All in all, however, this was the sole item among the new Maggiano's offerings that didn't rise significantly above a baseline level of quality. The rigatoni pasta, notably, was not al dente but cooked to the point that it was pretty soft. While that softer texture did technically match up with the creaminess of the vodka sauce, it felt a little lacking overall. The sauce in a typical pasta alla vodka recipe, meanwhile, is typically milder, and I found that the subtler flavor of the sauce in this dish didn't quite end up in the realm of elegance, remaining instead just not all that flavorful. That said, the dish did include an ample quantity of sauce, ideal for dipping some bread after finishing the pasta. While the Rigatoni alla Vodka is good enough, its merely standard quality means that it fails to reach the heights of Maggiano's other new menu items.

The Dessert Trio Platter at Maggiano's includes a piece of tiramisu, a slice of New York style cheesecake, and a few of the chain's signature Vera's Lemon Cookies. Those are accompanied by a chocolate sauce, a strawberry sauce, strawberry slices, a biscuity cookie, and whipped cream. One order of the Dessert Trio Platter totals $16.99.

Just like the savory Antipasto Board, I found this conglomeration of sweet treats delightful across the board. For what it's worth, the slice of tiramisu — Italy's most popular dessert — was not super sweet, presenting instead a coffee liqueur flavor first and foremost. Texturally, it's super soft. The cheesecake, meanwhile, was my favorite bite of the platter. The Maggiano's take on cheesecake is a little denser than average and heavy on cream cheese flavor, again not excessively sweet. It tasted even better with the addition of the strawberry sauce. Finally, while the lemon cookies didn't seem exciting on first glance, I enjoyed them just about as much as the other desserts. Like a good key lime pie, they deftly balance tangy citrus with a bright sugariness. All three desserts are substantial enough that each member of a group outing could manage at least a bite or two of each. Overall, then, the Dessert Trio Platter is a standout option, balancing variety and quality to great effect.

A representative for the chain of 50 restaurants owned and operated by Brinker International Inc. helped organize a time and date I could visit my closest Maggiano's location, which was inside the Fashion Show mall in Las Vegas, Nevada, to try each of these new menu items. While the chain knew I was reviewing everything I tasted, all evaluations are based entirely on my own opinions.

These items were effectively served to me in three courses: appetizers/salads, entrées, and dessert. While I didn't finish the entirety of each dish I was served at the restaurant, I did eat just about half of everything during that single meal. What I didn't finish in the restaurant, I took home. That meant I had a second leftover serving of pretty much everything. And while that second round didn't change any of my opinions, it did help solidify my thoughts about the restaurant's menu additions. My reviews are based solely on what I was served during this trip to Maggiano's and not any previous experience with the chain.