The girls voted for dinner at
The Macaroni Grill in Murray, across from Fashion Place Mall. It was a long day and we were starving. 45 minute wait, they told us. This place is always packed. Pros at killing time, these youthful angels engaged in various clapping games, chants and jump-rope rhymes (without the jump-rope). M, the birthday girl, got to pick the games.
Kiddie activity books? No way. We stole crayons from the surrounding tables and drew furiously on our drawable paper table cloth. Told jokes, pondered life, reminisced over the cool events of the day and waited patiently for food. Famished.
Yay for pigging out on Macaroni Grill's complimentary bread, oil and vinegar!
Kids' Spaghetti and Meatballs.
Grilled Shrimp Skewers, Potatoes and Veggies.
Macaroni and Cheese.
Penne, Spinach, Mushrooms in Tomato Sauce.
Birthday Girl gets a Chocolate Birthday on the house! Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Syrup, Whipped Cream.
Everyone else gets Vanilla ice-cream with strawberries!
This is reasonably priced pasta dishes for the masses. Easy, decent and choice spot for big families with lots of kids. xoxo
Days prior to my Dec.8 birthday, our four kids were excited already about the special birthday dinner they would have for their mom at the Macaroni Grill. There was great anticipation about the birthday song they would hear, in Italian (they knew mom once lived in Italy, and could speak Italian). I assured my family not to make me a cake, I was looking forward to the free chocolate cake we would get after the wonderful dinner. Sadly none of this came to pass.
ReplyDeleteMy husband wisely let our waiter know it was my birthday. During our meal, our children could hear the lovely Happy Birthday song being sung at not one, but two other tables! They were excited about when their mom would get to be the one sung to.
When the meal was over, we awaited our turn, but the cake never came. As the minutes passed by, the kids were getting restless, as kids always do. They were done eating, and the two year old had done his best, but the other kids were still hanging on. Our waitress was very busy, and managed to hurry to our table, and asked us if she could run our credit card, she also added she was sorry the Macaroni Grill had run out of chocolate cake. It was at about this very moment that the table directly behind ours was treated to the Italian birthday song. This was the third time we got to hear the song. But the kids were well aware that the song was for another person, not their mom.
When the waitress was finally able, she brought us out a plate of four miniature cannoli and a to-go container. She suggested we take the cannoli home to eat. She also never asked us if we wanted the special song.
But it was hard to explain to our kids why there was no cake, and no birthday song. Why did other people get cakes and songs?
I’d like to tell other people with kids not to plan a birthday at the Macaroni Grill. It was a let-down to four excited kids. They felt so bad on the ride home. So did my husband, who wanted to make a nice evening for me. I then also felt obligated to tell them I was thrilled with the evening when I was really not. I went on about how nice it was not to have to cook, or wash dishes that night. We ended up re-doing the party at home...and of course there were a lot of dishes!