Maialina Italian Kitchen + Bar

It was very noisy (might want to add some sound absorbing tiles on ceiling) and the bar was blasting 70s rock. We were expecting a more intimate dining experience. The food was okay but not amazing. Hopefully these are just growing pains!

Generally appealing ambiance and presentation. My table was next to the servers' work station; not too problematic on this visit when it was not too busy, but became more disturbing as activity picked up. House cabernet was thin and disappointing. Food quality was excellent, although the Bolognese sauce would have benefited from less salt, to allow the subtle flavor of the meat to come through. Server brought the bill before I had an opportunity to order dessert, but recovered quickly once I told them I did want dessert.

I’ve eaten at Maialinas twice in one month. I believe it to be the best Italian restaurant in Indy.
Love the one in Lockerbie but actually love this more. Food is outstanding
Salads and dressings are great. You must eat the caprese How they make their pesto sauce is out of this world Make sure you try one of the bread courses. So much better than filling up on the endless bread basket.
My only deep regret is our incredible waiter told me they were taking the bone in pork chop off the menu as not enough people ordered it. I hope you change your mind and convince patrons to try it or offer them a tasting course. It is as good as any 50 dollar steak I’ve ever had.
And so nice to be in the vibrant Fountain Square we’ve all been waiting for.
Keep up the good work.

Shane our waiter was incredibly good and the food was amazing.

We've been there twice, a couple of weeks apart. The second time we ran into a mysterious traffic snarl and were running late and we had play tickets for after so were worried about the time. They moved our reservations back and got us served in plenty of time. And we had the same server both times and she remembered us, what we ordered, and was amazingly professional and attentive. And the meals were great!

Pros: great service, good wine (we had the sangiovese), nice Italian aesthetic without being over the top

Cons: only two types of pasta (spaghetti and rigatoni), pasta was overcooked and meatballs were spongy and dense, many of the dishes we tried were over salted; however, we did enjoy the Vodka pasta. Although the pasta was well over cooked the Vodka sauce was flavorful and a nice balance to the rigatoni. Sausage may have been a better pairing than chicken for fat to balance the acid.

The bread was a great texture (hard crust with soft center) but fairly banal covered in garlic and melted cheese, not sure this is very authentic but more as a menu item meant to appease the masses.

Bottom line, this restaurant is Indiana doing Italian.

4 of us for dinner. 2 meals were horrible. 1 actually had to be cooked 2 times. Chicken parmesan was so over cooked twice and so Extremely salty. I mean. You would have blown up like a Macys day float from all the salt on this. 2 nd person ordered the pork chop. Who ,deep frys a pork chop in an Italian restaurant. Bake it! But again. So over cooked also. Fig and jam flatbread just ok. Very very sweet. Lasagna was the only decent order that came out.
The server was nice and friendly. But when we started to order a beer. The first comment from the server was, let me just tell you what we have. We are out of a lot of beers right now. Uggg. I believe the prices were a bit high for what quantity of food you received. If they are around in like a year,I'll give them another try. Hopefully the will learn how to fry food by then.

Great food and wine. Our server was very attentive. The only drawback is the noise level. Noise reduction panels on the ceiling would be a good idea.

Our server couldn't have been nicer. The appetizers fell short. Mussels were gritty and the prosciutto/melon was so-so. The infused Olive oil with bread was delicious and so were both pasta dishes we ordered. I'd definitely just stick to pasta and bread and fortunately that's the main reason to choose Italian anyway! We'll be giving it another shot for sure

Met up with friend for dinner. Pleasantly surprised when I arrived...it’s the building that my family and I visited for years to enjoy duck pin bowing in the basement and eat at the “Diner”. This restaurant is where the diner used to be. Beautiful job remodeling! Great atmosphere, food (must try the fig and sausage flatbread for table as appetizer) and service (Shane was our server). Will definitely be back...bringing family and friends with me! Highly recommend!

The ambiance is good. The food is good. The prices are good. We had a 7:30 rez and were seated immediately. Three of the six mains were sold out and there was no bread left. We'll chalk this up to being new in the business but it was a bit disappointing. Really? Out of bread in an Italian restaurant? We'll be back. Oh, and the ricotta, fig jam, honey bruschette was worth the trip!

Arrived at 6:25 for our 6:30 reservation. Last entree was delivered to the table at 8:18. Lots of excuses from the waitress with no real apologies.

I hate to say it, but soo much better than Ambrosia. Brighter, cheery; lasagna is the best in town!!

Great service and food. Just a little too noisy. Hard to hear conversations at my own table. The prosciutto/melon appetizer was fabulous.

All the dishes that we ordered were very delicious and the service was great! Will definitely be back!

Dinner with friends

They were having major issues. They could not get us any food until an hour 15 minutes after we ordered. They could never produce the bruschetta appetizer for us or another table. I shared my husband’s salad because they couldn’t produce my kale salad. Our entrees finally arrived. And then dessert. Several tables walked out because food was taking so long to come out. Our server did the best he could with the situation and basically got us any salad he could so we had something to eat. The manager came to the table but blamed the special menu and having issues with bruschetta and pomodoro sauce. I’d expect an Italian restaurant to be able to handle those things. They ended up comping us over 3/4 of our bill because the night was so bad. This was our 20th anniversary. Not what we expected. Won’t take the chance and go back. Total mess in the kitchen. Our server got a significant amount of the bill comped, but the manager never showed up again.

Our food was amazing, house wine delicious and a great value - only draw back was that the floor finish is a little too slippery (grasping for straws!)

Best part was our server - Alexis was the best!

Good experience all around. Dinner for my wife and I was great. Service was great as was atmosphere. It’s also in a solid location at the Fountain Square Theatre. During certain seasons you can go up to rooftop for drinks before or after your dinner reservation.

Opened for about a month and decided to the new place. We have a variety of appetizers and entrees between the group and found every one to be tasty/ well prepared and presented. Will have to come back

Very happy Maialina opened in Indy. We needed an Italian restaurant like this. We’ll definitely be back.

Great location and very attentive staff. Food was average and the best item by far was the dessert - tiramisu!

The bruschetta with the fig jam and ricotta cheese is a meal itself. Very good! Had a nice glass of a Super Tuscany from Italy 🇮🇹

We had a reservation and arrived on time and we were told that it may be 10 min and to wait at the bar. The bar was completely full so we waited outside. Came back in 15 min and our table was still not ready. We were then told it would be another 30 min and they would call us when the table was cleared. We stood outside and in about 20 min someone came out and offered the two of us a table for 6. By this point it was past 8pm (our original reservation was for 7:30) and we were starving so we took the table set for 6. After we sat it was about 10 min before someone came and took our drink orders. I must also add that it was very hot and humid in the restaurant. Once we placed our order, we waited and the food arrived about 30 min later. I had the bolognese which had good flavor but the dish was watery. My husbands ravioli was ok but not extraordinary. We decided to settle up and go somewhere else for dessert. I will say, the staff was all very friendly which is nice but everything else was just “meh” which was totally disappointing since we spent our rare babysitter night here. We probably won’t return.

Maialina is a lovely place and feels cozy. Nice that they take reservations too. The food was very good and not overly pricey . We enjoyed the bruschetta with whipped ricotta and fig jam especially. The only issue was slow service which is probably due to the restaurant being so new. I would definitely return and have already recommended to friends!

Prosciutto with melon was tasty. Mixed drink menu was ok... a little citrusy across the board but may be the Italian part there.

Main dishes were delish.

Overall was upper end of what I would expect for prices, so not a great value restaurant. Restaurant was pretty loud. Sounded more like a cafeteria than Italian restaurant. Would be good to invest in some ceiling sound panels to tone it down.

Had a few dishes including the Garlic Parmesan bread. Everything tasted great but I’d order a years supply of that bread. Definitely coming back !

The food was average. Our server was excellent.

I was really looking forward to this restaurant opening and was sadly disappointed. Everything was just fair. I will give it another chance in the future. Hopefully was just an off night. Appetizers (mussels and truffle ricotta bruschetta) were really good.

The reason you go to a restaurant is for the food and the four of us were very pleased with quality and quantity of our selections. They’ve only been open for a few weeks and we felt the time to prepare our dinners was a little on the slow side but the food made up for that. Our server checked back often and was very informed about menu selections.

We were looking forward to dining here, and we weren't disappointed. There were only two slight distractions. It was a sunny early evening, and people who faced the upper windows were blinded for a while by the light. Hopefully, they will install automatic blinds up there, or perhaps tint the windows. Our server told us they were out of anchovies, and that was disappointing to two of us. However, this was only their second weekend since opening, so I am sure they will solve that problem. Our server was gracious, and he answered our question about the wine. The appetizers and dinners were all delicious. I ordered the best chicken parmesan ever. Two of the owners/managers came over at different times and asked how everything was. That was a plus. We will go back!

Service was excellent and I really love the decor and feel of the place. My sister had salmon and I had the vodka pasta. Both were excellent. The Vodka pasta had just a touch a heat. We also had the garlic bread - which was addictive. Prices seemed very reasonable to the quality.

Great for any occasion
Great food and service!

For a restaurant that has only been open a short time, they seem to have worked out a lot of bugs. Good food and social experience.

Food was very good but took way too long to get. Not sure if it was a kitchen problem or wait staff. Our waiter was not very attentive and we had to ask servers for assistance several times.

The spaghetti and meatballs were on point! Service was great too.

You're first welcomed by the smell, which is wonderful like entering an Italian kitchen. Staff was welcoming and helped with reservation changes without a problem. Waitress was friendly, knowledgeable and accommodating. Food was very traditional, all the things you'd expect to see on the menu were there with a few newer items (a great balance).

I went to Maialina against my better judgment. I usually never go to a new restaurant until they have been operating for four or five months. But some friends of mine knew the owners and had gone to the soft opening and raved about the place.

I went the following Tuesday and my experience was not good. I took two friends one of them requested a taste of a certain draft beer which the waitress brought. He liked it and ordered it. She came back a few minutes later and said they were out of it. We waited way too long for our pasta which came out overcooked and not enough sauce. Also, the room we were served in did not have shades and the sun was bearing down on our table. Not a good evening for us.

Unfortunately, with the usually hot weather the restaurants air conditioning was not working and the restaurant was closed with a sign taped to the front door. I understand the malfunction but we were not notified of the closure until we drove to the restaurant and read the sign taped to the door. We would have appreciated a call or email with the closure information.

Sophisticated decor! DELICIOUS food! Friendly staff! Tasty cocktails!