Reviews for Michael J's Italian-American Restaurant in Ruidoso, NM

Our food was fine, even great! However, we made reservations at 2:00 as requested on their website! We were seated (2 of us)... at a table for 6-while a total of 8 chairs were stacked along the fireplace ( in front of our table like a storage place). Wenoted there were several other tables for two and we seem to have gotten the ?rotten/forgotten ? straw of ambiance! Our waiter?Andy? was great-just felt extremely ?UNDER whelmed? at how we felt at being treated like we were part of the storage overflow! Read more

My husband and I were given a nice gift certificate to Michael J?s in December 2021. We live in Alamogordo and between our... family functions held in Ruidoso, our busy schedule and the restaurants hours, I always found it hard to pick a day to makereservations. Finally, it worked out for our schedule but guess what? The gift certificate expired the very day I called tomake reservations for the next day. It was our lucky day, they honored our gift certificate a day late. Since this was ourfirst time to try this place out, we were so glad they did because we enjoyed a delicious wonderful meal with great service. Wehighly recommend this top class Italian Cuisine restaurant! You won?t be disappointed. We will definitely be going back toeat here again. ?????? Read more

We had arrived late in the evening to our cabin getaway and wanted to grab dinner and this was one of the few places opened... until late and we were so happy we came! I ordered the fettuccine Alfredo with shrimp added and my boyfriend ordered theirfamous house lasagna! The fettuccine Alfredo was amazing (super light surprisingly). I don?t eat Italian pasta often because ittends to be really heavy but this really hit the spot and was delicious! The shrimp was slightly overly spiced but we just mixedit in to the pasta and it blended it well. My boyfriend LOVED the lasagna. He hasn?t had it in many many months and he said itwas amazing! The bread that came out was warm too. I got their minestrone soup and my boyfriend got the Caesar salad which wereboth amazing too! Loved the romantic ambience of this place! Great place for a date night. Really happy we were able to get atable here relatively quickly an hour before closing. Read more

Recommend you make reservations on the weekend. We didn?t but lucked out and got the last seats in the bar. I thought the food... and service were excellent. Our drinks arrived quickly as did the hot bread. Refills were never asked for they just appeared. Wine was cold and tasty. Our food also arrived in a very time manner. The chicken Alfredo was some of the best I tasted. Read more

3 stars bc of location in any larger city it would be 1. So I'm not sure if they ran out of glasses because we were served water... in 2 beer glasses. Portion sizes were small for the price...12$ for 4 slices of tomato and 3 slices of mozzarella. My entree wasa chicken picatta which was oh so lemon concentratey, it was somewhat edible but the chicken and the sauce were no good. Waslike shot of concentrated lemon juice and the chicken looked boiled? I didn't finish it and didn't take it to go...also thechicken was miniscule for a 20$ plate. The garlic bread was AMAZING. very pricey wines. Service was good. Read more

Michael J's is consistently the best dinner available in Ruidoso and I'd highly recommend a visit. We've been repeat customers... for years, and while it can be an effort to get a table, it's worth the effort to do so. Read more

Honestly a restaurant like this is hard to find these days. Wonderful customer service and a hometown restaurant feel. Everyone... was personable and polite. The owner or manager let us know they were running short staffed, but there would be no rushing usout the door since it was close to closing time. If I ever come back to Ruidoso I will always come here. You definitely needreservations so do that as soon as possible. Read more

It looks good but it's over priced and the portions are too small and they pretty much harass! you at the end to get a dessert ... which isn't cheap! I'll just stick to Olive Garden ???? any day. this is my opinion.! Read more