East Side Mario’s

First of all, the menu here is MASSIVE. I don’t think I have ever seen such a large menu in my life of going to restaurants… If you are a indecisive person you might have problems here. I invited my group of friends here for a surprise get together because I figured everyone should be able to find something they would like. I had the Tropical fruit sangria and found it had a strange musky taste. My friends had the other kinds of sangria and they were much better. The menu said unlimited soup and garlic bread so we said yes please! I had the roasted garlic and tomato and thought it was delicious. I believe that as a group we tried all of the soups available and everyone was pleased. For my main I chose the Scallop Carbonara… it was awesome! It had some scallops wrapped in bacon as well as other scallops in the pasta, I would definitely have that again. The décor is super cool/​cheesy Italian style with checkered tablecloths and everything. This restaurant was definitely a good pick. However, the waitress was terrible and non existent. We were never offered more bread or soup even if the menu said unlimited. Our soup bowls stayed at our table until another waiter all together brought our main meals. She never came back to see if we needed anything else nor asked if we wanted another drink nor if we wanted dessert. It wasn’t as if she had too many tables because we saw her go to around 5 other tables throughout the night… She was simply non existent. I will never understand why someone with zero social skills becomes a waitress. Anyway, as long as you don’t get this waitress I definitely recommend this place for a cool Italian style get together with friends.

The service was excellent and patient as I don’t speak French, unfortunately. The space was neat, clean, and screams kitschy NYC, with signs for subway station stops, old pictures of NYC cops and even the name I suppose. There is a ton on the menu. I had the giadi (sp?) basically a handheld crêpe-​like wrap. Mine had chicken, roasted peppers, some sauce, romaine and cheese. It was served quickly as per the fast lunch menu I ordered from. The waitress neither pushed me out the door nor hovered over my table. I would come back for lunch… It’s a bit too fast-​food-​Italian for me though, think a cross between Olive Garden and Applebee’s.