East Side Mario’s

Nice setup in this ESM
Many pictures on walls
Good looking display cabinet
Various hanging lamps
Good service staff and quick service
Food was hot and tasty
Possibly the best East Side that we have eaten at
Will certainly return

I’ve probably been to ESM twice in the last year. both times I’ve said why do I come here. We came here because boyf and I were meant to be doing sushi dinner after a work appt he had. It ran waaay long and we didnt want sushi that late and we were right by here so he kind of just parked and that was that. I didn’t have the heart to say I really didnt want to go here. I’m not particularly a big fan of these type of places (kelseys/​montanas etc) but if they’re close and there’s a deal of we have a voucher we will sometimes go.
The ESM at St. Laurent we actually used to go to once every couple of months a good few years ago when their happy hour stuff was on or we had groupons. I find the bar area there far superior to this location and never really remember disliking it. The food didn’t ever blow my kind but it did the job if we were around.
This location i dislike. I don’t expect gourmet food at ESM but the times I’ve been here I’ve felt disappointed and wish we had eaten at home. The whole feel of the place adds to that, not just mediocre food.
I hate the lighting. something I always notice when I’m out. I’ve worked in bars/​restaurants all my life as second income jobs and when lighting is too bright it makes me think when of when the place is closed and they put all the lights up to say go home now. The bar area here is like that. It actually makes me uneasy and not v relaxed.
On walking in it says wait to be seated. So we waited a few minutes and nobody came. A server did fly up to us and hurriedly say excuse me rather abruptly as she wanted to put menus on the hostess stand where we stood. Hello to you too! No hi, i’ll be right there etc etc. We walked into the bar and sat down ourselves. Someone gave us menus right away. A few minutes later out server came by.
Don’t get me wrong our server was real nice and never missing when we needed him, he explained the happy hour deals etc. Its selected half price apps & personal pizza after 9 but to be honest the selection sucks. Average soundings apps and 4 pizzas.
We ordered wings and canadian pizza. The pizza was actually pretty good. except for the fact that they put the topping in the middle and leave a pretty huge crust (im being picky here!) But The dough and toppings tasted like they should. The wings.meh. Boyf likes wings while me I can take or leave. he said these were below average and tasted reheated. Definitely not stuff we would pay full price for. The happy hour was the only reason we actually came in here.
I had a couple of $ 5 happy hours beers (choice of canadian or coors light) and boyf had Caesar ($ 5 happy hour also) & then a shock top (they had orange slices so that’s a win!) The Caesars at St. Laurent location used to be awesome. big, looked good and came with a pickled bean. Here it tasted like a mediocre Caesar, no bean and i made better looking ones while camping last weekend!
Never eaten in the restaurant section of here, always the bar.
We both left and said let’s remember not to come back here. I feel its a waste of a «dinner out».something which budget doesn’t allow much of at this moment in time.

This east side really stands out among restaurants in general in Ottawa.
1) service is great. I don’t think I’ve ever opened a review with that but I can’t avoid it here. They have put a serious amount of effort in selecting great employees from servers to management. Its 50% of the reason I come here. Random date on a weekday? Chill bartender and half price apps. Random group of 20 on Sunday at 9:30? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a manager so genuinely happy to see us and then give us awesome service. I can go on but you get the idea.
2) food is great. This is 40% of the reason I come. I’ve had lots of Italian in Ottawa and this east side competes with the best of them. Maybe you think my pallet isn’t for saying that but to me, that’s the verdict, the food here rocks.
3) three words: sautéed Basa filet. The last 10%. Fish filet on a bed of veggies (lots of both), unlimited soup or salade, and east side bread. Get this, for 12.99. Its on my top 5 — stuff yourself on something other than dough on the relatively cheap — in Ottawa (I am aware of the oddly specific nature of that list).
Missing star is because some dishes are really pushing the price and the desert menu can be better.
If you work at this east side. Please stop reading now.
Bonus: for with a friend, get the fish, one of you gets a salad, the other a soup, then you share when the waiter isint looking and you tell them they must be seeing things when they point out you switched. Now you just turned your 12.99 into a bread-​soup-​salad-​fishandveggies meal. Add a half price app (mussels comes out to like 3.60) and a desert (they have some reasonably priced one, honestly one of the areas where they can improve on selection) and you’ve got yourself a five course meal for like 22 $. Beat that!