East Side Marios

We bought the wagjag deal, which you can only use Monday — Thursday.
Decided to come here on wednesday for early dinner 4:40pm, at this hour, there shouldn’t be any problem right. WRONG!
No one at the reception area. waited 5mins, i went and told the bartender girl, to call someone. 5 more mins go past. I went to the back and asked someone else. My problem is the place is empty and i had to wait almost 10mins for someone to come greet us and seat us.
I believe the manager was the one who greeted us and apologized and warned us that its shift change, so the service may be a bit slow.
I personally think that they are very understaffed.5−6 occupied tables should not be enough to slow service down during a shift change.
Bread came very slow. I could see that the manager was trying to make up for under staff situation by running around doing everything. He was polite and friendly but the service wasn’t there. He gave me the salad and my wife the soup, its the other way around. He later asked me if i wanted more soup, it slipped his mind. we told him that the plates on the table were dirty, he never got us new ones, or took the dirty ones away. We just took plates from the next table.
Portions were ok, Waited a long time for food to come.
When we left around 6:45pm, there was still no receptionist.
0 stars for this experience
1 star for the food
3 stars for the manager trying make do with the short staff, but not enough.
So if you come here, and there is no receptionist, and you have to wait 5−10mins to get seated (while there are empty seats everywhere!!), then expect the same service i got.
Walk out! not worth it.

Waited for an hour… for salad. When the food came an hour and half later, the chicken for the kids meals was as hard a rock. The temperature inside was hotter than outside! There’s a reason why this restaurant has only 2 stars!

Well, one of the only reasons for the 2 stars is that they are open late… definitely a plus, as we came here during a visit to Markham, and were looking for food rather late. However, that was sadly one of the only pluses to our experience here. First, our waiter, who was very nice, apologized for being sick and losing his voice — which was sweet, but also a little off-​putting when you are ordering food from a sick server. And his memory apparently went with his voice, because he kept forgetting what we ordered, our drinks, to check on us, etc. He must have apologized a hundred times, and we couldn’t figure out if he was new, or just maybe not cut out to be a waiter. At some point other waitresses were feeling bad for us and trying to help out. After what seemed like forever, we started to get our food, but it came out at all different times so that some of us were almost done eating before others at our table got their food. On top of that, the food was very hit and miss. Some of the orders were wrong, some were decent, and others were just terrible. It is definitely not authentic Italian food (more fast-​food type quality) so we were not expecting much more than that, especially since they were open late. But overall it was just not very good, and very overpriced for the quality. I would give it one star, but decided to give it two since we were hungry and they were one of the only places that was open late. I’d only recommend going here if it’s very late, and you’re really desperate for any type of food!

We came in, waited over an hour at the table no bread, no food. We did get salad. Must have been 80 degrees in there manager claims one hour earlier it was freezing. Lady at the table next to us told us she’d been there for an hour and that wasn’t true. Finally requested food to go (toddler antsy after waiting so long, plus it was after 8p) and the waitress asked how everything was going. My response, horrible. Her, I know.
75 minutes in and finally part of our to go offer is here.
Anyways, the manager finally expedited our food to go and took 50% off the bill, but as we finish our dinner in a hotel room can’t say I’d recommend the experience

Worest resturant service EVER!
We went for Mother’s Day taking mom and our friends mom. We waited from 6:30 to 9:00 to get our main course! That should be in Guinness record!
The waiter her name is Casandra! Missed up our order, she came after 15min asking us to repeat the order! Salad and soup took so long to come! Oh my good ot was really horrible experience. Manger only gave us 10% for our order for the delay which was not pleasent (–10 $) from the bill doesnt worth waiting that much!
The manager should make it up to us, and should think of hiring more people. We came to celebrate and enjoy our time, but it was tottally the oppsite, it was frustrating and the food took about 2hrs and a half to come and we couldnt eat it!
Dont go to this branch you will defently regret it!

Came for a quick lunch and it was great. The servers were attentive and friendly. Food was actually good this time. We ordered the pizza and a penne dish. Came on time and not cold. Overall, everything seemed fine until they actually started getting busy and it seemed a little hectic for us. Waited for a bit for our bill which didn’t help since we needed to leave. Would come back.

Great female server. Smiled at us a lot. Liked that. Made us felt welcome. Food on the other hand was so-​so. Perhaps it was what we ordered. Might go again in the future and try something else. Might.

Came here for a quick dinner. We were seated very quickly at the bar area. The waitress also gave us a loaf of warm bread. We ordered 4 items and they also came to the table quite fast as well.
Our order were:
1. Calamari Al Diavolo (Signature)
On the menu it said it was a signature dish, so we decided to try it out. The description in the menu said «a light seasoned calamari with garlic, onions, red, green & red hot cherry bomb pepper in a tomato broth on a sizzling plate». The presentation was nice, but the taste was so so. I like the spice level of all the peppers especially the cherry bomb. But the calamari was a bit overcooked and some pieces were burnt to the sizzling plate. Also there wasn’t a tomato broth underneath.
2. Garden Salad
The salad was ok. There was also pickled hot peppers in the salad which was a nice touch.
3. Mario’s 16 Layer Lasagna (Signature)
For a signature dish the presentation was disappointing. I was really expecting a 16 layer lasagna, but it was not. It was tasty because of the cheese but definitely not worth $ 19.49.
4. New York Chesecake (with strawberry coulis)
My husband was raving how good this cheesecake was, so he forced me to try it, even though I was extremely full. It was not bad but nothing special.
Our waitress on the other hand was very friendly, kept smiling the whole time.

I was curious to come here after one of my Unilocal friends posted such a wonderful review and she was right! The dessert is soooo good. Great service and everything tastes fresh. Plus it’s an easy night out on the wallet. I really hope this place stays open. It’s so hard to decide what to eat it all looks so wonderful.

I love coming here for their soup and desserts. Always looking forward to it. I love their tomato soup, their build your own pasta menu, and their desserts. They have 3 different soups now; Italian Wedding, Tomato and Minestrone soup. They also have pizza on their menu. For desserts, I usually get their peanut butter stack (half/​full). It’s really filling on it’s own. Very chewy, and sweet. The service is very nice, friendly, and very clean. CAA members get 10% off. You just have to show your card, they will take it and verify it. They also do the Scene points too. Yes, I would recommend this place.

This place is always packed. Waitress seems exhausted, there are few young girls at reception but not really helping much but take your name down for a table, my gf ask one of them about a promo and they need to go in ask one of the waitress. Why they need 3 girls in front anyway?! There are empty tables with stuff on it and no one go clean up it up for the whole 2 hours I was there. All you can eat pasta is misleading since they will add $ 2.99 topping charge for every other dishes of pasta you ordering.

I used to be the assistant manager at this location and well… it’s pretty much gone down hill. with so many other options in the area it seems the place is on its last leg.
The food was super dry … I order the Veal parm and my partner order the chicken parm. Clearly the pasta was made before the meat was as it was clearly dried out… the Alfredo sauce was non existent. We also ordered the Calamari Divolo which was ok… but super oily

Service was actually so bad… Im really not sure what happened here. I was Here a few months back and maybe the staff is all new but this was really terrible service. The unlimited salad was dry and pathetic and the server continually forgot to bring the parmesan to go on top and unfortunately that is a staple of east side Mario’s. We asked several times. She would ask us if we wanted bread then wouldn’t bring it? They had lots of staff members and I can’t for the life of me figure out why they wouldn’t be attentive to the only big table of 6 in the place… she kept avoiding our gestures to come over. Then when it came time to pay she didn’t split the bills for each of us to have a copy aaaand she put my friends drink on our bill when she was the person who took my friends order and brought her her drink… extremely disappointed with the service.

Only writing this review after a number of decent visits and then having one pretty bad one. Service was okay but basically had the bill be the fastest thing that came to the table. Foods decent. Prices match the food. Cant really go wrong. Just expect some dry salad and forgetful service sometimes

Sadly, a couple other locations have shut down that I used to go to but I’m glad this East Side Mario’s is still around!
I’ve been a few times and have had take out too. I went today with a party of 7 (and two babies). Our waitress was very attentive and quick, which was very much appreciated. I’ve always had good to great service here, so it wasn’t as much of a surprise to me.
The food was delicious as always. I got the shrimp bow tie pasta, which was really good. It has a nice little spicy kick that I love.
The only down side is parking. The parking lot is huge since it is at the Markville mall. When the mall is busy you may have to park a fair distance away.
Overall, it was a great experience as per usual. I find the prices to be really good considering most meals come with soup and garlic loaves. It’s also great with kids since you can get in an out quickly!

This East Side Mario’s has many pros and cons. Their wait staff and ayce garlic bread/​salad/​soup are amazing. Their hostesses, portion sizes, and environment needs improvement.
Upon arrival we were greeted by interrupting a non-​family topic between FOUR hostesses. They seemed like they didn’t want to seat us at all. The food took roughly 15 – 20 minutes to arrive and the wait time was filled in with unlimited bread and salad. Our waitress was very attentive and nice. She always swung by right as we finished our serving of bread or salad and helped us get refills. At the end of our meal she even let us take home a fresh bowl of salad she just brought out to us. I guess the small portion sizes were made up for in unlimited side dishes.
Taste could have used improvement as the fish and chips I ordered heavily depended on the tartar sauce for any depth of flavour. It was simply a plate with a fillet of fish and a thin layer of fries next to it. The salad was better, to be honest.
Tl;Dr: rude hostesses, great marketing with unlimited soup/​salad/​bread, friendly wait staff, and family oriented diner.

This place seems to get a fair bit of hate and while I don’t think it’s the best place to eat for it’s price, nor do I think it deserves to get the low ratings it does. Let me tell you why.
East Side Marios is located on the south end of Markville Mall’s parking lot. Since it’s on it’s own, there’s a good amount of parking. Rarely is the restaurant at full capacity but I’d still make a reservation if you go there around 7:00pm on a Friday or Saturday night.
The food there is fairly tasty. I used to get the batta-​boomers and when I did, they were really good (I only stopped because I found the main meal was enough to fill me). I got the wings the other night but I didn’t find them impressive. I always get Make-​You-​Own-​Pasta, in which you pick the noodle, sauce and side — with free all-​you-​can-​eat soup or salad too. They also give you fresh, warm bread (also free so you can have as much as you want). I’ve had two of their three soups (Italian Wedding and Creamy Tomato, haven’t tried their Minestrone) and both are extremely good — I can highly recommend either. For the most part, the pasta’s consistently good. I once went and it was under lukewarm temperature, but the waitress had a fresh one made, no questions asked (probably a timing problem in the kitchen since my girlfriend’s meal came hot). I didn’t make a big deal about it because it was my first problem with them in ten-​plus visits. The staff are generally very friendly. You may need to give them a wave-​down if it starts to get busy they haven’t checked up on you for a while as they aren’t the best at making sure they recheck all their tables. I find there’s always different waitresses working whenever I go so the place may have a high turnover so that might be slightly out of their control.
Like I mentioned above, it kind of varies on how busy they are in terms of service speed. They have, however, come a long way since I first went there not long after it opened, mostly in the customer satisfaction department. I’ve never waited more then a few minutes for my bread and soup and appetizers tend to follow shortly after I’d finish that, with my dinner shortly after. This has been the timing almost every single visit so I’m not sure why so many people say they’re ‘that’ slow. And I’ve gone there over ten times by now.
East Side Marios has consistently good food and while it’s nothing fancy, it’s not nearly as bad as other people here claim they to be. Do I recommend them? Absolutely.

Came here for dinner on March break. It was packed because kids ate free, so it was pretty busy.
40 minute wait.
When we were seated, there were at least 5 empty tables. I don’t know how long we were waiting for no reason.
Since the restaurant wasn’t very busy now, our service was decent.
Unlimited salad was decent. Had to ask a few times to get salads though. Ate way too much bread while waiting.
Entrees were reheated frozen food. Was not that good, but I have had worse. For the price, it was acceptable.
Probably won’t come back unless bringing the kids for the free food.

Haven’t had East Side Mario’s in quite a while, and to be honest, only tried this place because it was nearby.
The dining experience here didn’t start off well, as we were greeted by hostesses telling us that they could only accept cash payments. Since their debit/​credit card machines were not working (all of them?) members of our group had to go out of their way to seek out a bank machine. Not sure why East Side’s didn’t make more of an effort to rectify this, as I saw groups leaving because of this, and not coming back.
After deciding to stay anyway, we had to wait for more than 30 minutes just be seated — not because there weren’t enough tables (there were plenty), but because they were under-​staffed. This was surprising, as most high-​traffic restaurants should have a reasonable expectation of the amount of servers they will need on a busy Saturday night. Eating at as many places as I have, I also believe that management could have handled this more effectively, such as having the hostesses assist with waiting tables for simple orders, or at least seating customers first to allow them to peruse the menu with some water — this is pretty standard practice actually among well-​run restaurants.
The food itself is what you would expect here — not the highest quality pasta or pizza, but was adequate. My baked penne dish had ample amounts of mozzarella, and enough pasta, but nearly non-​existent beef. After picking up my plate, digging deep into the pasta, and looking VERY closely, I found some tiny bits of ground beef in there!
We took advantage of the $ 12 unlimited salad and soup option, was was as advertised. The restaurant did uphold it’s promise, and gave us refills as we requested. Despite subpar service from the hostesses, the waitresses that assisted us were actually fairly attentive and friendly.
Probably won’t be back here, unless I have a sudden craving for about 7 bowls of ‘wedding mix’ soup.

I came tonight for dinner. The food standard remains the same: lot of cheese, thick sauce with intense flavour and over cooked pasta. Frankly, I quite enjoyed the intense flavour.
The place was busy for a Wednesday evening, yet the services was still efficient. Empty plates were quickly removed.
Last but not least, there was bottomless salad and garlic bread. For comfort food, what not to like?