East Side Mario’s

Stopped on my way home from a service call. I was seated promptly and my order was taken promptly. The food was good and service was great. Would come back again for sure!

The food was so bland, tried it twice and it was literally the same bland food each time (Alfredo) salad and bread is okay however but not redeeming enough

If I could give this East Side Mario location zero stars, I wouldn’t hesitate to do so. This location is awful. Even after their renovations, there have been no improvements. Dining in did not go well considering their staff were all sitting at a table being loud and ignoring guests at their tables. So I decided to give take out a try. This wasn’t any better since they forgot everything that was ordered and were not apologetic about the situation at all. The only «positive» thing about this place was their house salad. Will not go back again.

Apparently before we came in a 45 person party came in. When we walked in the server who finally came to see what we were doing at the front, she acted annoyed we would dare to show up while they were busy. We were sat, but the poor waitress was so overwhelmed that it took forever to get our order. We ordered from the gluten friendly menu, which we know means that it is gluten free pasta but made near other pasta so could have some gluten on it. After my wife ate hers she went into a gluten overload. She has a condition that when she eats gluten that makes her body basically shut down. This only happens if she has major gluten overload. We will never be back. Obviously its not a gluten friendly menu, its a «this gluten thing is just a fad, lets put that its gluten friendly to get the health nuts» menu. Never will be back. Obviously a mangement issue. Thanx for ruining our Saturday.

Tried to go there Friday night. Lots of empty tables, a couple waiting at the hostess desk and no hostess to be seen. She finally comes over and tells us it will be at least ten minutes to seat us. We looked at all the empty tables and said no thanks.

We decided to come here for dinner because it was in the mall and it looked festive. Hubs ordered the Calamari Al Diavolo Pizza. The pizza looked weird because of the calamari rings on top of the pizza. It looked like onion rings! But, surprisingly, it tasted pretty good. Daughter and I ordered the Build Your Own Pasta. She had the bowtie pasta with bolognese sauce and shrimp and loved it. She thought it was a nice combination. I had the Spaghettini with arrabbiata sauce and primavera vegetables. It tasted ok. I also had the Italian Wedding soup which was very salty and I couldn’t finish it. Service was very friendly and quick, though.

I’ve gone here sporadically since it first opened many years ago, and never had a problem.
It’s as good as a franchise Italian restaurant can get.
Recently my husband and I went for the value meals, which honestly I would not recommend unless you just like noodles, sauce and a very tiny portion of veges/​mea0 on top.
But it wasn’t too salty or greasy, and it comes with unlimited soup or salad.
If you go, I would suggest one of their classic meals (pay extra!)
Service was great, even though there were about 3 large birthday parties going on.

I ordered a small Make Your Own Pizza with pepperoni, bacon, and goat cheese, but I GOT a pepperoni pizza. It was still really good, but not what I ordered.
Also, the server ignored me completely, and kept asking my dad, «is everything all right, sir?»

I like the Hells Kitchen Chicken and their wings.
You wouldn’t think of East Side Mario’s as a place with good wings, but give it a try. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised. The size of the wings are good, and the sauce is different.
You get unlimited breadsticks when you purchase an entrée. They’re delicious!
Service is always good.

Came here late Sunday night for a Family Dinner. The restaurant was pretty empty with a few other families dining. The hostess greeted us and we were kindly taken to a booth table in the dining room.
Our waitor Joy was really nice and went over the specials for the day. He took our drink orders and told us to browse the menus and when we were ready to order just close all our menus and he’d be right over.
After sometime we were ready to order and closed our menus and Joy came over to take our order.
For appetizer we tried something off the Mariolicious Feature Menu:
Meatball Roll –Meatballs nestled in pizza sauce, pizza mozzarella and caramelized onions all rolled up in a pizza crust and baked to a golden brown. This was really good, almost like a baked meatball sub, its sliced in 6 pieces so its perfect for sharing!
Next came the All You Can Eat Soup, Salads, and Garlic Home Loaf that comes with the order of any Entrée. Our Waitor brought us out a big bowl of the garden salad, caesar salad, and 2 garlic loafs, and an italian wedding soup which is my brother’s favourite.
I had the Garden Salad which has mixed greens, grape tomatoes, pepperoncini peppers, red onions, black olives, and croutons in there house dressing. Its a simple salad but I enjoyed the pepperoncini peppers in it.
I love the Garlic Homeload which is simply a warm fresh baked baguette brushed with garlic butter.
For mains the table orders included Spaghetti and Meatballs, Hells Kitchen Chicken, and Chicken Marsala.
I got the Spaghetti Bolognese — my only complaint was I thought the meat sauce was a little lacking, my spaghtetti could of used more sauce and more meat.
Otherwise no complaints on the mains, portion sizes were really good.
Then onto dessert. Lots of good options. As soon as I saw the menu I knew what I had to have and I definitely recommened this to other peanut butter chocolate lovers like myself:
Peanut Butter Stack — Layers of peanut butter, rich milk chocolate cake, and honey roasted peanuts. I asked to hold the carmel sauce as I hate carmel sauce. This was soo delicious! A must try! I loved the little crunchy bits from the peanuts.
My brother ordered the Double Chocolate Explosion Cake —
Moist devil’s food cake with creamy chocolate mousse
studded with caramel cheesecake chunks, chocolate shavings,
toasted almonds and thick chocolate drizzle! He couldn’t finish it all, so lucky me I got to indulge, This is very rich but perfect for a chocolate lover! I enjoyed the combination of chocolate mousse and cheesecake. Yummy all around!
My parents got the Mario’s Funnel Cake– Crisp fried funnel cake topped with a light cinnamon sugar, vanilla ice cream and strawberry sauce, they asked to hold the carmel sauce also. They thoroughly enjoyed this! It was very big and they could not finish it all.
Our waiter was really attentive, clearing tables refilling our drinks, bringing us more hot water for our teas, and additional cups of coffee and garlic bread.
Overall good meal, very filling, great friendly service, definitely try to save room for dessert if you can!

I’ve eaten at this restaurant for years and actually worked there for a time. The food rarely disappoints — the management are actually the owners and you can really tell that they care about their business and their customers. Going in on a Friday or Saturday night, you’ll usually find Diane, one of the owners, at the front greeting customers, chatting with people waiting to be seated, and generally keeping the atmosphere at the entrance upbeat.
This location was renovated about 6 or so years ago and the renovations have made it much brighter and a much nicer place to eat. The bar definitely had the most significant upgrade, gorgeous wooden booths and multiple TV screens; very popular for game nights (NHL playoffs were on the night we visited). This location offers ½-​price appetizers between 4 – 6 and after 9 on most (if not all) evenings.
You can’t go wrong with Cappelletti, Amatriciana or Tettrazini pasta dishes — all taste great and the portions are large. With the unlimited soup/​salad/​bread, you’ll likely have leftovers for lunch the next day.
Service here varies; the younger staff seem to be much more upbeat and enjoy their jobs more so than some of the older/​veteran staff, which, I suppose, is to be expected. We dined here last week and unfortunately got a server who approached our table, asked us how we were, and when we didn’t return the question to her, blurted out «i’m fine thanks for asking». She seemed to have an attitude on for most of the evening and while I didn’t pay, it would have certainly affected any tip she would have gotten from me. I generally got the sense that not many people working that night were enjoying their jobs at all — being a server can be a grueling job but I don’t think I saw more than 2 servers smile the entire time we were there.
Overall, a good place to eat with some friendly staff. Watch what time you go, because the dinner rush here is absolutely crazy as not only do they get regular business, but they get walk-​ins from the mall which makes Friday/​Saturday nights pretty busy — but its worth the wait!