East Side Mario’s

My family and I used to frequent this location weekly as we loved the all you can eat salad. Then we had bad service several times in a row, resulting in a couple written letters to head office, which were responded to in a timely manner.
We went back last evening after about a year of being absent, hoping the attitude and lackluster service of the waitresses had diminished. That was a negative.
I ordered the sausage and pepper penne with the Anthonys 3 cheese dip.
I don’t believe there was any cheese in the dip and it tasted like garlic paste and lemons, terrible absolutely terrible .
All you can eat salad apparently means, sharing single serving portions of salad and waiting another 15 minutes for a refill.
When our food arrived we weren’t given any utensils, I had to walk across the restaurant and ask, they brought separate forks and knives we then had to ask for napkins. Isn’t this stuff supposed to be a given ?
My meal was horribly burnt, sauce was minimal and the chunks of peppers were far to large to fit in my mouth. Very lazy kitchen staff apparently.
The ingredients tasted very cheap, definitely not food worthy of fetching $ 18 – 22 an entrée.
Our server decided to pick up the pace when we started to approach the bar for our drinks and ask other servers for assistance, which in my opinion was too late.
I can say the the manager is always polite and friendly and almost always has the place running efficiently.
However the wait staff could care less and still expect tips. I would tip the bus girls if I could because it looks like they do most of the work .
We had free gift certificates to use from head office, we decided not to use them in order to see if the service had changed at all. It did not .
I wouldn’t be surprised if this location was closed in the next few months. Disappointed and will never ever return unfortunately.

I like East Side Mario’s in general, but this location isn’t the best. I’ve been here several times and there is always something amiss.
During my most recent experience I arrived with a group of 6. We walked in and found 2 other groups waiting for a table, even though the dining area was completely empty. Considering the place was empty, it took quite a while before everyone was seated.
The waitress got our drinks quickly, but then disappeared for at least 15 minutes. We didn’t even get garlic bread until she finally came back & took our orders. She then brought salad and disappeared. We finished our salads and sat their with the empty bowls in front of us for at least another 15 minutes. She finally came back with our food, but had gotten my order wrong and had to take it back to the kitchen. Once we were finished eating, we again had to wait quite a while for the waitress to remove our dishes, and when she did it took her ages to come back and ask if we wanted anything else.
Overall the food was decent, but considering how empty the place was, I have no idea why service was so slow. I’ll continue going to East Side Mario’s, but this particular location is definitely not my first choice.

I am not a fan of this location. The food is hit and miss.
I usually order the pepper penne, and I have received it more than a few times relatively cold.
The non-​stop salads are awesome, and the croutons are to die for. The dressing on the house salad is also very good.
Service can be slow. I have no idea why as we have experienced slow service at this location when they have been both busy and nearly empty.

I’ve ordered a few things from this location over the years, and regardless of what I order (pizza, salad, pasta, etc) — it’s always mediocre. At least it’s consistent in that sense, I suppose. It has a friendly, social atmosphere, so it’s a fun place to go with friends or family, but the food itself has frozen-​food quality and the prices are pretty expensive considering the quality (or lack thereof). I’d go elsewhere.