East Side Mario’s

The service by the waitress (who did not tell us her name) on June the 9^th during the day was extremely poor, her uniform was ripped, hair was messy. The service was almost unbearable as we were asking questions about the menu, she looked uninterested and annoyed. When we got the Food it was not prepared well pasta was hard, dry and tasteless, bruschetta was gross, Salad looked like it was thrown on the plate and I did even touch my burnt veal sandwich. Won’t be coming back to East Side Mario’s

Sitting at ESM eating and watched a guy make a complaint about the wait staff and the floor manager walked away from him shaking her head? That’s enough for me to post something! The waitress took 20mins just to say Hi! Took for ever to fill my pop! Didn’t ask if we wanted dessert? Guess I didn’t wanna order a funnel cake! Never again!

Had dinner with a friend on a Monday night. The service was horrible. Took our waitress 20 mins to even greet us, drop bread at our table for her to run away for another 10 mins. When she got back, she took our orders. It took her another 15 mins for her to bring my beverage to the point where I had to think she forgot. We waited another half hour for the food. And I had to stop her while she was running around frantically serving only 4 other tables to ask her not to put any cheese on my dinner as I’m allergic, she ran away saying ‘ya okay.’ When the meals came, there was no sauce on my pasta. And we waited for another 10 mins for her to pass by our table to ask about the sauce and to refill my friends drink and to bring us more salad. And to get that took another 20 mins. It took that long to get a little sauce, pop and salad. And the place wasn’t busy. And she asked me if I wanted cheese on my dinner, after I told her about my allergy and my food being cold for waiting on sauce. The other patrons being served by our waitress looked angry. One of them who has seniors at the table talked to a manager since they waited 30 mins to get their bill and all the manager did was shake her head and walked away! Wow! Just as we were leaving, another family was talking about how the same waitress didn’t come to greet them for 20 mins, despite her passing the table.
I will never come to this location again. The one star rating is only for the mediocre food.

Well, we waited about 15 min to be seated. We got served by «Nasim». We got the deal for 11.99 pasta plats.
The complementary bread was so fresh and yummy, was a good start.
We had then our salad, was not great but was fine. We also had a tomato soup, was so delious and special.
Our pasta plate was very good. I really had a very good experience, our servant was very friendly, helpful, and smily. She was not bothered for our request.
I recommand this place, and happy with my visit.

I was looking for a place take my kids for lunch after a movie. Location is conveniently located close to all the shops and movie theater. Service was terrible. Took forever to take orders and waiting long time for food to arrive. Only thing that was good was garlic bread. Salad didn’t look fresh and drenched in oil and soup was bland. Kids were starving by the time they got their meals but didn’t even want to finish. When i finally got the bill, i noticed she overcharged me.

Blech! Never again.
Visited ESM on a Sunday for lunch. We’ve dined here once before since my boyfriend won’t stop raving about their unlimited salad and bread. I hated the food last time, and I hated it even more this time for lunch.
On a Sunday for lunch, the restaurant wasn’t packed like our previous visit. Waiting to be seated at this restaurant would be a joke. Please do your palette a favour and turn elsewhere.
Service was fine, oddly enough we had the same server as our first visit. She was nice, with bright red hair and lots of tattoos. The only thing I found odd was she got rid of my boyfriends half-​eaten caesar salad when she dropped off his pasta dish… It was clearly not finished and we assumed she’d bring back a full one since it was unlimited… Or so we thought.
A loaf of garlic toast was served after we placed our orders. Standard garlic loaf– at least it was warm.
Throughout my meal I was miserable as I knew I wouldn’t like the food. At $ 9.99/ pasta I would expect something much better. I don’t remember the name of the dish I ordered but it was unmemorable. Michelina’s frozen pasta dishes are 10x better than the pasta here.
I sat there, picking out the edible things– bland, frozen chicken, mushrooms, red and green peppers. The linguini left untouched, as it was extremely soggy and drenched in their «rose» sauce which had zero flavour.
I knew what I had gotten myself into, and I thought I’d give them the benefit of the doubt. My advice? Stay away, buy some Classico pasta sauce and mix it with some veggies and you’ve got a meal 100x better than any pasta served here. Gross.

The food was better before the renovations… it’s just not up to the standards as it was before

Okay spot if you want some pizza or pasta with unlimited salad/​soup. I find East Sides used to be so delicious but feel it kind of went down hill n is rather average.

Over the years this location has gotten better in terms of food. I went here just the other day and I have to say the food was good, however the service was atrocious. In the beginning a man came to take our order and he was wonderful! I believe after placing our order, his shift was over and some lady took over his tables. For the next hour and a half I felt like we were trapped in east side Marios. She was nowhere to be seen and I had to go back to the kitchen to find someone to get our bill. When I asked to use debit, she left and took another 15 – 20 minutes to come back despite the fact that the restaurant was empty as it was Thursday at 3 o’clock. The food was fine but the service made the experience terrible. This was the first time I’ve gone back in years because of previously having a similar experience.

I had an early lunch at East Side Mario’s today. I was seated on the dining room side.
Their meals come with all you can eat soup, salad and bread. I had a bowl of Italian Wedding Soup … it was a bit bland.
Stephanie, my server, also brought over some bread. It was crusty on the outside and warm and soft on the inside. Yum!
I ordered the Four Meat «Street Meat» Pizzaroli … I’d never had one before. It was just okay … I wouldn’t get it again as I found it kind of greasy (not surprising, I guess, will all that meat inside).
Stephanie was friendly and took good care of me.

Does anyone come here expecting Nonna’s Sunday dinner? I surely don’t think so. Nor do they come for a fine dining experience. But it’s simple, tasty Italian food for a decent price. All You Can Eat bread, salad and soup is always a nice plus. Service is generally pretty good, but does seem to be stretched thin sometimes even on not very busy days. I’ve only been once recently after the renovations and it’s a nice change in the interior.

Our waitress was kind of lackadaisical but she improved throughout our meal. The food was fresh & delicious. As usual you get the salad & bread first. Bread isn’t as yummy as past visits but oh well. Salad was the standard Cesar Salad with bacon bits. I had the Bruschetta Pizza which although simple was delicious. I left feeling stuffed. Hubby had the Spaghettini with meat balls. A good, decent meal & decent service.

One of my favourite restaurants! I’ve never had a negative experience at East Side Mario’s. Is it authentic Italian food? No… but it tastes amazing! I love that they give you unlimited bread and soup or salad :). For birthdays, a group of waiters come to your table to sing you their chant together while clapping. Kind of embarrassing for the birthday person but it’s always nice to watch lol. I recommend the Alfredo dishes, lasagne and chicken parmesan… so good!
Will always go back and will always recommend East Side Mario’s.

Had one of the $ 25 coupons that I bought for $ 12, and headed off to here for the first time in several years. Place was quite busy on a Saturday at around 5:00 p.m. Waited for about 10 minutes before a table was available.
Had the caesar salad and bread to start. Caesar was nice and fresh. Roll was warm and crusty. Waitress was friendly and attentive, and quickly brought me a refill on my iced tea, and another bread. Asked me if I wanted more salad but i was fine.
Entrée was the backribs with fries. Came about 10 minutes after the appetizer. Size of rib portion was HUGE. Rib sauce was a little thick and sweet, but not really an issue.
Had the peanut butter layer cake for dessert. Was somewhat heavy, but hit the spot.
In summary, the food was actually quite good and service was great. For casual restaurant dining in the suburbs, this was perfectly fine.

Sunday evening, me and some coworkers went for dinner at East Side Mario’s. We entered and were greeted by the hostess and who seemed unenthused and not very friendly. I asked if we could have a table of 5 and she said in a few minutes or we could take the empty table that everyone was avoiding as it’s right by the door where the draft from customers walking in out was a target. In –11 weather… no thanks. We decided to wait.
It took about 10 min to seat a party of 5 even though were about 3 – 4 tables that needed to be cleared in sight. Finally seated, our server came by and introduced himself. My manager wanted to clarify that it was a work event and just needed to let him know of the pay arrangements in advance so that he wasnt’ bombarded. He responded apprehensive as if the request was out-​to-​lunch. «Uh…I dunno. I mean, I can ask but I ‘m not sure so I dunno.» He didnt’ seem interested in trying to cater at all.
Our drinks arrived in a timely manner but me and my manager both ordered 8 oz glasses of wine. So, why were our glasses not even? Hers looked like a 6 oz and mine a 8oz. I asked why they are uneven for the same oz size. He just replied «Uh maybe the waiter who poured it in the back spilled some.» ??? He then made no attempt to try to rectify it and my manager didn’t want to make a big deal so we let it go.
We never got our food until about 45 min after we recieved our drinks. The same waiter mentioned something about a problem with it being punched in. We weren’t offered any perks to make up for the mistake either. After our meals came out, a new waitress came and said that our old waiter got stressed out and decided to go home. Couldn’t have been from OUR table because we didn’t say anything bad to him or confusing at all. When it was time to get our bills, they screwed up everyone’s orders and we ended up just writing it down for them to straighten it out as drinks and meals were scattered randomly on different bills.
The food was ok, I orded Baked Penne Bolognese. The price wasn’t bad either. It was under the all you can eat salad/​soup with garlic bread for $ 12.99. The wine was good too but the customer service was kinda crappy.

Atmosphere: I haven’t been back in a while (year or so) and they’ve definitely did up some nice renovations. The place is much cleaner and spacious, and open concept where you can see the chefs preparing your food.
Food:
1. Chicken parmigiana: 3/​5, nothing really stood out, pretty standard. The chicken was served over spaghetti. I found the portion to have changed significantly smaller but for the same expensive price.
2. Chicken linguini: 2.5÷5, quite bland, nothing special at all. Seems a bit watery. Again, small portion for 17.00
Overall: we made reservations before coming, which was a super smart move, because the waits was about 30 mins, on a Saturday night. I got a few of the coupons for east sides, which is why we’ll probably be back.

Actually haven’t been to an East Side Mario for a long time, so I wasn’t sure if it can still be decent. The price did seem to jump a bit, but they probably charge that much because of the ‘all you can eat salad and drink soup’
I ordered the ‘Scallop Carbonara which is in alfredo sauce on linguine pasta with bacon scallops and scallops. The pasta was cooked right, and the scallops tasted fine (frozen).
My gf got the ‘Chicken Parmiagiana’. This is a dish that usually can’t go wrong in a so-​called Italian joint, and fortunately it didn’t. The chicken was a good hand size portion served with penne pasta, but both meals were close to $ 40 before tax.
Service is good, because we did go on a slow day. I’d probably eat at this place again, but not for a good long time again.

Definitely nothing special, the only good things about this restaurant is that I leave super full because of the bread and salad.
Tonight we went because we were feeling to lazy to make dinner. It was Mother’s Day, but it was just me and my boyfriend. When we first entered there were 4 staff standing around the hostess stand talking. We walked up to them and literally stood there awkwardly for 5 minutes waiting for them to acknowledge us. Then the guy says to us before even «welcome» or anything was «we’re all out of ribs, steak and salmon tonight». Ok, Hi to you too.
There was a 30 minute wait for a table, which we were kind of expecting because it was mother’s day and we assume it would be busy. But then when we walked through the restaurant to our seats there were empty tables.
When we ordered they were out of the appetizer we requested (stuffed mushroom caps), and they were also out of croutons for the salad. Seriously did they not order enough food for mothers day weekend? I mean all of this food I’m sure is made off site and then reheated in the kitchen. How can they run out of so many different things? This place desperately needs some retraining of staff and new management.
The food was ok. The salad and the bread is really the only good thing. I have no intentions of going back here… not unless I need to.

It’s Friday Dinner and a Movie Date Night! This location is conveniently located in the same plaza as the Eglinton Town Centre Cinema so its a perfect fit!
It’s a bit after 8pm and theres a 30 minute wait to get a seat in the dining room. I inquire about the bar side and the hostess alerts me that we can just on over and seat ourselves. It’s also packed on this side, but luckily I spot the only vacant bar table in the very back corner.
We seat ourselves and await the arrival of our waiter. He comes on over and runs the menu by us and takes our drink order. I soon realize that our waiter who is also the bartender on this side is solely in charge of waiting all the tables over here. However he somehows manages it well never neglecting anyone.
After quickly perusing the menu (we have a little over one hour to dine before we have to depart to our movie) we are ready to order. Our waiter notices our closed menus and comes over to take our orders:
Both Entrees come with all-​you-​can-​eat soup or salad and garlic homeloaf.
Garlic Homeloaf — Soft, warm, baugette brushed with garlic butter, beautifully presented, How can you flaw fresh baked bread?
Garden Salad — Mixed greens, grape tomatoes, pepperoncini peppers, red onions, black olives and croutons tossed in there famous house vinaigrette.
Caesar Salad — Romaine lettuce, bacon pieces and seasoned croutons tossed with creamy Caesar dressing.
Both salads are dressed well, fresh crisp greens, simple, basic salad, but good flavour.
Hell’s Kitchen Chicken — Spicy chicken sautéed with mushrooms, fresh Roma tomatoes, spicy chilli peppers and our Arrabbiata tomato sauce. Served with fresh seasonal vegetables and spaghetti with spicy tomato sauce.
The chicken had a good kick too it! It was also served with a plump red hot pepper which increased the heat, if you dare to bite into it! Chicken was cooked well, I just wish it was a bigger portion of meat. Pasta came out steaming hot which I love and I enjoyed the plump mushrooms served on the chicken.
Small Pepperoni Pizza — The classic pepperoni pizza with a blend of cheeses and pizza sauce.
Hot and crispy, gooey cheesey … simple, basic, good and it really is small…
No time for dessert we ask our waiter to bring our bill over. He does so quickly because he knows were running over to the movies.
Overall simple, basic, tastey Italian food. If your looking for a meal close to the theatre this is your best bet, even without reservations we got through our meal fast enough to catch our movie. Prompt and friendly service despite the overly full and busy restaurant. Definitely make reservations if your planning to come here on a weekend or try your luck at the bar side for speedy service.

What can I say except the service sucks. I don’t exactly come here for the food. We like the free bread and unlimited soup/​salad but why do we have to ask so many times for it?
I remember going to this location with my cousin once and the girl said we could only pick one side… but what if my cousin had picked the salad and I had picked the soup? I really need clarification on this. She rolled her eyes at us but complied.
The other time I went here with a friend, she didn’t bring us bread until we were half way into our entrees.
To sum it up, I’m okay with mediocre italian-​ish food at this price point, as long as the service is at least mediocre as well… which it is not. I’d rather go to the Old Spaghetti Factory, at least their bread/​butter comes out and tastes good.