Mario’s East Side Saloon

We went there for a rehearsal dinner and had a great time! The upstairs area was packed and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.

I’m past my college party days and was pretty hesitant to go to Marios at the suggestion of dinner from a friend. Enough people convinced me that it is not just a watering hole for undergrads, but it also churns out decent food. Boy, were they right. So glad I listened!
This location has a $ 5 apps special during happy hour, half off drafts, and is frequented by normal other mid to older 20 somethings before 10pm. The downstairs doesn’t have that many seating options but does have table service. You seat yourself and a waitress comes and finds you. The upstairs allows smoking and is much larger, including a nice patio. The owner is really nice and seems to hire a solid crew.
The food is great! I’ve never had a bad meal here, and their sweet potatoes fries are bae. Try the wings, burgers, salads or spinach artichoke dip and you won’t be disappointed. Can’t wait to go back and try the pizza!

For the life of me I will never understand the massive appeal of this place. It’s a good bar, but in my personal opinion not deserving of being LITERALLY the #1 place that Über drivers bring people in Pittsburgh.

Ive been here twice and enjoyed it both times. It has a lot of space with two bars, one downstairs and one upstairs. In the winter the upstairs bar can get very cold but they have heaters set up around the seating areas.
The only downside is that their steps are very steep, which and be dangerous for people who are intoxicated or not wearing the right type of shoes.

I wandered in here one day after Christmas shopping around Walnut Street, and was pleasantly surprised. I’ve been back several times now, and I’m surprised by the other reviews I’ve seen here. Maybe things have changed recently for the better.
It’s a place that changes as the night goes on from a laid back sports bar to a more dancy (is that a word?) atmosphere, but I find they do both very well.
The burgers and sandwiches are great, the beer selection is decent, and everything is very reasonably priced (some of the specials are phenomenal deals!) On top of that, it’s a comfortable environment with great staff.

Marios is the nicest lounge /​bar that you will ever find $ 2 and $ 3 domestic beer drink specials nearly every night of the week. Don’t let the specials fool you though, Mario’s isn’t a dive bar, it’s a cool neighborhood bar with a damn good menu and the best outdoor deck in the city. The deck is open all year and kept comfortable even when it’s snowing with heat lamps. Don’t hold me to this if the windchill is zero.lol.
If you are a wing lover, on Monday’s they have 39c wings and $ 2 well drinks. The wings are excellent and specifically the Honey garlic Habanera are amongst the best wings in the city. Seriously awesome sauce! Give it a try!

Similarly to your childhood dog, or the way you wish your boyfriend would be, Mario’s is ‘olé reliable. You can always count on the food to be tasty, and they have everything from pizza, to salads, to sandwiches, wings, and more. Happy hour (5pm-​7pm) is the best time to go, in my humble opinion. They offer half-​off of draft beer and they have a pretty good selection of their appetizers on special for $ 5 a pop. My bill is rarely more than $ 15 during a happy hour outing. Now, I’m giving three stars because they don’t have a huge draft beer selection, and while the service is always attentive, the servers always seem bothered; I’ve only had one that’s actually smiled. Also, they get packed pretty quickly right around the ⁵⁄₆ o’clock mark, so if you get there after, be ready to move quick when a table opens up. Expect a grad school, young professional type crowd. Lastly, I’ll mention their awesome rooftop deck which is full service, and open through the winter.

The people here are so friendly ! They assisted me and my classmates for our social work orientation gathering! The food was great I loved the spinach and artichoke dip like omgggg I’ll have dreams about that forever ! The chicken fingers were great as well and the margaritas were delish! Thank you for the great experience Marios!!! Xoxo– Maryland girl !

Mario’s a great place with great happy hour deals, which in my opinion, is the best time to come. Although I’ve never been here for the late night scene.
For happy hour all of the appetizers are $ 5. And pretty great tasting. So far I’ve had the crap dip and the fried pita chips, which are so good. Truly not what I was expecting, in a good way. I also got their pub fries which are cheese fries with bacon and scallions, and they’re not bad. At the $ 5, you definitely get a ton of food and can’t beat the deal.
On Mondays wings are 39 cents and you can get as many as you’d like. The wings are perfect.
The service is also pretty good around this time because there aren’t many people at the bar. One night we stayed here until 8:30 that was around Thursday which is trivia night… and you can hardly hear yourself. But thankfully the rooftop deck is an option for a less rowdy vibe.
All in all, Mario’s really isn’t a bad place at all. I just don’t think I’d find myself as regular here because of too few vegetarian options. Veggie burger please!

Went here because it was close and it had beer. Initially, we were ignored in our quest to get a table. The bartender was clearing plates and didn’t even acknowledge my existence until he finished his task. I then asked if we could seat ourselves, which was the policy.
We waited almost 10 minutes until a server came over. I was about 10 seconds from leaving. I would understand if it was busy, but it was pretty low key in there.
We got the pizza logs. They called them pepperoni rolls, but I prefer calling them pizza logs, OK? They were delicious. Had some sort of garlic/​parm on the outside. Only three of them, which saddened me. Not their fault, I’m just a hog.
They seem to have a lot of daily specials. If I were a local, I’d take advantage.

I have yet to come here for food, which I definitely want to try, but my friends and I come here on Saturday nights sometimes for drinks. The shot wheel is a cool concept. The place is always so crowded it’s hard to move, especially upstairs. I wanted to see what was on the second floor once and had to wait in line on the stairs to even get upstairs. Once I got up there I couldn’t move an inch let alone get close enough to the bar to order a drink. Not really my preference for a night out.

Ambience: neighborhood sports bar with a rooftop deck. Smoking allowed upstairs both indoor and out. Does turn into a loud college/​upper 20 something’s who wish they were still in college type bar on weekend nights. Plenty of tv’s thought showing whatever games are on.
Food: Mario’s serves standard bar options and does so pretty well. I have tried burgers, wings, a few sandwiches, pizza, and a few apps. Would recommend the wings (Cajun and spicy parmesan are my faves) or the pizza on Tuesday when it is half off. The burgers are pretty good too.
Drinks: decent beer selection though not great with about 12 beers on tap. Mostly standard options but one or two local craft beers as well. Ok bottled beer selection including things such as southern tier, dogfish head, delirium tremens. Only a few generic wine options. Full liquor bar.
Service:. Here’s where they loose some points in my book. The service is fine when they are slow but when it gets busy service can be abysmal. Peak times seem to be Thursday night for trivia and Friday from happy hour onwards, as well as during an major sporting event. During these times it can be difficult to find a server.
Overall: while I acknowledge a lot of people who deduct some stars due to the «brofest» this place can become on weekend nights and due to the at times spotty service, if one is aware of these attributes and plans accordingly the bar still fits its purpose very well. Which is, a neighborhood sports bar and a place to get a little rowdy from time to time.
Tips: Thursday night trivia is usually packed with 20 or more teams. Great food and drink specials for the area (see photo). Best place in Shadyside to watch the big game in my opinion.

First, I loved Doc’s. It was a fave.
Second, this is a total bro bar. I was somewhat pumped when I found out there would be a Mario’s in Shadyside right by where I was living. Basically, Mario’s has great happy hour specials and the downstairs is nice for that… But after 10pm, it gets ridiculous and becomes a hot mess. The upstairs is the worst and is incredibly smoky as a bonus. If you’re looking to get hit on by super aggressive random dudes, this is your spot.

Standard Marios.
Loud.
Crowded.
It’s a bar.
Good music for the most part.

I once witnessed a low functioning humanoid of the female variety being courted by one young man who abandoned his quest for her favor once she began puking on her person and the surrounding flooring. Fear not! She managed to attract and engage in lip locking of the French variety with a second young man, without addressing the freshly vacated bile from her beak, while two other young ladies battled gravity atop her vomit in what one might say resembled dancing if seen from the right angle. It was at about that time when I knew in my heart that this was not the bar for me.

Standard college and neighborhood bar. Good people/​good drinks and make sure to try the buffalo chicken dip. Trivia night is the best.

Mario’s is full of Brah Dudes. If you’re 21 and a Brah Dude yourself or wanting to meet a bunch of Brah Dudes, you might enjoy it. It’s not a place I’d choose to get food; I’ve tried a few things there and they were super mediocre. The best thing about it is the rooftop deck, which has been nicely renovated since Mario’s purchased the bar. Pretty nice on a summer afternoon.

Storytime!
Weekend. 12:30 AM. Out being rowdy with a nice group of friends. «Let’s go to Mario’s.» Reluctantly, I oblige – we walk in and head to the top floor. A DJ poorly transitions 90s favorites with modern hits. The place is packed – short skirts, popped collars, the reek of cologne and stale beer. We find a place to group together and dance/​talk/​drink a bit. A group of well-​dressed 20-​something bros starts laughing and wafting in my direction. «Bro, I just let out a wicked fart, and it’s COMIN’ YOUR WAY. IT’S SO GROSS.» I can confirm that it was gross.
A waitress walks by and spills beer all over my leg. Whoops. She grabs my shoulder and says «whoops.» A girl falls over trying to take off her heels. A few more girls stumble around as some dudes smell the vulnerability and swoop in to talk about how expensive their watches are.
I don’t mean to be negative, and I’m always down for a party… I’m just not trying to have a bunch of bros fart on me. I thought we had enough of that in college.
Mario’s is an alright sports bar as long as you don’t go after 10 PM on Thursday-​Saturday. Whenever I’ve been for food and sports and a Yuengling, I haven’t been disappointed; the service could be a bit slow, but oh well.

Great place to come on a weekend night! Very fun and good crowd! The only negative thing I saw was that there is a $ 10 minimum when paying with credit card!

We went in for a quick drink and found out that happy hour is a great time to go and ended up staying for longer than planned. We got some really yummy and cheap drinks ($ 2.25) and I was pleasantly surprised by how tasty the bar food is! I think it’s the best bar food I’ve ever had actually. We got the platter with mozzarella sticks, chicken tenders, and potato wedges, as well as some wings. Nomnom.
As others have said, the service is a bit lacking at times. The server sat us down and then never really came back, so we had to go to the bar to order drinks. The bartender was nice, but she didn’t tell us that some appetizers weren’t included in the happy hour specials. We only found out after the bill came and she just said, «oh I thought you knew that some of the items weren’t included in the happy hour special.» How would we have known if we made it very clear when we were ordering drinks that we had never been here before? We had to ask what drinks were available because they didn’t have any drink menus and the board only listed some of the available options. I’d give this place a lower rating for the service, but for now, four stars because the food was so good and the happy hour really is a good deal.

Mario’s East Side has my favorite wings in the city. If you enjoy super spicy wings, they are by far the best.
Quaker Steak Wings are spicy, but lack flavor and usually leave me sick. Fat Head’s are spicy but lack consistent quality in their wings.
I’ve had Mario’s wings dozens of times and they are always top quality. The celery is also always in good shape and the blue cheese dressing is nice and chunky.
Their pizza, wings, and fish are also good, but the wings are were they shine.

We reluctantly came here on Sunday when we were looking for a place not too far from our abode to go watch non-​Steelers football (I am a fan, however, the husband is not, so we needed a place that was other team friendly). Mario’s was a great choice.
Unlike a lot of other bars in the city, the crowd was chill, not rowdy, and the service was good… and he got to watch the Ravens :)
I highly recommend going here if you are looking for a place to watch your team!

This was my first time returning to this place since it was Doc’s, and wow… what an improvement! We stopped in to catch a game on NFL Sunday Ticket and it ended up being a great choice!
We were there around noon and the bar stayed low-​key for most of the afternoon while we were there. The service was really good, the bartender was nice, and the food was solid (for bar food). Not to mention, I didn’t get any pushback when asking to get a non-​Steelers game on one of the TV’s. There was a small sampling of fans for other teams watching games on other TV’s as well. Now, I can’t attest to the crowds at any other day/​time of the week, but if you’re an out-​of-​towner looking for a place to catch your NFL team on a Sunday, Mario’s is definitely a solid option.

I want to like Mario’s, I really do. I always have a good experience with the bartenders, and the handful of times I’ve ordered food here, it’s been decent. But there’s just a vibe I can’t shake about the place, like the other patrons think I’m not cool enough to be there.
They have a decent variety of drink and food specials, and other things throughout the week like karaōke and wing nights. But there are dress code signs on the door (like seriously, places that require a dress code that is posted on the door? they make me uneasy), and a feeling of general discomfort I get by not meeting some imaginary ‘cool’ quota each time I walk in.
You know in high school, when you were one of the nerds, and the cool kids were like, ‘what are you doing at our lunch table, dork?’ That is how I feel when I walk into Mario’s. Like I just dropped my protractor and everyone is laughing at me.
Alas, my husband’s bromance lives right down the street, and we always end up meeting him here for drinks, so I shall continue to withstand the uncomfortable feelings to enjoy a couple of rounds in the early afternoon. I’m grateful for the good bartenders who make this more bearable and don’t mind if I accompany my vodka with a few games of bowling on my Ti-​83.

4 stars for 25 cent wings on Mondays. And these are some big, crispy wings with some decent choices of sauces… I think garlic habanero (something like that) was my favorite. With BWW increasing their prices (now 60 cents on Wing Tuesdays!) Mario’s is better… and the wings are meatier.
Other than the wings, it’s a great place for young people to hang out in Shadyside. They’ve got a nice rooftop area, and if you don’t like to be around smoking in Pittsburgh bars, the downstairs is non-​smoking.
It’s a little pricey for college students… but has a great atmosphere. Trivia on Thursdays is also really fun… but get there at least an hour early because there’s not a lot of space to sit on the bottom floor.