East Side Mario's — Restaurant in Halifax

We went out as a family for my sister’s 25th birthday dinner, and it was SUCH a horrible and disappointing experience. My sister was so excited to celebrate her birthday at her favorite restaurant, but instead it nearly ruined her birthday altogether. East side Mario’s has been my sister’s favourite restaurant for a while, she has a hard time finding places where she feels safe eating with her dietary restrictions. The only meal she orders every time wasn’t made to the accommodations she normally has zero problem ordering, as she goes there often and the staff always make it for her the way she needs it to be made no problem. My sister ended up with the dish she didn’t want, after arguing with the server. The server we had the absolute displeasure of being served by had zero personality, was rude, extremely unhelpful and unsympathetic of my sisters concerns and dietary needs. She was slow, didn’t offer to make things better, let our bread go cold before she finally came back over with more butter that we had asked for and waited for over 15 minutes. It wasn’t even that busy tonight so it’s no excuse. I’ve been in the serving industry my entire early and mid twenties and never treated my customers as poorly as she did. She rolled her eyes when I ordered a water, because I am pregnant and can’t have alcohol or have sugary drinks due to Gestational diabetes. She also took over a half hour to bring out my boyfriends salad, we had to wave over another waitress to get it for us. Then, my boyfriend, stepdad, & sisters fiancé all got the chicken parm and the chicken was rubbery, chewy, barely even edible and tough and just disgusting. It made them all sick to their stomach trying to get it down. My boyfriend couldn’t finish it because it was so disgusting. We very nicely explained this to her, that they weren’t happy with their meal and she basically just stood there like “well what do you want me to do about it?” And it was so awkward and uncomfortable. I believe her name was Caitlin, she had short red hair and a bad attitude. She didn’t even apologize for the food being bad (not that it’s her fault, but when you’re in the serving industry, it’s your job to make the experience as pleasant as possible.. at least that’s what I was taught.) my sisters fiancé was gagging visibly and she still didn’t offer any form of sympathy, apologies, or a way to fix the situation. We expected her to get it taken off of our bill, as we made it clear that we didn’t want to pay for such a gross meal. But she didn’t, she continued to bring the bill over. So we flagged over a manager and he took the meals off the bill, while she awkwardly stood by waiting with the debit machine for us to pay. My sister was very upset, this was her birthday dinner and it was NOT a pleasant experience for her or any of us. We will absolutely not be going back...

There wasn't exactly an option for facilities, so that's why I gave the atmosphere one star. My daughter has just learned how to use the potty and has been happy and confident in going into public restrooms. She accompanied me to the bathroom at this location at the beginning of May. I've been visiting this place since I was probably 9 years old. Throughout all the remodels of this restaurant over the years, I'm not sure I've seen the bathroom change ever. It is dark it, has poor hand dryers that are little more than a strong breath on your hands, and it always has a smell. But I deal with it because I like the food, I just don't usually go in the bathroom. Well, this time, I had to and had to bring my daughter with me. As soon as she was hit with the smell, which was no worse than it usually is, I might add, she started to complain about it smelling bad. By the time we got to the stall, she started to cry to leave. When I went to wash my hands, she was just about screaming. Paused from shock when I started the hand dryer, then resumed screaming. As soon as we left the bathroom, she was fine. It's been 3 weeks. She still refers to "the place with the yucky bathroom." I will tell you that it was extremely difficult to make stops on our trip to Montreal last weekend because we had to do a sniff test and inspect the bathroom for cleanliness before she could go in at every single stop along the way. She has been scarred for life. And although I love the food, I don't think I'm going to be able to make it back into East Side Mario's in the foreseeable future if my daughter is with me, else she will loudly discuss the yucky bathroom throughout the meal for...

Edit: East Side Mario's was quick to follow up with a remedy, and we did revisit a few days later and gave it another chance. The server this time around was much more responsive and delivered great service. Thankfully things are looking to have been a one-off situation for our bad visit, but with that said, keep vigilant. If it happens to you, make sure that you let them know because they will try to make things right for you.

Original review below ‐-------‐-------------------------- Unfortunately, contrary to our usual service from the two best servers here, Caryn and Brandon, we were ignored by our server, Hannah P, and instead the larger table next to us was prioritized over us. While we initially asked for a moment before ordering, we were never revisted for the following 25 minutes. The other table was visited three times, and then we were told that our order would be taken in just a moment, where our server proceeded to go to the back for another 5 minutes before finally coming out with a birthday cupcake for, again, the larger table next to us. Keep in mind that this was not a busy day, and she had a total of three running tables.

We asked for our bill, and she apologized by saying that "It is busy" today, when that was clearly not the case.

I'm not complaining that we paid the $8 for the two drinks, but I will say I'm surprised that they even charged us given our typical experience there and the situation that...