East Side Mario's — Restaurant in Oakville

What has happened to East side Mario's. My annual trip with my grandkids as a celebration of another school year was most disappointing. Firstly, we noticed as soon as I walked in that it was hot( there was a heatwave going on outside) and we expected a nice cool environment. I mentioned to the gal that seated us and she said, oh it's cooler over in this area. And uh, no, it wasn't. It was uncomfortable and the poor waitstaff were all sweating. Today was kids eat meal so we placed our order and were surprised when another waiter came by, dropped off a very small portion of pasta( kids meal) My grandaughter had asked for butter and parmesab. It had to be about 2/3 cup ( I'm being generous) looked dried out and had a bit of butter. He dropped it down and walked away. We hadn't received salad or bread and she was almost finished her portion by the time the bread and salad came out. My meal came later and had clumps of stuck together pasta which I put on the side of my plate for the waitress to see. Sadly I believe she was brand spanking new and was trying her best. The restaurant wasn't that full but I'm not sure if she had other areas to attend too. We were never asked how our meal was and my grandaughters hate when Iale a fuss. I always tell them that we will praise the service and food when it is good but we should not remain silent if it's not. We ordered a take out for the one grandaughter who wasn't feeling g well. That took awhile. ...everything seemed to take forever. I am sure the heat had something to do with our impatience as my one grandaughter had finished her meal some time ago and wanted to leave. We finally got the bill and I saw that we were charged for 2 kids meals( one was suppose to be for free)the waitress apologized and went to rectify the bill. I assumed she was going to reverse the charge on my card. The manager appeared and he had a 10$ gift card in his hand. Handed it to me and apologized. I thot, that was a nice gesture but then I realized it was to cover for the cost of the kids meal. At this point we just wanted to get out and so I didn't insist that he reverse the charge on my card. We left and I asked my grandaughtwr to check the gift card and sure enough it can only be used in that restaurant. A) i don't live anywhere near this restaurant and B) we will never be going back to that restaurant. Suggestions: Inform your customers that the AC was not working so they have the option to turn around and walk out B) waitstaff need more training. Our waitress was lovely and personable but clearly needed more time to by staff on how to serve a table C) not sure if it's new ownership but this was the most disappointing meal EVER at an east side Mario's. D) anyone want a 10$ gift card for this...

Very disappointed with our recent visit at this Winston Park East Side Mario’s location. My friend and I were initially excited to go get ESM’s for dinner after work because it has been a while since we’ve last had it, however last night was overall one of the worst dining experiences we’ve both had - food, service, and atmosphere-wise.

The wait for someone to greet us/ask us how many for our table/find a table was at least 15 minutes+, with no staff coming up to the front to even check (there were 3 parties in total waiting including us, who also still had to tell the hostess how many ppl in their party). The hostess who came up afterwards looked annoyed and did a half-effort job to clean/wipe our booth table (which overall still looked dirty and sticky). The restaurant overall looks like it could be given a better clean. It was still hot/humid outside for the evening, and the AC seemed to not be working which was disappointing as well. Once we were finally seated at our table, it again took a while for our server to do the initial greeting and ask for starters/drinks. When she finally came and we asked questions about one of ESM’s current promotions for their starters and what drinks they have available, the server did not seem to know any details and was unable to answer our questions. The classic calamari fritti starter that we had which we have had in a past ESM visit and thought we should get again, was this time not crispy, didn’t have a lot of batter, soggy, undercooked, and did not seem to be what you expect typical calamari served at restaurants to be. My friend and I were literally confused at how underwhelming it was that we asked the waitress about it if it was supposed to be like this and she offered to take it back to the kitchen to refry it some more. The main pasta dishes we ordered (spaghetti and chicken Alfredo) were mediocre at best. I am grateful that the waitress we had was at least nice and took into consideration any issues we had with our food at the time.

Unfortunately I am all too familiar with understaffing at my work and how it can affect client experience so I understand that aspect and how it may have came to play here. However overall, I feel like management and the team at this ESM needs to reflect on how they can better improve the dining experience for future customers as this location is truly deplorable. Really disappointed at the low quality of the food, service, and overall dining...

Worst dining experience in a long time! My partner and I went out for dinner before a movie and sat at our table at about 6:05pm. The waitress MacKena took our orders almost right away brought us our first round of drinks and then had a magical disappearing act where she didn’t return for over 50 minutes. The manager brought us our salads, you know the ones that are supposed to be unlimited especially when your kitchen is the slowest moving kitchen ever, but instead of circling back to offer more drinks, water, bread, salad, hell a human apology for the horrible wait time no one was seen near our table for 50 minutes. So after 50 minutes of literal nothing and all our attempts to politely wave someone, literally anyone besides the poor hostess who was actually doing her job, our food was brought out from the kitchen at 7:12pm (and my basic spaghetti stayed “warm” for a whole 30 seconds). We told the waitress to bring us the bill and a box right away because we were late and already tempted to walk out after the first half hour of no human contact. The waitress without apologizing for her lack of service only apologizing for the slow kitchen brings the manager over who pathetically said “oh sorry for the wait we’ll take 20% off” but honestly the wait happens kitchens are slow but straight up ignoring paying customers is a pathetic excuse for customer service and a horrible dining experience. We had wanted another round of our not so unlimited salad and bread, another drink of water, hell another beer we were will to spend more money at that dumpster fire. I am still livid now at the sheer pathetic disrespect of this restaurant, the waitress for ignoring us, and the manager for being unhelpful and unapologetic for his and his staffs lack of action. If you plan on going out for dinner before a movie I would literally recommend a dumpster before I would recommend this restaurant. They need new management or to simply close their doors. Not to mention when the bill came the time our order was punched into the computer was 6:24pm so not only did the waitress mess up and not own her actions they’re clearly trying to mess with their numbers to make it seem like they aren’t the slowest, worst restaurant in the plaza. Honestly avoid at all costs or even better go and make their day as awful as...