East Side Mario's — Restaurant in Ontario

It's been awhile since I've been to East Sides. The food seems to have "gone down hill" over the years. I ordered a "Try-Trio" of some kind, that came with a Chicken Parm, Alfredo Pasta [I added Shrimp to this one], and [a small piece of] the Lasagna. The Chicken Parm was good (doesn't come with any kind of pasta, just the chicken part. That might sound weird to some people but I was always under the impression that Chicken Parm usually comes with a pasta of some sort, that the chicken sits atop. Although, that may have been way too much pasta if they had served it as such). The Alfredo was just as good (especially with the shrimp, that definitely made it good/better). The Lasagna however was not that great, it was really, really dried out. The complimentary bread and butter was delicious, as always, so was the Ceasar salad. Hubby ordered the chicken Parm sandwich, said he really liked it. He got his with the creamy potato and bacon soup, which was also good (if I had known that I would be the one eating the soup, I probably would have got him to order the creamy roasted tomato and garlic one). 😊 Service was amazing. Always love their patio in the summer months!! However, there is an issue with people sitting/hanging out on the other side of the patio-- usually doing questionable things (if you know, you know). Although I don't think there's much the establishment can do about it, especially since I don't think that that's technically their property (I'm not 100% sure about that though). That small issue aside, their patio really is beautiful. Especially with all the greenery...

I have always loved East Side Mario's and have been a regular customer using a variety of locations for well over 30 years. I have come to rely on the consistent food quality, reliable favourite dishes still on the menu and friendly staff. This is my second visit to this location in Pembroke and I wasn't impressed. I ordered the carbonara and my husband ordered the seafood pasta. Both our dishes lacked the flavour that we were used to at ESM. My carbonara had a tasteless bright white sauce, not the usual creamy sauce that I've been served. My husband's tomato based sauce was just as tasteless. The bread which used to be one of my favourite parts of the meal was also not as good, portion size was much smaller (why? it's all you can eat?) and the flavour was different. The salad was basically just lettuce - the higher priced ingredients on the salad have always been 'managed', but there were even less than usual - NO onion, a couple of slices of tomato - the usual 2 olives and the jalapeno peppers were reduced to just one. Our service was OK, but our server didn't seem like he really enjoyed his job - he wasn't offensive, but something was definitely missing. This could well be the same server we had last time we were there - or perhaps staff are just generally unhappy. I'm not sure if ESM are trying to cut costs with lower priced ingredients or if this is just one bad manager having a poor effect on food quality and staff morale. I'm afraid to go back and try another location in case we waste our money again on another lack...

We came here with 7 people on a Sunday around 7:30pm. The place wasn't busy, but wasn't slow. We were seated in two separate booths because of covid which was weird, but it was the least of our issues. We sat down and we're greeted quick enough (waitor 629), myself and my brother in law ordered a beer and my sister had water. We all ordered some pasta dish of some sort. I ordered the double bacon carbonara, with mozza sticks as an app. It took our waitor about 10 minutes to get us bread/salad. He brought two bowls of salad, with the same amount in each one, Caesar and garden. The Caesar was split between two people and the garden was for one person. The portion was just big enough for one person let alone two, he should have brought a bowl for each person.... Like why not. He brought us one small loaf for everyone. Like on what earth does all you can eat bread and salad mean one small loaf for 3 people and one small bowl of salad for 2 people. We wait for 20-25 minutes for more salad and bread but the waitor didn't come. He finally brought out my pasta that was portioned for a 10 year old, which was also dry.... I asked for more salad and bread and he seemed annoyed. Finally after 15-20 minutes he brought us out our salad and bread. Which again was pathetic. 1 loaf for 3 hungry adults.... I tipped him and we left. I feel ripped off and really upset. we like going to east sides because it's something different. But honestly we probably won't ever...