East Side Mario's — Restaurant in Ottawa

We weren't far from the Ontario border in Quebec but we ended upwe weren't far from the Ontario border in Quebec but we ended up inwe weren't far from the Ontario border in Quebec but we ended up in on tario and stopped off at Costco for well priced gas and my road trip gal pal ran into Costco for a box of 40 packages of cheese. With tankful and advice to go down to a family type restaurant from the gas attendant and my gal pal buddy exiting costco, we drove down the street and saw Mario's and it turned out to be East side Mario's and we saw Marathon. We drove around the back and of both of them in the parking lot viewing the number of cars and she chose East side Mario's. We sat outside and walking through the place it was sort of a family style franchisee bar restaurant sort of most the restaurant thing and nicely designed as well. Low lighting inside. Mostly empty and welcome to covid-19 world. We ate outside and sat away from everybody else to stay safe. The service was excellent and I think the girls went to the same tattoo parlor and we're friends and the guy was very helpful too. The food looked good but it was more like a 3.6 on 5. However everything else was definitely pleasant and well served and they took their time and they explained the menus and the service was excellent and the waitering team of two gals and a guy we're totally professional and very excellent and lovely friendly and prompt. One of the gals explain they were low staff but there weren't many people. I thought they did a great job. We took home the food and was even better than fresh in the restaurant being re-nuked. The pizza took a reheat perfectly well and that was globs of white apparently goat cheese. Two types of meat and one was decent quality another one was kind of fatty but it was okay. The chicken breast was actually one of those reconstituted breasts where they mush it all back together and give it all the same equal texture but it's a known factor and it's food. They braided it and for reheating I had Google tell me about safety and they said just in case kill some Manila in the oven at 165° and so I put it right under the broiler element and cook the hell out of it. Hardly part of it still take the big pink and the rest of it stayed white but the breaded part carbonized. But I felt like I did a good job heating it past salmonella possibilities. You can never be too careful with chicken. If chicken gets salmonella, then does salmon get chickennila? . Our visit there was fine and their take home boxes were quite adorable. It was definitely satisfactory and it was the best service we've had in any restaurant in...

UPDATE I followed up on the invitation that was part of the reply to my review. First, East Side Marios thanked for my positive review, ignoring the criticisms of their initial service, failure to set up our table, and that we had to get our utensils. When I asked how they were going to make this right with me (per their follow up) and pointed out that I had complained, the Company recognized their poor service. The Franchisee (or management team) at this location followed me with my separately with a generic email apology and nothing more. Not impressed. Service: 5 stars only because our server LISA was awesome.

Initial service was very poor. We arrived for dinner around 9:00pm on a Saturday. It took a long time to get seated, many staff were on the floor but cleaning up with no one at the front desk to greet us. When we were seated, our table was not set up. We had to get our own utensils and napkins, ironically at the front desk.

Lisa was great. She was pleasant, very polite, and nice to talk to. She took our order and brought us what we ordered very quickly. She was also extremely proactive in bringing us the all-you-can-eat items. Rather than just bring 1 loaf of bread and 1 butter (for a table of 3 adults where it would have been eaten right away) should brough 2 loafs and 2 butters. When she saw that we had consumed 1.5 loafs, she brough out another 2 more for us (straight out of the oven) - without being asked. Same for our drinks, when she saw that we had consumed most of our drinks, she brought us refills - again without being asked. That's service and she accomplished this while serving other tables too. She also shared this was her first shift back since injuring her knee. That was impressive. You would not know it, given her quickness and movement around her serving area. Take away our experience with Lisa and I would have rated the service with...

Update Jul 21

Second visit update. My original review was 6 days ago.

Today was lunch vs dinner before.

Advice: Avoid lunch and go for dinner.

Positives: 1 - Greg. He made the drinks quickly including the kiddie drinks despite having almost a full crowd at the bar. He took our orders promptly and brought out food courteously. Kudos to him - he focuses on the clientele and reflects well on the restaurant.

2 - food is still good as last time. I ordered the exact same disk same taste.

Negatives:

3 - our server - not Greg - was clearly not into serving. Compared to Greg and the person last week, this was a big drop. A BIG drop in the experience.

4 - took almost 10 mins to get the bread. Waited almost 10 mins more before we got a second loaf. The reason we got a second loaf at the 20 min mark was because we told Greg we needed more bread when he brought out the salads.

5 - in the 15-20 mins we sat there our server didn't come by to follow up on us once. The first loaf was long gone and the patrons were hungry.

6 - after we told Greg we needed bread, our server did bring bread to us quickly. Deposited is a nice way to describe how the bread was placed on the table. Perhaps the server was upset or something but we don't think it was is as the only direct communication we had was in ordering the food

7 - I normally don't write any reviews unless it's noteworthy and good. Today is a very rare exception.

If you have to go for lunch here and unfortunately are seated in the bar section like we did, try to get Greg as your server.

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Original post

The place is family oriented but they do have a bar on one side. Food ranking is based on kids. If you have kids then this is an important metric and I would argue have the biggest impact on whether you want to return with...