East Side Mario's — Restaurant in Ottawa

Family of five - three kids ventured inside to get some lunch yesterday (Sunday) It was pretty dead! We were seated by a very nice young lady to a booth.

There were 5 families near our section with no food or drinks on their table which made me nervous. We sat down and waited TWENTY minutes before we had to go hunt down someone to notice us! We asked a young woman who was bringing some food to the table behind us but the customers constantly had to ask “oh we ordered this … is that coming soon?” She’d go back to the kitchen and come with one dish. Then they had to politely ask again “she ordered this… is that ready?” The lady went back to check and came out with the food. It happened three times. Nobody came to check on us or ask us what we wanted to drink within the 20 minutes of sitting down. There was two or three waitress’ and two hostess and one bartender and one very young lady who seemed to be “managing” the place. Nobody was helping anybody.

There was a lot of laughter and talking in the kitchen though.

We had to flag down this “manager” and we asked if we could get things started because the kids were starving. She took our drink order and then decided to go chit chat with another worker. Bartender was still on his phone scrolling - and it didn’t seem like he got the order from the lady we ordered from. After another TEN minutes (30 in total) we got up and left and went to broadways where we were greeted within 5 minutes…

This isn’t the first time this restaurant and workers doesn’t show any concern or care in the work they do. I understand it’s a Sunday afternoon and I am understanding of taking a little longer than normal because it’s a slow day. That isn’t the problem - the problem is that NOBODY greeted us, avoided eye contact when we were waving someone down but only until we got up to leave did they notice and they had this confused look on their faces and STILL the bartender was on his phone scrolling. I didn’t see him get off the phone except to pour a beer.

We’ve heard a lot of negative stories from this restaurant and after this being our fourth bad experience with them we won’t be back.

The food was/is always cold when we came or did take out and was extremely tasteless. We only went because my son enjoys their red sauce and...

We decided to test out Eastside Marios in Orleans on March 11th for a birthday dinner, as we had a big of nostalgia from the chain about a decade ago. We used to visit other central Ottawa locations every couple of months.

Food: My wife's ordered the cappalletti and it was very expired, the cheese filling was beyond gone. I pride myself in having a pretty rock solid stomach, but the expired cheese smell "Wow".

I ordered the veal parmigiana, and it was well done. Burnt to a crisp.

We had the cappalletti replaced with just a penne dish with rosé sauce - but were still charged for the cappalletti. Weird.

Service: Our server was nice. Serving is a tough job. But I just don't think she was given the tools to succeed.

It seems like she was serving tables across the entirety of the restaurant - rather than a section.

Server training just seems to off, or just logically putting servers in a certain section. A simple "What's the occasion?" or greeting goes a long way.

A nearly 3hr meal with very little attention or service just seemed like we were waiting for portions of the meal. And simple things like missing utensils, empty drinks, etc. And the restaurant didn't seem busy by restaurant standards.

Atmosphere: Atmosphere is okay. The televisions were on the most confusing channels for ambience.

I get having a television or two on children programming for kid's eat free night. But what Ottawa team is playing and pushing for a playoff spot? The Ottawa Senators. Zero televisions in the entire bar had the Senators game on.

We had Pokémon on one small television. A cooking show, and a random game show.

Overall - we wouldn't go back to this location for some time. Happy to try Eastside's in the future. Big fan and the obvious nostalgia of what they can be. But to spend $100 for two individuals, and have that...

This was sad… The quality of food has gone down, especially from when you remember how good it used to be decades ago.

My server was trash. The manager that actually didn’t really seem to care did in fact discount our order 10%…. Only 10..

Our server came back with the garbage Caesar salad, as I took a bite of my chicken parm burger and commented (this tastes burnt) she waited for me to finish my comment before she asked if I wanted Parmesan cheese for my salad. Don’t comment anything, this was gross. I ended up focusing on my fries and Caesar salad that was at most a 5/10 from how good they used to be….

Never coming back here again, likely never to return to East sides again. Because of how rushed I felt. I was literally still eating my salad when I thought we were going road be checked upon my our server, to ask if I was finished setting to have me a box to pack up My food …. Literally point after point I was gradually disappointed again and again and I want you all to realize that this is nothing like they used to be. The quality of food was rushed, my chicken parm was dry, overcooked, and lacked their marinara sauce. The server was holding the Parmesan cheese grate over my salad when I finished chewing and told my date I was tasting burnt food, to wait until I finished talking to ask if I wants cheese on my salad.

And to think I actually sat down at a prior restaurant and mentioned their parm fest to go to East sides instead and hyper regretted going there instead.. woulda been better off having burnt pancakes at home, instead of going out…

Don’t waste your money, time, or food palate coming here.

You’ll likely end up feeling just as we both did. She had a linguini that resembled rubber noodles and lacked...