East Side Mario's — Restaurant in Ottawa

Went July 10, 2021 with three other adults. No umbrellas at all on the patio -- only shaded in one small area. We asked if we could wait until come customers were finished so that we could have a shaded area and how long a wait approximately would it be. Evan told us he didn't really know as it depended. Fair enough, and we got that. We also asked Evan when he sat us if we could move to the shaded area from our seats once people from one of the other tables had left. Evan told us we could not as they would have to clean our table as well because of Covid. (We would not usually want/ask them to go to extra trouble, but as they did not have any umbrellas like they use to, it was really warm and the sun was hot. We were told by the hostess that there was worry the umbrellas would fall into the parking lot below and was an insurance issue so that was why they no longer had them). In any event, we we were a bit surprised at this response as they would need to clean our table later anyway, but we didn't question this and just left it as we also appreciate it is Covid etc. although really....??? The table would need to be cleaned anyway and it was not very busy as we went at 1:00 p.m. (If it had been crazy busy during a rush period, we would certainly understand such a response, somewhat better.)

However, during the meal, we saw several other people moved from their tables to the shady area so we were quite surprised and upset about that. (Our area had above us, some semi "shelter" as a kind of a pagola extension to the sheltered area, but no covering as such -- to give you an idea, three of us had to rotate seats with each other during the meal as it was way too hot with the sun and very uncomfortable.)

One of the people in our group spilled by accident, sauce from his meal on the floor (it was in a little container). I asked Evan if he could bring us napkins (yes, we did have to ask) and he did --- my brother-in-law had sauce all over the side of his shorts and a lot on the floor. He tried to get some off the floor as he felt badly but he used up the napkins given to him, as well as using the napkins from the rest of us at the table. We didn't ask Evan or the server about having someone to mop it as we just assumed somebody would do so. Nobody came to mop it up. It was also mentioned to our server (I believe her name was Emily) about watching where she stepped (she did later step in it).

We had looked forward to going out but needless to say, we will not be going back here.

We have nothing to complain about regarding our food -- it was fine and what we had expected and came quickly enough. Our server and someone who seemed to be shadowing her were nice. We all kept waiting for her OR ANYONE to see about the floor being mopped up. I did comment on it in the end to her.

We did not stay for tea/coffee or dessert as was way too uncomfortable in the heat and with the dirty floor beside it was very annoying, distracting, and just "icky". It really was quite unbelievable to us this was considered acceptable by the staff at East Side Marios. We also felt badly that people at other tables would see it and have to eat looking at that as well.

I spoke to Evan on the way out about our experience and nobody came to mop up, and how other people were seated in the shadier area despite what he had stated to us. A manager who was present and had come back out at that time when I was talking to Evan also spoke with me. He did apologize for it, but my impression was nobody really cared at all.

Anyway, we were completely unimpressed and very disappointed with our experience. There are so many other wonderful restaurants around that have shade on their patios and where I would like to think they probably clean the floors if there is something spilled. We should have left right away after seeing the patio and the seating, so our fault for staying.

When picking where to go and meet for lunch that day, we had toyed with going to the Brew Table up the street -- we so...

Terrible Service at East Side Mario's, Bells Corners

I had an incredibly disappointing experience at East Side Mario's in Bells Corners. From the moment we arrived, the service was poor, and the entire experience quickly became frustrating and insulting.

We were seated on the patio but didn’t receive water, utensils, or even tongs for the salad. After waiting for over 20 minutes without any attention, we were finally asked if we needed anything. When we ordered soup, we were told that it couldn’t be served on the patio. After we requested to move inside to avoid the mosquitoes, we were told we could now get our soup. However, after being seated inside, we were ignored for over 30 minutes with no service at all.

When we finally tried to order soup, the waitress, Julia, gave us the options but then said she needed to check with the kitchen. She walked away for about 30 seconds and returned to tell us that the kitchen had closed at 9:30 PM because the restaurant wasn’t busy. This was confusing since there was another table outside when we arrived, and the main dining area had several occupied tables. Additionally, it took 15 minutes for us to get lemonade refills, and our child was never offered the dessert that was supposed to come with their meal. When we asked about it, we were made to feel like we were a bother.

After we paid our bill, as Julia insisted we pay before we were done eating ("I want to check you out"), I asked if she was new to the role due to her poor service, and she assured me she wasn’t. She then told me she had no control over the issues we had raised. She also contradicted herself by claiming the restaurant was “super busy” but earlier had told us the kitchen closed because it wasn’t busy.

To make matters worse, when I calmly tried to understand why the service was so bad, Julia became rude and argumentative. She dismissed our concerns with an insincere “I’m sorry you feel that way,” but never once apologized for the way she ignored us. After I explained to my children that apologizing to customers is important, Julia raised her voice, screamed at us, and swore, saying she didn’t care.

After Julia walked away, I approached another staff member to ask again to speak to the owner and was told that he was not available. I then asked to speak to the manager and was told that they were busy but would come soon. After waiting for 10 minutes, a woman arrived without a name tag and gave us an uncaring response, claiming the restaurant was too busy to address the situation. She refused to provide the owner’s contact details and said she would return with that information but never did.

This was, without a doubt, the worst customer service I’ve ever experienced. Despite everything, we still left a tip, but the entire experience left me feeling insulted and disrespected. I’ve visited other East Side Marios locations, like Hunt Club and St. Laurent, and had excellent service, so this experience was especially disappointing. I will never recommend this restaurant, and I am trying to reach the owner to explain how poorly this...

The one thing that you can unfortunately count on when it comes to East Side Marios is consistency - the consistent poor service whether you are in Toronto, Hamilton, or Ottawa which is where we were tonight.

We were at the end of a 12 hour drive from New Brunswick and were looking forward to some East Side Marios. We hadn't been to one in a while due to previous poor experiences in Toronto and Hamilton but thought this could be different. Unfortunately not.

We were seated promptly, but that is where the promptness ended. We waited 15 minutes for someone to take our drink orders. Once the drinks arrived we made our order with the person who sat us and we never saw her again at our table.

We ordered the veal, Hells Kitchen Chicken and Cheesy Alfredo. With Italian wedding soups

The soups are delivered by another girl who we assume is our waitress now. We finished the first bread roll and soups, as well as two of our drinks. 30 minutes goes by with nobody coming to our table to see if we wanted another bread roll or wedding soups. What's the point of East Side Marios famous all you can eat soup and bread when nobody comes by to see if you want more?

I finally grow impatient as my little one is starting to get agitated and flag the girl down that brought us our soups and ask her who our waiter actually is, to which she replies the bar tender.

So I tell her that we would like more soup, another bread roll, and refills on drinks and that the actual person responsible for our table hasn't come by.

The reason for that is because she was getting a lot of attention from some visibly drunk, and very loud gentlemen sitting at the bar, whom she continued to serve alcohol to, despite the fact that they were swearing and slurring their speech half the time. I hope the tips were worth it lady.

We received our meals and they were satisfactory but disappointing from previous experiences.

All throughout our meal, the boys at the bar continued to drink, the bar tender finally came over to check on us and asked how the food was halfway through and finally brought us our soups and bread roll.

So it appears that this is a national standard of service that East Side Marios strives for and ultimately delivers - a poor experience.

We won't be back to this location or any others, and I encourage you to do the same.

East Side Marios, East Side Marios Eh Budda Boom...