East Side Mario's — Restaurant in Peterborough

Last night the family went out for dinner. Not something that we do often, but we have been going to eastside when we do. The party consisted of 4 people. 2 adults and 2 children. Now. Normally we have a wonderful dinner there. Normally our servers are attentive and very accommodating. The last two times we have went we have had nothing but issues. This time last night ( Dec 4 2018) being the worst. First of all it took almost 10 minutes to have our server approach our table. Which is fine. When compared to the full 30 min it took for us to get our drinks. 45 minutes to get our soup and salad and hour and 10 minutes to get our food. So order on the bill was a kids pasta and maranara and chocolate milk, a "big kids" order of bow tie pasta, with a Cesar salad and a root beer. And 2 new yorkahs panzarotti, one was regular and one veggie( i have a sensitivity to the pepperoni.) The last two times when I have asked for the kitchen to omit the pepperoni and give me extra cheese instead, they have given me issue. Which has never happened prior. And the last 2 time when they have omitted the pepperoni I have received my food WITH pepperoni. This would not be an issue if it wouldn't make sick. And we also had 2 fountain pops. It took us a total of 2+hrs to receive and finish our meal. During this time. our waitress did not return to our table. We only got refills of our drinks when we were able to get the attention of the front of house. Our table was mainly dealt with by the wonderful girl at the front of the house, she got our plates for salad, set our table, got us carry out containers, made sure that the kids got to pick a toy out of the treasure box and found us a bag for our take away food. Our experience was so bad. We did not leave a tip for our waitress ( not something I can say I have ever done as I worked in food service for a long time ) we left a 5 dollar tip for the girl at the font of house. Who told us she was not allowed to take money. This dinner was not cheap. The food was good. With the exception of the difficulties having a veg option. Service was the worst we have ever had at this store. Frankly. If I had done this review 6 months ago it would have been a 4 or 5 star review. As it sits this is a 2 star because I hold hope that the last two visits were not going to be the regular. It is a 2 star because I hope that this store can do better if we decide to blow close to 70 bucks on dinner out. edit I spoke with the manager Dianne. She, while very kind was not overly invested. We played phone tag after her telling me that her head office had told her the issue had been dealt with and me responding to a post on this review page... I finally received an email. Then we started the back and forth.( basically her emailing me and asking me to call and then either not being there, needing to get off the phone or... the final time I tried, telling me to call at a certain time and then leaving 15 minutes before said scheduled call.) She gifted me a " be my guest" coupon. Which I am not sure when I will ever use as it is for 25 dollars... and like I said. We routinely drop 70+ taking the family out. In her mind I think the issue has been solved. I spent much more time.on the phone, on emails and trying to get a hold of her than I feel was needed. We should have just left the restaurant instead of waiting...

We came in yesterday. Our server was Dave. He did an extremely poor job started off all right though but was yelling and right in your face, also, he didn't listen to a word we said when we ordered cut us off completely, and then got our order wrong twice brought out the wrong food twice and when we asked to see the paper he wrote on, he said "Oh, I had it in my pocket " If he even listened to us in the beginning, he may have had an idea on what we ordered, After we corrected him and he went to tell the kitchen. It was very clear that he went around and was very upset with us wanting the food that we originally ordered that would've been on the paper if he kept it.... it was clear he was going up to his coworkers and saying things and his attitude completely changed by the end, but if he listened to us to begin with and kept the paper for the order maybe he would have had fhe right food the first time. Food wasn't the best the sauce was Coagulated from sitting under the heat lamp for too long, he went ro refill my drink and somehow that took a good 10 minutes till i asked "Is my drink still coming or did we forget that too?" then he grabs it but makes sure to tell me " i dont make the drinks" I know but if doesnt take 10 minutes in an empty restaurant to get an iced tea🤦‍♀️ the menus were covered in something pink and we're sticky, we stood at the doors for a good 5/6 minutes while we were stared at by all the staff till someone walked up and finally gave us a table just overall terrible service and experience, oh and when we asked if we could maybe have a discount for having our order wrong twice and having him be disrespectful he comped One drink.....When we went to pack up our food he tried to take a plate and scrape it into our box, excuse me but as an adult I am capable, when we told him the first dish was wrong he took it right out from under my nan while she was actively still eating when he riped fhe dish from her she still had a fork full of salad there🤦‍♀️ Nice to be able to see my family, but terrible experience here, I used to come here because of the wonderful service that they used to provide extremely disappointing to see it, go downhill this far. Hopefully someone talks to this guy ive seen another bad review about him i guess that shows this will go nowhere though he should be in the back.... because i will never sit down with him for a server again id rather just go someplace else and be treated better and get the food that i...

What happened to East Side Mario’s? It’s so crappy now! The management has become so stingy with the quality, portions and the place is unclean. Went there tonight with my wife for a quick meal. Everything was way less, lower or substandard. Everything. The young lady serving us was pleasant and capable. But the food quality is/was terrible. The salad is now served in smaller single size portions. Which is honestly, not so bad. As a business owner I understand reducing waste. But salad has discoloured, old bits of lettuce. The chicken parm is my go to and the actual pasta sauce is different. It reminded me of the canned spaghetti I’d eat a kid. Like the Heinz tomato sauce. There were tiny chopped up pieces of inedible bay leaves. The chicken was much thinner and smaller portions. My wife’s dinner was also noticeably smaller. She doesn’t complain usually. But I could see the quality has declined. Cheaper, lower quality ingredients. The salt and pepper shakers were greasy and sticky. Just about everything about the place has significantly declined. New management? Perhaps. Whatever or whoever, the place is not what it used to be. Dirty. Cheapened. Low rent man. Last time going there. Oh and two meals. Chicken parm, a trio of chick parm, lasagna and fet Alf, two soft drink and very small side of marinara, which was $1.99 additional, but over charged, $80.51. Worth $40 at the most. I also apprentices a chef for a couple years and worked in several professional cooking positions over the years. I have had experience. And I know inflation has caused businesses to change things up but you can do so without serving such junky, tasteless, obvious…. I can’t think of a better description, borderline garbage, super low end junk. It’s awful. Nothing like Mario’s usual well managed and certainly not high end but reasonably average quality. Let’s face it. Kind of fast food Italian stuff normally. But this is the worst I’ve seen it. Sorry to say. Used to be a great, reasonably priced, half decent place to go. I just can’t recommend again. Not waste money there. I wonder are all the stores like this? I’ll...