East Side Mario's — Restaurant in St. Albert

I heard and read great reviews about this place., so, we thought we would give it a try. What a disappointment! Up to a 40 minute wait for inside dining, so we were offered to dine on the patio. My party of 5 were seated and we waited for service. A young man (no name tag) was our host and problems started from the get go. The place was very busy and we completely understood, but we had to wait for our drinks that came in intervals, the ordering, we received food we did not ask for. We had to wait for our right order, cups are dirty, utensils had food stuck to them and one of our partys food was not delivered and it took sometime for the host to get him his food, blaming the kitchen for forgetting it. My party was already 3/4 done with our meals! We asked for bread and were told that we would have to wait, they are busy and received our bread with our bill. I asked to speak with the manager, and you should have seen the hostess reaction when I asked. (She rolled her eyes and went to get the manager.) The manager came to our table and asked what the issue was. Her poise/ posture and approach was very unprofessional. I asked if our host was in training and tried to explain more issues we were having and she cut me off to inform me that she is aware of the food delay and stated it would be removed from our bill, no room for further concerns! I dismissed her, for she stood there staring at me like I was an alien! My kids did not receive their dessert that was included in their meal. I had to remind the host when the bill was received and told him that we did not have any more time to wait, here's your bill ma'am, now pay and go! rush- rush! On my bill, the delayed meal was not deleted and when I showed the host, he sighed and retrieved the new bill. I paid and left a 10% tip and thanked my host and his reply was, "YEP"! Won't recommend, will not return -customer service needs a refreshment course and perhaps the manager needs compassionate/ leadership skills /listening and problem...

Just want to start by saying i have been a fan of east side since i was a child was always my favourite place to go with my family growing up.

But tonight I just had to make a review. Myself and my fiancé came in for a dinner date. Our server was lovely i unfortunately didn’t catch her name, she brought us our drink order quick, our bread and took our order and got our soup and salad quickly (and this was a Saturday evening around 6:00pm so it was busy) once we where almost done with our first bread she already had a second bread on the table without us having to ask! Amazing!

But it was taking an awkward amount of time to get our main meal, we understood because it was busy but tables that sat 10-15min after us where getting there food before us, at about 6:50pm we still didn’t have our order we didn’t say anything because it was busy…

but waiting for our food for 30-45min we where moments away from just asking for the bill for our drinks and soup and salad but then the lovely older male manager (sorry didnt get his name either) came out with our food and apologized and said that our ticket had gotten lost and it took to long for them to get our food to us and that he will be taking care of the bill for us tonight.

A few bits in our original server came to check on us to make sure all was well and she apologized as well and explained that once she released what happened she let her manager know and that’s why she didn’t come check on us for a bit as she wanted to make sure everything was sorted out! We thanked her again.

We unfortunately didn’t have any cash on us or we total would have tipped her. But we are extremely thankful for the way things where happened they did truly go above and beyond for fixing the situation and handled it without skipping a beat!

Thank you again to our server and the male manger! We will forever be a fan of your...

After looking at the reviews my family and I were a bit excited to find this place and oh boy were we starving!...We decided on having a sit down late lunch/early dinner, by no means are we picky people or individuals who like to send back or complain about food but this....this was something else. We ordered 2 appetizers, the Buddha Boomer and Classic Calamari Fritti. The Calamari came to our table cold and half cooked, it was not crispy what so ever and quite inediable. Our server did take the calamari off our tab which we were greatful for since we didn’t touch it. We order a ceaser salad which was very subpar and Italian wedding soup that seemed to be mostly just broth and a couple splits of barley and their so called “meatballs” everything tasted very canned and not fresh. Our sever although nice was not attentive to our table what so ever. We were not offered anymore complimentary bread and or salad as the menu stated was “all you can eat”, IF you ordered the pastas such as the Linguine chicken Amatriciani as well as the Sausage and peppers penne as we did... I ordered The Ultimate Italian grilled cheese too and it also came soggy and not crispy at all for being a pressed sandwich. The mains were the only things that were “somewhat” more editable than anything else...and even then, we really weren’t fond of them at all. It tasted as though they drowned everything in garlic to hide any other unpleasant “flavours” that may have been in the entreés and don’t get us wrong we LOVE our garlic, the more the better! But this was waaay too much. We were so horribly disappointed. Never going back again. A pizza pop or McDonald’s would’ve been better. Our leftovers went...