Mario's Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in Chambersburg

Myself and two others stopped at Mario’s last night (a Saturday) it was around 8:45. Working in the service industry myself, I always double check closing times to make sure that I’m not going in too close to closing. The time for closing on Saturday’s, is 10 pm. When we walked in the waitress looked at us with a look of uncertainty and frustration, she turned around and asked a male if they were still open and he replied with yes, she rolled her eyes and turned back to us. I asked her you do close at ten right, her response was “sometimes.” We were sat and luckily greeted by a different waitress who showed no signs of being aggravated. Our server was on top of everything through our entire visit. This was my second time at Mario’s and I personally feel the food is less then average. I got a chicken parm entree which came with a salad. My lettuce looked dry and old, it was almost an off yellow color. I understand that it’s a side salad but it was possibly the smallest and most bare side salad I’ve ever had. My chicken parm came served with rigatoni, which may actually be how they serve it but I’ve never been any where that serves chicken parm with rigatoni rather then spaghetti. I guess this is my fault for not asking and/or specifying. My boyfriend got the “leave it to us” hoagie which was so saturated with mayonnaise that it fell apart. Our friend ordered mussels in red sauce, that came served over a small bed of lettuce. Again this may be the norm for Mario’s, but I have never seen mussels served this way. As I was not pleased with the food, I understand that this type of thing could just be personal preference. My real issue was with the first girl who greeted us. The entire time we were there she had the most unprofessional, excuse my language, but just flat out bitchy attitude. She cleaned a table beside us and was slamming everything around, showing obvious signs of being annoyed. Again, being in the service industry I understand that you do get annoyed and want to leave but this girls behaivor was absolutely unacceptable and appalling. We were in an out within 40 minutes, leaving them plenty of time to get cleaned up and leave by 10:00. If you decide to stop at Mario’s for a late dinner, be sure to arrive plenty of time before their listed closing time, because they may only “sometimes” close...

Went here based on the reviews. If you're looking for FRESH Italian food, Olive Garden is a better choice, at least they salt their frozen calamari. We were truly disappointed in the quality of our dinner. It wasn't horrible, it was edible, but nothing to boast about. Here was our meal...

Calamari - clearly a commercial product of bulk prefrozen breaded calamari...

Bread rolls - dry crust, soft inside, but served with rock cold butter that cannot be spread...

Salads - served with prepackaged packs of dressing you get from McDonalds. Don't get the house vinigrette, it's simply olive oil

Entrees;

Fishermans Platter - all the fried seafood on the plate was heavily salted and seems as if it sat under a heat lamp to keep warm after being fried as the breading was not crispy

Spaghetti and Meatballs - no complaints, pretty hard to mess up. Meatballs were decent in relation to the plate.

Seafood Mario (?) - again, previously frozen seafood...the spicy marinara had a nice bite and good aftertaste

Pasta with Carabarra (?) - this is Mac and cheese with scrambled eggs and Canadian bacon...it was different and enjoyed.

We opted not for dessert, I don't think they offered it either.

Our drinks were never refilled, but service was fine. Our waiter was new, and we're patient people so that didn't bother us.

Again, the food was edible and no one got sick, but I went home paying just under $100 for our meal and was truly disappointed for something we could have just made on our own...if we go again, we'll give their pizza a shot, but that's the only other...

Stopped by just to pick up a DoorDash order. Upon arrival, you enter the side door which leads to the kitchen....yes....the kitchen, where employee bags and cigarettes are laying willy nilly and you can see the cooks making food with no gloves. Saw a box sitting on the shelf so I figured the order I was waiting on was in the making. I was told five minutes on the rest. After five minutes, I went back in to check. Still nothing!!! I waited ANOTHER 40 minutes just for fries. Meanwhile the pizza is dwelling in the box that is just on a shelf. I asked how much longer and the head chef took it upon himself to yell through the whole restaurant that "everyone needs to sit down and relax. It's busy and you'll get your food when you get your food." To my amazement after the order was thrown together, the pizza sat for 45 minutes, the fries were in a ripped bag covered in grease and the soda is in a styrofoam cup covered in.....you got it......FOIL!

I advise anybody who thinks this place is good, to certainly reevaluate! I am ServSafe certified (for 8 years) and can reassure everyone on here that I wouldn't even order a drink from this place. From the atmosphere, to the attitude, to how things are ran, this...