Mario's Famous Pizza — Restaurant in Elizabeth

Last Tuesday we went for dinner with 7 preK kids and 6moms. We were at the back and had a plain pizza for the kids, a half veggie and half Hawaiian pizza and a dozen of chicken wings. No complains about the pizza as we had always come and order for delivery we love it. The wings were not really good, too crispy and hard to eat! We arrived at 5pm and at 6pm I was told that they have a group of 10people and we basically have to leave!! After feeling rushed and uncomfortable we hurry up and try to clean the table as much as we could and try to leave as fast as possible with our kids (if you have 4-5 year olds you know it’s not easy) so with all the stress I asked for the check and gave them my card. I have never been in a situation where I was basically told I have to leave soon when I had called a week in advance to ask for a reservation and also the day off I called again to confirm, they never told me there was a time limit or a reservation fee!! Anyways I got the card receipt back and added 20%tip ( even though the service was poor. I had to constantly go ask for napkins. We were never offered water.) but I felt bad because the kids were noisy. After we left I started to think how much were the pizzas if I ended up paying $100. So i called and they told me the gratuity was included and it’s my fault for not reading the check!! ( again I was rushed and they only give me the card receipt back which suggests the amount of tip to be left.. so it was totally misleading. If they add the tip they should inform the customer specially if they are rushing me to leave. It was very uncomfortable and I felt ashamed to have to tell my guests that we have to leave. The attitude the employees gave me on the phone after just asking questions for a picture of the receipt was totally disrespectful and unprofessional. They didn’t want to listen to me. I have lived in NYC for 13 years and I never had this happening to me there!! In places where is really busy and had to wait, servers/waiters always take care of customers and in big parties inform them the tip is already included, and of course I was never rushed to leave!!! I’m very dissatisfied and disappointed in how the service ended and the way they tricked me. After talking to the owner he tried to explain his employees didn’t tell me there was a $80 fee to sit at the back!!! So that I should feel lucky I got to pay just for the food I order!!! 😒 our food total was $68.75 + 12.37 (gratuity they added)= $81.12 + 16.04 (my voluntary tip) ending up in a $100. Total for a plain pizza, a half veggie half Hawaiian and 12 chicken wings and a soda. 😳😤 they have lost business with me and my friends. When I called them I only wanted to see the check and if they added the tip I wanted to just leave the $16 I wanted to leave. I was told the money was already charged as if I’m stupid and don’t know that they can easily correct it (I had also worked in restaurants and when mistakes like this happened the tip can be corrected specially if the customer complains...

I've been ordering Mario's for many years now unfortunately yesterday I had a bad experience I ordered a large pie with two slices on the side one grilled chicken and one pepperoni the total of the order came up to $29.21 I paid with my card and got a receipt via text message and email that I was charged $29.21 beautiful everything was well food was great everything was delicious until I woke up this morning at 5:45 a.m. and get an updated charge stating that now I'm being charged $31.21 I proceeded to call Mario's and finally got through to somebody the gentleman that got on the phone was actually the same gentleman who took my order yesterday he confirmed that the order was $29.21 I said to him when the gentleman that delivered the food showed up he handed me the receipt I signed my signature but I did not put a tip so I was wondering why there was a difference of $2 on the bill now he said let me give you a call back he calls back and says he sees the discrepancy 40% off my next order I understand $2 to the some it's not a big deal but as a single mom it's very important and just as a universal law you don't rip anybody off I don't think Mario's Pizzeria itself rip me off for my hard-working $2 it was the delivery man I was getting agitated and kept telling the guy on the phone he needed to do a better job as to the people that he's hiring to do his delivery he kind of got agitated with me and said so what do you want me to do throw the guy in the river I want you to have better service because if this has happened to me believe me it has happened to others before I'm just the only one who has caught on it's illegal to write a tip on a bill if the customer did not do it that's stealing money that is stealing money no matter which way you look at it a thief is a thief hopefully you guys don't allow that gentleman to be a delivery person anymore cuz he has put a bad name on...

The Mario's on 3rd Street in Elizabeth used to be the best in the 80's, 90's and early 2000's. The food was always fresh, the buffalo pizza was 2nd to none, delicious real authentic tasting Italian food in the city. After maybe the year 2010, they fell off BIG TIME! The food tastes like the left it out all night, then reheated to serve to you. The shop has fallen into disrepair and has a strange smell when you walk in, the look of the place now is so gloomy. I give it 3 stars now only because of my memories. I hope whom ever owns this place now wakes up and sees what we see and fixes the place up. Return it back to it's crowning glory. UPDATE... The owners of the Mario's that was on 3rd Street, (Not sure if they were the original owners or not ) opened up a new Mario's Pizza on Front Street, right across from the waterfront. I had the opportunity to go and visit and grab something to eat. I guess they must have read my earlier review, because the food was excellent!!!!! The pizza was fresh, the place was super clean, smelled good and the atmosphere was very nice. And now you get that really nice view of the ships passing on the waterfront. It's great to see that Mario's is back in business, up and running and making the good food that we all grew up on, the food that we all love. And now, I'm in there all the time getting...