Mandola's Italian Kitchen — Restaurant in Jacksonville

We dined in with 6 people. Atmosphere: (2 stars) mix between fast food / diner and buffet No one greeted us, no one helped us to find the only table that seated 6 people. Then we figured out that you oder from the menu, you get a number to place on your table, pay, and wait for your food, you'll only get cups and have to get your own drinks. We gave 2 stars because the place looked clean, but lacked personality. Prices are too high for what you get = 0 And how about an "Italian" place without a side salad, or anybody Italian!

Service; well (1 star) because you get none. It appears to be a business model doomed to fail. There is too much staff, but you don't know who is actually doing what, alot are just standing around. No one asked how the food is, no one asked if you need anything else. Awful! And absolutely wrong for the neighborhood that expects comfortable, friendly dining with good food, particularly for an Italian place.

Food: we all ordered different dishes. The pasta with white sauce was edible, the pizza less then mediocre. We ordered garlic bread, which unfortunately was not edible ( how can you mess up garlic bread????). The bread had no Garlic! It was decent Italian bread with a 1/4" dry parmesano mixture that fell off like powder when picked up. Then it was seasoned completely wrong with too much Oregano and already mixed up Italian spices, truly sad! I had chicken parmesano. It had an unidentifiable weird under- taste that my granddaughter immediately called out as "tasting like the pan". The meat tasted to me as it had been frozen too long, and the texture was off. A good chicken parm has a nice seasoned breading, this one had no taste whatsoever and instead one slice of maybe Romano/Parmesano halfway melted on top. The spaghetti that came with it were not fresh but rather gummy, as if frozen and re-heated. The red sauce was so over-salted that I could not even eat it, and the little I placed into my mouth, left a burning salty sensation that I could not loose, not even with a whole cup of the bitter sweet tea available.

Very sad review, overall 1 star, and the food belonged into the garbage, we didn't even want to insult our family dog with taking a doggy bag. Don't waste your time and money in this want to be...

(8/20/2023 5:21 PM Mandarin location)

DON'T GO to Mandola's Italian Kitchen; Air conditioning is broken - it was as hot inside as it was outside and equally humid (88 degrees F, August in FLORIDA for Pete's sake). They should have put a sign on the door to at least warn customers.

Food was extremely slow - I had to go find a manager to track down our food. When it finally arrived the eggplant parmigiana was BURNT.

So hot in the restaurant that we had to pack up our half-eaten dinner and leave. Manager told me that a lightening strike ruined all 5 AC units and only 3 units were back up and running - my suggestion would be to close the restaurant, or at least WARN customers.

The key takeaway is that the owners of Mandola's put their profitability and bonuses far above maintaining an acceptable and safe dining experience. And by safe I mean: there was a little old lady sitting down, not eating who looked like she was absolutely going to either collapse, or melt!

AND, icing on the cake - I was charged for an item that I didn't order! Didn't notice the overcharge until I got home.

Worst dining experience in recent memory (and by "recent" I mean in the last 10 years). Given this experience and the apparent motivation of the owners and managers I have NO CONFIDENCE that they wouldn't serve spoiled food if the refrigeration went down. Again, its all about the bottom line and the customer is LOW on the totem pole.

Don't listen to the nonsense Mandola's spews about the importance of their customers, just look at how Mandola's management express the company values when confronted with a tough circumstance (like the loss of the climate control units). "Don't say anything and keep the money rolling in!"

My experience at Mandola's, which was supposed to be a pleasant dinner with my wife on the day I returned from a long trip, turned into a consumer intelligence test - I won't fail this test again!

In summary:

1. Unbearably HOT and HUMID inside the restaurant
2. My meal was BURNT
3. I...

I placed an online order with a stated pickup time of 206pn. I arrived at 150pm and checked in at the to go counter where I gave my info and was told my order would be another 5-10 mins. At 154pm I watched an order that appeared to be similar to mine get boxed up and placed on the counter. Someone that I assumed to be the manager kept coming up by the to go order area to check in with someone that was leaving their contact info and asking about future locations--- he came by 3 different times and didn't acknowledge me. The 3rd time after he walked away, I asked if he could please check on my order. It's now 209pm. He beelined straight to the 2 boxes I'd watched get boxed up now 15 minutes prior. He sauntered over to get the bread and condiments that accompanied my order and finally handed me my food at 213. At this point I was in a hurry and my intention of ordering ahead was defeated. I didn't have time to complain about my now cold pizza and just accepted I'd have to stick it in the oven when I made it home. It was the complete lack of awareness and concern about a paying customer that resulted in me receiving cold food that prompted me to write this review. There should be a better system in place for to go orders where if whoever is running the to go station and whoever is preparing the food have clear lines of communication. This will help mitigate food sitting until it's cold and will also help to prevent a customer who took the time to order ahead from waiting and being burdened with having to take the initiative to flag someone down to ask for a status on their order... In addition to being so bothered by the experience they're prompted to waste more of their time...