Mario's Italian Cafe Palm Springs — Restaurant in Palm Springs

I made the mistake of ordering from Mario’s before I did a thorough check of their Yelp reviews. I saw that they have three stars, but that’s as far as I went. I admit that was my mistake. But they’re located in my favorite shopping center so I took a chance on Mario’s because I had a hankering for spaghetti and meatballs and pepperoni and sausage pizza, which is what I paid for. Before I left with the food they decided to put in the bag, (not necessarily what I ordered), I asked Skylar, who took my order, to verify that one order of meatballs, plural, came with two meatballs. And Skylar confirmed that it does. Let’s start there. After getting home I saw that what I paid for and what I received did not add up. What I got was a sausage pizza with no pepperoni. So they owe me for one topping at the very least on that ($2.50), strike one. Then I opened the meatball container and only found one meatball so they owe me for one meatball on that ($4)…strike two. I called Mario’s immediately and Skylar said she would talk to the manager and call me back since she had my number. I waited an hour and of course never heard back from Skylar. So I called back, twice in a row since she hung up on the first call because she recognized my number is my guess. The idea that unpacking and verifying your entire Italian dinner order at the checkout counter before leaving is ludicrous, but unfortunately it’s the new normal for me moving forward with any take-out orders now thanks to this experience at Mario’s. The food that I did receive was edible. That was it. Just edible. The spaghetti was over cooked, but I could eat it. The pizza dough was doey and borderline undercooked, which I couldn’t understand since it took so long to get it and I was the only customer there when I placed my order. The flavor of the pizza reminded me of cafeteria pizza…school cafeteria with the undercooked cheese in the middle. After calling Skylar for the third time because I still hadn’t heard back from her or the manager, and not seeing a credit from my credit card company, I asked Skylar to have the manager contact me so that we can fix this. I gave them the evening to contact me, but apparently that was not important enough for them. I called the next day and spoke with Marisa who said that the manager was aware and had issued a credit and to give it three to five business days, which I find hard to believe since I would normally receive a push notification on my phone of a credit from my credit card company immediately on such occasions. Now a week has gone by and still no credit. Strike three. Even after calling back one last time on the fifth business day to remedy this situation the manager was there, but would not take my call. This is my opinion of Mario‘s…Just read their Yelp reviews like I should have. We don’t order from out very often and restaurants like Mario’s are a big reason why we don’t. It was a waste of an opportunity to enjoy food from out. And it was a huge waste of time and money. They owe me $6.50 as far as I’m concerned. Save your time and money for a better Italian dinner experience anywhere else. I’ve wasted way too much time on this issue, but I can’t stand being cheated out of what I paid for and feel compelled to inform others of my experience when it happens. Im not the type of person who experiences poor service and just walks away quietly like I’m certain they counted on. I’m now done with this issue and I’m done with Mario’s Italian Cafe.

Update Ten minutes after I posted my Yelp and Google reviews of this business I was contacted by Mario’s. The same place that didn’t want anything to do with me when I tried to get them to deal with there mistakes without having to involve the two review services. The server called me with the manager in the background to verify my credit card information and low and behold, a refund of $6.50 is now showing on my statement. This all could have been avoided with a conversation with the manager and prompt...

I hardly ever, ever post negative reviews but always strive to recognize great service, good food and great customer service. with that being said....Marios had absolutely none of these qualities! I placed an order with the restaurant on Friday afternoon for a pickup on Saturday at 4:00. I ordered a half pan of mosticcolli (sp?), 2 large Caesar salads with dressing on the side, 2 orders of meatballs and 4 SLICES of chocolate cake. The girl I ordered with insisted the garlic bread was extra even though it's clearly stated on their online menu as coming with the large pasta pan.... We arrived promptly at 4:00 and it was obvious that the order had not even been started and so we waited over 20 minutes. When my husband came back to the car with the order I glanced at the bill and is was over $400! They had charged us for 4 entire CAKES not slices for $319! I went inside the restaurant carrying the 4 slices of cake along with the receipt asking for it to be corrected. The girl at the cash register handed me another receipt for $162...what? She then handed me another receipt for credit for $162...what? Another girl was called over and she did exactly the same...I'm trying to explain that it's simple...just credit me the original charge and then charge me correctly. Then the owner came over and grabbed my original receipt and disappeared for several minutes. He mumbles something how the girls had screwed it up. He returns later showing me on his computer that he has straightened it out so I asked for a copy of the credit...he said he couldn't do that and wasn't going to let me keep my original receipt. Finally, the owners wife came up to the register and again I explained what was happening and we needed to be at a dinner party at 5:00 and have spent 40+ minutes at this point trying to get a correct credit receipt. She then said she couldn't print a copy of the credit ???? but said to leave her my email address and she would send it to me. She even showed me on her screen what the correct charge was even though she mistakenly added yet another charge for an additional meatball order...what? I gave her the benefit of the doubt and asked for my original receipt back....never heard from her in three days...totally inexcusable. We get home with 5 minutes to spare before our guests arrive so I put the salads in the fridge and the pasta in the oven to heat. When we are ready to serve dinner, I discover the Caesar salads had dressing on them so by this time the lettuce was soggy and limp so I tossed both in the garbage and scramble around and throw together my own salad. Then to add to this fiasco...we open up the pasta pan and it's lasagna, not mosticelli which is what I ordered for our guest of honor. The lasagna tasted salty...absolutely horrible...the meatballs were dry and tasteless even the garlic bread was bad! Who screws up garlic bread? All our dinner guests hardly ate anything it was that bad...I was beyond embarrassed! But...the part that took me over the edge today was that we discover yet another charge on our credit card today for $192...what? My mind is totally blown by now. 45 minutes lost on trying to get the proper charge and receipt, terrible food and horrible customer service. I understand from that these are new owners as of September 2023 but that's no excuse for any of this to have happened. I'm sure your franchise came with recipes...try them and see what they taste like. Train your employees and don't berate them in front of a customer. Learn to take ownership of a mistake and simply apologize....if You say you're going to do...

Few things, the perception of a restaurant is different from the outside to the inside. (Photos below are taken to show how they leave their kitchens looking over night. I wish I had pictures of the truly bad things). To start the owner and the head of kitchen do not know what the standard is to keep up with the county food code. Months worth of food rotting with in the lowboys, walk-in and dry storage. Before I got there nothing would be wrapped in their kitchen. Every single food item had no plastic wrap or container top of any kind. Meaning food sits within their walk-in for months unwrapped and they serve it. They don’t handle raw meats properly. They’ll touch all over raw chicken and whip up a vegetarian salad without even washing their hands. Or using flour that they use for chicken for multiple uses that go past days. Or washing every last strain of pasta straight in a dirty sink. Inside their lowboys, they haven’t been cleaned in so long that the filters are overloaded and the entire thing is flooded with old water. Meats are all unwrapped, unlabeled and placed on top vegetables. Raw meats are being held above things like sauces and other foods. They sell sauces that are “secret ingredients” of which NONE of their employees know the recipe to meaning if an allergy walked in they wouldn’t know if it could kill them or not and they buy it outsourced from some random dudes basement. They have rats nesting in a storage area next to their dumpsters. They’re using toxic chemicals near food and on food surfaces. Example being they would clean their line by, (keep in mind that none of their food would be wrapped meaning toxic chemicals have definitely gotten into the food and they’ve been selling it), taking a container of straight bleach pouring it over their lowboys and just scrubbing away. I saw them countless times get bleach in food. I should’ve called the health department as soon as I realized this but decided to help them and in return had to leave the place because they had no idea what they were doing. These people are a risk to the health customers and I highly recommend not coming here. The owner or the “chef” couldn’t tell you the ingredients in most things that would kill people with allergies. Not worth the risk for anybody you’ve...