Mario's Place — Restaurant in Riverside

My husband asked me where I wanted to go out for dinner. And I told him Mario's place since we hadn't been back since before our summer vacation. The place was empty for a Saturday night and I wish I had known what was coming and I should have selected to be seated in a dining table, but I opted to sit at the bar. We were greeted by a very kind bartender made an amazing cocktail. And we ordered an appetizer (picture shown). We asked for the menu as we came from a distance for dinner. We ordered and we had our conversations about work and family. I was speaking to my husband about our daughter’s ceramic project. (I did not know that a staff member was listening to half of the story). Turns out he listened to my husband’s commentary on how it is important for her to have clean hands and nails. (She works at a coffee shop). So, he told my daughter to make sure to clean her nails since they had dark clay on nails. Logic. Right? Was my husband wrong? I mean even if some audience thinks ? My daughter can get infected. Hello hygiene. Well, it turns out that the staff member made a comment to my husband and told him . That's when my tummy got a strange feeling that this staff member did not like my husband. He looked at my husband with a very downgrading smirk. It was awful. My husband is Caucasian and I am brown. I could not believe I was in a place where this staff member was using the race card. I could not believe it because the clientele at Mario’s in Riverside well you can judge the demographics on your own. It was more than an hour when we noticed our dinner was not coming in and two parties next to us were getting their meals. We were getting humiliated and gaslighted. To the point that we ordered a wine bottle for a dinner that we did not receive. The kind bartender (not the staff gentlemen) he brought us these courtesy (not good) mini drinks as a courtesy for a . And he was not letting us know if we were or not getting our dinner. I was broken hearted inside for how that staff member approached us. I asked if the manager would allow his guests to be told if we were or not getting our dinner. He replied . That is when I saw his and they looked at me like I was a nothing and to my husband he humiliated him to the point that other guests really thought we were in the wrong. If you look at the video footage you will see what this did to us and how he treated us with his so much privilege attitude and he made us feel like we did not belong there. He was never nice or never showed humbleness or kindness. And I am woman and the way he looked at me like I was nobody. Mind you I was properly dressed. I did not come with sandals or jeans. I was asking with and all evening. If you look at the footage you will see this higher management not at all GREETFUL or KIND or WELCOMING. The gentlemen looks like he hates his job. He was not nice at all from the very beginning. And you can sense that. We work hard and we know you do too. I have my bad days at work but my coworkers or guest would never be at fault. Respect your duties don't just cancel our order because we were not your cup of tea. That was very unprofessional. I have shared this experience with our friends and families. Mario's place your team and staff minus will always be my number one but you need to give some training on how to treat everyone from every color or social class with respect. This was my worst date night in my entire life. And some may say why the one star for one person. Well one bad apple ruins the entire environment. I cannot imagine how he treats his employees if they are not at his standards. Thank you bartender because you were a 5 star. The food has always been delicious. If I ever go back I will call ahead and make sure he is not working that shift. I just do not think my husband will ever...

I arrived at Mario's Place at 7:20 for my 7:30 reservation. We were seated and placed our orders at 7:35 (Note the time.)The staff were polite, cordial and professional.

My wife and I were seated in a booth near the entrance. I have never been to Mario's and I was excited to experience the food, I was attending my 30th high school reunion and my 16 year wedding anniversary. My wife ordered the Ceasar Salad and I ordered the Caprese Salad (Tomato, basil, olive oil and fresh Mozzarella). Entrees were Wild Mushroom Ravioli and New York Steak Medium rare.

We were served two small, fist sized Ciabatta loaves of bread with a pad of butter. The server unfolded the cloth covering the bread in a basket she was carrying and used tongs to serve our bread. One problem, the bread was cold, and the bread was tough, not room temperature, but actually cold. Not a good start.

My wife's starter, was the Cesar salad, it appeared really fresh but after her first bite, she said, "WOW," and started coughing, she said her salad was REALLY strong with garlic. Now, I have been a cook for over 20 years and LOVE garlic and thought she may be exaggerating, so I took a bite. WOW. There was so much garlic, that it overpowered the entire flavor profile, the richness of the cheese and anchovy was wiped out by the massive, overpowering amounts of garlic. The amount of garlic was so excessive that it was almost peppery in the mouth, burning the back of my throat. She pushed it to the side, it was inedible.

My starter was the Caprese Salad. The appearance and presentation was exquisite, sliced tomato, sliced cherry tomato, whole Basil with chiffonade basil, a wonderful olive oil and a mound of fresh Mozzarella the size of a baseball. The flavor profile was excellent, the umami of the olive oil was to die for, combined with the sweet cherry tomatoes and richness of the Basil, it was wonderful.

However, the Mozzarella was quite frankly, inedible. The cheese had a familiar slight exterior firmness but as I cut into the cheese, it began to run like sour cream, it had been improperly cooked, the curd was borderline raw and ran like an over medium egg yolk. I ate the tomatoes and left the entire Mozzarella untouched. The server came to our table, asked if we were done and then removed our plates. She did not ask if we enjoyed the meal, if there was a problem. When you see a large portion of two starters uneaten, it's is industry standard to enquire.

In a total of twenty minutes we received our starters and the plates were taken for the next service. The time was now 8:00pm and we were told our entrees would be out in a few minutes. Every ten to twenty minutes we were greeted with a smile and, we were told several times by server AND what appeared to be the manager, that in five to ten minutes, our entrees would be served . All total, we waited an hour and fifteen minutes for our entrees. Ordered at 735pm received the second service at 8:55, the Ravioli and New York steak.

The server told me the back of the house was swamped and that she was sorry for the delay. The owner or manager however, only smiled and reiterated the 5-10 minute wait over 40 minutes prior to getting our food. Watching numerous patrons who had been seated over thirty minutes after us, receive their starter and entree before we did was beyond frustrating.

My wife loved the Ravioli, creamy rich and delicious. My steak was cooked to perfection medium rare, crusted with black pepper and coarse salt. Even the grill marks were perfect something a fellow cook would appreciate, I could see the chef quarter turned the steak, giving it the diamond sear marks.

I cannot in good conscious, recommend this establishment to anyone. The floor manager knew of our excessive delayed service but offered nothing for my time, never apologized, just smiled, said "5-10 more minutes," and walked away. I honestly felt incredibly disrespected and unappreciated, ruined a very special...

Valentine’s Day dinner gone wrong so my wife booked Dinner reservation for the two of us at Mario’s place and she specifically asked for inside seating which we all know there is a pandemic going on but the person she reserved with told her she would seat us inside so we expected to be seated in the outdoor patio were there is string lighting well they decided to sit my wife and I in front of there establishment with homeless people walking by spitting on the ground looking at there customers eat so what is supposed to be a romantic night out with your wife just becomes disgusting my wife got all dressed up for what was supposed to be a nice outing wearing her Mink coat her expensive clothing and jewelry so my wife did not feel safe sitting out with homeless people walking by looking us up and down so we decided to leave before even ordering a glass of water as you know if you don’t have reservation made for this day you won’t get into any restaurant as a walk-in so the night was ruined so today we get a call from the manager from Mario’s place and he was just trying to give my wife every excuse in the book as to why they where not wrong never did he apologize to her once yet he was giving her a attitude over the phone so of course I got on the phone and told him unprofessional he was and I could not believe they run there establishment this way when you dine out and pay between $150-$200 for a meal you should get great service and a nice atmosphere should come with it not being seated on the sidewalk with homeless walking by and cars driving by smelling all the fumes from there exhaust mind you we dined with them the year prior for Valentine’s Day and my wife liked it but now we will never go back I hope you don’t continue doing this to your customers because it’s...