East Side Mario's - Brandon

Tried out this place to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday! The atmosphere was nice in the bar area - not too loud, not too quiet. Good lighting and a fun Italian aesthetic. Complimentary bread came as soon as we were seated. Unfortunately, the 3 steaks we ordered all at mid-rare came at three different temperatures and three different masses. My steak was rare-blue with a tempid center. Had a great waitress - and they sang a great little birthday song for my dad! Overall, it was a good experience!

We normally love going here however I last night made me think completely different. I called early after noon to make a dinner reservation, once we got there it was not written down. Lucky for us, we were not around a busy time and got in right away. We were a table of 8 The people who ordered soup within 20 minutes they got their soup, the people who ordered Cesar salad waited 30 minutes, and lastly the person who got their garden salad waited 45 minutes. Add: Once asked about the garden salad to the sever she said “the kitchen is backed up”. We also did not have refills on drinks or bread, we had to remind our sever twice for this. The food came all at the same time thankfully and it tasted amazing. We were finished eating and our server didn’t ask us if we wanted dessert she just asked how were the bills were going the be split. Lastly - she entered my total on the debit machine off by $7.00, the numbers weren’t even close. I understand places are having a hard time with hiring but this was over the top. On top of it was someone’s birthday we are celebrating.

Edit: Well, after 6 months they made good on their word and sent a gift card. I do appreciate it, I will give it another go. Thank you. Not good. Ordered food, was told 30 mins, it was longer than that but it's Saturday so I'm not mad...but they forgot half the food...then when we called to tell them, which took about 10 mins on hold, they said they'd bring the rest right away...40 mins later we were calling back to ask why it was taking 40 mins to make a 5 min drive to our place. They showed up, gave us the rest of the food, I said I was concerned it might be cold and they assured me it wasn't because it was sitting under the warmers the whole time...so it's not like they re-made anything, they just took 40 minutes to fix their mistake. But it's fine, hangry children are super easy to handle. Upon opening the box, the kids pizza was burnt. I didn't want to spend another 10 mins on hold waiting to talk to someone, plus I hope they were busy as heck and that's why they made so many mistakes so they didn't need me on the phone again complaining so I just snapped a pic and am posting it here and decided to write this review. I get that it's Saturday, but that was just too many mistakes with nothing but a quick sorry at the door. Sorry ESM, but I don't believe you'll get my business again any time soon.

Our first time coming to this place for supper. First thought upon entering the restaurant was, why is there only 2 other people eating here at 7pm? Service was quick and friendly. I ordered the grilled chicken caesar salad. The chicken was severely charred and it was full of black dirt from the grill. It even smelled burnt. The waitress said that it's always served like that! At least the waitress was kind enough to take the chicken off my bill, but still charged me for the salad. At least the salad was crisp, tasteless but crisp. Had to add fresh parmesan for flavour. She offered to have the chicken redone, but I was grossed out and didn't want a replacement. Besides, I dont trust food coming out of the kitchen after refusing it. My hubby ordered sausage penne dish. He expected it to be spicey, but not that spicey. He didn't even eat half of it because he was burning up! No wonder the restaurant was empty! We won't be going back there! Wish I could add the picture I took of the chicken that came out of that kitchen! Oct 12,2022 update. I filled out the form and still no resolution to our bad experience Dec 1,2022 update. I finally received a coupon for a free meal. I went Nov 22. Another epic fail. The cooks at this location don't know how to cook chicken. Adding a another photo of chicken I was served on this night. I had 1 bite of it and left the rest behind. My hubbys chicken parm was also overcooked to dry and hard!

Terrible experience. We did show up with a large group, however we called ahead to give them warning we even tried to reserve space, but apparently they do not take reservations. Got there and even with are large group the restaurant was only about 80 percent full so a few delays would be expected.. However it took close to 2 hours for our orders to arrive, that BTW was a hamburger and some deep fried pizza dough. The burger took three tried to get right, the first was either overcooked to oblivion or cooked on a dirty grill. I actually like a bit of charring on meat how this was incredibly bitter and actually smelt rancid. Second try they forgot the cheese and aioli.... My daughter got spaghetti with alfredo and meatballs yes she is weird. Not even enough sauce to coat the pasta and it gave her hives. in 14 years of exposing her to different cuisine she has never had a reaction to food. So either there is something quite exotic in the sauce or much more likely some sort of contaminant. Food might be good if you go when it is not busy and with a very small group, however their kitchen staff obviously cannot work under any sort of pressure.

Came in tonight with my daughters volleyball team, there was 35 of us and we had amazing service. It was quick and very smooth. Both servers did a great job and everyone left happy and very full!

The bar tender last night oct 23rd I think her name was Emma was absolutely amazing. We got to the door and were told it was a 30 min wait and kind of seem like we were being coaxed out, so we asked to sit at the bar. She was super fast and extremely friendly made us feel welcome and not a bother!!! She really turned the experience around especially for my boyfriend lol hes a hard one to please !! Thank u :

Had a very dry chicken. Maybe it was just the chef at the time, some other times food is okay. Love the garlic bread most. Customer service is not bad, not good either.

Bonnie was attentive and funny. Food was great and we enjoyed ourselves. Price was right too!Food: 5/5

Our server named Kylie was amazing! She gave us recommendations on what to get. Food was good!