The Short Version: Chain restaurant serving North-Americanized Italian food for the masses. If you set your expectations accordingly, it's A-OK for what it is. The Long Version: Anyone who knows me knows I always prefer small independent businesses than big chains, so chains are rarely ever my first choice for places to eat, but I usually don't make a fuss if I'm part of a group and others want to go. Anyway, East Side Mario's is a Canadian chain that started out in London Ontario back in the 1980s. Since then it's grown to over 60 locations across Canada, with the bulk of them in Ontario. I would describe it as serving North-Americanized Italian food that would satisfy a large group including those who aren't too adventurous. Their claim to fame is their unlimited garlic loaves, soup and salad. I have been to many East Side Mario's over the years, always as part of a group. However, I only recently visited this particular location for the first time. I would say it's pretty much the same as any of the other locations I've been to. Service was friendly, decor I imagine is dictated by corporate because they all have the same look and feel, and food was fine for what it is. I was there for lunch and had the Pizza from the lunch menu. It was $14.99 for a personal-sized pizza with 2 toppings and my choice of soup, salad or fries. I chose the garden salad with the dressing on the side. For my toppings I chose grilled chicken and mixed peppers. The lunch specials do not come with unlimited garlic loaves, soup and salad. You can add it on for an extra $5.99, but I did not do that. My pizza was all right. The crust was thin and it wasn't overly saucy, which I appreciated. It tasted similar to Domino's pizza in my opinion. I liked that the mixed peppers were green and red bell peppers. Makes it look prettier with more colours. The chicken was a decent amount and tasted similar to the ready-to-eat grilled chicken pieces sold in the deli section at grocery stores. The garden salad was iceberg lettuce (not my favourite type of lettuce), red onions, tomatoes, black olives, croutons and a pepperoncini pepper. The dressing was their house Italian dressing. I liked that it wasn't too oily. It came on the side, as requested. Ingredients were fresh. Oh one thing I enjoy is that they offer freshly grated Parmesan cheese on everything you order. So I did have a light sprinkling on both my salad and on my pizza. My friends both had the salmon and shrimp spaghetti ($26.49) from their special "Garlic Fest" menu which is for a limited time only. Their meals came with unlimited garlic loaves, soup and salad. They both got Ceasar salads and only ate one portion each. They didn't have any soup. They seemed to enjoy their meals though. Although I didn't get any dessert, I saw they had mini desserts for $2.99, which is great for a small sweet ending to your meal without overindulging. I think more places should offer mini desserts. I also didn't have any cocktails but noticed they were very reasonably priced at around $7 each. This location is in a plaza. Lots of free parking in the plaza parking lot. Review #112 (2026) read more

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The food quality is very poor. The spaghetti sauce, what little of it, is lacking in flavour. There was so little of it, i almost choked on the spaghetti. read more

Haven't been to this chain in over ten years since they started closing all locations in Quebec. We dined at this location Saturday August 5th and tried the ravioli and shrimp alfredo dishes. We were very pleased with the complimentary all-you-can-eat bread and salad. The portion for our salad was huge, they ran out of small bowls so we both got to each a very large bowl of cesar salad. There's real bacon pieces, sauce wasn't as plentiful as I would have liked, but the flavor was good. Bread is soft and warm, very pleasant as well. Too bad it seems they use margarine or some type of unsalted butter as there was lacking a bit of flavor for the bread. The pasta meals were just average sized, not huge, so go ahead and enjoy all the salad and bread you can get. The ravioli dish was good, very cheesy and filling. Shrimp alfredo was a bit bland - there was a off smell to it, perhaps from the cheese, but it wasn't a decadent creamy sauce I was expecting. It also comes with little bits of tomatoes and veggie so the next day when I brought my leftover home, the noodles were a soggy mess. Adding the tomato is a nice fresh addition and looks nice but won't translate to a good leftover since it comes very watery once reheated. Overall experience is decent, nothing awesome. Perhaps there are some menu options that a lot better, we never tried their pizza so can't comment as a whole but for the price and casual sit down, East Side Marios is OK. The best thing is really the all you can eat salad, soup and bread. read more

I came in at about two in the afternoon. I got seated pretty quickly. If you are a fan of pasta this is definitely heaven for you. I decided to go with the Hells kitchen, it looked to me like this was the healthiest option I could pick. Chicken with potatoes and vegetables. I usually eat very poorly when I go out, but after a workout I just wanted a healthy meal. I was surprised by the size of the plate which was very good. Tasted amazing and the server was a total sweetheart. They are of all you can eat soup salad and bread. I had a little bit of the Caesar salad it was really good. They offer a really amazing Caesar drink. I didn't get one today but I will insert a picture next time I do. read more

East Side Mario's - Unlimited salade and bread - Italian Near Me - Gloucester, Ontario

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My go-to place when we just want to grab a quick and good bite . We love the unlimited bread concept. They also offer meals with either unlimited salad or soup . They offer delicious drinks and delicious italian food . This is more like a "italian fast food" type of restaurant. Don't expect anything fancy , but is very family friendly and their prices ar every affordable. Service is friendly and quick . read more

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I honestly wasn't a fan of the food. It's been a while since I've been to an east side Mario's but I wasn't impressed with the menu or the pasta dishes for the price we're paying. The pasta we ordered were plain and serving size also wasn't great. The highlight was probably the complimentary bread and salad unfortunately. The service was pretty decent and the staff were friendly. However, I don't think I'll be coming back. read more

I don't come to East Sides because I think they make amazing food, I usually come here for the value (or if there is a family gathering). I noticed online that they were having a $11.99, 3 course special where you can customize a pasta dish or a pizza dish. It also came with either a soup of choice/salad of choice with their garlic loaf and a dessert of choice. Talk about value!! Why cook dinner when you can get all that food for $11.99?? I ordered a customized 2 topping pizza, the garden salad and the half peanut butter stack for dessert. The hubby got the pasta, wedding soup and warm donuts with tiramisu sauce, (he had no complaints about his food, although his donuts were meh & the tiramisu sauce was bitter). Everything was nicely packaged for our takeout order, and they threw in lots of parmesan cheese in small containers for the salad/pasta and butter packets for the bread. The pizza was good and they definitely improved the crust, it was garlicky and buttery. Side note: it's actually a lot smaller in person than what it reflects in the picture I uploaded. Garden salad was just thrown together with mostly iceberg lettuce, it was meh, (and i usually love their salads). The winner of the evening was the peanut butter stack for dessert, it was seriously heavenly. It came with caramel sauce on the side and whipped cream which was ah-mazing! Lucky for us, they accidentally gave us two by mistake! Overall, I give East Sides a big ol' A-OK, but I think I got my East Sides fix for the next year or two. Edit: I saved half my pizza for lunch the next day and found 2 hairs on my pizza slice! Yuck. Had to drop my score down to 2 stars, because finding hair in your food is a big no no, and sucks! read more

East Side Mario's - 11.99 3 course Italian dinner special. (takeout) - Italian Near Me - Gloucester, Ontario

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An amazing really tasty meals,the service was so quick efficient,verry attentive,and kind we love it here the presentation was colorful and just perfect thank you for the amazing staff (Mike) with such good service and Ɓudda Boom Ɓudda Ɓing! read more

I haven't went to east side Mario in over 10 years I decided to go and try it out I had a very nice friendly server name Steve he did a great job in answering and food questions on the menu that I had the service was fast and the food was great i had the chicken parm it didn't expect the size of the portion to big like that It was a lot of food which is great for the price I do recommend this ogilvie location and hopefully u end up getting Steve as ur server. read more

I went for Lunch at East Sides on the 21st of March 2023 and for the very first time I had bruschetta with a a cauliflower crust. It was served a long board and done to perfection. I have always eaten bruschetta but the cauliflower crust brings in to a new level. However, I went back two day laters to have the caulflower bruschetta and was so disappointed. It was done in the shape of a pizza and wasn't cooked through. Now I am unsure of going back to East Sides again. Bruschetta should be served as a long bread not a pizza. No points for the change I hope they go back to serving it as it should be. I love East Sides and would be upset to lose this restaurant as a main one to go to. read more

Excellent service, meal was great. Server was very friendly and attentive. Had chicken parm, serving was hot and portion size large.

Started out okay, was seated and our server came to see us pretty quickly but it was pretty down hill from there. Someone of the staff who didn't even tell us her name brought our food. Not once were we asked how the food was or asked if we wanted refills. We finished our food quickly enough and waited, and waited and finally we were asked if we wanted to bring the rest home, to which we did. And then waiting again for our bill, as our server walked by our table several times. Not the best experience we could of had. P.S 15 minutes still waiting... read more

Nice setup in this ESM Many pictures on walls Good looking display cabinet Various hanging lamps Good service staff and quick service Food was hot and tasty Possibly the best East Side that we have eaten at Will certainly return read more

Horrible service!!! Our first server was extremely rude, dry and was also giving us dirty looks. She never welcomed us in. A while after a different server was send to our table saying she's covering for the First Lady. We though the First Lady was on a break or something but she was serving other tables. Not only that the Second Lady was rushing us to leave. Every 10 mins she would ask us if we were finished eating and if we needed to go plates when we were still cleverly eating. Horrible!!! Thank god the food was good. read more

Honestly the worst service I've experienced! The First Lady that came to serve us was extremely dry, didn't welcome us and was giving a whole lot of attitude. Was even giving us dirty looks. A bit later another server came to serve us and told us she will be replacing the other lady. We thought our first server was on break but we saw her serving other people. That's not all. Not even 10 minutes after she brought the food out she asked if we needed to go boxes and asked if we were finished while we were clearly still eating. She asked if we were finished eating multiple times during the service. So rude and unacceptable! Only good thing was the food. read more

Don't bother going here if you are going to catch a movie afterwards. My wife and I went here with just over an hour before our movie started, we were seated quickly and our orders were promptly taken. Just 2 simple pasta dishes with no customization and with no bread. We were given our drinks and shared the one salad. All this was done in the first 10 minutes of walking through the door. We told our server we had a movie starting is less than an hour and asked for a rush as much as possible. ( We understood there would be some wait of course ). Well after our second drink refill was empty we still did not have our pasta and only had 5 minutes to spare so we had cancel our order and run across the parking lot to get to our movie. We were told by our server that the cook and prioritized the entire kitchen on a large party that came in and that all orders were backed up. This doesn't seem like proper procedure to me. When we called the manager after we had left he wasn't very understanding and didn't really see the concern with his explanation being "sometimes that happens". He did offer to mail us something to make up for it, hopefully what ever it is we can use at a different location because we really do not want to revisit this location again, not if its going to take over an hour to get 2 simple pasta dishes and have management that prioritizes his business around the large groups at the cost of losing the "little" ones. read more

I've probably been to ESM twice in the last year..both times I've said why do I come here.. We came here because boyf and I were meant to be doing sushi dinner after a work appt he had. It ran waaay long and we didnt want sushi that late and we were right by here so he kind of just parked and that was that. I didn't have the heart to say I really didnt want to go here. I'm not particularly a big fan of these type of places (kelseys/montanas etc) but if they're close and there's a deal of we have a voucher we will sometimes go. The ESM at St. Laurent we actually used to go to once every couple of months a good few years ago when their happy hour stuff was on or we had groupons. I find the bar area there far superior to this location and never really remember disliking it. The food didn't ever blow my kind but it did the job if we were around. This location i dislike. I don't expect gourmet food at ESM but the times I've been here I've felt disappointed and wish we had eaten at home. The whole feel of the place adds to that, not just mediocre food. I hate the lighting..something I always notice when I'm out. I've worked in bars/restaurants all my life as second income jobs and when lighting is too bright it makes me think when of when the place is closed and they put all the lights up to say go home now. The bar area here is like that. It actually makes me uneasy and not v relaxed. On walking in it says wait to be seated. So we waited a few minutes and nobody came. A server did fly up to us and hurriedly say excuse me rather abruptly as she wanted to put menus on the hostess stand where we stood. Hello to you too! No hi, i'll be right there etc etc. We walked into the bar and sat down ourselves. Someone gave us menus right away. A few minutes later out server came by. Don't get me wrong our server was real nice and never missing when we needed him, he explained the happy hour deals etc. Its selected half price apps & personal pizza after 9 but to be honest the selection sucks. Average soundings apps and 4 pizzas. We ordered wings and canadian pizza. The pizza was actually pretty good..except for the fact that they put the topping in the middle and leave a pretty huge crust (im being picky here!) But The dough and toppings tasted like they should. The wings..meh. Boyf likes wings while me I can take or leave..he said these were below average and tasted reheated. Definitely not stuff we would pay full price for. The happy hour was the only reason we actually came in here. I had a couple of $5 happy hours beers (choice of canadian or coors light) and boyf had Caesar ($5 happy hour also) & then a shock top (they had orange slices so that's a win!) The Caesars at St. Laurent location used to be awesome..big, looked good and came with a pickled bean. Here it tasted like a mediocre Caesar, no bean and i made better looking ones while camping last weekend! Never eaten in the restaurant section of here, always the bar. We both left and said let's remember not to come back here. I feel its a waste of a "dinner out"..something which budget doesn't allow much of at this moment in time. read more

Over priced and disappointing. Sad wilting grocery store bagged salad (disguised with 2 olives one pepper and 3 slices of onion.) and reheated slab of congealed lasagna. Yuck. I can disappoint my taste buds with grocery store prepared meals way cheaper that would still surpass the garbage I was delivered. Don't waste your money. read more

This east side really stands out among restaurants in general in Ottawa. 1) service is great. I don't think I've ever opened a review with that but I can't avoid it here. They have put a serious amount of effort in selecting great employees from servers to management. Its 50% of the reason I come here. Random date on a weekday? Chill bartender and half price apps. Random group of 20 on Sunday at 9:30? I don't think I've ever seen a manager so genuinely happy to see us and then give us awesome service. I can go on but you get the idea. 2) food is great. This is 40% of the reason I come. I've had lots of Italian in Ottawa and this east side competes with the best of them. Maybe you think my pallet isn't for saying that but to me, that's the verdict, the food here rocks. 3) three words: sautéed Basa filet. The last 10%. Fish filet on a bed of veggies (lots of both), unlimited soup or salade, and east side bread. Get this, for 12.99. Its on my top 5 - stuff yourself on something other than dough on the relatively cheap - in Ottawa (I am aware of the oddly specific nature of that list). Missing star is because some dishes are really pushing the price and the desert menu can be better. If you work at this east side. Please stop reading now. Bonus: for with a friend, get the fish, one of you gets a salad, the other a soup, then you share when the waiter isint looking and you tell them they must be seeing things when they point out you switched. Now you just turned your 12.99 into a bread-soup-salad-fishandveggies meal. Add a half price app (mussels comes out to like 3.60) and a desert ( they have some reasonably priced one, honestly one of the areas where they can improve on selection) and you've got yourself a five course meal for like 22$. Beat that! read more

The food is average at best, for a super bowl night the service is sub-par at best. The prizes are cheap cheap cheap, w no the hell has a no name 40" as a grand prize. I got a chicken parm sandwich and fries.....average. GF got wings average and the waiter removed the plate while she talked with other folks in our group with 3-4 wings still on the plate. So overall there are much better places but it's food I suppose. read more