Today’s hunger took me to East Side Mario’s for lunch. If you’ve been to one East Side Mario’s you’ve been to them all…well that just goes for the décor and menu! If you haven’t, it’s fun and friendly with Italian screaming from every angle; lots of pictures on the walls, red checkered table clothes on the tables in the dining area, and a fun, casual feel to the bar side.

Sitting in a quaint booth for two I waited for my server to come and greet us. Waiting was going to be something I did a lot of on this visit! When the server finally came around we had our entire order ready…Spinach and Artichoke Dip for an appy plus for the main course I decided on the Portabella Panini (grilled portabella mushroom with roasted red peppers, spinach, roasted garlic aioli and warm goat cheese served on grilled Ciabatta bread) and my guest picked the pizza and salad lunch (you pick your toppings). There are a lot of options on the menu and all of them sound very intriguing and picking the dinner size items (if you go during dinner!) you can get all you can eat bread and salad with most choices. They have everything Italian to choose from, lots of pasta and pizza choices, some salads and soups as well as steak, chicken, ribs, and salmon.

Back to my meal…the appy took over 20 minutes to get to our table which was quite upsetting considering we were there for lunch and starting to get really hungry! It comes with herb flat bread and was a nice change from the usual nacho chips you usually get when dining out! The dip itself was nice and hot and blended just right…I would say well worth the wait but the wait was just too long! We finished our appy and had another long wait for the main course.

I would guess at least 45 minutes went by before the meals came and both of our salads (which were our choice of sides) didn’t come with the meals…they were a couple minutes behind! I had a Caesar salad with mine and I am happy to report that East Side Mario’s no longer uses bacon bits for a topping but they now use REAL bacon…a much better topping for this salad! There was just the right amount of dressing and the lettuce was incredibly fresh and crispy. As for the Panini…YUMMY!!! It was so good! Two big mushroom caps topped with deliciously grilled red peppers and warm goat cheese. The Panini was a little on the crunchy side but suited the moist insides well. This is something I would get again.

Overall I really enjoyed the food but not sure if I have the patience and time to visit again. My hopes would be that the management and staff will address the slowness and work towards fixing this. I know I will give East Side Mario’s another try but think if the same slow service happens again I don’t think there will be an opportunity to win me back. If you have some time to go out and eat I would recommend them for their food alone. I have never had a bad food experience at any location, but my thumbs are down on the customer service side.