Mario's

Chiechiebabe

2.0

There's no question about how tasty the food at Mario's is  but one must read our experience below if you are thinking of holding an event there.  We were practically shortchanged ( also read as " ripped off") for the banquet we hosted. So, my rating will be based on my experience below.We had a catering event  ( buffet set up) to celebrate the 85th birthday of my mother.  Most of the dishes tasted great but we will never go back there to hold an event due to the following reasons:  1. MARIO'S WAS NOT TRANSPARENT. Nobody from their coordinating staff told us when we were organizing and finalizing the menu , that the famous Mario's salad would not be included in the buffet table. Instead, they served it on a small individual plate with just teensy-weensy serving. So only the people who would asked for it or knew that it was included in the menu would be served. Meaning, only a little over half availed of it and the remaining left unserved  were not even given to us for take out. I, for one, had to ask for it when I had the chance to sit down and take my dinner and if I did not do this, I would not have been served a small saucer of it !  2. MARIO'S CONTROLLED OUR FOOD TOO MUCH. The food in each of the serving tray was presented  in small amount ( maybe just half a tray) and I still had to ask the waiter to refill them, giving an impression to our guests that the food was limited. I didn’t know if that was Mario's strategy to limit the food that our guests would get. In addition, my agreement with their coordinator was that I will be informed if it would be the last refill already but this did not happen. It only meant, that the last refill was not served because I was not given a heads up. We expected 68 adult guests excluding 2 children ( less than 6 years old ) and 1 baby   but only 57 adults showed up. Prior to that, Mario's staff, ( her name was Angel), said that they would be prepare a buffer for 3 pax. In effect, the amount of food unserved were that for at least 11 ( 68-57) plus 3 ( buffer) people or 14.  But only one guest was late and 11 were never going to show up. So what happened to our last refill?  3. MARIO"S LIED. When I asked how many were our headcount, I was lied to. I asked the waiter how many people came and I was told that there were 68 excluding the children. I knew this was not true because 11 did not show up. I was the coordinator and I could memorize the guest list. I did not  understand why they had to lie because even if there would be less than 68 attendees, we would still be paying for 68 pax because that was the agreement. And yet except for the cabbage rolls our take out was also too little. Like what I said, our actual headcount excluding the kids was only 57 and yet when the 57th guest came, the trays were all almost empty and our last guest was not even served the famous Mario's salad!  4. THE TAKE OUT WAS ALSO CONTROLLED. When the party was about to end, I asked my son in law to take out some soup for my granddaughter. When my son in law approached the waiter to take out the soup he said, " ah, i-te-take out rin ba yung soup?" It means, that if we did not remember to ask for it, then Mario's would not have given it to us. Maybe the same thing happened with the salad. Since I did not remember asking for it because I was too busy during the party that I could not keep track of the food and Mario's staff ' behaviour at the same time, it was not given to us. And probably, the staff thought they could fool me with the headcount.  5. THINGS WENT MISSING. Our table number frame stand  which we provided were even stolen. When I started collecting the table number frame from all the tables, I only recovered 3 out of the 9 placed on all the 9 tables. Six were missing!  Of course, I had to let the waiters know I was looking for them. After a while, 3 frames just suddenly appeared on a table at the main dining area near the buffet area but without the table numbers printed paper in them anymore. Our extra chocolates give-aways in small loot bag size ( there were lots) also went missing.  6. WE WERE TREATED LIKE MICE.  The cake dessert size was an insult to our guests and our celebrant. It was like the size of a cheese on a mouse trap. This should  have been disclosed to us as well. My expectation was that the dessert will be served in a decent size, not a miniaturized size which vendors give for free in tiangges for food tasting. It looked like it came from just one piece of cake. Actually, not all the guests took the tiny samplings of it but it also disappeared magically as there were still so many after most of the guests were already busy watching the program. Maybe it was my fault that I did not ask the size of the cake desert. It was a good thing we ordered cupcakes from another supplier so it sort of saved the day for us in terms of dessert. 7. INAPPROPRIATE BEHAVIOR OF STAFF/ WAITER. Their waiters even asked for giveaways from me, the host. ( They said they would give them to their wives).  Actually, I wrote Mario's a letter about the above. They replied and just apologized but they did not offer any explanation to each of the points I raised.

Murat Açık

5.0

You can never go wrong with their Caesar Salad and Steak choices. The onion rings topped on the steak was real good. The all-time favorite Calamari was crunchy and tasteful. We just love the food from this fine restaurant.