Mario's Restaurant

10/04/07

GO to this restaurant now, then give it your review

by brooklyndan at Citysearch

I want to love this place, I do.

But, I don't.

The atmosphere is great, though the lighting too bright for my taste.

The service is pretty perfect for the place.

The food; antipasto and bread to table right away; great, just what it should be (if not the best quality stuff)

salad; loved it just the way it was

soup; great in that it reminded me of the minestroni at the restaurants of my childhood (but not great)

pasta with meat sauce; OK, meat sauce pretty good for what it was,rigatoni overcooked

Veal Siciliana; terrible. it could have been great, maybe it IS great sometimes---was very oily and tough this time and needed salt and more of the sauce (the best part)

the potato was fine, reminded me of potatoes served alongside the minestrone of my childhood.

the green beans with the potato were very good.

my brother's veal picante(picatta, not sure what he had) was also awful; flavorless, oily, no seasoning

This place suffers from many issues, I am sure.

I want it to be what it CAN be; Old-school class act Italian-American, great service, great building/location/atmosphere.

• Pros: SO much potential to be a gem in downtown detroit
• Cons: food

10/29/09

I absolutely love it!

by seatbelt555 at Citysearch

I try to get down to Mario's as often as I can - which isn't very often given that I need to drive over an hour to get there. I can't say enough good things. We love everything we've tried and feel comfortable in the casual 'vibe' at this restaurant. It's very old school feeling and we love the pasta and minestrone soup...ok and the salad...everything is excellent. We've never had bad service. Highly recommend.

• Pros: Melt in your mouth tenderloin - excellent service
• Cons: I can't think of any

10/19/09

Outstanding food&atmosphere! A definate do not miss!!

by CSMobileUser at Citysearch

If you haven't yet tried Marios u must! The food is oustanding& they convieniently shuttle to all local events like theatre, hockey, football&baseball.I went last night to legally blonde at the Fox & when I returned they even had a complimentary buffet&I got to meet the entire cast since they too went to Marios for the cast party!!! My lucky night! The service was great!The free shuttle was convienient & the food & delightful staff made this restraunt my new favorite spot!

09/08/09

Dirty, Rude

by Naota at Citysearch

To start, I have never paid for a meal at Mario's. I only worked there for about two hours (before I quit) and would not recommend that anyone eat there. You know the breadsticks on the table? Well if you dont eat all of yours, the waiters/busboys take the bread from your table and (with their bare hands) place them back in with the rest of the bread. So if you've ever eaten the bread there, there's a good chance it was on someone elses table and touched by your busboys hands (which have been handling old food all day). It was really pretty gross.

• Pros: an undeserved aire of sophistication
• Cons: everything else

12/28/08

Overly discriminating taste

by masterchef22 at Citysearch

My intent is not to slame the resturant but to offer some suggestions for their apparent continued success, since the resturant appeared busy and the wall of fame would indicate that a number of well known celebrities hanve dined there. The experience for my wife and I was very disappointing all around. We started off trying to find seats that the bottom provided some sort of supported, the chairs were very old and outdated. The resturant truly needs a serious makeover.

The food was seriously sub standard in its presentation and worse yet was tasteless. I use a lot of fresh herbs and spices in my cooking and dine at many chain resturants who pride themselves on using fresh ingredients (which the waitress claimed they did), and the flavors are suppose to excite the pallat, not leave you searching for the salt and pepper.

My wife had the spagghetti tetrazinni. The noodles were no where close to being fresh, the chicken in the tetrazinni was bland. I had the chicken Mario. A piece of boneless chicken breast sliced in two covered with a barinese sauce and some garnish to make it look impressive I guess. Again, basically bland, it had a little bit more taste than my wifes tetrazinni, but only because of the sauce. Worse yet, you served it with nothing! Did the chefs not take the time to think that an entree should be something more than a piece of chicken with gravy on it? With that experience I was not about to press my luck any further and order dessert, it was quite clear at this point that either my taste was far above what Marios offers, or customers taste are not as discriminating as they claim to be.

I do wish you contined success, I just won't be back.

• Pros: Valet staff
• Cons: Outdated and over-rated

10/22/08

Great place if you wanted to be treated bad

by CourtneyAnArbor at Citysearch

I would not recommend this restaurant at all. I made a reservation for Saturday night because we had two relay teams running the detroit marathon the next day. I have never been treated worse in my life. The maitre'd was absolutely horrible. He said that it would take 5 minutes to seat us. It took over thirty. Instead of being polite and keeping us updated on the status of the table he used dismissing tones and was not accommodating. What made it frustrating is that there were many empty tables. I had even called earlier in the day to verify reservations to make sure they were ready for such a large group. As we were about to leave they presented us with a table. The soup and salad were good but the entrees were subpar. Not recommended at all!

• Pros: Soup
• Cons: Service, Entrees, Service

05/10/08

A Memorable Meal

by NoahStein2008 at Citysearch

For some reason there is no "hype" surrounding this place but there should be. The food was exquisite and the service was impeccable. Our waiter's punctuated and precise description of every ingredient in the specials made each dish come alive and made it difficult to select just one! The service overall was flawless, informative and made this truly a perfect meal. We were not disappointed with a single dish. Thanks for a great dinner!

04/13/08

Absolutely wonderful.

by kristengorman at Citysearch

The food was fantastic and we had a lovely dining experience. Started off with a yummy ceasar salad - great rustic bread with dipping sauce/paste, olives and bread sticks. Instead of having the endless pasta, which seemed a little too glutonous, we ordered the swordfish and angus steaks. The portions were huge, the food was simple and flavorful, and the wine selections were great. The canoli's for desert was awesome. The service is fine and the prices are fair. I wil go back here again in the future, highly recomennded!!

• Pros: Great food and service

12/02/07

Worst Restaurant In Michigan

by buckeye1970 at Citysearch

Horrible food....waited over an hour for the meal and then when it arrived it was cold. We sent our food back and then the waiter never came back . After waiting another half hour we were told to pay them 25 and leave!!!! We explained to the owner, Vince that we did not eat the food and hould not be forced to pay. Vince called the police. When the police arrived they laughed and told us we should have gone to the Italian place in eastern market. The owner is a bum and I would not recommed anyone go here!!

11/19/07

Great!

by kirk01 at Citysearch

The Detroit Cigar Club held its first annual dinner at Mario's and we have not stopped talking about it yet. There was 14 of us and we all had a fantastic time enjoying the food, drinks and ambiance. The wait staff was excellent as was the food. Everyone loved their meals with most of us getting the filet. We can't wait for the next meeting at Mario's.

• Pros: Great food

11/13/07

Mario's

by cincad at Citysearch

We had gone to Mario's for my husband's 50th birthday. I had made reservations . We arrived to a totally packed restaurant. We had to wait a little for a table for four, our two children came with us. We were crammed into a little table that had no room around it. The tables are practically on top of each other. Needless to say i think this restaurant is way over rated. My son had ordered the surf and turf, and waiter forgot to bring the lobster tail! He finally brought it after we were all done eating. I didn't think the food was that good, I've had way better at other less expensive restaurants.My husband smokes Smoker's Choice cigarettes, which are cigarettes wrapped in light cigar paper. My husband lit one up and supposedly someone complained so he had to go outside to smoke! Our waiter was not very attentive and it was difficult trying to understand what he was saying. We would never go there again. What a wasted of money!!!!

• Cons: everything