Mario's Place

User Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Marios Place,
How do you describe a place you have never been? I won a free six course chef's meal for two from a fund raiser. What would you expect for a free meal? I had no Idea.. When I showed up for my reservation my wife and I were greeted as if we owned the place. Seated on time at a table close to the kitchen, and greeted by a full staff ready to please. Our server well aware we were not paying for the meal still treated us as if we were the best paying customer in the house. Not knowing what had been prepared for us we went with a suggested wine paring. Everything from that point on went perfect, from the young man who kept cleaning the bread crumbs from our table to everyone that made sure everything went as prepared.
Sorry for being so long wineded about it but the main thing is ......................Chef Leone is amazing, I am booking my Mom's birhtday dinner here and will expect them to cater to all my families special events. If you want an experience you will not forget PLEASE GO HERE!!!!!

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User Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Our server and wait staff were excellent.
Food this time was just par and we were treated rudely by the owner Andrea Palagi.
Our dining experience lasted 3 hours. If Andrea wanted to have our table, then each course we ordered should have been ready sooner. (Once each course arrived at our table we began eating). It was less than 5 minutes from the time our server returned with my signed copy of the check when Andrea came to us and said, "I have a party of 6 that has been waiting for a long time for this table". "Can I have you move to the bar?" "I will buy all of you desert wine in the bar? Now you won’t talk bad about me once you leave, will you?" This was very rude. I have never been rushed to leave even at Denney’s!
While I agree that Friday nights are busy, we had reservations for a party of 5 at 5:30pm; we were all there on time and were seated by 5:40pm. We were there just under 3 hours and our bill was $400 (including wine, cocktails, 4 appetizer, 2 evening specials, our entrees, desert and desert wine). By 8:30pm, Andrea was already removing tables to ready the seating area for the Jazz Band that starts @ 10PM.
We have frequented Mario’s Place many times for special occasions. We will never return and we will tell everyone how Andrea treated us. BUT we will always praise our server and wait staff.
Here is what we ordered, what we liked and did not like.
Have the special appetizer of grilled scallops with artichokes and pine nuts! Outstanding! the Calamaretti Fritti(fried Calamari) was also good.
If you want a salad just order the house salad and avoid the "purple-haze" salad (it is the house salad with pistachios, goat cheese and Asian pear and not a lot of that either). Also avoid the Terra e Mare; just plane bland.
Excellent items were the Butternut Squash Ravioli and the Grilled Prime Angus New York.
Deserts were the Carmel Budino(fantastic) and the Ginger Creme Brulee Napolion (fantastic).

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User Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

The right place for a drink and a good meal.: I had one of the best meals I've had in a long time at Mario's. If your a veal person the Veal Chop (It may have been a special) was amazing. We love the atmosphere of the place, and mostly dine in the bar section where the bartenders pay attention and are mostly pleasant.

The food is really good, appetizers and entrees vary. Try the calamari, it's worth every penny and will make about 4 people happy. Price isn't that bad, but as your taste buds crave different things prices can creep up, but what isn't expensive these days. If you're on a budget the Ravioli is perfect.

Downtown Riverside needs more restaurants like Mario's, but if there's only one that's worth the trip. If you're into wine, they've got a bottle from $30-$400. A nice place to have some vino and enjoy the more east coast charm.

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