Mario’s Pizzeria and Ristorante

I have been a customer of Mario’s for many years and never had a problem until last night. I called in an order for delivery to my home. Due to their rudeness and unfriendliness, I was very unhappy with the service provided by the person who took my order. When my order arrived to my house, I cancelled the order worth about $ 48. The manager, a gal who sounded like a teenager, told me over the phone that next time «I» need to place call in order if I’m paying and NOBODY else; therefore, she was unable to «correct» the bad service given to me. I told her I was watching my 3 year old granddaughter while her father placed the call in order, and I’ve always, in the past, had someone else place a call in order for me and never had a problem. (I’m like really I’ve never heard only the person paying has to be the person placing a call in order; or otherwise, guess it’s expected to get bad service from Mario’s)
Bottom line this gal manager was rude and, basically, told me «she did nothing wrong.» So I’m just some crazy lady who is unhappy for no reason whatsoever is how she made it sound. I told her the $ 48 worth of food should at least be given to the homeless rather than the employees. I’ll never ever be a customer of Mario’s again because there are plenty of Italian restaurants a/​k/​a ristorantes in town. BTW: My 3 year old granddaughter never got her spaghetti and her dad sent her to bed crying thanks to a gal manager who doesn’t care. EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTED!

The price is pretty high, compared to most pizza places. It is very good though, probably my fav. that I’ve tried in Abq. so far. Great menu options, good breaded mushrooms. Service could use some work, delivered the wrong pizza, missing items a couple times. High delivery times, I think they just need more staff.

Ordered pizza and salad @5:30. Hour and half later, still no pizza. Had to call 4 times for status. Each time was told that it «was out for delivery». 2 hours 10 minutes later… Never delivered. Called to cancel order, and manager Mario was upset that I did so. Even insulted my husband and I, by offering us $ 10 off. We realize that it was extremely busy for holidays, but this business has no accountability to its customers base. Will not return again.

It has gone down hill. Our order last night was raw pizza and raw calzone. I didn’t bother calling to report it to the manager because the order before last night was a night mare too!
They forgot my salad and said I could get one the next time we ordered. When I told them that last night they said they had no idea! Doughy pizza is nasty!

We ordered delivery for two small pizzas. An hour and a half later, and we were still waiting. We called for an update, and the woman was rude and could care less that we had been waiting so long. We thought we would continue to wait because we were so hungry. We grew frustrated by the minute and ended up canceling our order. We spoke to the manager this time, and he, too, was rude and took no ownership of the delay. He seemed irritated that we were cancelling our order. Do you blame us? Nearly two hours and we are still waiting for pizza. I was very disappointed.

I ordered for take-​out, they messed up the order and didn’t include one of the meals. The family member who picked up didn’t notice until we got home. When I called back and spoke with a manager, she only offered a credit or we could drive back down there and pick up the food, not even a refund for the food they didn’t provide. The meatball sub that we did receive was gritty (like biting into sand, yuck!). This will probably be our last visit, it’s not even worth going back for the credit that they offered. The food used to be very good, but is now mediocre at best, expensive, and bad customer service.

Server friendly, as was the cashier. The price was a bit higher than I recall it being last time I was here. Ordered the shells and meat sauce with meat balls and the green chile potato soup. The soup was amazing and utterly delicious. The shells and meatballs were only okay. I’m not a great cook and I could have made better at home, to be honest. The sauce also didn’t like my stomach and I don’t usually have issues with tomato sauce, so I’m not sure what the deal was. Pretty sure it was the sauce since my leftovers were only the sauce and shells and I had them for lunch the next day, thinking perhaps it had been the green chile in the soup. But, alas, it wasn’t.
I’d go back, but only order the soup and bread. Maybe one of the tasty looking cakes. But it won’t be soon with the price.

I ordered the lunch special which was 2 pieces of pizza and a drink. The pizza was good (7 out of 10). Nothing too special, but good. My daughter ordered the Chicken Marsala plate. It was expensive $$$ and strange looking. The sauce was a thick brown gravy. I didn’t try it, but my daughter said it was «o-​k». The waitress was VERY helpful. She was enthusiastic and we never waited for anything we asked for. That’s always important to me at a food establishment like this. My husband ordered a chicken salad. The establishment was clean but had a strange décor for an italian restaurant. But to be honest, I’ve been to italy and their American food restaurants don’t quite hit the mark either. I noticed some IPA adverts, that can be fun if you are in to pizza and beer. I most likely will not return solely based in the non unique pizza, but it’s worth a try, it might be someones «favorite pizza», it just isn’t mine. Overall, not a bad lunch.

Great service and food right there in the shopping mall with MVD, Ross and Goodwill – but better than all these locations for sure. Awesome, East Coast style manicoti. Fresh salad. Ambitious staff. Great for meetings in the day or a party or date at night.
This is a low priced, very good Italian joint on the East Side. If you think Bravo is good fuggedaboutit – you need to hit up Mario’s.

My husband and I have not been to this Mario’s location in years. I can’t recall having a particularly bad experience there in the past (nor an exceptionally good one). The one on 4^th Street is the closest to us, but even that location is not a place we frequent as it’s still a little out of the way for us and while the food has always been fine, it doesn’t really stand out and isn’t something we’d go out of the way for, but if we’re in the area and hungry, sure! Mario’s is fine.
This past Thursday, my husband and I went to the mall after work because we had to pick up some gifts. The plan was to pick up the gifts (we only had to go to one store), grab a quick bite to eat at Fuddrucker’s and head home as we were both tired and I had to be at work earlier than usual the next morning. We weren’t anticipating that Fuddrucker’s was going to be overrun with large groups of rambunctious teenagers and the line just to order was coming out the door of the restaurant and well into the mall. Neither of us felt like dealing with the crowd, and my husband refuses to eat at the food court, so now we’re trying to decide what to do for a simple dinner and after some deliberation, my husband suggests Mario’s.
When we arrived, several tables were occupied but there were enough empty tables that we were seated right away. Unfortunately, it seemed like forever before we were acknowledged by a server to take our drink orders. It was at least 10 minutes before anyone came over, and I was getting irritated and wanted to reconsider coming here for dinner, but we didn’t want to have to decide on somewhere else nearby to eat. Finally someone comes and takes our drink orders: two iced teas. Nothing fancy, should be simple, right? Several minutes later, there is no sign of our waitress or our drinks. After 15 minutes, I am seriously wondering where she went when finally, she appears with iced teas in hand (no apology or explanation for the long wait) and takes our food order. I ordered the pasta alla zingara and my husband ordered the pesto pasta, which is described as «fresh basil, minced garlic, olive oil, diced tomatoes and parmigiano cheese in our homemade pesto cream sauce». I was really skeptical at this point — I’m thinking if it takes this long to get two iced teas, how long is the food going to take? Our soup and salad actually came out pretty fast, and the entrees came out about 20 minutes after we ordered them, which isn’t too bad (it could have been worse). My pasta was pretty good, nothing extraordinary, but my husband’s looked NOTHING like how it was described. I’m pretty sure they just brought him alfredo sauce by mistake because his pasta was topped with a plain white sauce that tasted just like alfredo and had maybe half a teaspoon of basil flakes sprinkled on top, but not nearly enough to add any flavor of basil, and pesto sauce, even pesto cream sauce, is typically green in color as a result of all the basil that is supposed to be mixed in (not sprinkled sparingly on top). There was also NO trace of minced garlic or diced tomatoes. My husband likes alfredo (it’s actually one of his favorites), so he ate it anyway instead of sending it back (plus there was no telling when we would see our waitress again), but it was definitely not what he ordered.
We were asked if we wanted dessert and we said no thank you, just the check please. It took a long time for her to bring the check, and when she brought it she was also holding a scoop of gelato, and acted like she was going to set it down at the table with the check (compensation for the slow service?), but then took it away and said she just wanted to tempt us and went to drop it off to whichever table had ordered it. Sorry, but as long as it took us to get the check in the first place, we definitely didn’t want to make any unnessecary adjustments to it. It took an even longer time for her to come back and pick up the check from the table, too. I’d be a little more understanding if they were crowded and understaffed and our waitress was trying her best, but they seemed to be adequately staffed and our waitress didn’t seem like she was really trying or cared too much. Maybe she was just having an off day, but mediocre food and slow service is not going to give us a reason to go back to this location. I’m not even inclined to go back to the one that’s closer to us. We’ll stick to Mimmo’s and Joe’s Pasta House for our go to Italian restaurants.

Service is very slow waited 15mins to get a drink order and over 30mins for our pizza.

I’ll admit it… I’m addicted to the Tortellini Baked in Tomato Alfredo and Mozzarella.
I eat a Mario’s about once every few months. The one on San Pedro is the best location in my opinion for in house dining.
I love that the Menaul location has a drive thru, however. The only problem with this location is they have gotten my order wrong on several different occasions and have given me the Tortellini with the regular marinara sauce. This NEVER appeases my appetite, and I find I must go back within a week or two to get my correct order.
I think they should do away with the Tortellini with marinara sauce all together. Can a get an amen?
My advise to Mario’s diners is to DOUBLE CHECK your order before you leave the drive thru at Menaul. It’s easy to send your order back when you’re at the restaurant. However it isn’t as easy to drive all the way back. Also in the past when they have made a mistake when I was pregnant (even a worse disappointment, AMIRIGHT?) the manager at the time gave me a full credit on my account. However the last time they messed up the order at the drive thru and my husband forgot to check it, they only gave us a few dollars credit when we called back to let them know. I ended up eating my husband’s lasagna because the Tortellini with marinara is not good. The lasagna was great! My poor hubby.
In short, I will keep going back because I’m addicted to Tortellini Baked with Tomato Alfredo and Mozzarella… However BE AWARE that they mess up A LOT on your order of this meal in particular.
My advise to Mario’? I suggest you get rid of the Tortellini with marinara all together! Make it easier on your cooks!
Update: Down to 2 stars! I’m so disappointed in the size of my portion tonight. At least I got the right thing but… Really, Mario’s? THIS is $ 14 worth of food? Italy would be ashamed. :(

I really like Mario’s because they have a huge menu. I like that they offer french fries, their breadsticks are always really fluffy and fresh, and their salads are huge! It’s nice if you want some good Italian food.

Basic, average, boring but good.
Large pepperoni was do e well, not amazing, but well. I was happy with me Cesar salad, however I could have used a touch more dressing.
All in all, store was clean, staff was friendly– with the exception to my wife and her female friend, guess the waitress just has a nice service mandate to guys,
But all in all, I would say ok joint– but definitely need to lower their prices– this is not a gourmet pizza place, and the salad was not worth $ 10.

I visited with my parents for the buy one, get one spaghetti night.
When you work in the hospitality industry, customers are your focus, not you. So as a waiter, don’t start off the night by saying how happy you are to have work so that you can make rent this month. It just sets the wrong tone for dinner. I being the youngest brought my ID, but my mother did not. Our waiter then refused to serve her alcohol. She’s 51 and looks over 30, and typically doesn’t get carded, especially when we eat a local restaurant. And so, none of us had alcohol. Having taken the NM alcohol severs course, I understand checking IDs before serving alcohol. That being said, use common sense.
Our salads and main plates where brought before our waters even reached the table. And even then, we had to remind our waiter. Finished salad plates remained on the table for the entire meal. However, the salad was fresh, and the spaghetti and meatballs were delicious. Plenty of sauce, hot pasta and two giant meat balls.
Go for the food, not the service. We won’t be returning to dine in, that’s for sure.

I like this Mario’s a lot — primarily for their excellent pizzas but they also have a wide variety of other great menu selections (pastas, salads, etc). On our most recent visit we hosted a post-​season party for our little league baseball team. We had 12 families attend the event (about 50 folks total). We made reservations about a week in advance and the Mario’s staff set us up in the back area of the restaurant and arranged the tables and chairs before we arrived. Everybody had a GREAT time and we were able to watch game 7 of the world series on Mario’s large flat screen TV. $ 20 per family covered food and sodas for everyone. Tips: (1) Order some breadsticks along with your pizzas. (2) Order extra large pizzas and ask them the «party cut» (square pieces). (3) Deserts are awesome if you leave room (e.g. one piece of chocolate cake is plenty for a family of five). (4) If you want to save a little money purchase some Mario’s gift cards at Costco. You can by $ 100 in gift cards for $ 80. That’s 20% off people!

Ok, so their food is pretty good, but delivery service needs some serious help. My husband wanted to pay for our order with cash, the delivery guy showed up with no change and had no plan on how my husband could pay. He basically expected my husband to tip him almost $ 10, ridiculous! Of course figuring this all out took way too long especially when you’ve got a hungry toddler and curious dogs, both upset over the whole daddy is outside without me deal. The kicker was my husband ordered a huge salad, which did not come! Got a whole tub of ranch dressing and no salad! Needless to say, we won’t be ordering Mario’s again any time soon.

Major disappointed. Firstly no one was around for 6 minutes. .stood waiting… no signs… do I sit? Order at counter… then I finally get wait staff that was sit anywhere. When waitress came over I had questions about menu… clearly she was in no mood to be helpful… walked away. .saying I’ll be back later… she didn’t come back. Another employee finally saw my frustration and come over. but wow so rude. …OK food comes out on 5 minutes. .most people would say… oh wow fast… no that means cap heated up or Salad grabbed from a bag. So basically I was better off with can of soup and bag of salad than I was to go here for lunch… hope it was worth it to loose 2 customers. .last of my nickels you will ever get.
Crappie In abq

I have had Mario’s twice, both times were takeout. First off I love that you can order online and customize the way you want things. Both times when I came to pickup the food was ready and hot.
Both times I had the Southwest chicken pasta, which is pasta with chicken, mushrooms, diced tomato in a green chile Alfredo sauce. Obviously it is really tasty!
I also tried their toasted ravioli and it was pretty good.
Their portion sizes and good and each pasta dish comes with a side salad and bread.
The only downside was last time my daughter ordered linguine and clams with the white wine sauce and it was kind of dry. It might just be because of takeout and all the sauce absorbed while sitting… not sure.
I really want to try to dine in, the place looks cute and all the employees have been very nice!

I’m no carpet-​bagger since I moved to Alb on tax day 1994 & been going to Mario’s since I moved to town. Back when they only had the San Pedro local across from Coronado Mall. They have consistently great food, staff, service & ambiance. But the last few times I’ve visited, specifically for their soup & salad affordable entrée Ive been disappointed. The waitress on my last visit just 2 days ago confided that they had switched to the bagged salad mix, el’ cheapo version… ya know the one? Walmart-​type with mostly strings of red cabbage no one chews on and lukewarm greens? Not to mention limp, freezer burned looking & well overall, a major disappointment! The waitress said others have complained & she’s told her boss. I didn’t get it credited since the manager was at break & I had a small human to get home and to sleep.
I’m really surprised this tenured establishment would even try to save money that way… they used to provide a salad that was so fresh & green a rabbit would be hard pressed to go elsewhere!
Salad aside; the minestrone was creamy, tomatoey awesomeness that wasn’t too salty and fresh as always. The homemade bread sticks are doughy, delightful goodness, all warm, buttery & just a hint of garlic, Mmmmmm.
I go here often & will update this review with some pictures and will also anti-​up on the star-​rating if they can manage to can-​the-​bagged stuff!