Mario's Pizza and Italian Restaurant Review »
Another place that you'll find in a strip mall (it seems that there are more and more of these), but this one is a pleasant surprise. Instead of the generic tile floors and white walls, you get a fairly expansive seating area, and once you're around the corner, you really wouldn't know that you're in a strip mall - it's just like any other regular restaurant.
Food at Mario's is where they really shine. The garlic bread appetizer is awesome. The half-size portion is gigantic (at least for two), giving you plenty to chew on. In fact, this plus a salad each is probably enough for most people to eat. You could get this and not have to order anything else - but the rest of the food is good, you'll likely want to do so!
Like the garlic bread, the calzone is monstrous. This thing was about the size of my head. Even without the garlic bread and a salad, I'm not sure I could have finished it. As it was, I only had perhaps half of it. My wife had an eggplant parmigiana plate that was similarly portioned, but there really wasn't any comparison. For the price, go with the calzone - easily the best portion for price on the menu.
The service here is good, but not great - one of the detractors to the place. Even outside of busy hours, the staff is cordial, but not overly friendly. They hustle you along, which isn't bad, but they don't dawdle at your table by any means. I typically like to get a recommendation from the staff on what is good, that's not something they like to share. Only when we were getting near to the end of our meal were the staff friendly - almost like they were glad that people were leaving. Just sent the wrong message.
