Mario's Italian Kitchen

I'm working in the area and stopped in for a couple slices of pizza for lunch
It was incredible!!

Excellent food, excellent service.
Will make the trek to go again!

We were there two weeks ago, had the pasta and it was fabulous! Tonight the pizza ale out. Amazing! Thanks Mario!!!!

We ordered pizza to go, and it was delicious! We will be back!

This was our first time going here tonight, 10/14/21. Got salads, dry rub wings for app, ribeye steak dinner, and stuffed pasta. Everything literally everything was perfectly made, great tasting! Very cool place inside and bonus had live music inside. Im glad we decided to stop and try it out. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED! Can tell the kitchen really puts in the effort to make it the best it can be from quality to presentation. We also told the staff when we were leaving how great everything was and what we though, bc it was that good. The owner has really hired some great workers. That's not always the case at places. Esp now with alot of places being short staffed. Can't wait to go back and try something else on the menu.

Food here is an Italian menu with plenty of both original and traditional pizzas. Pizzas are made on a tasty homemade crust. I had tortellini here in a panna sauce and it was wonderful - you can really taste the difference in the pasta in that it was made in house. Definitely not store bought pasta! They have live music every so often which is great. Only knock is the decor - doesn't feel Italian, but a cross between BBQ and coffee shop. Speaking of coffee, they have phenomonal coffee too! Will definitely come back here.

****Update****

Our family ended up going back last night, and we had phenomenal service! Our server was VERY attentive, and of course, the food was top notch once again. Glad we came back, and even happier to leave a great updated review!

Worst service I’ve ever had, but great food! My family (of 5) went for dinner last night, and right from the get-go, our server was slow, and inattentive. It took her 10 minutes to bring us water, and once we ordered more than water, it was another 10 minutes for her to show up with that. My husband and I ordered a bottle of wine, and she just set it down with glasses and disappeared, so we had to open it ourselves. The wine was warm, which was kinda gross, so we barely touched it. (White wine is supposed to be chilled.) We eventually ordered our meals, and decided to get a Cesar salad to split between the 5 of us. She came back about 10-15 minutes later, and apologized for the salad not being out, because her “station was too busy, and she couldn’t get back there”...yet all of the other tables had their food. Once the salad showed up, it was in 2 bowls, with no extra plates, so we just passed those around and took turns. The rest of our food arrived, and despite the awful service, the food was terrific! I don’t think we’ll be back, but maybe would consider getting take-out.

Didn't have any problems with the food or service, but it was pretty expensive for the area. It was good, but very expensive for small town MN. Three of us had different tap beers, and all were warm when we got them. Other than prices and the warm beer, we enjoyed it.

EDIT: Appreciate the owner response. For pricing, I should specify that was particularly the pasta dishes. Sandwiches and pizza were not nearly as expensive. I happened to be in the mood for pasta, so decided to pay the premium. And to clarify, the beer wasn't warm as in room temperature. - but definitely not nearly as cold as would be typical.

They fried the gnocchi in what tasted like old grease. Why fry gnocchi? It's a pasta and should be boiled like other pasta. It's so exhausting being Italian. It's so hard to find an Italian restaurant I like. The bread was good at least. The salad was boring. Atmosphere was cool, but the bench was not comfortable.

****update**** over the past year I have gone back to Mario's many times. We have found the food to be enjoyable and the service good. Even during these strange covid times. The specialty coffee in the morning is a family favorite. Additionally after the original post I had an opportunity to speak with the owner who showed genuine interest in making improvements in consistency. On the whole my most recent experiences with Mario's have been overwhelmingly positive and since a business is dynamic reviews should be too.

First post:
I want to give this place a good review but I just can't, at least not for Monday nights.
I have ordered pizza here consistently on Monday's and almost every time I order, I request the same thing. I ask for a large pizza that is half cheese and half sausage/pepperoni and an order of wings. Every time I have ordered, there has been something wrong. It is usually something small, like a strange cut or only more sausage/pepperoni than cheese. After the third time this happened, I called and spoke to a manager to advise him of the issue. The next time we ordered, they made the exact same mistake. I thought about writing a review and skipped it. The next time I called, I ordered the same meal and was delivered a whole pizza of sausage and pepperoni and wings with no sauce. As a result, I spent 28 dollars on pizza for just me, since my kids will only eat cheese pizza. We ate the wings as there were a couple extra, but they were lacking without the sauce. Even though the pizza is great...and it is.....I can't review this higher when they repeatedly make mistakes, even after feedback. If there was any other pizza place in town, I would go there. We have even opted for frozen pizza a few times between the last two incidents. This is a quality control issue, not a taste issue.