Da-Maria Pizzeria & Spaghetti House

What service? Showed up to an empty restaurant; considered raiding the bar until the owner surfaced 5 – 10 minutes later. He made us go back into the kitchen to give our order directly to the chef — isn’t this what a server is for? The chicken parm was like eating a shoe, seriously dog food. Awful experience.

This is the worst italian food i’ve had. I went there and my salad was all limp, as if it was left out for a long time. Then my pasta was raw and the sauce resembled something you get out of a can for 99 cents! Horrible experience! Horrible service! Horrible food!

Love their Tuesday night 25% off on all pizzas! Great pizza every time. love the crust and they will even pan fry the bacon for you if you ask for crispy bacon! Wonderful, friendly staff and good pastas! Also they have a nice patio for the summer. Mom and Pop restaurant. very homey.

I can see how the pizza does bear some resemblance to frozen pizza, though the crust is better, and I wouldn’t order it again.
But my salad was delicious, with super crisp and fresh greens, the likes of which I haven’t seen since bagged salad and its rotten little pieces took over everywhere, and a tasty olive oil in the dressing. The veal parmesan was crispy and not oil-​logged: also delicious. The side pasta was perfectly cooked, with a simple meat sauce, and on the whole very enjoyable. And the house wine is pretty darn good, too.
The vibe is casual, yes. The owners were sitting around with friends dropping in, yes. There were kids and cartoons, yes, and you might have to ask someone for your cheque. But the food was great and everyone was very friendly, even welcoming, and considerate.
Glad I decided to try this place despite all the Unilocaling about it.

Went for lunch yesterday. Was extremely disappointed. I ordered a pizza, was the worst FROZEN pizza I every ate.
The salad had way too much vinegar. Our bread was cold.
My daughter had the ravioli, she smothered it with cheese, and said it was okay.
By the end of our meal our server just disappeared. We had to ask the kitchen staff or owners, who were sitting watching television to get our bill.
I have been to several Italian restaurants, this was the worst.

So incredibly disappointed. Went in for the first time on Monday at 3pm. The server was polite and we ordered apps and wine and the server disappeared. The table beside us had to go into the kitchen to request their bill.
Once the apps showed up half an hour later, we had the chance to finally order mains. Which was a pasta and a pizza. My friend politely mentioned we were hoping to leave by 4 so to start our mains.
Server disappears again for 20 mins.
At this point we are frustrated but still okay, sipping our wine slowly as we have no idea how long this is going to have to last us.
Then comes in two people from the back who take a seat in the area that looks like its for staff.
Server reappears to give them waters and to ask where something is. One of the women stands up to get it and we have a chance to order more wine. Thank god, because little did we know we were going to need it.
Cue 2 children from the kitchen, clearly just getting off school saying hi to the people in the staff area.
No problem.
Cue children grabbing the remote control, running around the restaurant, yelling. And then changing the channel to spongebob squarepants and turning up the volume to a setting made for a dance club.
At this point me and my friend look at each other and laugh. Not only have we been waiting 30 mins for our food at this point but not one person staff or friends of staff have said anything about the fact that maybe blaring cartoons in a restaurant ISN’T APPROPRIATE.
I wouldn’t have minded so much that our food took so long if my friend hadn’t heard the microwave go off. He must have super human hearing because I couldn’t hear anything over the restaurant that was doubling for someone’s living room.
We ate quickly. I won’t comment on the food because at this point I was so angry I probably would have hated anything that was served to us.
Icing on the cake was when the food arrived we asked for the bill right away and international restaurant language that means we need to leave quickly. However that didn’t stop our server from disappearing once again. So I had to do the same thing and walk into the kitchen to ask for the credit card machine.
Da Maria I wanted to love you. Especially after I was the one to suggest this restaurant for lunch. Spongebob and that whole other problem aside — the service and time it takes to get any food has to be improved before I set foot back into this restaurant.

This place is a disgrace.
You can’t even get a glass of water.
The family has their grandchildren come after school, so its pretty much a daycare.
I would normally love something like that, as a family oriented person. but like i said. the service was lacking to the point that water was too much to ask for.
I odered the lasagna. it was the most disgusting SLOP i have ever been served.
My sister ordered a ‘pizza’.it was an overcooked frozen pizza.
Neither of us ate our food, and were not asked if we were enjoying our meal.
When I compained, it turned into an argument with the son of the old lady cooking.
If this family had any shame, they would let their old nonna retire and rest, and close the place down.
Truly appaling service, food, and a refusal to hear any complaints at all.
If it was the wild west, I’d have written on their windows in feces after the way they treated mewhen I dared to say the food was disgusting. Yes. i went there.

Ugh, ate there once… end of story.

I have my own Nonna so when I found out that this place was run by old-​school Italians I was overjoyed. My experience with them, after many visits, is that despite their kind demeanour the food is nothing like home cooking. The sauce is so heavy on the oregano and tinned tomato concentrate and it tastes as if they add sugar to reduce the acidity — very mangiacake. Because the sauce is so poor, their sandwiches taste like the ones you get Pizza Pizza. Their chicken parmigianna is cafeteria-​level. Pepperoni pizza features pepperoni straight from the packaged cold cut aisle at No Frills. The saving grace here is the primavera pizza, if you can stand the hour wait — this, at least, is reliable and decent.

By far the worse lasagna I’ve ever had in my life!!! It was citrusy for some reason… The picture menu specifies lasagna and salad but they only give you a lasagna… With a stale piece of bread!!! Very disappointed

I really wanted to love this place. It’s walking distance to my house, it has pretty cheap Italian sandwiches, delivery and takeout open till midnight. But the service is just so awful.
The first time we came here, we ate in the dining room. The whole place reeked of cigarettes, but that wasn’t their fault, there were two ladies smoking every 10 minutes outside and sitting around drinking pop inside. We got our menus and ordered from a nice old lady who disappeared into the kitchen. I ordered the penne arrabiata and he ordered a pizza of some sort. I got the salad that came with my meal and ate that. Then we waited. And waited. And waited. A couple of single older men came in and got their food before we did. All told, it probably took us 30 minutes to get our meals. The pasta was pretty good, a nice sauce, but nothing mind-​blowing. He did not enjoy the pizza. We got our bruschetta after we finished our meals, since they forgot. It was soggy, but made for good leftovers.
Visit two: takeout. I called them and ordered one chicken sandwich, one meatball sandwich for pickup. No cheese. They said 20 minutes, which seemed like a long time, but I was starving and lazy. I walked in after 20 minutes to be told that the delivery guy accidentally took my meal and would be back soon. I waited for about 10 minutes and chatted with one of the ladies making meatballs. Finally, the sandwiches came back and they gave me a free coke for waiting. Which is. kind of a crappy consolation, in my opinion. I got home and nearly cried when I discovered there was cheese in BOTH sandwiches. Still super hungry, I picked the cheese off the chicken sandwich and ate it. It was really really good, but not worth all the trouble.
Because I love breaded chicken sandwiches, I will probably be back again but with the following caveats:
— I will always order in person with the son/​grandson who seems to be running the place now, instead of talking to the old guy on the phone
— I will make a huge deal about being allergic to dairy
— I will order only when not super hungry, and when I have time on my hands.

I first came here a year ago. My partner and I at the time were absolutely starving and, based on Unilocal ratings, decided to step in. It was the best food-​related decision of that trip, and one that I’ve repeated every time I’m back in Toronto.
If you want a high class, elaborate, fancy dining experience go elsewhere. If you want food prepared for you using classic Italian recipes that’ve likely been handed down for generations then this is a terrific place to be.
Every meal I’ve gotten here has included a nice green salad. Bah — a green salad you say! Who cares? *I* care because rather than damaging the greens in some heavy-​handed salad dressing you instead get a nice drizzle of very clean, very flavourful, olive oil and vinegar. I’ve spent (too much…) time getting to know my oils and vinegars and what they’re using is nice stuff that really enhances the flavour profile of the salad components. You also get the salad as an appetizer and it’s a full salad — you’re not subjected to one of those nasty little salad/​garnishes that some restaurants feel obliged to provide as part of their ‘appetizer course that isn’t the same size as a regular appetizer because it came with your meal’ kinds of plates. There, I’m done waxing on about the salad.
The gnocchi is heavenly. It’s pillowy soft with delightful flavours. You don’t get a slimy bowl of pasta, setting Da-Maria’s aside from the depressingly large number of places in Toronto that sell pasta-​drivel as gnocchi. I admit to having a particular love of their lasagna, largely because it’s made as it should be. You get several layers of the pasta, with a light amount of cheese, sauce, and herbs. As a result, you really get to enjoy the flavours and textures of each part of the lasagna, instead of any particular piece of the meal overwhelming the rest. My partner swears that this is exactly how she was served lasagna in her trips to Italy; it’s authentic style is what draws her back, time and time again.
As befits a good Italian eatery with a real Italian nonna running the shop, portion sizes are absolutely huge. She may also come out and warn you that, «you’re not eating enough!» Also, it’s not uncommon to see the serve staff’s child playing, running around, and watching TV in the dining room. I like this: it makes the restaurante feel more homey, more real. I can appreciate, however, that not all people want to listen to children’s cartoons as they eat.
Now, is there anything that I dislike? Yes, two things.
First: I’ve never, even once, been able to get an order of tiramisu. My love of this dessert knows few bounds, but one easy way to hit the boundary point is for it to be unavailable for purchase. The best way to finish a nice lasagna meal (as far as I’m concerned) is with tiramisu and so I’ve never really ‘concluded’ my meal as I’d like. Yes, this is a personal gripe but I’ve been at Da-Maria’s often enough that I should have gotten an order of this desert at least once!
Second: I have a deep, almost visceral, reaction when I’m served bread with cold/​almost frozen butter to spread on the bread. Each time I’ve come to Da-Maria’s I’ve run into this. I understand how this happens (it’s kept in an overly cold fridge until provided to customers) but it means I can never actually enjoy the butter because it’s clumpy on the bread. Restaurateurs ought to always serve butter at room temperature or simply not provide it.
So, should you come here? Of course! It’s a real hidden gem, holding terrific food, a great homey atmosphere, and great prices. If you want to enjoy some real Italian cooking in an authentic and unpretentious restaurant, this is a delightful place to come.

I have ordered twice in the past month and they screwed up both times. During a recent teenager party I ordered party sized veg pizzas. The delivery guy came– surprisingly, on time (the previous time it took 2+ hours to get an order) and I sent the pizzas downstairs, paid him. A while later 1.5 pizzas re-​emerged– both had pepperoni on them. Almost all the teens I know are vegetarian now– so I have many slices of cold useless pizza now. Yuck.
I am sticking with Regina on College– always good.

This is my next addition to my Best of St. Clair West list but I’m hesitant to rave about this place not because it isn’t worth the four stars, but because I don’t want to let the secret out.
I don’t want to tell you about the chicken sangwiches. You won’t like the homemade sauce (on the side so the bread survives the walk home), the tender chicken cutlets or the just crusty enough bread. You might even hate the melted cheese and sauteed mushrooms topping that I always get.
Don’t even bother with the pizza. You’ll encounter more delicious homemade sauce on top of a crust that is neither too thick or thin (I think their secret is pre-​baking them). A terrible combination of toppings is green olives and bacon.
Your dogs will hate you for bringing them to the take-​out door because sometimes they get some fresh pepperoni thrown their way if they perform their tricks.
You especially don’t want to order on Tuesdays when there is a discount on the take-​out.
In the words of the famous Canadian serial commercials, «you won’t like it».

This place should really be called «That 70s Restaurant». But luckily for them, I was born in the 70s, so it’s all good.
The food: Pretty damn good, actually. Someone’s Nonna is cooking in the back, which is pretty darn exciting if you know Nonnas like *I* know Nonnas.
She might actually be the titular Maria, but it’s hard to tell since it seemed to me that she was in indentured servitude and not allowed out of the kitchen.
This place is clearly family run, and though it’s not listed as being a venue for dinner theatre, that’s what we got. For example:
–When we walked in, we were brusquely asked «Are you eating, or just
here for coffee?»
–Later, a group of 4 came in and decided to sit on the patio. The waiter
came in after taking their order and a man who I can only assume was
the manager/​owner started questioning their order of 1 pizza: «What,
that’s it? For all of them? 1 Pizza!?»
–Later still, that same manager/​owner got involved in a heated
discussion with an older kitchen-​serf (possibly his father or an uncle).
They were having a disagreement about food prep, and the
manager/​owner blurted out that «If you would stop arguing, you’d have
chopped them by now, come on, what the hell are you doing?».
It was like the Italian Fawlty Towers! I kept on expecting the manager to hit the waiter with a spoon, and then excuse him as being from Barcelona.
But again, the food was actually VERY good. Perhaps not a 4-​star good (and hey, 3 stars ain’t nothing to sneeze at), but I’m awarding an extra star for being the best live sit-​com on St. Clair.

Have you been into the dining room? It’s a trip, but the old lady can still do a nice gnocci. Try it, you’ll be surprised.