Marino's Italian Restaurant

Outstanding food!! This is a best kept secret of Des Moines. If you want authentic Italian, look no further. One note...it is a BYOB establishment. Grab a bottle of your favorite wine and head over to Marino's! more

Marino's isn't your typical American Italian restaurant. That's because the owners are from Sicily. So, following the Continental dining style, ordering, waiting for the food and even waiting for the bill will be slow. It's considered impolite to give you a bill in Europe (you have to ask for it). But we don't understand that here because Americans have been programed to believe that fast service is good service. I've seen many people leave in a huff. To be honest, the owners don't seem to mind. The food is worth the wait -- and you will wait -- so go into the place with a different attitude or you'll wind up upset like others posting here. Bring a bottle of wine -- no corkage -- and enjoy the meal and your dining companion. more

Im not from iowa, so for me to find a great authentic italian restaurant is hard, but Marino's is just what ive been looking for! With great homemade cooking, and great service, we could'nt of asked for anything better. The sausage sandwhich was fantastic! The meatballs are hand made rolled to perfection. My salad was nice and plump, if you get one dont forget to order the house dressing made by the owner herself it was yummy. Our favorite thing about the food had to be the marinarra sauce, ive never tasted anything so tasty on my pasta before, we also liked the baked cavetelli with sausage and the rolatini's. Overall we enjoyed our food, and the atmosphere, the service was great, and so was the music! We will definatley be back *****\r \r P.S.- Also I love pizza and i missed pizza from the east coast so bad, I would have to say Marino's pizza is definatly quite a find! Its made fresh, and tossed with fresh toppings, I haven't had anything better since we moved here! Pros: service, great food, bigger dinning room more

Marinos is a strange little hole in the wall. If you order alcohol they'll tell you they don't have any, but you can bring in your own. If you order a pop they will bring it to you in a can. The food was mediocre, and when we put down a credit card to pay the server asked if we would like it for the amount, because if you want to leave a tip you must do so before they run the card. They do give generous portions, so we got to go boxes. I found some kind of wire or something in my left over lasagna. \r As someone else said, if you want some good Italian that isn't from a chain, go to Christophers, their food is WAY better (and I haven't found any wire in my food there). more

Dinning at Marino's Italian Restaurant was a pleasure. The food was excellent. I would recommend it to anyone! It is a great little family restaurant. It was worth the wait. Go early. It's a nice place for a date. more

We had heard wonderful reviews about Marino's, and since we only live less than a mile away, we were really excited to try it out. But after a 1.5 hour wait for our food, and very poor service from the owner herself, we left the restaurant furious and vowing to share our bad experience with as many others as possible. Please save your money for a more deserving family business. When I asked the owner to box up our food because we had been waiting at our table for 1.5 hours, the owner herself was very abrasive, there was no apology for the wait, and she acted as if we were inconveniencing her. I urge you to stay away and if you're in the neighborhood, go to Christopher's instead. This place gets TWO BIG THUMBS DOWN! Pros: I have nothing positive to say about my experience at Marino's Cons: The worst service I've ever experience from the owner of a restuarant. Customer service takes a back seat. more