mondo

never going back!. my husband found a large, hard piece of plastic in his food, cut his tongue, was bleeding, etc. staff took his plate & told us plastic had broken off a food container in the kitchen. ok, stuff happens. but then he had no food to eat! staff did not even allow him to eat his accompaniments of beans & plantains. he didn't order another entrée cos we had to attend a concert & did not have time. very disappointed! our meal was ruined! husband leftrestauranthungry & bleeding! only comp was his entrée, rest in our party of 4 paid full price tho our meals were also ruined!

when we went to mondo, it was a friday night and were told it would be a 15min wait, so we decided to go to the bar. i had a "mojito caliente," which was good, but extremely spicy even though the bartender made it mild. my guest had a "lawnmower" and thought it was very good since he is a fan of whiskey. once we sat down it took 10 minutes for our server to greet us when. he was helpful, but was hard to even hear the specials as therestaurantis loud. i felt like my throat hurt by the end of the night bc i had to talk over the noise. we started our meal with ceviche which was very good and decided to get a second order. my guest and i both ordered the butter lettuce, bacon, and blue cheese salad which we both sent back as the lettuce tasted bad. for our main course i ordered the brazilian ribeye which i would recommend and he ordered the pizza which he thought was decent. for dessert we shared a lemon tart and german chocolate cake, which were both nothing special. i see how therestaurantis trying to be different with interesting international dishes, but it's not something i would recommend to a friend.

ate a late lunch sorestaurantwas not crowded and mood was very relaxed. there was not a single thing on the menu that didn't look like a yummy adventure but i finally settled on a cuban sandwich with a watermelon soup. it was as good as i hoped it would be. my wife had fish tacos which were served with an apple/carrot/onion/cilantro salad which were spectacular. my son had a pizza fired in their brick oven which definitely hit the spot. overall it was a great experience.

chef spicer does it again!. chef susan spicer has a talent for great food and amazing restaurants. i've been there many a times and have loved it every time. the menu is beautifully eclectic ranging from wood fired oven pizzas, kobe beef with bearnaise sauce to classics like ceviche and steak tartare. as a chef i also happen to be a fan of the drink menu and trust me they have some of the best house made cocktails i've ever had! (try the house made white sangria!!) yes it can be pretty noisy in the dinning room when its full and sometimes the food can take some time but that's what a classic new orleans neighborhoodrestaurantis all about! (plus have you seen how small their kitchen is??) and the fact that they make almost everything in house and use as much local and organic products as they can is a big hit on my charts. overall even with some minor faults i still love this restaurant.

eat at the bar. i've eaten here several times and have to say, i don't get the criticism. table service was quite good on my initial visit soon after therestaurantopened. since then i've eaten at the bar several times and things couldn't have been bettter. a good crowd, excellent food and a very friendly vibe. what's the problem?

been there 3 times. went there when first opened. place was so hot and noisy with wait of an hour for our food while the busboy doled out little slice of bread. food was average. second time was there for a luncheon and the food was terrible. the open faced roast beef sandwich was so fatty my friend couldn't eat it. the fish taco was cold. the waiter gave us one tiny cup of cream for our 8 cups of coffee. the third time our whole family went and the best food we had was the burger!!! thank goodness some other restaurants are opening back up in lakeview. would not go back to mondo unless there are no other options.


-----25 jul, 2010-----

mondo needs finetuning. four of us went to mondo's on a saturday night. the menu was eclectic, lots of interesting dishes, but nothing that was exceptional. our appetizers took 45 minutes to arrive. our entrees another 30 minutes. a waitperson comes by and lays down one small slice of french bread on our bread plate. we were so hungry we had to ask for more bread. as others have stated, the portions are small. the other problem is the noise is loud, making conversation difficult. i think the pizza oven makes the back area quite warm, especially when therestaurantis full. it's a place i would take my children on a weeknight, not out of town guests or for an evening of quiet dining. the burger was about as good as luke's. the creamy crabmeat on toast had soggy toast. lambchops were good, the roasted chicken was good. the desert with the baked berries from the wood oven was excellent.

very good and kid-friendly to boot!. we (seven of us including two small children) had dinner here for the first time this evening. we all loved the bread (they pass it out in small slices and we kept stalking the guy for more). my dad and i both had pizzas and we enjoyed them a lot, especially the crust. i asked the waiter and he said that susan spicer's bakery, wild flour breads, supplies the bread for the restaurant. i have seen this bread for sale at langenstein's; now i will be buying some! my husband had a pork shoulder dish with black beans and plaintains and he liked it a lot. my sister ordered a steak dish with fries and she liked it although she said the portion was quite small. my mom got the redfish and she also enjoyed it very much. the kids were happy too and the place was noisy enough (in a good way) that we didn't have to worry about them being disruptive. one thing that particularly impressed me was that, although there were lots of people waiting for a table, therestaurantitself is not crammed full of tables. a couple more tables could have been squished in but that would have made things even louder and it would have made for a less comfortable dining experience. i appreciated having a comfortable distance between the tables....we'll be back!

katie g. service was exceptional!!! we live near by and are so happy to have thisrestaurantin the neighborhood. we ordered the thai shrimp/pork meatballs and civeche appetizers then had the gulf fish (red fish), and the blue cheese burger. lastly we had the beignets for dessert. the burger was nothing less than amazing, and the fish was delicious. i will be back and can't wait to bring in friends and family. thank you chef spicer for helping in bringing back our beloved lakeview :)

just plain bad. for starters the bartender was snooty. it was remarkably noisy (the howling drunks in there at the time didn't help.) tables are crowded together. service was horrible. yes, they're all young but that's no excuse. when our waiter basically threw menus down on the table - somewhat in front of us - i knew what kind of night we were in for. food was mediocre at best, although it did come out in a timely manner which is miraculous judging from the other comments. pork dish with black beans and plantain had potential but it was too salty to get a thumbs up. roasted chicken was dry and was served on top of instant mashed potatoes. fish dish was such a small portion, i laughed when it was set down on the table. none of the plates had veggies on it. overall it was an awfulrestaurantexperience. the yat from arabi put together a better restaurant!

dishonest and hot as hades.. we ordered the margherita pizza tonight and it came out looking like dominos!! a typical margherita pizza is tomato, mozzarella and basil. this pizza was tomato paste, cheese and bits of what looked like parsley.

when we questioned the waiter, he acted like he had no idea. minutes later the manager walked up and denied that the margherita pizza had real sliced tomatoes. please!!! i was there on monday night and ordered the margherita pizza. susan spicer actuallly came out and served us. it had real sliced tomatoes, basil and mozarella cheese (no tomato paste).

i guess she was working the bayonarestauranttonight. needless to say, we won't be going back -

plus, don't agree to sit in a booth -- no a/c vents. agree to sit only in middle of room - -if you don't mind becoming ill from smoke inhalation from the brick oven, but that's the best option because at least its cooler there.