Munz Munz biOstrot — Restaurant in Monopoli

Me and my partner eat mostly vegan food and were excited to find this place during our stay in Monopoli. Reviews online lavished this place with praise and we couldn’t wait to try it.

All it took was the greeting I got at the door of the establishment to put me off of it entirely. Granted, we arrived at the place just after 9pm, with no reservation, but there were empty tables inside with just one hour of service to go.

A female staff member noticed me and very promptly told me they were full and had no tables available. Believing this for a moment, despite the time left to close and the empty tables, the standoffish attitude towards a potential customers that is looking for an experience at your establishment is simply unacceptable.

My partner was stunned and pointed to the empty tables. I just said, well she just made it clear she doesn’t want us here. A couple on a table outside said they were about to leave and we could have their table. I returned to the lady inside and with the same standoffish to e, she tells me I can’t have the table because they will clear it for another reservation. I won’t question if this was true or not, despite it being highly unlikely, because I cannot prove it.

But what I can attest to, and given a second chance, is that this person showed no concept whatsoever of trying to meet a potential customer anywhere - Is this your first time here? We only do reservations. Would you like to book for another day? How long are you in Monopoli for? Nothing.

As a result, on the following night, we walked past the place while looking for a place to eat, and could not even contemplate setting foot inside the place. And that was the effect this person had on potential paying customers. There were also far more empty tables that night too.

The person in question clearly lacks experience in customer service and should receive proper training as she will cost the business many potential customers.

Sadly, I would and did stay away...

I was expecting more from this place due to all the good reviews I read but our experience wasn’t so good. We waited for ages around an hour to get food and the portions were too small. Tasty vegan food but nothing special. Definitely the worse pasta you can get in Monopoli. So if your up for pasta, better choose a good pizza and pasta place and ask for a vegan option. Also, we didn’t want to order more food not only because of the price but due to the wait so opted for desserts. However it turned we had to wait for another 25mins to get those as well. Overall very poor service and experience.

Edit from 1/08, adding additional context based on the owner's request from the response: There was a live music concert that started at 11pm. We arrived at our table at 9:30 and waited for 45 minutes to be approached to order. Maybe the stuff was preparing for the live concert that was supposed to start at 11pm, we don't know because we were not told the reason for this huge wait. We were not served any snacks or anything to compliment our waiting. When we finally ordered, we waited additional hour to actually get the food. Again, waiting for desserts was around 15-20minutes. It is not true that we were not charged anything because there was a small fee added to the coverage cost 0.50 cents (so really negligible), so please don't say you didn't charge when you did. As I said, this is negligible and not important because the live music was actually ok, although I wouldn't personally paid to listen to it if I had a choice which I hadn't. I wish I took a photo of the bill now just to add it here. If the customer is right, then learn how to take negative feedback, handle it with grace and improve based on it. The way that you've responded to this review talks about how you're handling customer care more...

All Vegan e il ristorante molto particolare! Tipici Puliese ma arranged con loro metodi molto interessante💖Il cameriere voleva usare Inglese ma miei genitori non capiscono neanche inglesi quindi meglio in l'Italiano per me e mio marito(Quando siamo in Italia, sempre parliamo l`italIano!) 😇Staff explained il menu very well in detail in Italian even if he prefered English ( I think it's for other tourists) which are very pleasant for us🥰 Apuglian dishes but arranged not only vegan but their creative styles. Interesting interputation on "fave e cicoria" since normally tipico pugliese is a simple fava beans paste and cicoria, but their version was tipico+ red onion pickles with fig, so it would suit perfectly if you're a bit tired of of normal contorni from Puglia😇

Lastly their signature should be a vegan carbonara(regret to forgot to take photo😭), and at this time it came with asparaghi(asparagas), it was extremely buonissima! Both non vegan parents and marito were surprised & pleased😋🥳👏

Salute...