Monteleone's Ristorante — Restaurant in El Paso

Let me start by saying I really, REALLY wanted to like this place so it pains me to write this. I’ve seen and read all about the history of this place and it peaked our interest so my partner and his family decided to try it tonight for dinner. We went in through the back entrance to the haunt/bar side of Monteleone’s and having never been there before staff kindly walked us through to the restaurant side showing us where the entrance was 😅. We were seated in a smaller room that was casino themed at a halved casino table. I will say the placement was a little awkward as the four of us were facing the wall and the high chairs with no bar rest in front of us made it a weird position for our legs. All of the servers and staff were VERY SWEET, and so kind and attentive! However our food in one word was very BLAND. We ordered the zucchini sticks to start and they were flavorless and not cooked long enough?(too crunchy like eating a raw zucchini). I ordered the baked rigatoni with mushrooms (an extra charge of $2 or so) and again I’m sad to say this was so, so bland. The plate was hot but the pasta was not. It had melted cheese on top but even then I had to add salt to doctor it up. The meat sauce was too acidic. My partner ordered ravioli with meat sauce and it was four large raviolis but according to him “if I knew it was just going to be four I would’ve ordered something else”. Our meals did come with a choice of soup or a salad. I opted for a salad but even then the salad was ‘eh’ even with ranch. The others had the soup and it came in a tall very narrow cup with one small meatball and crackers that was just ‘okay’.

I know this place is supposed to read dark and haunt-y but to me, at least where we sat, it was giving musty, dusty, crusty… like even the padding on the table felt sticky and the chairs definitely had some questionable stains on them. I’m glad I went to experience it for myself but I would sadly never eat here again. The food...

Place was interesting and fun to see; however the food was an insult to Italian food. I ordered Pellegrino or anything sparkling water they had, waiter had to check if they even had any. He brought me carbonated water but it was actually just water. I asked for a Lemonade, and once again the water brought me water. Waitress came over asked if everything was ok, told her my lemonade was just water. She asked “are you sure?” Yes I replied, I know the difference. She said she would check. Came back and said, oh yes we are out lemonade and walk away. Didn’t apologize or ask if I wanted anything else. Ordered the Bruschetta as an appetizer (look at above picture) it was regular diced tomatoes with sprinkled parmesan cheese and watered down olive oil. Bruschetta are usually toped teardrop tomatoes, mozzarella, and basil that should have been cooked with garlic, salt and pepper. Then olive oil with balsamic vinegar dip. The salad was small. I was only provided a salad fork which I had to keep for my main meal. The main dish was the baked ragatoni. It looked good. Once I took the first bite the pasta was still not cooked right. It was not drained properly so the sauce became watery. The only thing that had flavor was the sausage within the sauce. The bread provided was only one small roll per person and it didn’t have or come with butter or garlic spread. No flavor. I wasn’t asked again if I needed refills on my fake sparkling water or lemonade. I was given my bill. Once I had to pay with cash app (only this or cash is accepted) the cashier said they bill was strong because there was a change on the meal prices. This seemed eerie that the waiter and cashier did not know the prices or changes to the menu. I’m a big Italian food person, and I feel like I wouldn’t have gotten a better meal from a frozen healthy choice meal or a...

This was my first time coming to this restaurant and overall my experience was disappointing. The staff was friendly, helpful and joy to be with. They had live music which was a plus but, tonight lacked in service. We got to the restaurant at 7pm and planned to be out by 8:30pm. We are a party of 2 and got there with no wait and plenty of open tables. We ordered our food along with the drinks and were given the option to order soup or salad. 2 wines down and an hour later and we still hadn’t received our soup and salad. We noticed our server having a conversation with the table across from us for over ten minutes and didn’t bother to check on our food. Once we received our soup and salad we got our food within five minutes. At this point, we had a time to leave and already frustrated. We ordered the lasagna and spaghetti, the spaghetti came with meatballs at an extra charge, but it was not a reasonable price as it was only two meatballs. The servers tried to make it better at the end and they were very understanding of their service, but because of the wait I give...