iMonelli Restaurant — Restaurant in Lafayette

Tonight's meal was the best I have had at a restaurant in years. The oyster Rockefeller bisque was rich and flavorsome with a fair amount of delayed heat. The Halibut special with lump crab meat was fresh, flakey goodness! The chocolate ganashe with raspberry sauce was delicious, especially with my last bit of red wine. Our waitress never dropped her smile. She knew the menu flawlessly. The entire experience was amazing.

Another trip to Lafayette and another impeccable meal at iMonelli. This place is a gem. Super romantic, but not overly pretentious. EVERY SINGLE DISH was fantastic and could have been the star at any other restaurant in town. I ended up having 3 appetizers. That duck and andouille gumbo was one of my favorite gumbos ever. And if you knew me, you would know how strong a statement this is. Dark, super rich roux makes this a home run. So much Andouille, it almost has a bacon flavor in the back end. The sherbet between courses was nice so you got a "clean" start at the next set of flavors about to hit your taste buds. The Red Snapper with shrimp was fantastic. That sauce was SO good. I'm glad the bread was good so I could clean the last drops from the plate. Our waitress was great. Knowledgeable about every option. Kept a couple of thirsty guys who had played tennis all day with plenty to drink....not an easy task if you ask the other restaurants we have been to. They don't rush you to turn the table, something I hate at some high end smaller restaurants. My Old Fashioned made with a nice eye whiskey was quite nice. The weakest part of the meal was the marishino cherry. I'll live with it. The cane sugar swizzle almost made up for it. I can't say enough good about the myriad of house made desserts. They are SOO good and so rich!! I can't wait to come back again and update this again. Back again. Got to introduce 5 more people to this place. All went away very happy. It was my first time there for lunch. That was a great value! The oysters spaghetti was delicious. The softshell crab was good. The bisque was delicious!! The star of the show this time was the seafood crepes! I will DEFINITELY be ordering those again, but not as a share. 😂 Great...

I usually never eave comments. Unfortunately, this restaurant deserved a write up. My girlfriend and I was looking for a good Italian restaurant and came upon iMonelli.

Problems: 1.The first thing I notice for such a fine Italian restaurant there were torn and stained chairs. Why? Maybe reinvest back in the restaurant especially, if we were told by the hostess usually reservation is require because its very busy meaning you have cashflow for theses little things.

The waitress gave us dirty menus with food stain and fingerprints. Opening the menu was more food stains . Why? Why is management not checking? The restaurant is not very large.

The bread came out and when I reached to place olive oil onto my bread. The olive oil bottle was sticky and with fingerprints. Mind you I have to touch my bread. Why?

They were not short handed because there were 2 waiters and a waitress just talking casually with each other at the bar. That time could of been used to fix theses details.

My meal was very over cooked and flavorless for Italian cuisine. Why?

This $92.00 + tip was not a great experience (tripadvisor Price range: $$$$), Really?. We will not be back.

I'm hoping this will help your business moving forward because if want to be classified as a fine dining restaurant or a restaurant in general, those issues stated above may seem like small things, but are big things and very noticeable for a pricey place as yours.

Thank you, I...

We stopped here for dinner on our way to New Orleans after almost a 6 hour drive and seeing reviews and our love for Italian food, we decided to have dinner here. Based our experiences at other Italian restaurants even smaller scale Olive Garden, there'll be bread served but none was served here. However, we saw other tables were being served bread and we were not sure whether it's a request, order or what. I wanted to ask but husband being in the service industry didn't want me to ask so I just left it but I still have that question so if anyone who has been here could let me know, I would love to know. As I wasn't sure if we are treated differently. The same server as sweet as she was with us she never refilled our water or gave the same service as the table across. My husband has to take water from my glass. Pretty disappointing to spend so much money to be treated differently compared to other guests and if it's because we were not dressed to kill it's because we are traveling. Food - overall was good and desserts were tasty. P/S: Our server did not deserve a great tip but I still did give her 20% because I know how they depend on it during these tough times but if the restaurant is reading the reviews... my advice please treat all your guests the same regardless of ethnicity,...