Monte Bello Pizzeria — Restaurant in Lemay

From what I have read on mixed reviews as well as from my own recent first time experience at Monte Bello, calling in your order in ahead for dine-in or picking up to go to avoid extremely long waiting times is probably a good idea. The couple who walked in front of us announced their names to a server and received food order within 15 minutes of being seated, while we waited at least 30 minutes just for our appetizers and an additional 30 minutes for our pizza. The kitchen can be seen from the dining area and was staffed by only two people. This would have been sufficient if it were a dine-in only restaurant since there were never more than five or six tables occupied the whole time we were there, but there were quite a few to-go orders coming and going which seemed to be the explanation for the excessively long wait time for the dine-in crowd. The extremely poor table service was the HUGE deal breaker for us. We sat ourselves and it took at least 10 minutes for our server to greet us, give us menus and take our drink order. It took another 10 minutes before we finally got our drinks and placed our order. 20 minutes from the time we walked in to get a beverage? Seriously? As we observed others and looked around the place, we noticed that other parties who came in after us were having the very same experience. We also noticed that patrons at other tables who were there before us were sitting for long periods of time waiting for their orders while also in need of drink refills in their TINY beverage cups. It wasn't long before we joined that club as we sat for a good 30 minutes waiting just for our appetizers, at which time she finally gave us a refill. It was at least another 30 minutes before our pizza order finally arrived at the table and a drink top off. We had to stop eating before we felt were finished because our beverages were empty again, and we didn't know if or when we would ever get a refill to wash down our heavy meal. So we stopped eating and waited for our server nowhere to be seen or found...again. As we waited, we noticed the ones who had already finished their meals sat and waited (and waited) for their checks and others who had already received their checks were sitting around were waiting to pay and leave. For most of the duration of our visit (an hour and a half), along with everyone else there, the entire experience was spent waiting to be waited on! At just about any given time, there was no waitress to be seen or found anywhere for anyone. And when a server made a rare appearance in the dining area, it seemed they were incapable of handling more than one task at a time. This was totally and completely inexcusable considering there were two waitresses on staff that evening, and each server had no more than three tables at once with less than 4 people in each party. The only up side to the whole experience was that the pizza was decent, and the homemade sausage and toasted raviolis were delicious. I have had long wait times in restaurants before, but when the service is on top of things, it can make the wait worthwhile, especially if the food is outstanding. I don't think there is any Italian food out there that could make up for the extremely poor service we had at this place, which was the kind of service you would expect if they were understaffed with a line going out the door. Never, ever ever again will I go here. Worst....

This pizza wasn’t nearly as good as I’d hoped.

First thing I’d say is if you’re going to get the St. Louis style pizza people talk about, you’ll only get half of the experience here. I’ll put part of my assumption on me because I misinterpreted what their “secret 4 cheese blend” might actually be. I found Monte Bello based on some critics ratings of top St Louis Style pizza places to try. There are two critical ingredients to a St Louis style pizza. One is the Provel cheese. The second is the nearly paper thin cracker style crust. If you ask 100 people from the area what a St Louis style pizza is, that’s what you get from 99 of them. The other 1 doesn’t know what they’re talking about or lives in a cocoon. Monte Bello checks one of the boxes with the crust but you won’t find Provel on the pies. That’s fine because they’re completely able to pick whatever ingredients they want to put on their pizza. The secret blend just threw me off because Provel has 4 primary ingredients (swiss, provolone, white cheddar, and liquid smoke flavor). Provel is a love it or hate it type of experience. The first time I went for pizza in St. Louis I was not ready for it and it wasn’t the best pizza so I left craving a real piece of pizza. The second time I visited St Louis a local took me for great pizza and it was one of the best pizzas I’d ever eaten so I’ve been craving it ever since. Bottom line is, if it’s real St. Louis style pizza you’re craving, look elsewhere.

With that out of way I’d say I really didn’t care for the pizza for several reasons. The pizza took forever to come out. Literally we ordered appetizers and the pizza, and the pizza didn’t come out for an hour and ten minutes. This isn’t really excusable for a dine in pizza. With the kids hungry after a day of parading around the area they were burnt out and very hungry. About 45 minutes into it they were losing their minds. About that time my wife noticed a little notecard next to the salt and pepper that mentioned a bunch of made from scratch mumbo jumbo and expect at a minimum 30-35 minutes. Great so we missed that but even then at 35 minutes I would be able to forgive the delay. But an hour and 10 minutes?!?! C’mon, this is crazy. I understand 45 minutes for a Chicago style pizza. But that’s because of the the crust and cooking through. This paper thin crust takes less time to burn than a traditional pizza although they did a pretty good job with that. The crust was badly burnt. Like charred. As a result it had a foul taste because of it. The last issue, the ingredients. Canned mushrooms, tasted awful, sausage that was so flavorless that if you blindfolded me and gave me a taste I couldn’t really tell you what it was, and the sauce. Oh my god. Yuck. Both my daughters said it tasted like Chef Boyardee and while I can’t say that I’ve ever had the luxury of trying the stuff, I don’t think I could argue. It was terrible.

I’m sorry if this review comes off harsh and my apologies to the family that owns this joint because these comments might sound brash but this is simply one person’s opinion. And had we only had pizza we didn’t care for all would’ve been water under the bridge had the wait not taken so long. This made the experience...

A few friends and I went to Monte Bello. We try to go to a new pizza place every other month and this one came up on several top 10 lists and the Google and Yelp reviews were good. We might have gone on a bad night, or someone called in sick, or something, but we had a pretty bad experience.

Pros The prices were great. My wife and I were able to eat for less than $30.

The atmosphere is that of a solid pizza place.

Cons

We were there for 3 hours. We only ordered two appetizers and three pizzas. The place was never more than half full and we only saw maybe 4 people come in for carry out orders. By the time we got our food, there was only one other table of two.

It took 25 minutes just to get water. It took another 20 minutes for our order to be taken. It took another 40 minutes to get appetizers. And another 45 minutes after that for our pizza.

They ran out of toasted raviolis, which people rave about. We substituted mozzarella sticks, which weren't very good. They tasted exactly like the ones you buy frozen from the grocery store.

The pizza was OK. It wasn't bad, it wasn't great. Their home made sausage was good. But other than that, I feel like I would've been just as happy with a chain pizza.

As we were putting on our coats to leave, an employee came up to us with a to-go order and said, "Next time you should call in your order ahead of time so you don't have to wait." That's fine if you're going to a place where that's decently advertised. I expect to wait for pizza when I go to Blackthorne. But their pizza is thick. This pizza is a fairly standard regular crust.

When I got home, I read other reviews. It does seem like some people know to call ahead. It also seems like a lot of people have nostolgia for the place. I just was not impressed. Like I said, maybe I came on a bad night. Maybe I should've done more research and found out about the wait. But I don't feel like that's an excuse...