Domenico's Monrovia Italian — Restaurant in Monrovia

My family and I dined here this evening for my wife's birthday. It was our first time and we were looking forward to finding a new go-to spot as we only live a few blocks up the street. To qualify this review, I've been in the foodservice industry, specifically the Italian foodservice industry, for twelve years; from busing, to serving, to managing five star Italian restaurants. The last five years I've worked as the Senior Purchasing Agent and Director of Purchasing for an Italian foodservice distributor. I also hold an MBA in Finance. My review is based off of two criteria; food and customer service.

My family ordered the baked eggplant, chicken parmesian, and 2 x spaghetti w/ meat sauce and Italian sausage. Overall, the food was 6.5 of 10. Both the marinara sauce and the meat sauce were adequate at best. The flavors were that of a basic prepared canned tomato sauce with little to no enhancements. There are excellent prepared tomato sauces, this did not taste like one. I have nothing better to say about the meat sauce. The sausages were decent. The meatballs were average at best. My wife's chicken parm was soft/soggy, lacking crispness and flavor. The eggplant in my eggplant parm was soft/mushy, no texture.

Bread was served with dinner. Average. The salads that came with our meals consisted of lettuce, couple slices of tomato, diced onions, and olives. These were good for two reasons. The olives being used are California sliced ripes, not imports, so they had good fruit flavor and lacked the chemical flavor of imports. The blue cheese that came with mine was also fairly good. Everyone else said their dressings were good.

They gave my wife a slice of cheesecake for her birthday. It was the best bite of the night.

We experienced three separate types of customer service experiences; the server, the hostess, and the manager and hostess. I don't know his name, but our server was great. Very friendly, made sure our drinks were filled, polite and attentive. The food came out in a timely manner. The staff also sang happy birthday to my wife.

The hostess was not very polite upon entering the restaurant. She asked if we wanted a booth and I requested a table. She groaned and said she'd have to look to see if there was anything available upstairs. When we were seated upstairs, all of the tables were empty.

Upon the end of our meal, my son and I went into their arcade area to play a few games. The game we played stole two of the three quarters i put in. I would have stopped at one but my son was a very good boy through dinner and I wanted to make sure he had an opportunity to play the game he wanted to play. When I went back in and spoke with the hostess and asked to be reimbursed the two quarters, she spoke with the manager and proceeded to tell me, per the manager, they wouldn't reimburse the two quarters because they weren't their machines. And quote "it's just something that happens with the machines sometimes." This is the wrong statement to make. It tells me they're aware the machines can, at times, take their customers money, but have chosen not to do anything about it. This is a form of theft. The manger could have grabbed a couple quarters to ensure he took care of the customer and his 3 year old son, but instead chose not to. In a time when the economy is tight, food costs are soaring, and restaurants are doing everything they can to keep their patrons, that was the wrong decision.

Overall, we will not return to this establishment and I encourage you to spend your hard earned...

I can't click on both dine in and take out, so I'm clicking take out as it affects my review more.

First and foremost, the place has been sold to a new owner. If you've been to Domenico's before, you know when this happened because the building was painted black and they added steaks to the menu. I want to say it has been at least a year now. They're also now open seven days a week now whereas they were closed on Monday's before.

The quality of the food is just as good as it was before. It is always delicious and filling. Garden salad is still one of my favorites around with a load of mozzarella cheese on top, big slice of tomato, black olives and onions. Prices shot up though. Two medium pizzas are costing me nearly $60 as each topping is $3 extra. That's a little...yeesh. I have found myself going to a few other places for pizza to save a few bucks. This tends to happen when service is bad from take out, which I'll talk about now.

If you're ordering take out, I would recommend you never order a pizza/calzone with anything that isn't a pizza/calzone. EVERY single time I have gotten a pizza/calzone with something like ravioli/spaghetti/lasagna/garlic bread, the other item that isn't a pizza was never made. EVERY TIME. This has happened at least eleven times over the course of the last three years and is the primary reason I have now been going to other places for pizza.

The last time was a month ago. I walked to Domenico's and placed my order at the window like I always do. The girl took my order and I heard her tell the cooks the order and she took my payment and I paid. Then I waited for my order. The order was two medium pizzas and four pieces of garlic bread with cheese. The pizzas are done, the girl gives me the pizzas and she tells me the garlic bread is about to be done in a minute. No problem. I tell her I'll be sitting at the tables next to the window. While I'm waiting, the servers and the girl are talking inside. They're asking her when she turns 18, they're asking her if she likes clubbing, they're telling her they all need to go clubbing, that they all need to go to the beach, blah blah blah. On and on. 10 minutes go by and I walk to the window. The girl looks at me and like a cartoon, her face turns to horror as she realizes I'm waiting for my garlic bread still and she immediately ran out of the kitchen. The other three servers that were talking to her had no clue what was going on and a younger guy (can't remember his name, but he's always been amazing) asks me if I needed anything. I tell him my garlic bread and the cooks just say, "Kitchen's closed." So, where is my garlic bread? The worker tells me it will just be a minute, but I said that's what I was told before and that if the cook says the kitchen is closed, then the bread definitely hasn't been made. I asked for a refund on the bread and the worker got it for me and gave me some garlic bread anyway. My pizzas were cold by then because the girl that took my order lied and forgot about everything until I approached the window again. Then she fled instead of doing her job.

I'm still giving the place 4 stars though because I've never had a problem going inside. It's ALWAYS doing take out and only when I order a pizza or calzone with something that isn't a pizza or calzone. It makes me believe they have one person doing those and someone else doing pastas/sides and they don't communicate properly so the pasta/sides...

When the hubby and I got married years ago, we often passed this joint. Hubby says it's been there forever. Basically, as long as he can remember. We recently noticed the big "lunch buffet" sign and decided to check it out. This review is for our experience there trying their weekday lunch buffet. We enjoyed it so much we went back again today. They have an antipasto salad along with a shrimp salad. They also serve up pizza, spaghetti, lasagna, chicken Marsala, chicken parmesan, minestrone soup, meatball soup, wings, St. Louis ribs, white fish with broccoli. Basically, they have a good spread and it all tastes good. Now I never get the ribs or wings but the hubby does and he loves those items along with the white fish. I love the antipasto and shrimp salad. Mind you, this isn't a shrimp salad with the tiny shrimp . It has the bigger sized shrimp and they're deveined. They cut up celery and its in this yummy sauce/dressing. They have little cubes of bread pudding to end your meal. I also find this tasty, considering I don't care for bread pudding. They drizzle it with caramel sauce. If it's your first time, the waiter will let you know what all the items are and you can decide whether to enjoy the lunch buffet or eat something off the menu. No pressure. Our waiter both times has been Rick and he's awesome. Both times, we've eaten lunch and have chosen the buffet option. The first time we went at the end of April and we went back today. We're going to try to go once a month. Mind you, the hubby and I are both lactose intolerant but neither one of us has gotten sick either time and their lasagna has a generous amount of ricotta cheese. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend Domenico's lunch buffet. The first time we made a last minute reservation for a Friday afternoon at 12:30 (like 2 hours before or something like that) and we ended up waiting almost 1/2 hour because they had a huge party. It seemed to be a whole office full of people celebrating someone's birthday or some other event along those lines. Today, I made an 11:30 reservation and made it at 10:00 AM. It was also a Friday today. This time, there was no wait. We got there at 11:25 and we thought they weren't even open. They were, though. There were only a couple of other patrons when we arrived. They had set a table aside for us since we had made the online reservation. (Go through their website and it'll send you a link to confirm.) By the time we left, it seemed everyone that walked in there was partaking of the buffet. For the price ($18.99 plus tax, drink not included) you can't beat it. The hubby and I would like to go back for dinner and try their steaks. I'll write another review if we should go back for dinner and...