Lalla Grill Del Monte — Restaurant in Monterey

I'd like to express my concern about the way the stuff works with delivery drivers. This partially may be because of lack of understanding how food delivery works. This is not a complaint but constructive observation that may contribute to smoother cooperation to the satisfaction of the customers. When driver enters the restaurant this may already be a pick up time. And when driver is said that the food will be ready in 5 minutes, he/she sometimes shoots a message to the customer, saying that "they say your food will be ready in 5 minutes". Then the food comes in 15 or 20 minutes. That happened with me in your restaurant. It was just a 9$ order. I accepted it. I came in. The employee said (don't want to mention the name (although I know it) or a gender) that the food will be ready in 5 minutes. I shot the message to the customer and waited for 15 minutes. And that on a busy Friday! I lost time, and about 50-60$ that I could have made instead of waiting. Thant 9$ order would make sense if the food was already ready to pick up. The stuff should know that a driver is not "glued" to the order. If the food will be ready in 15-20 minutes, JUST SAY THAT. We can drop the order in our app and take another one/ones. At the same time, another driver can pick it up in 15-20 minutes. Moreover, the burden of handling the guests and pick-up orders are on the shoulders of just one person: host/hostess. And you may observe the following poor scene: host/hostess literally surrounded/flooded with the bags of prepared food and at the same time takes care of the customers who just walked in. And drivers should wait until he/she finishes with them just to hand them a bag with the food that is already far from being hot. Why can't other people from FOH (servers/food runners/bussers) who are passing by just read a name on a bag and hand it to the driver (like in some other restaurants)? Why should it be on just one person? I hope this observation will help managers to take steps to ensure smooth and...

We went on a Sunday night, six people total in our party. They told us we couldn't make a reservation for a group so small. Okay, fine. Two the people who ordered steak, and ordered it medium rare. Both steaks came out very well done. One person sent theirs back, and the replacement didn't show up for over 40 minutes! I had the Cubano sandwich, which was not made on the bread as advertised, and was not pressed in the panini press. Which is the point of a Cubano sandwich, in my opinion. I had onion rings with my sandwich, and there were four onion rings in the serving. Not four huge ginormous ones, just four regular sized onion rings. The only food that came out right and was decent, was one person got a salad, and another got the avocado street tacos. Those were at the usual high standards.

We had our check split in two pieces, four persons on one check, two on the other. Both checks were hit with the 18% large party charge. In the first place, I don't feel six people is a large party at a restaurant. And since the check was split into four people and two people, neither of those is a large party.

Overall, all of us were gravely disappointed with the quality of the food, as well as the quantity.

The wait staff was definitely polite, courteous, and reasonably attentive. The whole restaurant seemed to be moving in slow motion though. It wasn't that busy, and again, for a Sunday evening we were disappointed.

Dinner and drinks for four people was $400. A reasonable amount of money in a decent restaurant, with good quality food. But this was not good quality food. And overall we were all unhappy with...

The good here is, for lack of a better word, uneven. I tried their nachos with birria and it was probably along the best if not THE best nachos I've had that I can remember. Their mojito was refreshing and easy to enjoy as well. Their birria burger was what I expected, which was good but I wouldn't say it's exceptional. It tastes like you would imagine it would. It was good, but I wouldn't say great.

But their firecracker fries were outright awful. Tasted old and perhaps even reheated. They were dry with the texture of a leather belt. I tried the fish and chips and the fried fish was virtually flavorless. Nearly no flavor to the fish or the fry batter. The chips, were the fries I mentioned, so yeah, skip the fish option at the restaurant that's by the ocean.

The interior is mixed, parts look nice and modern but the carpeted area looks like it's been there the 90s and the ceiling in the booth area is in a state of decay. Not sure what could be done but for the price they charge, a little reinvestment into the place could do wonders.

The staff was attentive, friendly and fast. However the waiter and the person who brought my food weren't the same guy so it was a little strange having to tell them who ordered what.

The menu could probably benefit from more focus on what they know how to do well and cut the extra stuff that they don't. And if they are going to keep that menu, at the very least, figure out how to make fries not taste so vastly interior to fries you could get for a fraction of the price...