Mona Lisa's Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Norfolk

This is going to be a fair and honest review of Mona Lisa's Restaurant & Bar. Side note I did not dine in, a food delivery service was used there for Fresh at the restaurant my have a different out come.

Items ordered: Thin spaghetti with sausage, extra meatballs and fried mozzarella.

I will begin with the fried mozzarella. The $5.24 price is spot on for what you get. These are the same generic frozen mozzarella sticks that you can get at any fast food joint or bar. They came with a little container of what I am assuming is house made sauce that was eh, good for what it was being used for. Not a whole lot to write home about.

Lets move to the Spaghetti and break it down. They advertise thin spaghetti, however the pasta is not so thin. Honestly it's just standard sized spaghetti noodles. Next the Sauce, I am curious if they are using multiple styles of sauce because the sauce on the pasta did not seem to be the same as the sauce provided with the cheese sticks or the sausage on the side, that shoulda been with the pasta. The sauce on the pasta was super thick almost like tomato paste, and was relatively bland. Consistency by be different if dining in but I doubt delivery changes the flavor profile.

Meatballs: Well they were cooked perfectly, and that's about it. Flavor wise is is what it is, Balled up ground beef. When cutting into one you can see specs of herbs but get not even a hint of the flavors. I come from an area with a very rich Italian heritage and can honestly say these meatballs miss the mark. I can get meatballs with way better and more authentic flavor at Denny's.

Sausage: The sausage was as well perfectly cooked. It was sweet and had a strong aroma of bell peppers. When I say sweet, wow! yeah it's super sweet. I am not a sweet sausage fan and prefer a bold flavor such as a mild or hot sausage will produce. The flavor profile was not bad, again not a fan of sweet so I'm trying to be objective. Like the meatballs there is not a whole lot of flavor. It's obvious that peppers are used in the sausage which is what seems to be giving it the sweetness and aroma. you can definitely taste the bell pepper. I did not get a hint of fennel or any other common herb that is typically used for Italian Sausage.

I don't know If the Meatballs or Sausage are made in house. I honestly hope that they are not because that would open the door for management to find a better product.

Not remember I had this delivered, so lets go over packaging. 10 out of 10. extra care was taken to ensure nothing spilled if tipped over, and it was obvious that food was packaged as soon as it was done.

I hope I get the chance to go in person to this establishment and have a better experience.

Overall quality of the food was good, meats perfectly cooked, pasta was cooked well, it was just lacking in the flavor department for me. But that is my pallet not everyone's. If your still reading by now I would encourage you to try...

I found this place on Groupon and was excited to try out some good Italian food, but sadly it turned out that the best part about this place was the waitress and the Long Island ice tea. The waitress was extremely sweet and hospitable despite the poor quality of the food. I ordered the wings and the Alfredo, and my partner ordered wings and chicken parmesan. For this to be an Italian restaurant their quality of pasta was below average. The pasta lacked seasoning and the cheese sauce was thick and goopy like it came straight from a can. Same with my partners food- no seasoning and the garlic bread was so bizarre. It was like reheated cardboard with absolutely no garlic seasoning wrapped in aluminum foil. The wings were alright. I ordered a 10 piece Mango Caribbean, which visually looked very good but after taking a bite I discovered that the wings themselves had no seasoning on them, you could tell the the wings were fried completely plain, then dumped in a sauce that left a lot to be desired. We were in the midst of suffering through the food when a medium sized baby roach crawled from the wall and sashayed over to the back of our booth. It was entirely too comfortable so I cringe to know what the kitchen looks like. We quickly left after that. The drink was strong & good so if anything I would just go...

I’m writing this review hours after I was at the establishment. I placed an order for pick up as I’ve done multiple times in the last few weeks. My go to order it’s a large cheese pizza for takeout. It’s like $11 and some change and it’s pretty good. After today, I won’t be going back to this restaurant ever again and I’m pretty pissed off that I’ve eaten with them so many times and the last few months.

I arrived at the restaurant to pick up my order, and a gentleman was sitting at the counter about to cut what I later learned was my pizza. He coughed. He didn’t just let out a cough, he coughed with what I later learned was my food directly in front of him. He tried to cover it up with his arm, but he coughed directly on that pizza. then he started coughing again, and this time walked away, and then proceeded to try to go back to finish cutting the pizza. When I learned from the cashier that it was my food that he was cutting, and it would be ready in a moment, I told her I refuse to pay for my food and I called the guy out for coughing on it. He tried defending his actions as if he did it in a clean manner. NO. you coughed directly on my food and you didn’t care whatsoever that you did so. It’s f’n gross. It’s dangerous to other’s health.

AVOID THIS PLACE...