Mondo's Italian Restaurant — Restaurant in South Carolina

Having recently bought a house in Charleston, we went to Mondo’s Italian for the first time tonight at the suggestion of a local friend. I have this tradition at the end of a great meal, whenever possible, to express my gratitude to the Chef and Back of the house staff. The open kitchen at Mondo’s made this easier to do on a busy Saturday night. Rick (our waiter) and Michelle (waitress in training) were both standing at the pass and I said that if I had to describe our meal at Mondo’s in one word it would be ….Salvation!

sal·va·tion noun preservation or deliverance from harm, ruin, or loss. It was all that and more!

Our meal began with their wonderfully light and savory Focaccia Bread served with a dish of fruity Olive oil and a small ramekin of Grated Parmesan Cheese. I knew that I would need some of it for dipping during the meal so amazingly I was able to exercise restraint. If you find yourself in need of more, they have second (or third) rounds as a menu item at $6.00 Well worth it!

We ordered the Steamed Mussels and I appreciate the offering of several different flavor profiles. We chose the Roasted Garlic Cream sauce. I have a confession: when I order mussels at a restaurant it’s a bit self serving because my girlfriend is usually good for 3, maybe 4 of the small ones and I get to eat the rest….FYI, she ate almost half the bowl and proclaimed these mussels as the best she ever had! They were incredibly tender with absolutely no chew. The sauce was well balanced and light for a cream sauce.

For entrees, she ordered the Eggplant Parmesan , I’ll get to that in a minute, but I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the salad that came with it. Many Italian places give a salad with certain meals and it is notoriously a handful of Mesclun greens, some onions, and dressing. At Mondo’s they really go the extra mile on their included salad. Fresh mixed greens, mushrooms, zuchinni, tomatoes, Carrots sunflower seeds and a lovely Balsamic dressing in a very generous portion.

Back to the Eggplant…luscious, thicker than usual slices of eggplant layered with Spinach, cheese and their darn near perfect marinara sauce, baked Il Forno till the cheese is browned and the edges Carmelized and crisp. Again the portion was ample and we took half of it home.

I ordered the Pasta Aglio e Olio (Garlic with Oil) with the addition of Sautéed Shrimp. Rick told me it was the Chef’s favorite so order it I did. It’s this Chef’s favorite now too! (Yes, I’m a retired Chef) This dish was simply perfect!

After all that, we muscled our way through a piece of Flourless Chocolate Cake that came topped with whipped cream and Luxardo Cherries with their sauce. A perfect ending to a most amazing meal.

Being from NJ, I asked Rick to tell me who in the kitchen is from NJ“ because I would put this meal up against anything I’ve had back home. He replied “the owner is from NJ” I must say I wasn’t at...

Update...Oct 1, 2019 Thank you Chris for your response. I am glad that you remember the incident and apologized to Faith. It seems that you had a lot to say in your response, however, I didn't see an apology to me, but that's okay. Take care, Chris and I hope you do well with Mondo's. The servers are wonderful and usually the food is too.

Sept 20, 2019 My husband and I went there tonight. We had always loved this restaurant because of the great service and great food, but I had no idea who the owner was until tonight...

Chris Orlando must have been having a bad night. I ordered the manicotti which is what I always order every time I have gone to Mondos for the past several years. It has always been the best manicotti by far compared to any other Italian restaurants.

Our wonderful and extremely professional server, Faith brought my manicotti. I noticed that it did not appear like it had in the past. It had very little mozzarella cheese on it and the cheese that was there was burnt. I asked Faith about the cheese and she very kindly said she would check on it. She took it and returned shortly to reluctantly give me a rude message from the owner. She seemed embarrassed and upset to give me the message which was, "this is the way it is and if you don't like it, then order something else". I could tell that Faith was put in a terrible position by Chris. The manager came up and apologized and said she would take care of it. She, later brought it out to me with the amount of mozzarella cheese (not burnt) that has always been there when I ordered it. It was very good and I enjoyed it.

It is a pity that someone like Chris Orlando can seem to care so little about his customers and his employees. We are not problem customers. This was the first time anything like that has ever happened to us at Mondos. I felt badly for our wonderful server, Faith and for the manager that had to make up for Chris Orlando's bad behavior.

I hope Chris adopts a better attitude for the future of his restaurant and the employees that...

The moment we stepped into the restaurant our dining experience was ruined. The two women seating guests were extremely rude. They separated our group so we didn’t get to sit together. When being taken back to our seat the woman walking us to our table slammed the menu’s down and turned and walked away without saying a word. Me being the person I am yelled “Thank you!” There is no excuse for someone to be that rude. The entire interaction from walking through to doors to being seated was ridiculous. If we could have found another place to eat in a timely manner we would have. This is a sub pair Italian restaurant trying to act like they’re a 5 star joint on King Street. If this is what the recent remodel did to their business approach, they need to go back to their previous dwelling. We will not be back after visiting the last two summers. I’ve had better service and respect at a Fazoli’s.

Edited to add after the response-

My recent review has nothing to do with “entitlement” as the establishment wanted to comment back and act like it was our fault and us just not “getting our way.” I’m also not trolling. I’m leaving a legitimate review based on the service I received. There are no rules listed on the website or property stating they can’t seat a party of 7, or as in our situation 6 and a child. When we offered to split our party we were told they still wouldn’t allow it because we would be up walking around the restaurant talking to each other. I’m sorry but this isn’t a bar, and we’re adults. The only reason they “allowed” us to stay and sit separately was under the agreement to act like we didn’t know each other. Just to be clear, after all of this, we STILL stayed and spent money at your restaurant. You’ve had 3 different negative reviews from 3 different families in one night, not just my family. Maybe the customers...