Mondo Italiano — Restaurant in Taos

Great, authentic New York Italian style restaurant! I had spinach stuffed ravioli, my wife had a penne pasta dish with mushrooms and we shared a salad with walnuts, dried cranberries, mixed greens and a raspberry vinaigrette dressing. The Italian bread was delectable. The dessert was a tough choice with Italian Cream Cake, Carrot Cake, Lemon Cream Cake and several flavors of gelato. We settled on gelato, mocha for the lady and salted caramel for me.

The wait staff was, friendly, courteous and professional. The service was prompt. Well worth the stop for a relaxed, romantic dinner.

Update 2 years from my last post...

Ownership has changed. The new chefs still cook outstanding Italian food. We dined on Apple, Cranberry, Pecan salad with mixed greens and Gorgonzola cheese crumbles, Fettuccini Carbonara, Calzone with Italian Sausage and Bell Pepper and Carrot Cake all of which were excellent The service has slowed down. Two chefs were cooking, but only one lady was doing all the work up front: hostess, waitress and busing tables. She was courteous, and friendly, but clearly overworked. I hope the new owner hires more wait staff, bus persons and hosts. There was no gelato available, which was a...

Let me start this by saying I'm a very patient man. I understand when a restaurant gets busy, I also understand when somebody is short-staffed. What I don't understand is when a 25-minute wait becomes an hour and 15 minute wait in the middle of a lobby. The prices would suggest something in the ballpark of a Michelin star as far as quality, but I wouldn't give them a Yokohama sticker for the wait time. On top of that, when I got called up for the initial payment, they didn't even complete the third dish on my order and had to rush it at the end. I appreciate the wait staff, as they are maybe the only silver lining from my experience, they do their job fairly well, they are very friendly and they tried to assuage me with a $5 discount. That being said, I don't have much else in the way of nice things to say so I will leave it at that. I'm sorry to say that this was my first experience with Mondo, I don't know if it's a one-off unique negative experience, but as first impressions go, this will be my last impression as well. $17 a piece for calzones, and toppings averaging about $4 extra? Combined with an hour and 15 minute wait on top of the original 25 minute wait? Not only is that a hard no for me, that's a...

Skip this restaurant unless you enjoy waiting for hours in a noisy restaurant for bad food. Our dinner was only slightly more enjoyable than a day spent at the DMV. We were a group of 10 and called ahead to make sure they could accommodate us.

We ordered before 6 pm but were not served until 7:45 pm. All but one person at our table was served but the final member of our party received his food another 15 minutes later.

The food itself was mediocre to downright bad. The calimari was bland. The pizza, which was billed on the menu as “hand tossed” was obviously not. Instead it was an atrocious frozen crust topped with canned tomato sauce. The eggplant parmigiana was chewy and tough. The carbonara was loaded with onion, and nothing like a traditional carbonara. Our server was kind and apologetic for the slow kitchen and offered to comp dessert, then after our 4 children ordered gelato we were told that they would only comp ONE dessert. She kindly offered to waive her gratuity, but the only decent thing about the experience was her service. Clearly the incompetence at Mondo Italiano lies with the kitchen and management. We would NOT recommend...