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| - This restaurant is now at a new location, in the shopping plaza directly across from Alpine Pools on Route 8.
I like the new place much better, and during our last 2 visits, the place has been packed.
That being said, I have both good and bad to report.
The good:
-newer surroundings, good servers, clean restrooms.
-they finally figured out how to properly make a Joe's Special Pizza. At the old location, a Joe's Special was never really a Joe's Special (crust was always too thin, and not as much cheese as the original from McKnight Rd). Also, the regular crust pizza is pretty true to the original Monte Cello's.
It's a pretty good bet to go with one of their pizzas.
-the shrimp in my dad's entree were huge, delicious, and appeared to be hand-breaded.
-wife said the eggplant parmesan was good.
-daughter said her spaghetti with meatballs/sausage was good.
-side salads, bread, and soups were pretty good.
Monte Cello's are franchised. As such, I assume the owner of each particular restaurant is trained in the food prep of the original Monte Cello's. Sometimes they get it right, sometimes they don't.
The bad:
-father in law got the fish sandwich with fries. Fries were overcooked and served cold.
-stuffed shells were bleh. Standard fare like you'd get at Costco. Certainly didn't taste homemade.
-the lasagna was absolutely atrocious. I tasted it and my daughter tasted it. It tasted like something that had been in a freezer for about a year, absorbed the odors of all of the food around it, then was re-heated. Terrible. Worse than terrible. We each took one bite and didn't eat the rest of it. Stouffer's from your local grocer's freezer is ten times better than this stuff.
It took a really long time after we ordered to receive our entrees. Certainly not the server's fault, though. He was excellent.
I hope this place gets its act together with the freshness of some of the food.
I'll go back, but I'm sticking with the pizza for now.
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