Resturant Review: Monica's

Monica’s

When you walk into Monica’s your first impression is this is a very nice place, maybe even elegant. The once you sit down you notice a lack of cohesion in the décor. What first comes across as a very nice place is confused by all the TV’s. There are enough TV’s to make the place a sports bar (the place used to be Sluggers) and all the specialty pizzas are named after Hawkeye basketball players. There is nothing wrong with that in fact a former Hawkeye basketball player was working the night we were there. The space and the restaurant just does not quite know what it is yet. We were started with some fresh bread with some oil and some cinnamon butter. There was some argument at the table but it was 2 votes to 1 that this was better than Texas Road House butter. When it comes to the service this is hard to figure, what I would assume was the owner was there talking to as many people as he could I like that and our waitress was very friendly and attentive. But and there had to be a but. Some lady who I have no idea who she was possibly a manager delivered the food, not quite a personable if you know what I mean and then she was the one that brought our ticket that was just weird. If fact we said something then our regular waitress brought the ticket back. As for the food we had 3 dishes at our table the first was a new item on the menus gourmet mac and cheese. To be honest I get better mac and cheese as a side at most BBQ places. In fact more than half of it was left. We also tried a chicken and apple wood smoked bacon Panini it was very good. My dish is again a little difficult to review due to the fact that I had up until this point never been brave enough to try. It was the oven baked Ziti, which was penne pasta with chicken, shrimp, prosciutto served with a lobster cream sauce.  As far as I know this could have been the best Ziti in the world but I would have no idea. The chicken and the penne pasta were perfect. The lobster sauce I think made it rich but overall for something new I am glad I tried it.

Price range: (everyday, a night out, a special occasion only) A Night Out

Overall rankings all based 1 to 5

Atmosphere:  3

Service:         3.5

Food:            3

Value:           2

Overall          3

Monica’s

303 2nd Street Coralville, IA 52241