3 of us went on a friday night. prices in this place are high. chicken 15-20
veal 25-30, seafood i didnt even bother looking because it was high too.
we ordered  lasagna which was good. then chicken vesuvio which was bland, barely marinated. veal for 27$ was horrible , not marinated and the mushrooms seemed like they were cooked for 2 minutes. in general food was bland, zero flavor. soup , some shrimp based concoction was watered down so they could get more out.
the place was full, its almost like people (the regulars) dont know any better.
the italian man who seemed like the owner was all about counting money. i bet if he tasted the food he would have a heart attack.. there are much better places than this..
Last night: Almond Cilantro Creme Cold Soup, Grilled Octopus, Gnocchi in tomato cream with peas, salads. ALL outstanding. We enjoyed sitting outside with an excellent bottle of Willamette Pinot Noir we brought from home . We have visited this place 5 times and with exception of one serving of "fishy" mussels, we love this place. Great staff and excellent Italian cooking with imaginative specials. This place is unpretentious and reasonable. We love the fact that it BYOB. Please give it a try.
Review Source:This is a great BYOB place with a cork fee. Mario is the nice older Italian owner.
The place is tiny with a maximum of 14 tables. Make a reservation as close to opening time as early as possible on a Friday or Saturday. Tables do not free up and you can wait 2 hours+ to get seated. People take their time drinking their brought wine and beer. I've seen tables with multiple 6-packs and several bottles of wine here.
Groups with 10 people are common on weekends. If you can go on an off night and want to BYOB, come here. It's a nice party.
The food is bland. Spaghetti is pre-coded and reheated. Mine has never been drained well and when the sauce is added, it makes a watery spaghetti dish. The pesto is salty with no flavor. The Italien sausage plate is good...it's hard to screw that up.
The tea, coffee and Pelligrino waters are good here.
The service is bad especially if you are in a hurry. They leave you alone here. That part reminds me of most places I've eaten at in Italy. Weekends often have a musician playing and that's a nice touch.
I'd rate it higher but the prices are way too high for the quality of food. I go only for Mario and the music...and it's close to where I live.
The coolest arts friendly cafe on the Northshore! We love Mario's Mondo Cafe! Great food, great people, and superb (free) live music! My band The David Floodstrand Trio will be there this Valentines Day. The clientele, and Laura & Mario are awesome. This is a very special place. Once you visit, you will return again, and again!
Review Source:The atmosphere is cute, the owner and staff are friendly and attentive, but the food is bland and flavorless.
We had Caesar salad to start. Â The dressing was homemade and actually very tasty. Â This was by far the best thing we ate.
My husband ordered spaghetti with meat sauce and 2 meatballs. Â The noodles were gummy, the sauce was flavorless and the meatballs were more bread than meat. Â The meatballs were also so tough that you needed a knife to cut them. Â My son ordered a pasta dish that had large shells and both a white and red sauce. Â When they brought it to the table it was hard to get past the ugliness of the dish. Â It was very unappetizing! The sauce was watery, tasteless and bland. Â My daughter and I ordered pizza. Â The pizza had no flavor! Â It truly tasted like cardboard! Â I have never had such bland, unseasoned pizza before. The pizza they serve in the grade schools is better than this tasteless cardboard. Â
The food here is unbelievably bland.  If the food were seasoned properly this review would have been much more positive. I find it hard to believe that  the chef can't taste the blandness of his food. Â
.
We went on a weeknight.
Maybe it was bad timing, but it felt like nothing more than a local  storefront spaghetti place.
The waitress was pleasant but quite inexperienced.
The bread basket was basically some quartered dinner rolls.
Soups, OK; Salad, Meh
Lasagne, light & tasty.
Pasta w/ marinara, sauce OK, but the noodles were gummy from sitting around.
Seafood prices - sky high.
Bunch of loud drinkers at a back table fighting to be heard over the entire restaurant - and it's not a big room so that wasn't very difficult.
pasta $12+, fowl $20+, fish $30+
Dinner for three (all pasta), no drinks, $78
The loud broad drinking red wine with the ex-husband stories * priceless
I am so happy to have finally tried this place after having heard about it for such a long while. Yes, it is very hidden and yes, it's in the back of a not-so-fancy strip mall, but it is truly a gem, a diamond-in-the rough. I hope that all people in Glenview and Northbrook will give it a try: we had a delicious, authentic Italian meal and the service was great. We LOVED the live piano music (on Friday and Saturday nights) and the outgoing and friendly staff that makes you feel as if you are sitting down in their own dining room and enjoying a meal, like family. Â In these difficult economic times, it's always rewarding to realize you are supporting the "little guy"...Here's what we had: chicken piccata, cream of mushroom soup, caprese salad, and jumbo shrimp. For dessert: dark chocolate covered cannoli and tiramisu. Everything was great. We picked up a yummy bottle of wine from Winestyles right down the street.....(it's a BYOB)...and the evening was perfect!!! We will definitely be back.
Review Source:A number of years ago, my parents discovered this hidden gem in Glenview and I have been a fan ever since!  I feel like Mario's Mondo is a second home!  Everyone knows me by name and they have enjoyed watching my kids grow.  The food is just scrumptious  - I love the Pasta Primavera!  So many of the vegetable are organically grown by Mario himself!  The atmosphere is wonderful too with local artwork, including a masterpiece by Laura's son.  I highly recommend this place and wish they were still open for lunch!
Review Source:I went here with some friends a few nights ago. The ambiance was very nice and the staff was a lot of fun. That said, the food was mixed. I had bruschetta which was real nice and fresh. The ham and bean soup was fairly middle of the road. It was nice, but it wasn't anything all too special.
I also had the chicken vesuvio and that was a disappointment. The chicken was cooked fine, but there was way too much thyme on the chicken and potatoes and the sauce just okay.
The place was nice, and I'd be willing to try them again as one of the people with us enjoyed the arriabbiata  pasta. It also isn't the easiest to find as its in the corner of the back of the strip mall
This place is really tough to find. We stumbled upon it over a year ago - it's in the back of tiny strip mall near a meat market, a sushi joint, hair salon and an herbalist. It's a really cute place, nicely decorated, very clean that serves Intelligentsia coffee and fresh food. Today I had the Popeye chicken breast sandwich on a ciabatta bun. It was so damn fresh and tasty. The bun was toasted to perfection & really delicate (easy for me to chew with my TMJ), along with a lightly seasoned chicken breast, it had garlic mayo, fresh spinach, tomatoes and red onion. The meal comes with a side of home fries and cilantro coleslaw. My hubby got the Italian beef w/au jus on French bread. There was not a crumb left. He was totally satisfied. We plan on going back there to try more dishes. It's not just a sandwich joint --- you can get all sorts of stuff; antipasti, insalata, frittatas, wraps, pastas, pesce, pizza, etc. There's also an adorable old Italian guy who took our order --- maybe it was Mario, I don't know but he was cute. Note: It's BYOB & they charge a corkage fee. It got a little mention in the Trib in the Cheap Eats section. See link: <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chicagotribune.com%2Fservices%2Fnewspaper%2Fpremium%2Fprintedition%2FThursday%2Fatplay%2Fchi-0607050288jul06%2C1%2C427047.story&s=5d57e590bc696f1196558f37e9cef54a073164a8f2a293fa2ae550c10c4c42b2" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.chicagotribun…</a>
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