Monticello at Red Bank Italian Restaurant

I have been to Monticello a few times in the past and always found the food to be delicious but the service a little on the slow/short staffed side. Unfortunately, last night took that to a whole new level. After being seated and waiting over 10 minutes for our server to arrive we were told they only had 2 servers on (one of which was training) instead of their usual 4 due to some unforeseen staffing issues. It became apparent very quickly that this was not going to be anywhere near enough staff for the full restaurant. It took ages to get the attention of a server and everything moved along at a snails pace. It took 1 hour and 10 minutes for our table to get appetizers, and then an additional 50 minutes after that for our entrees to arrive. The appetizers were absolutely delicious, howev

I really dislike giving negative reviews because I understand how hard it is for restaurants to stay in business especially with all the competition in Monmouth County. That being said,this restaurant while not bad it is not that great either. I’m not a big fan of restaurants that require a credit card to secure a reservation and, if you don’t cancel by 11:30 the day of,they charge you $25.00 per person. Since that is part of their business model there is no way around this nuisance inconvenience. The good,it’s a BYOB and our server Marissa was EXCELLENT although over worked for a Saturday night with only one other server noticeable. My Veal Milanese dish was top shelf and priced correctly. The not so good, restaurant is cramped and noisy especially for a couple when placed next to a table

I took my son to what I thought would be a great Italian restaurant, but the food was subpar. I had to send back my pasta with sour broccoli rabe and swapped it for chicken Parm, which was no better than the local pizza place. I won’t return.

The patrons are too loud. The acoustics make all conversations loud. The waiters are excellent. The food is good.

My husband and I shared the poached part salad and it friend has the house salad. Both were good. For entrée I had the pescatore risotto, my husband had pasta norma (rigatoni with eggplant and tomato sauce) and our friend had the penne vodka. We all enjoyed our dishes. For dessert we all shared the lava cake. Unfortunately it was a little burnt.