Monica’s

Great little place in Iowa City. French onion soup was killer. Our waitress was very friendly. Would definitely go back

Staff was friendly and we had a very large group that could have been hard. Our food came out fast and everything was right! I had the salmon and it was very good and the soup was amazing. Loved the bread and the service even more!

My fiancé loves this place. The food is good, not amazing, but it’ll do. The real problem I have with this place is the cost of the food. The menu explains that the prices had to be raised as a result of the minimum wage increase, but those increases are way to high. Again, the food is good, not great. So if the price is raised it only makes the choice to not go there that much easier. Service here is spotty here as well. One time you go you get amazing service and the next time your waiter is standing by the bar on his or her phone. If I’m going to spend the kind of money they want for the average dish now, that service had better be on point. I don’t love this place, I would rate it two stars. My fiancé loves their salads, so I will average it out to a 3 star review with much room for improvement.

While there is an extensive menu, it’s pricey for the overall experience. Service is rushed to turn over the table. There were flies around.
We decided to try out Monica’s based on recommendations from others. It’s just so-​so. What’s the appeal? We’re new to the area having relocated from a larger city. Maybe this is acceptable for Coralville. We won’t be back.

Mixed review. Ordered the Jambalaya which was one of the best dishes I have ever eaten. Not overly spicy, sauce rich and meat (shrimp, sausage and chicken) perfectly cooked. Service very good even though the place was packed. Atmosphere pleasant but noise was unbearable. Not designed well for large parties. Large televisions blaring and everyone yelling. Probably will return at non-​peak hour.

I have never been disappointed. Awesome range of menu choices. TOTAL comfort food. Good prices, as well. Feels very comfortable to eat here. Not ever too loud.

Fresh food options — order the fruit salad with grilled chicken. I was very impressed. Friendly service. Outdoor seating options.

The music was the first to hit us walking in. It was sooooo loud! A speaker was just above our booth and speakers above other booths down the row.
It’s an Italian food restaurant. They have some American food too. We ordered «Grandma’s Meatloaf» with creamy mashed potatoes and the quiche special. The meatloaf looked good, but tasted under cooked. The quiche was very dry and didn’t taste good. The mashed potatoes were delicious, as was the garden salad.
We were just traveling thru and won’t be back this way, so we don’t know what other food is like on their menu. The restaurant looked clean, but there were flies around our table and a knat flying around the salad after they served it. We told the waiter about it, but he couldn’t catch it to kill it.
The restrooms were clean, but the loud music was playing in there also.

I was happy to see they had veggie options on their menu. I ordered the black bean burger and sautéed vegetables. It was all delicious! Very, very impressed.

Had a Smoked Turkey & Gouda panini. Taste was good, but needed more green onions. Fries were batter dipped and not as crisp as I would like. My daughter had a Reuben with fries. She said it needed more kraut. Overall good sandwiches, not great. Certainly WAAAYYY overpriced at about $ 12 each.

A bit pricey. Chicken Pesto panini was ok. The tomato bisque soup was really good. They have an over sized wait staff. Outdoor seating is nice. But a bit pricey

I came here again because I was with a friend that I didn’t feel comfortable telling her «no, I don’t like this place» and she wanted to come here. We sat outside, and I ordered a mojito. The mint leaves seemed VERY OLD and I felt like I was going to get food poisoning or something from drinking the mojito. It just felt and tasted dirty and old; a drink, I know weird.
The pizza we had though, I will say was good. But I still stand by my previous review about the prices, the cleanliness, the décor and service. I really don’t know why this place is so popular.

We’re from Bettendorf. 10 years ago, while my son was on the NICU at UIC, we stumbled upon Bob’s Your Uncle pizza on Mormon Trex. Since then, we tried the one farther out and weren’t impressed.
Tonight, on a whim, we decided to bring our boys to the original, only to find it wasn’t there. We stumbled upon Monica’s.
We were SO happy to find that the owners are the same. The food was good! Although our pizza came out ½ wrong, it was quickly remedied! The sauce is great. The crust is delicious and toppings plentiful.
We had cupcakes (two of them) to find our meal and they were terrific.
For those saying it’s overpriced, we split a medium pizza, got two kids pizzas, drinks and cupcakes for under 35.00.
We’ll be back!

First and foremost, I can ensure you that I am not typically a person to write a bad review for any experience that I have with restaurants.
I have been a loyal customer to Monica’s for about four years now. We have taken many groups of people to eat there from both in town and out of town, and we all greatly enjoyed the atmosphere and food. While I would love to write a stellar review for them, I am quite disappointed with the phone conversation that I just had with a staff member at Monica’s.
Around 4:45 pm, I called the restaurant looking to make a reservation. Before I could even say that the reservation was not for today, the woman on the other end of the phone said they were not accepting anymore reservations for tonight. At that point, I took the opportunity to say, «Oh. That’s ok, I wanted to check for later in the week.» She quickly snapped back that I needed to call back a different day. Normally, I would be completely fine with that, however, she continued to say something along the lines in a condescending tone: «Listen we are too busy to figure out your reservations. I need to focus on the people ACTUALLY in this building right now.»
Having met some of the management in the past when they’ve checked on our tables, I am not too sure they would be pleased with how I was treated. As I mentioned, I do not make a fuss about situations like this typically. I understand that some days cause more demands in restaurants, but there is absolutely no reason I needed to be treated that way. She could have simply asked for me to call back tomorrow and it would have been no problem.
I’m disappointed in the way I was treated without even stepping foot in this restaurant one last time. I can assure you I will not be returning in the future and will not recommend the restaurant to anyone.

I witnessed a busser spraying cleaner directly over the Parmesan cheese one day. I informed the server who assured me it was ok, because they cleaned them every night…
But you don’t replace the cheese (or windex as it now was). She starred at me with utter confusion when I told her this. I tried to make it clear that my intentions were simply to avoid people getting sick.
Also, their baked ziti (no Parmesan added) was great. Cajun pizza? Awful. I could feel the crunch of seasoning between my teeth. Every cook should test their own food. Yuck.

I ordered Spaghetti with meatballs, THOSE MEATBALLS, so moist, full with flavor, they melt in your mouth!!! I totally love this dish.
The restaurant it’s self have 3 different seating areas, they have good size tables for big families, also small seating areas for couples, by the bar area they have multiple T. Vs playing different sport channel.
I went during the weekend so I waited 15 minutes to get seated, the only thing that I didn’t like is the tables are very close to each other, I was very careful not to disturb the person who was siting behind me.
the waitress served us some bread, and olive oil, with herbs and Cinnamon butter on the side, to be honest I had better bread and olive oil dip in many Italian restaurant, so I didn’t care much about it.
Overall, good service, and I will be back for those MEATBALLS!

I truly appreciate any restaurant that treats gluten-​free diners like real people instead of annoyances. I love that I can get pasta and pizza like the rest of my family! Every time I’ve eaten here it’s always been tasty, too.
I only have a gluten sensitivity and not celiac, so I’m not sure how good they are about cross-​contamination, but have personally not had bad symptoms after eating here.

I went for appetizers with friends on a weeknight. It was quiet and the ambience was fine; unremarkable but not offensive. The food was very expensive for what seemed to me to be obviously pre-​prepared and heated food. The bread was a bit stale and I was confused by having both oil/​herbs on the table as well as cinnamon butter (?). I had the crab dip, which was fine but was not freshly prepared. The salad appeared to be bagged greens with some dried fruit on it, which I guess is ok, but not for the price. My friend did like her mini-​gluten free veggie pizza. I think for the price there are many other, much more interesting and tasty places to go.

I’m a sucker for a good sauce and Monica’s lobster sauce did not disappoint. I got the baked ziti with shrimp which their menu boasts as their best seller after the cupcakes. My friendly server also recommended the ziti.
Overall very good. It must have been brought to me right out of the oven because it was a bit too hot, could have rested for a bit. The $ 3 extra charge for shrimp isn’t worth the 3 medium overcooked shrimp they give. There was a ton of chicken and a decent amount of prosciutto.
The complimentary breads were good, especially the whipped cinnamon sugar butter served with them. Not sure about the ambience and décor inside but patio was nice.

Fail. Ok, more words needed. Hmmm. The reason I ordered the taco style pizza was the mention of refried. beans. But, there weren’t any I could taste. Just twice-​warmed chewy ground beef beef chunks. I asked for added onion. Also absent. And, if I had known there were glow-​in-​the-​dark «nacho flavored» chips on it, I would have nixed them. Warn me, please, when you do that! Ok, good crust. But, not worth another stop.