Mona Lisa Bistro

Love this place. The food and service was great. I had pork schnitzel and my wife had the pasta primavera. We also had the French onion soup. We went on a weeknight, and had excellent service. They have a diverse menu. We will be back.

First visit to this quaint local eatery. While there are certainly some very nice things about this bistro there are also some much needed improvements. I realize they are still in their infancy but they must step it up if they are to remain viable — which I hope they do as we need more locally owned eateries.
Our visit started with a pleasant greeting by the hostess and we were immediately seated. Thankfully I noticed a handwritten note taped flat on the top of the hostess stand stating that their debit and credit system wasn’t working so they were only accepting cash or check. That sign was only noticeable if you were standing directly in front of the hostess stand and looking down at her book. It was obviously missed by several other patrons and they weren’t informed until the check was presented as evidenced by several loud exclamations and concern about not having cash with them. That matter should be immediately be made known to customers at the time of arrival — not when the check is presented at the end of the meal.
The menu is very limited which we knew in advance and were ok with that. When I asked the waiter if there were any dinner specials his response was «Not that I know of…» Well if anyone is going to know about them I would hope it would be the servers. Perhaps a differently worded response could be devised.
My companion and I both choose chicken schnitzel for our dinner. There are no choices to make as each comes with soup (only one option) and new potatoes and brussel sprouts (per the menu).
Shortly after ordering we were brought a basket of bread. Thinly sliced and fresh with a couple of varieties of bread. It was accompanied with a garlic butter spread and a guacamole spread. The bread was fresh and the spreads were delightful.
The soup arrived shortly thereafter — lemon chicken noodle. Just the right amount of lemon to avoid being overwhelming. The soup was good but nothing outstanding. It had a mix of rice and noodles.
The dinners arrived soon after. When the waiter placed the meals in front of us he asked what dressing we would like with our side salad. We were puzzled as there was no mention of a salad on the menu and it was on the plate with our entrée. Further there were no brussel sprouts on the plate. When asked about the missing brussel sprouts he stated they were out of brussel sprouts and therefore sent out a side salad — a small portion of spring mix greens on the plate with the chicken and the new potatoes. Of course we weren’t notified of that at the time of ordering nor were we given any other options. I chose blue cheese dressing and my companion opted for nothing as he informed the waiter that he doesn’t eat salads. Nothing else was offered. The blue cheese dressing was actually wonderful. Tasted freshly made and complimented the greens very well.
The next puzzling point was the chicken schnitzel itself. We have eaten at many a German restaurant and others serving a wide variety of schnitzels. I have never seen anything quite like this described as a schnitzel. It was indeed chicken. It was pounded thin and it was pan sautéed with seasonings. It was not however breaded at all. It did appear to have perhaps been in a light egg wash but there was no breading. And it was an extremely small portion of chicken. A more appropriate description of what we had was a sautéed chicken cutlet as you might expect to find in chicken piccata. However there was no sauce. To round out the meal there were 3 new potatoes also served with the meal.
The price of the meal was quite high given the portion of what was received. We really wanted to like this bistro as we always desire to find new and different places. There were some positives but some areas really need improvement.