Mona Lisa Restaurant

Unfortunately, I attended this restaurant with a party of 9. The owner was rude and ales us to wait outside while they put the tables together. This was not unusual but his attitude regarding our party was less than stellar. Immediately upon being seated the server spilled an entire try of water upon my partner and I. Forgivable yes but no offering was made to comp any item or offer any sense of remorse. To make matters worse this is a loud restaurant and my party was asked to quiet down. We weren’t cursing and we were not any louder than any party. We will not be back. Service bad. Food good. Ownership horrible.

I love this restaurant. We eat there often and enjoy it every time. I have read a few reviews about bad attitudes from the owner and staff and I have to disagree. We love going there and the food is fantastic. We love the lasagna and the Mardi Gras pasta.
We find the owner entertaining and funny. He has a really witty personality. People need to lighten up. The staff and owners in all the French Quarter establishments deal with a lot of drunks and unruly partiers. I think they handle it very well.

Feeling like we ought to live on something besides po’boys and gumbo for a week, somebody in our group Unilocaled «Italian» and found Mona Lisa to be affordable and within walking distance. I had never heard of it, and was pleasantly surprised. I had read a few not-​so-​complimentary reviews of the service, but maybe the management paid attention, because our server couldn’t have been nicer.
Our group ordered everything from pizza to pasta to sandwiches to salad, and everything I tasted was really good. I ordered the tomato, onion and olive salad; I expected a marinated mix of the above, but it came out on a bed of romaine and mozzarella with a really nice creamy dressing. A bite of Italian deli-​meat sandwich and a slice of pizza were good, too. The pizza sauce is a little spicy, a little sweet, and the crust was the perfect balance of crisp and chewy for me. A couple of pasta dishes got good reviews from the others. A $ 5 glass of Ruffino chianti made everything go down better.
Like I said, our server was great. While I don’t necessarily agree with the no-​split-​checks policy, we were that awful party where some wanted to pay cash and some wanted to use plastic. He handled it gracefully, even adding up everybody’s total for them. The food came out without an undue wait, and they remade a pizza that came out with unexpected vegetables, sending out a glass of wine on the house while he waited. I’m no artist, so I didn’t play, but they provide crayons so you can draw your own version of Mona Lisa on the paper tablecloth. The walls are lined with other patrons’ creations, and that’s plenty of fun to look at. Mona Lisa goes down as one of this trip’s Unexpected Gems!

Don’t even waste your time. The food was horrible. The side salad was good but it’s kind of hard to mess up lettuce with vinaigrette. I would not recommend this place.

A great place to dine friends and loved ones, the atmosphere and food are so awesome .Can’t wait to come back.

I stopped in to Mona Lisa Restaurant on a walk over to Frenchmen Street one night.
I loved that I had found Italian dinging in New Orleans and loved even more that I could draw on the tables.
I came back the following night for some garlic bread and pizza. More importantly, the crayons!
I had such a good time and finally found some good Italian food in the French Quarter.

This was a charming place, located a charming walk from our hotel. Yes, we ate Italian while we were in New Orleans. And it was delicious. I recommend the pizza. Service was usually nice. We went a couple of times and had great service once, but «off» service on a weekend night.

Amazing little restaurant located in the French Quarter! Good service, delicious food and great prices! Mona Lisa makes a good dinner great!
A perfect place for a couple or a group.
Went there with some colleagues from India. Everyone was quite impressed and no one left hungry!
Just a wonderful place to dine. I am looking forward to my next opportunity to travel to New Orleans on business so that I can return to the Mona Lisa!!!

I had high hopes for this place considering the previous reviews and my friends’ recommendation.
Overall: it was okay. The server was friendly but she seemed extremely confused the entire time. We had no silverware and didn’t eat out salads for 15minutes. We probably could have asked way earlier, but it also gave us an idea of how attentive the wait staff is.
The food was good, but the flavors weren’t anything special. Standard comfort food to fill your stomach at a reasonable price. Everything we ordered was covered in mounds of cheese (not complaining about too much cheese) and a lot of sauce. It was so filling that we all took home half of our meals and had it the next day for lunch.
We finished the meal with cannoli which was really good!

Excelent charming restaurant. The food (lasagna and meatballs) were absolutely delicious. We were in 3 and ordered 2 plates. Definitely coming back.

Really excellent Italian ristorante. Outstanding bolognese and everyone with us exclaimed about the food.

The best meal I have had so far in New Orleans! I had the Mardi Gras Pasta– yummy! There was a bit of a wait when we first got there; but, not too bad. The food was definitely worth the wait. The salad was fresh, the garlic/​pizza bread was amazing and the pasta was not too saucy. I took off a star because the shrimp was not fresh; however, everything else was good.

Great little place. Stumbled upon it randomly for lunch. Had a great meal. It was affordable and good. Nothing fancy but the food was delicious and not over priced. In the French Quarter but not a tourist trap. Made with love it seems.
The owners are very nice and one of them has a great sens of humour. Great service too.
Don’t go there if you don’t like the Mona Lisa, cause there are paintings of her everywhere. Lol! Nice and quarky, makes it unique. I loved it.
Will go back next time I’m in NOLA.

The chicken parm is like buttah! Consistently amazing every single time. People are friendly, service is great. Try the medeterranian salad too.

Very cute and great service. Plus a lot of food for a great price. They give you little samples of pizza with other dishes which is fun.
The food was only ok though, and definitely not worth the wait. The pizza was the best out of everything. Caesar salad was especially weak.

Pros: their hand soap smells nice.
Inlaws liked their chicken Alfredo, save for the pool of oil they discovered at the end, that it had been swimming in.
Cute interior, chit chatty atmosphere.
Cons: it’s a small restaurant, strollers get taken off you at the door to be parked out back. Toilets are in an «outhouse» fashion.
The guy who seated is wasn’t pleasant, the guy who refilled our water wasn’t pleasant and the gal who took our order wasn’t pleasant either. Friendly bunch. Not.
We were seated, just before 6. Didn’t get our food til around 7, and mine was wrong, so they were magically able to throw it together in under 10 minutes when we waited over an hour to get the first go. Trying to keep a hungry toddler occupied isn’t easy, especially when we’re waiting over an hour for our grub.
Paid $ 3 for a basket of garlic bread (which for the record, I’ve never had to do at any Italian restaurant before in the US) and in spite of the insane wait (food was coming out one table/​one pizza at a time) we were never offered a refill.
The cheesy pizza bread thing that came with our salads was stone cold.
There’s a herb in their tomato sauce that was overpowering, which meant I didn’t like their pizza sauce or their tomato sauce for chicken parm.
My chicken parm was soggy as heck. Which didn’t seem to matter cause the breaking didn’t stick to the chicken anyways and it was all hidden under an I inch of congealed cheese.
$ 40 for 2 for dinner, drinking water, an hour wait.
Not worth it Unilocal.
You led me astray with all these great reviews and I just came away mad.

Fantastic spot for an intimate meal. I came here on a date. We had the tapenade app and I don’t remember what my date had but I had the meatballs and spagetti. So so good! I can’t wait to eat my leftovers! Our server was super sweet. I noticed that at the table next to us, someone spilled his drink on his sister’s pizza. The server immediately brought out a fresh one. The whole family was impressed.
Great place for a date. It’s fun to draw your own Mona Lisa, too. Even though I hear mine looked like the queen on Game of Thrones…

Great spot especially for a date. You get to draw your own version of Mona Lisa on the table cloths, and if your drawing is good enough they put it on the wall. I had the Veal parmigiano and it was very good. I really enjoyed their red sauce. Not too pricey and big portions. I’ll definitely be back

The best pizza in New Orleans hands down!!! My boyfriend and I come here ALL the time our dog is even named after the place! Servings are large and pizza is made to perfection. Whenever my family comes into town this is always the first stop because they cannot get enough!

Aw naw, hell naw, now you’ve gone and done it.
I was having a good meal with a close friend of mine on Halloween LOOKING LOVELY. The couple across from us came over to talk about our outfits and then later bought us a glass of wine.
I went over to thank this couple and we got to chatting. The restaurant is narrow but I was leaning up against a table.
Then someone who was working here walked by in a huff and made rude comments TWICE. Yeah the drunks are talking. But we weren’t being annoying throwing booze around harassing anyone and getting in your way on purpose. Don’t be a rude ass when we drunk of your booze.