Piccolo Mondo

I love this restaurant! Great service and delicious food !! They give you bread and its garlic Italian crusted! Not expensive and they have craft beer and wine only! Great beer selection and wine! No full bar yet! They have daily lunch specials and dinner specials. They have plenty of parking spaces in the back and outdoor seating which is very nice! Go to this restaurant! Pizza was delicious!

What not to get… The calamari and the eggplant parmigiana. We ordered calamari and it was at our table in about a minute. The look on my face must have said it all because our server asked if we ordered calamari. I said yes we did but we literally ordered it about a minute ago. He answer was the cooks are really fast. I call bullshit! Either it was sitting under a heat lamp or he gave us someone else’s order. Whatever the case, the calamari was bland. The eggplant was along the same lines, bland and reminded me of fried batter that you get at Jack n the Box when you order their mozzarella sticks. I asked for more marinara sauce and never got it. They have a nice beer selection, but the bartender walks out every now and then and will be gone for about 15 minutes at a time. We ordered a beer sampler and it took about 15 minutes to get it, even though no customers were at the bar. I heard that the bartender is the owner of Ordonez, a few buildings down. So, she leaves the bar at Picollo Mondo and checks in at Ordonez. Let me give her some free advice. Hire a real bartender!
1 star for the beer selection and 1 star because the rest of my party seemed to like their dishes.

My boyfriend took me here for my birthday and I had such a great time! the food was great and it’s such a cute hidden place. The waiters were super nice and friendly. If we didn’t live so far away I’d definitely come again!

Unilocal review has failed me for this night out. Found a Groupon and Unilocaled it, review looks decent and menu looks good.
We arrived to be seated and forgotten, we would have left if it was not the groupon was going to expire in a few days. Food was either too bland or too salty. Desert was mostly not available. Salad was not fresh, soup was ok, eggplant parmigiana was alright. Chicken Marsala was salty. Pizza was horrible. A lot of Dessert items was was unavailable. making it feel like were were buying other desert items to meet the Groupon amount.
Only thing that made up for what would have been a bad night is the 2^nd waiter that took over from the incompetent first. Great Job 2^nd waiter. He had a positive attitude and made the night better from a total disaster!
This place does have potential. just taste your food! Its off, but easily fixable! Have all items in stock! You advertised with Groupon, got us in to only drive us away! Why?
Lastly, we call to make a reservation and you speak Spanish? Really, speak Italian or English for crying out loud!
We will definitely not return to this place.

Drove by this place a million times but something about the look of the place from the street kept us a bay. Finally took a chance and stopped and GLAD WE DID!
The service was excellent. A neatly dressed, clean cut young man served us and was very helpful. We order a wonderfully priced bottle of Riesling (at $ 22.00) that was excellent. We had some soup that I had never heard of with veggies and macaroni noodles that was also fantastic. My wife had halibut and I had lasagna and we both shared our plates and agreed that both were delicious. The waiter also suggested a wonderful desert that we shared as well.
We loved this place and the price was reasonable. My only comment for improvement was that we were almost finished when they finally dimmed the lights. There were only two other couples in the place so the bright lights really made the place empty.
I have no idea why the place was so empty on a Tuesday night at dinner time besides that the exterior is not that appealing. We plan on going back this weekend so we were sold.

Went for wine pairing night and wow I was impressed! Great service and the food and wine was really good. They were very organized and the waiters were very helpful and friendly. They also had a guy singing and playing piano. Loved the vibe and even my daughter had a great time. I usually will not go to a place if it has bad Unilocal reviews but I am glad i did not let the Unilocal reviews on this place influence me. Try it and you will love it!

Invited my cousin to Wine Pairing Night! Very Successful. We were hesitant due to the reviews on Unilocal.But I am more than happy to give Piccolo Mondo Five Stars. We will be back again. Thanks for the great service and food.

Amazing food and craft beer selection!

Really good place to try. Great service, good food. Will def come back for more. Carrot soup was awesome

This Italian restaurant was good. I had the Gnocchi in cheese sauce and it was delicious and I’m a fan of their bread. It was nice a sweet with a little salty taste from the chees e. would go back just for the bread again. I’m interested in returning soon maybe during their wine tasting nights. Service was ok, waiters are polite but I wouldn’t be able to tell you who our actually waiter was. We had three different people taking our order, refilling our drinks and taking our dessert order.

Went to dinner with a friend. She ordered the Chicken Alfredo and I had the White fish a la Menuire, both were average, nothing out of the ordinary. The place was almost empty when we arrived, yet the service was a slow. The desserts were okay, nothing that wowed me, my friend had tiramisu and I had crème brûlée. The wine was average quality. The only thing I really liked was the parmesan-​crusted bread, it was really good. Would return, but would not go out of my way to go.

We came here for a wine tasting event. walking in was frustrating becuase the staff didn’t seem to know what they were doing, seating wise. once that got straighten out and seated things were a little better. the whole event was fun. I’d like to do it agian.

Perhaps the worst Italian food I’ve ever had. I’m almost 100% certain that the tomato sauce is canned and the ravioli is frozen. I doubt they make anything from scratch here. I’ve had better Italian food that came out of my grocery store freezer. Because of family get togerthers, I have been here more times than I’d like to remember and I’ve never had a single item worth coming back for. If I know in advance were meeting here, I eat before getting to the restaurant. Really, even the Jack in the Box next door is a better bang for your buck.

This place seemed kind of shady at first. The parking lot is actually in the rear. Food was pretty good. The bread was great – parmesan crusted garlic bread. I got the Cappellini alla Checca for the main course which was basically plain sautéed basil with tomatoes and angel hair pasta – loved the light and savory flavor. The dessert was not that great. Crème Brûlée tasted like they only gave it half a thought with a Maraschino cherry on it and the dessert was cold. Overall, the service was great and the staff was attentive. They even had live music on the night we went.

I decided to try this place since I bought a Groupon ($ 20 for $ 40). We went on a Thursday evening and the place was DEAD. There was no one at the front to seat us. There was one person seated at a table, but he was dressed like a waiter and ignored us, so I had no idea if he worked there and was on a break or was a customer. Anyway, I walked towards the bar area and then a waiter came over and handed me a couple of menus and said we could sit anywhere.
He offered to take our drink orders and then walked away while I looked at the menu. He came back with some garlic bread, which was DELICIOUS and fresh. We ordered the calamari fritti, spaghetti and meatballs, and the lobster. I asked how the lobster was prepared and the waiter was a little vague, saying it was lobster and shrimp with some veggies and prepared in «some type of sauce.»
The meals come with soup or salad, and I requested the soup, which was butternut squash that evening. It was tasty. The lobster and spaghetti arrived, and was presented nicely on the plate. The lobster was basically a half lobster shell filled with chopped up lobster, shrimp, olives, capers, parsley, and green onions, all in a marinara-​type sauce. It was salty for my taste, and definitely lacking in the amount of shrimp and lobster. It was served with a side of penne which had a buttery flavor sprinkled with parsley. The spaghetti and meatballs was bland. There was not enough sauce, and the meatballs were not that great, kind of flavorless and dry.
Overall, the service was pretty good, but the food did not make me want to try this place again. I’m glad I got the Groupon because I would have been disappointed paying full price. I’m a deal lover for sure, and I’m not the type to just purchase a deal and not re-​visit a business if I’m impressed. I think with all these they have nowadays, either a business is desperate for customers or wants to just attract new ones. So you would think they’d try their best to get you to come back. It’s too bad, as I like to support local businesses, but I don’t think I’ll be returning here.

Service was horrible. The soup was bland. The clam chowder was watery. I would not recommend this establishment to no one.

I’ve eaten here twice and both times we were happy. I’m always wary of reviewers who pull the race card…“the waiters are all hispanic trying to act French…” WHAT??? O.k. maybe if they were trying to «act Italian» — but what does that mean — were they smoking like chimneys or preparing for another vacation??? When I go to IHOP I’m not expecting an internationally balanced contingent of cooks to ensure that my danish crepes are double-​teamed by a Dane and a Frenchman! Come on! The food is good — I thought the gnocchi was exceptionally tasty. The interior is indeed dated, but seeing that I wasn’t required to move-​in and live there forever, I was able to deal with it. Just like Arnold, I’ll be back. (Just hide the Guatemalan waitress.)

I had no idea restaurants still served dark meat, but there it was on my plate. It’s not bad, but I can’t eat it. If the chicken piccolo was made with white meat, I probably would have liked the whole meal, not just the mushrooms. Personally I would not order this or any other poultry dish there.
I think I might dig their lasagna though. No Ricotta cheese! If you’re like me and just can’t stand ricotta, but love lasagna this might be your only other option besides heating up a lean cuisine.
The staff was very friendly and quick. I’m really impressed that they maintained their polite and professional demeanor when patrons were yelling across the restaurant their orders or demanding refills.

I love the service here, it’s almost always above par.
The food is good, especially the sandwiches and pastas. And the ambiance is cozy and sweet, perfect place for a lunch date.

«A good Italian restaurant in Montebello? You’ve got to be kidding me, right? That’s like buying a pair of gloves for a man with no hands!»
That was more or less the exact quote I leveled on my friend after she threw down with me and claimed that there was a better local Italian restaurant (meaning in the Rosemead/​El Monte/​Montebello area) than Di Pilla’s.
So, after about a month of haranguing her as to the location of this place, I finally got the chance to go there. Located in an older strip mall south of the 60 freeway, this gem resides just across the street from the Montebello Golf Course.
From the outside, it doesn’t look like much (it’s right next door to a cleaners), but they’ve done a terrific job in creating a nice aesthetic on the inside. Very low key, but nice. In the front portion of the restaurant, there is a covered patio area which would be a terrific place to eat on a nice day.
They have a very complete menu, so much so that I had trouble deciding what I wanted to get. Fortunately, they had a daily special, so I opted for that. It was a combo plate, with chicken ravioli and seafood stuffed shells, both of which were delicious. For lunch, it was a little on the expensive side ($ 42, including tip and 2 sodas to drink), but well worth the price.
The hours are:
Sun-​Thurs 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Fri-​Sat 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.