After visiting this restaurant I wanted to call up Mario Batali and give him a piece of my mind. My boyfriend and I were in the city for 5 days and visited many popular restaurants and were treated famously, until we happend upon Casa Mono. We had no reservations but were told the""bar was open"" (there was one other man sitting) and proceeded to sit and order wine. It was very expensive wine if I may add. We then decided to order a small plate each as it was between meals and were told that typically people order 2 to 3 small plates each or they ""boot you"". We probably would have ordered more but we were told that you had to send your complete order in at one time. We had never been there and weren't sure what we wanted. We then asked for more wine and our waiter told us that he couldn't serve us more wine unless we ordered more food. We were several hundred dollars into this and willing to spend more money, but I couldn't get out of there fast enough after that kind of treatment. I would have understood if we
had been taking up space eating the free bread and olives and drinking iced tea, but we were spending money. I have no problem adhering to restaurant policy but no where was it stated and we were welcomed in only to be practically ousted. I will never go back and I will tell everyone I know. Come on, Mario. You seem like such a fun loving guy and food should be fun. This was not!
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