Let me preface this review by saying that I don't generally eat at historic restaurants due to their inflated prices and low quality. I also rarely eat Italian-American food because most of it is stuff you can make at home. Growing up near Bensonhurst, I've had my fair share of ravioli, lasagna, pasta and various meats covered in marinara and parm over the years.
My friend came to visit me from Canada and he is somewhat of an Italophile. He loves Italian-American culture, in part because he has watched too much of The Sopranos and is enamored by mafia history, so he simply had to eat at Bamonte's. Despite my various warnings of going to historic restaurants, I decided to oblige him just this one time.
We entered the venerable establishment which retained much of its old school decor. After a short wait, we were seated in the main dining area. My biggest fear was that everyone at the tables would be a clueless tourist inhaling copious amounts of bread and marinara, but my fears were assuaged when that turned out to not be the case. I noticed several large banquet tables filled with Italian-Americans enjoying their meals, which restored my confidence in the meal that stood before us.
The first dish we ordered was the Fried Calamari. This dish was entirely mediocre - the calamari was indeed fresh and the sauce it came with was excellent, but they were breaded poorly, had zero crisp to them and were overall very chewy. If Rocco's at Fort Hamilton is the epitome of fried calamari, this dish is a solid 5/10 on a good day.
The Stuffed Mushrooms that followed were also mediocre. They were lukewarm and the stuffing wasn't too great. The mushrooms retained too much liquid during the cooking process so the dish overall tasted like reheated leftover mushrooms from some catering event. Another 5/10
My friend decided to be funny by ordering the Clams Cassino. They were good, about as good as Clams Cassino can possibly get - which isn't that great, but I won't hold this one against Bamonte's.
The stuffed artichoke was actually excellent. Some of the best I've ever had - the stuffing was delicious and the portion size was generous. This one gets a 9/10.
Next came the entrees. I didn't know which one to pick so I decided to go with the chicken parm, a classic staple. Before you criticize me for my choice of entree, I wanted something with cheese on it, and the menu seems to have hardly changed from the 70s, so I didn't have much choice. The chicken parmesan was decently sized and tasted good, but nothing mind-blowing. Certainly nothing to justify the $24 price tag. This dish could have used more cheese and sauce, but the flavor was overall good. I guess my main disappointment with this dish is that I've had better chicken parm from random pizzerias for $7.
The desserts were the true standout of this meal. We ordered the tiramisu and the homemade Italian cheesecake. Both of these dishes were excellent and the portions were generous. I cannot stand overly sweet tiramisus and this one had exactly the flavor profile I was looking for. The Italian cheesecake was rich and creamy. This one deserves a rare 10/10 from me.
The prices on the menu were exorbitant as expected. Sure, nothing we ate was terrible or inedible, but nothing was particularly good or memorable besides the stuffed artichoke, tiramisu and Italian cheesecake. Charging these sorts of prices for essentially pizzeria-level entrees is pretty crazy, but I guess that's the price you pay for history. If i was rating this place among pizzerias, I would give it 4 stars, but at this price point, it simply does not compare to real Italian restaurants (not Italian-American, Italian-Italian). The menu needs a complete overhaul and the portions need to be made larger to justify their cost. When the chicken parm was the most exciting entree I could find, I knew there was a problem. Perhaps other dishes are much better but nothing in the description made me aware of that.
As it stands, the value simply wasn't there - you're just paying to sit in a hall where The Sopranos was filmed.
If I do end up coming back here, it would be just for some more of that tiramisu. read more