Michelino’s Italian Restaurant

An old school place that’s for sure. The snobby Unilocal elitist would thumb their nose here. Seems to be ran by a lovely old couple. I’m not talking 30’s Payton manning old. I’m talking 80 years. I ordered the spaghetti with meatball for lunch. It was 6.99. The meatball was cooked to perfection and my food was hot. A lot of new hipster places don’t care to serve food hot anymore. Lukewarm is hip. The clientele is also loyal older people that enjoy the classics. It might not be the best or fancy hooplah to it. But hey it’s cheaper then a cold whataburger combo and tastes better too!

I don’t want to be too harsh because the food was ok, nothing exceptional. I got the rigatonni plate for $ 10 (lunch portion). What this place needs is a make over and new responsive staff and a fast chef. I attended this place as a business lunch. Luckily for me I was with my boss because it actually took 1.5 hours to get served and out of there. This includes us standing up an walking to the register since the bill never came. Not somewhere you want to go unless you have time to kill. To be quite frank, you can get better Italian food other places.

I came here Sunday night to dine «simply because» my favorite Italion restaurant a short 20 second walk away is closed on Sundays. This will be my first and last time to try this place.
I ordered the lasagna, and it was quite flavorless, a very small portion, and absolutely swimming in sauce. I literally had for fork full’s of just sauce before I found the edge of the piece of lasagna.
The sauce had a decent tang to it, but that’s the only thing good I can say about the whole meal… And even that was ruined because that was way way way too much of it. I ended up with Half a plate full of the sauce when I finished.
The meal came with a generous portion of garlic bread, but it barely had a buttery taste let alone any garlic. It was extremely bland, and the only thing that helped it was some of that sauce.
I had to track down somebody just to get seated, and had the same problem just to get my check and get out of there. What little I did see of the waiter however, was good. He was friendly and professional.
I’m Not sure why I’m even rating this place 2 stars. Perhaps because of the quiet, and gentle atmosphere. Never again!

The service was good, the food was bad. I got the fettuccine seafood and the shrimp was microscopic and the sauce had zero flavor. Do yourself a favor and pick somewhere else.

Not the best Italian in El Paso, but definitely the best on the East side of town. The service is hit or miss but the food is good and the portions are generous. They recently updated the interior and the look of the place is now very nice, comfy and clean.

Best italian in el paso

Good experience. I ordered a pizza to go. It was as authentic as they come with hand made crust and real mozzarella. Service was great. Only downside to this place was the location and outside appearance. As a female traveling alone, I was concerned about the dimly lit parking lot. Also, the entrance door is not clearly marked and took me a moment to find. Once inside, the atmosphere was nice. I will be ordering from Michelino’s again, but if it is at night, will likely get delivery if it is available.

This place had absolutely no atmosphere. The service was non existent at first and it did not get better until we flagged down our hostess… who ended up acting as our part time waitress. While the wait staff was friendly it was very inexperienced.
The sphaghetti and meatballs was ok. but the meat ball was way too spicey. We also had the baked sphaghetti. It had plenty of sauce and had a pretty good taste.
The garlic bread was not toasty and had only a faint taste of garlic powder. So improvement needed in this area.
This was my first visit and based on today’s dinner experienceI do not plan on going back.

The portions are so huge I’m surprised the people don’t waddle out of there. The food is EXCELLENT, but I’ll probably alternate between Michelino’s and Bella Sera, which is located right in front of them toward Montana.

This place is kind of hard to find — in the back of a block off of Montana behind another Italian place — but SO worth the hunt. Get a steak!
Their pasta dishes are good too. This would be a nice date place — white tablecloths etc.
Nice for business lunch too.

Michalino’s is one my family staples go to restaurant in El Paso. We dine there at least 2 –3 times per month. The service is always very good to excellent as I’m a stickler on service.
Call me crazy, it’s okay. My favorite dish at Michalino’s isn’t the Italian food, which is good by the way. Try the rib eye, it is arguably one of the best steaks in town! It is seared then stuck in the oven on high heat. I ordered my rib eye medium rare and boy it was cooked to perfection! The steak took up the whole plate (next time I will remember to take a picture). The steak had a nice seared marks on the outside and red and juicy on the inside gushy with the meat juice covered the plate. Wow, it was soooooo good! I had a choice of French fries or pasta as my side dish. I picked the fries. Amazing, just like I like them long, wide and not deeply fried and greasy. Beware if you order this steak they wait staff will tell you that it takes around 20 to 25 minutes to prepare this steak. I don’t mind as long as it’s this good. I could honestly say the steak is as good if not better than Cattleman’s. Go ahead call me crazy but you must try this steak.
I like the atmosphere it’s quite simple place hidden behind Montana in a commercial area. It’s a little tricky to find, but it has great food.
You have to earn 4 – 5 stars, this steak did it for me. I don’t give out stars for the heck of it! This steak did it for me.
The majority of the plates are less than $ 10 but not the steak.

This is by far the best Italian place in town. I dont care what you have heard about other «more popular» Italian restaurants in El Paso, this is seriously the best you are going to get. I cant help it, its a family favorite. We love to go every few months or so especially when there is a reason to celebrate.
All the food is prepared fresh unlike some other places in El Paso that seem to think dethawing eggplant parmesean and slapping some sauce on it is worth $ 9.75. Their specials are original. And all the plates come in HUGE portions. So if something seems expensive just remember you will be eating it for the next three days. The alfredo sauce is by far the best I have encountered and I have been to Italy twice. I reccommend the manocotti and anything on their specials list. I have never been disappointed. My mom loves their pizza and I have never waited more than 5 minutes for a table.
Everything comes with a salad and usually spaghetti on the side.
The reasons I gave this place only four stars …
The wine list seems extensive when really its just needs to be updated. My boyfriend and I had to send our waiter to the back twice in search of a decent bottle. Most of the wines on the list they no longer have. But they have a huge wine rack at the front filled with wines local to the southwest. Do yourself a favor, burn the wine list and just pick something out yourself.
The salad isn’t really a salad. Its just lettuce and an olive drenched in dressing.
The high chairs are from 1968 and dont really accomodate an actual baby very well.
There is a big TV in one of the dining areas which is extremely distracting and really brings down the ambiance. If you wanted to watch TV and eat dinner, stay home and nuke your food. I think going out to eat is time for conversation.
Lastly, the interior has not been updated since 1968 either. The walls are lined with hideous fake wood paneling and the furniture, carpet, bad paintings and tablecloths could all use a serious makeover.
But this place is dear to my heart and I will continue to go back time after time for the delicious food and friendly and attentive service. And every blue moon the owner comes out to chit chat with his customers about the place.
I suggest this place for a first date… or any date and anytime you have the family together just don’t sit in the room with the TV.
What can I say? Its a second home.