Del Monte Restaurant

I TOTALLY RECOMMEND THIS PLACE! The Food, Service, Atmosphere and EVERYTHING ELSE was Fantastic! I recently celebrated my 40^th Birthday Party and had it here with friends and family! AND WOW I was impressed, if your looking for a place to have your Family parties, whether it be a wedding, baptism, birthday or any other special event I STRONGLY Suggest Del Monte Restaurant!

Sadly, the Del Monte restaurant is now closed for good. Although it wasn’t exactly trendy, they had some of the best food in downtown Sunnyvale.

Darling, come with me to dinner tonight.
I can pick you up now in my brand new Tesla!
Where do you want to go tonight, darling?
I know you don’t like noisy sports bars with the 49ers playing on TV.
I know you are hungry, so how about your favorite!
OK we’ll go to a nice quiet romantic place with no sports TV, and your prime rib!
Yes, we can go now, as the 49ers are up 21 – 0 at the half, and have this game won!
OK, I’ll pick you up at your place
Wow you look great!
I’ve got the door, slide your legs into the seat. Nice outfit, and love that micro skirt!
We are almost there, at the parking lot behind the restaurant, near the railroad tracks.
Oh, there’s a spot right next to that SUV parked on the line.
Can you get out OK?
We see lines out the door at Dish Dash, Tarragon, and Rok on a Saturday night. And everyone with big screen TVs showing the football game!
But at our restaurant, Del Monte, it’s quiet, peaceful and serene, with only a few customers, no big screen TV, and nobody at the bar.
White colored wooden furniture next to a lavishly gold patterned decorated dark green rug, yes like you would see at a gambling casino.
Darling would you like to sit next to the window?
Yes, it is romantic with candlelight and roses!
Some wine asks the server?
Of course you say.
How have you been darling?
We oogle each other, as if in a romantic trance!
We both order the $ 15 8 ounce prime rib, hers rare, and mine medium.
Heated bread comes in a basket, with molasses bread and white bread. The molasses bread is to die for, it’s that good.
More bread asks the waiter. But of course
10 minutes pass, before our dinners come.
Green beans, carrots, brocolli, small potatoes, and 8 ounces of the most delicious prime rib you will ever taste.
Prime rib to die for, it’s that good. Tender, flavorful, juicy it melts in your mouth. Just like you, darling, as we smooch over dinner.
Bing Crosby crooning ‘White Christmas’ in the background, with pictures of Croatia on the walls, including a Croatian flag, and map.
10 minutes later, the 18 year old waitress comes over, and checks out my empty plate.
You did not like your steak sir? But she says it with a smile, teasing me.
Darling don’t be jealous, she’s much too young for me!
I discretely slide a $ 10 Entertainment book coupon with the check.
Darling, thank you, winks my date, throwing me another kiss.
Great first date place, except don’t try to come here when Croatia is playing in the world cup!
We linger over dinner, and leave, with my wallet $ 25 lighter.
We go back to your place, have a nightcap, and touch and kiss passionately. Perfect dinner, and the night is still young. I’m spellbound, until I glance at my smartphone.
What, the 49ers blow a 21 pt lead and going into OT! Woman, get off of me, and turn on ESPN right now!

I highly recommend The Del Monte for banquets. My organization has been holding our annual holiday party here for years, and we are never disappointed in the food, service, or cost. Only pros can serve 4 courses to over 50 people without a glitch. The Chicken Del Monte and salmon are unfailingly excellent. The staff is efficient and courteous. There’s a bar. What more can you ask for?

When my girlfriend and I walked in, I have to be honest that we weren’t expecting much. The décor was like being stuck in an old Vegas hotel, and the waitstaff wasn’t in sight. But it was listed on my Passport for a discount, and the two diners inside indicated that it was in fact open.
Color me surprised because the food was actually well prepared, the prices were reasonable, and the staff was quite attentive and hospitable.
We had three dishes, an appetizer of the ceparkiki, the chicken del monte, and the goulash. My girlfriend didn’t love the goulash but I thoroughly enjoyed the smoky paprika seasoning. The chicken was tenderly done though the sauce was a little heavy, being cream based. Very rich. But the star turned out to be the ceparkiki, a kefta like dish with great flavor that was perfectly balanced by the smoothness of sour cream and the bite of onions.
Yes, we would eat that again! Three and a half stars, methinks.

It was recommended by a coworker who knows the daughter of the owner. Murphy St is always busy and crowded but when we walked in, it looked deserted. No waiter or bartender in sight. We yelled out to see if they were open and a man appeared and seated us. Still skeptical, we perused the menu and the ordered the gnoochi, the goulash, and the chicken. We were not let down. It was amazing! The service was lacking but it was slow, we were not surprised. I would return for more goulash.

My husband and I enjoyed a yummy dinner. Since it was a warm summer evening, we opted to eat outside. It was great until the restaurant staff/​owners started smoking several feet from our table. Then, the staff at the cigar shop next door lit up. UGH! It would be great if the staff would smoke outside at the rear of the establishments. A few weeks later, we sat across the street during the summer music festival. I noticed the staff smoking next to a couple having dinner and another
young family with an infant. The mother tried to cover her baby’s face with a blanket. Ok, I know we can move, but we already had our meal. Next time we’ll eat inside, or skip the restaurant all together…

OK Unilocalers — people are NOT KIDDING when they rave about the Chicken Del Monte! I usually do not finish my meal but I couldn’t stop myself! the sauce is unbelievable! It reminds me of a elegant version of Chicken ala king — with fresh mushrooms and lemon and wonderful herbs that I can’t even explain! And the chicken was SO TENDER! Add the mashed potatoes and wonderful fresh veggies — well, you can’t go wrong! My daughter kept grabbing my mashed potatoes so I devoured the rest of my sauce with their fresh baked bread! I HIGHLY recommend this dish — and I will be heading back there JUST for this dish!
My daughter had the Spinach Tortellini and that SAUCE! what they failed to share is that it’s a very flavorful creamy sun dried tomato sauce! Very delicious and also a bit addicting! And you get quite a bit! She got two meals out of it — but then again — maybe she got full from eating all the great bread and MY mashed potatoes and veggies!
Hubby had the Goulash Croatian Style and totally wolfed that down! Meat was VERY tender and VERY flavorful! Thank goodness we all shared a Cesar salad — that’s the one thing that was missing from his dish — some sort of veggies. but having said that the Cesar salad was VERY good — they had some kind of anchovy sauce on sprinkled on the outside of the plate which was perfect since I LOVE that flavor but my daughter didn’t so she didn’t have to rub her lettuce to get it! She loved the croutons — they were perfectly crunchy — we hate the super hard ones that can cause your teeth to pop!
And lastly we ended our meal with their Grand Mariner Soufflé. This I have to say was a disappointment. VERY strong in the Grand Mariner… was lacking the balance of sweetness needed. When I’ve had it at other places — they add some sort of fruit — like orange that balances the strong alcohol flavor.
All in all we had EXCELLENT food and– EXCELLENT service. I will say regarding the folks that go there — tends to be an «older» crowd. a lot of regulars — a very «local» place which was nice. Am definitely heading back!

Del Monte is more than amazing. One can get a good piece of steak for the best price in town. Their beer and wine selection is also very reasonably priced. Their style of food at a trendy restaurant would at least set you back $ 8 bucks more– $ 15 in SF. I love the Cevapcici, Chicken Del Monte, Linguini Caccuico, any of the steaks and prime rib. Not to mention the Sauces! The service can use some cleaning up/​revamping, however it doesn’t ruin the experience. I’ve been going there for 10 years.

I have been here several times and the food has always been excellent. My friend, who is a person of delectable cooking skills (very experienced) really liked the food. The staff is great, too. It is family-​owned, and the «papa» (fairly young) is an excellent chef! I look forward to going back!

My husband & I went there for dinner last week. First of, the waiter was all smiles & attentive – a sign that he really wanted to be there.
We ordered prime rib & chicken del monte. Both dishes were excellently flavored without excessive salt. The chef knows his craft!
We had a great dining experience and I over– tipped, a bit rare for me.

Great food, very low key ambience

I ate here with my friend on a Thursday for lunch, and we were the only people in there at 12:30. I had to make sure they were actually open for lunch, since I wasn’t sure! Eventually, some other folks came in to eat as well.
The mussels marinara appetizer was very good. That was our favorite dish of the day. I had the trout entrée, which was overly drenched in butter, but strangely somewhat flavorless. The potatoes and veggies that came with it were good and cooked perfectly. My friend had the three tomato pasta, which was only so-​so, since the capellini pasta was overcooked and soggy.
Our server was appropriately attentive and professional.

It is not awful, just bad.
I wanted to find a nice European place on Murphy to celebrate special occasions with my parents. I am glad I tried the place by myself first. At lunch time the place was almost empty. The service still was unusually bad. The food was slightly worse than what you can make by microwaving frozen TV dinner.

Nice place, quiet. We were the only ones there on a Tuesday night.
Food is «continental but the owners are Croatian, so there are some Croatian specialties.»
I tried the prime rib — it was good, cooked to the desired doneness. Not a great cut but adequate. We had several appetizers. The brie in pastry was quite good. There was a mixed platter with prosciutto and cheese, all fresh and nicely arranged. We had one of the Croatian specialties, Cevapcici, which is a ground meat, cooked on kebabs. I liked that a lot — nice texture and flavor (beef and lamb, I believe), charred for a little smokiness.
Décor is simple continental.

It’s time to break my 5 star rating streak…
Sorry Del Monte, you suck. The server relied so heavily on her food runner that I wanted to tip the food runner instead. She spent the entirety of my meal sitting at the bar gossiping with the bartender and another customer (who I suppose must work there and was in on an off day, since he kept going behind the bar).
I ordered my steak medium rare and it came out well. Since she never came over to check on us we had to get a busser to flag her down so we could tell her, at which point she didn’t apologize and simply asked me if I wanted to just «share my husbands food» instead of reordering. UM NO! You crazy biznatch!
Seriously one of the worst restaurants/​visits I’ve had in the last year.

We had dinner here last night and liked this little place. As we just wanted a light dinner we had the Chicken Caesar salad. The chicken was freshly grilled and quite tender. The dressing didn’t have quite enough anchovy flavor for me but overall it was still a decent salad. Unfortunately, I can’t comment on any of their other entrees but they had a pretty good selection. I had a smooth glass of Chianti with my meal as well.
For dessert we were talked into the gran marnier soufflé. Amazing! These are made to order and take about 10 minutes to prepare. We thought we were ordering just one but they brought out two of them (for the same inexpensive price) as well as a spiked gran marnier sauce. It is such a rare treat to find a menu with a true soufflé on it.
This place is definitely worth a try. Good service and good food. Our bill with two dinner salads, two desserts and a glass of wine was still under $ 40!

I agree with the Unilocal average on this one — 3 stars, a flat average for Del Monte.
The décor, as others have noted, aspires to be classically elegant, but winds up coming off as old and tired. I went here for lunch and the first bad sign was that there was only one other table.
As far as the food went, it was pretty unspectacular. Definitely decent, but nothing above mediocre. The bread was actually a bit below par — it arrived cold. The appetizer (we ordered calamari) was better but still nothing to write home about.
The main courses were better than everything else — my friend’s chicken was at least moist and flavorful (although they drenched it in sauce). The potatoes that came with the chicken were good. My minute steak was well-​cooked and Del Monte gets points for not overcooking steak. While it was juicy, it wasn’t that flavorful and the accompanying fries didn’t add much.
Overall, the one word that describes Del Monte is «ordinary.» It might be a safe bet to eat, but if you’re cruising up and down Murphy Ave., there are plenty of other food options.

The menu is straightforward so I was under the impression that this was going to be a decent establishment. I ordered the turkey croissant sandwich and I thought it tasted o-​kay but I have to admit that the croissant tasted like it had been previously frozen/​de-​frozen and it did not really taste fresh. The cheese also was not melted it was just a slice of cold cheese when I asked to have this sandwich warm…
The experience afterwards turned into a horrible headache for the remainder of the afternoon at work — who knows what they used to cook their food?
Would not recommend it. plus, a place that serves $ 11 prime-​rib is not to be trusted anyway…

Uhm… well…
Falco M. said it best. «Upscale Nursing Home» is an apt description for the décor. Which was further evidenced by the old-​timers sitting and drinking at the bar, and talking loudly, whose voices carried way into the dining area, and then carried on some more at their dinner table.
It’s never a good sign when you enter a restaurant at 7:30 on a Friday night, and the restaurant has no tables, except for five old-​timers at the bar…
Food = uneven. My del monte pasta dish (shrimp in tomato sauce on top of linguine), was bland yet tart and disappointing. My fiancé’s meal was the veal piccata, and that fortunately, did not disappoint, as it was cooked tenderly, well-​flavored and filling.
Bread = very much store bought… and cold. :(WTH! The butter was practically frozen. It was a bit difficult to put semi-​hard butter onto cold bread too.
Service = friendly. That’s about it. We had three people interchanging between busboy and server.
Prices = typical for this area… so it was a bit high for my tastes, as it was more a diner-​esque joint with moderate pricing.
Parking = street parking, so good luck.
I did not get sick from this place but I’m not going to recommend it as a top-​notch, or even above-​par place…