Bongiovanni's is located in a quiet, out of the way place somewhere in El Cajon. The parking lot is spacious, if a bit bumpy, but convenient nonetheless. I found a nice spot just a few steps from the front door.
The decor is nice. Large brick arches form several windows that surround most of the building. We enjoyed seeing the realistic grapes (or maybe just grapes?) hanging from above and the large barrels forming a wall beneath the bar counter.
A host was available within a few minutes of stepping inside. We requested a booth and were seated at one that had a few crumbs and what looked like a piece of a paper straw wrapper, but it was more or less clean after one or two hand swipes.
Plastic cups, disposable napkins and menus that looked like they were printed from your old noisy printer from 1993 and laminated at Kinko's. My date didn't use the ladies' room, so we can't say anything about it, but the men's room had one urinal and two toilet stalls, one of them handicapped; there was only one sink with no mirror. This place ain't fancy, but it's nice and clean enough. It falls in between that strange limbo between fast food and casual dining. Nothing wrong with that.
The servers all seemed to be young, attractive women, all of which seemed to be pleasant and professional and met most of our needs without asking.
First, our drinks arrived, and bread soon after we ordered our food. They don't appear to refill drinks, but they do serve drinks by the pitcher, which is plenty enough to serve four. Their pitchers are served with full glasses, so it's a pretty good deal. The bread was amazing, served with several slivers of butter packaged between squares of wax paper. They must bake several batches a day for it to taste so fresh.
I ordered their ravioli with an order of two extra meatballs. The ravioli was neither soggy or undercooked and the meat filling had a great flavor that didn't overwhelm with spice or lack flavor or texture like one shameful Boyardee would make them.
When you want to take food home, they offer tin pie-pan-like bowls with lids as well as styrofoam soup cups that you can use to take home your extra drinks. They also offer a call-in pickup service.
Overall, it's affordable and a great place with great food, whether you want to take a date or have it become your new local hangout.
Pros: Great food and service, lots of parking, nice decor, large portions
Cons: Could be a cleaner and more polished environment, takes Discover instead of American Express
