At a conference at Kalahari and the team was looking for something close. Nice Italian restaurant, decent portions, and good service. All of us enjoyed the bread and salad before the main meals. The chicken parmigiana and sausage parmigiana were both rated as excellent. The sausage was especially delicious and I enjoyed the fact that it was sweet sausage. The chicken marsala was a hit as well. Everyone cleaned their plates.
6boones4him
Amazing! After a day of hiking we found this place a perfect ending! The service was excellant. Attentive, but not overbearing. Owner came out and welcomed everyone and thanked us for coming. Chef was greeting and observing. Food was delicious! We ordered Eggplant Rollatini, Chicken Marsela and Vodka pasta with angel hair and grilled chicken. Every bite was delicious and we left nothing for leftovers! Too full for dessert. But will definitely return next time we are in area.
Kate S.
What a gem! We found this after a long day at Kalahari. Large portions, everything taste homemade. Our waitress could not have been nicer. We loved this place and hope to be able to visit again soon. My 7 year old also cleaned his plate which almost never happens!
Shelly W.
Place just opened Still Covid restrictions. Placed take out order Appetizers Main entree 85 dollars And we picked up. Sauce was like water! Tasteless It really was expensive For cost As a pick up. Still a cost if sit down. Not recommend! Very poor quality Watered down ragu! Yuck! Won't last!
Paul Fried
The service was outstanding! I believe our server was Josie and she was wonderful! There was entertainment and kids got up to dance. Such fun. I had the fra diavlo and it was perfect. Great flavor, nice and light, and loaded with seafood. Will definitely be back and highly recommend. Oh, and the chef/owner made his rounds to introduce himself. You can see that he takes incredible pride in his restaurant.
Kelli Wildman
Jack was great! Food was fantastic! We are here on vacation and glad we stopped in. Service was timely and food was piping hot!Everyone took a bite before I could snap photos :)
Gabrielle S.
Not sure why the place was packed. If I could give 0 stars I would. Service was some of the worst I've ever experienced - our waiter asked us "you don't want bread, right?" after we ordered 1 appetizer (fried calamari). Thought that was rude and then we were brought stale bread and a half plate of calamari when the table next to us got a mountain of it. The calamari we did get did not include tentacles and were penny size pieces. Fortunately the marinara sauce was authentic. That aside, the entrees had 1 piece of protein and for the $20+ you're going to charge for a meal you could at least give 2 pieces of chicken. Surprisingly the muscles marinara had more muscles than linguini, but not enough linguine to eat with the muscles. Flavor of muscles marinara and chicken Marsala was good though, I will give them that. Chicken parm was over cooked and dry. We never got checked on or had our water refilled. Safe to say we won't be returning.
Danny S.
Just came to this place today. I'm going to keep it simple folks. You want great entertainment and 5 star Italian food? Then you can come here and don't waste your time anywhere else. The owners are the jewels of the Poconos. Castellanos is the Pearl of the Poconos. Get there now.
Terri L.
We had such an incredible experience here for dinner. Our waiter Christian was so friendly and entertaining. His recommendations were great. We were the first for dinner so there was no waiting for anything which was a plus. We started with mushroom soup. Definitely home made and such a large portion. Appetizers promptly came, baked clams and Italian egg rolls were delicious. I had the shrimp risotto special and again no complaints here. Dessert was tiramisu and coffee. A BYOB place that I hope stays around because it is definitely better than the casino or water park restaurants! We will be back. There was live music Saturday night playing classic Italian songs. If we weren't stuffed and ready for a nap we would have stayed just for the entertainment. Bravo to the chef! Can't wait for the next visit.
shamrock0288
We decided to try this place, called and made a reservation for the same evening, short notice. The person who answered the phone was pleasant and took our information. We were greeted nicely upon arrival, escorted to a table and asked if the table was acceptable. Our server, Carmen came to our table promptly and made us feel welcome. She was very personable and attentive during our visit. We enjoyed the eggplant rollatini appetizer, the New England clam chowder which was the soup of the day. Good size bowl. Three nice size pieces of eggplant rollatini. The side salad was just fine. I ordered the chicken francaise over penne. Portion was good, nice presentation, taste was good. My guest had the fra diavolo which he enjoyed. Plenty of mussels, clams, shrimp. We did have leftovers and boxes were given so we could pack to go and enjoy another time. We chose the tiramisu dessert, which was very good, enough for two to share. During our visit, Carmen checked back on us frequently, always with a warm smile. Dirty plates were removed promptly. We engaged in pleasant conversation with her, making the visit even better. The manager stopped by a few times too checking on us and making sure everything was fine. The restaurant was clean, music played in the background. There were plenty of tables and the booths that I had seen in prior pictures on line were probably replaced with tables. We will go back again.
Great place for family and friends to come together to enjoy an awesome meal. Great pasta ? dishes and great ? desserts. Awesome service. Don't forget to come with a ? bottle of wine? you enjoy. The appetizers are ? delicious too. If I could give it 10 stars I would.
Ryan Y
We had just settled in about an hour prior to the restaurant closing and we called at 7:15pm saying are you still open? We were warmly urged to come by, they were still open till 8pm. We rushed over with friends of ours, got there 7:30pm. From the warm greeting at the door (who were former Brooklynite like u) to the caring waitress. The place has a warm family atmosphere. The food was awesome. Pasta like mamma used to make. Fra Diabolo was huge and amazingly fresh like it came straight from the sea. Others ordered Chicken Florentine, spaghetti and meatballs, spaghetti and garlic/oil. Everything was delicious. Service was warm and caring. was the perfect end to our 1st arrival in Poconos. You HAVE to go there if you are in town. Buon appetito! Muchos Gracias Castellano's! Also OH the desserts, hard to believe we had room were marvelous, cannoli to rainbow cake. gifts from above!
Gustoguy
Had dinner for 4 at this restaurant that ambitiously took over the old Pizza Hut. Always a bit of trepidation when trying a new spot. But this did not disappoint. Service was friendly and really efficient. We received wine glasses as soon as we took out our bottles. Arancini appetizers were fresh and moist. We ordered a wide variety of dishes. I asked them to mix it up - tortellini with broccoli rabe and shrimp in an aglio butter sauce. It looked so good even the waitress remarked how special it was! And it was delicious. All portions were ample with a few leftovers taken home. No room for deserts. Pricing was good. A great addition to the local restaurant scene.
Yevgeny Te
Excellent home-made Italian food, friendly owners. I couldn't figure out what I liked best - meatballs, chicken marsala or eggplant parm... Fried ravioli was a hit.
Susan F.
3 stars at best. It was pretty mediocre Italian. Penne a la Vodka was good but kinda like what we make at home. Nothing special to it. Very generic. The pizza was good. The suace was good. The chicken Marsala was pretty awful to be honest. Hi ken was over boiled. No fry or crisp to it, It was essentially rubber on a plate. There seemed to be a little disorganization with the staff. They were friendly but seemed confused at times.
At a conference at Kalahari and the team was looking for something close. Nice Italian restaurant, decent portions, and good service. All of us enjoyed the bread and salad before the main meals. The chicken parmigiana and sausage parmigiana were both rated as excellent. The sausage was especially delicious and I enjoyed the fact that it was sweet sausage. The chicken marsala was a hit as well. Everyone cleaned their plates.
Amazing! After a day of hiking we found this place a perfect ending! The service was excellant. Attentive, but not overbearing. Owner came out and welcomed everyone and thanked us for coming. Chef was greeting and observing. Food was delicious! We ordered Eggplant Rollatini, Chicken Marsela and Vodka pasta with angel hair and grilled chicken. Every bite was delicious and we left nothing for leftovers! Too full for dessert. But will definitely return next time we are in area.
What a gem! We found this after a long day at Kalahari. Large portions, everything taste homemade. Our waitress could not have been nicer. We loved this place and hope to be able to visit again soon. My 7 year old also cleaned his plate which almost never happens!
Place just opened Still Covid restrictions. Placed take out order Appetizers Main entree 85 dollars And we picked up. Sauce was like water! Tasteless It really was expensive For cost As a pick up. Still a cost if sit down. Not recommend! Very poor quality Watered down ragu! Yuck! Won't last!
The service was outstanding! I believe our server was Josie and she was wonderful! There was entertainment and kids got up to dance. Such fun. I had the fra diavlo and it was perfect. Great flavor, nice and light, and loaded with seafood. Will definitely be back and highly recommend. Oh, and the chef/owner made his rounds to introduce himself. You can see that he takes incredible pride in his restaurant.
Jack was great! Food was fantastic! We are here on vacation and glad we stopped in. Service was timely and food was piping hot!Everyone took a bite before I could snap photos :)
Not sure why the place was packed. If I could give 0 stars I would. Service was some of the worst I've ever experienced - our waiter asked us "you don't want bread, right?" after we ordered 1 appetizer (fried calamari). Thought that was rude and then we were brought stale bread and a half plate of calamari when the table next to us got a mountain of it. The calamari we did get did not include tentacles and were penny size pieces. Fortunately the marinara sauce was authentic. That aside, the entrees had 1 piece of protein and for the $20+ you're going to charge for a meal you could at least give 2 pieces of chicken. Surprisingly the muscles marinara had more muscles than linguini, but not enough linguine to eat with the muscles. Flavor of muscles marinara and chicken Marsala was good though, I will give them that. Chicken parm was over cooked and dry. We never got checked on or had our water refilled. Safe to say we won't be returning.
Just came to this place today. I'm going to keep it simple folks. You want great entertainment and 5 star Italian food? Then you can come here and don't waste your time anywhere else. The owners are the jewels of the Poconos. Castellanos is the Pearl of the Poconos. Get there now.
We had such an incredible experience here for dinner. Our waiter Christian was so friendly and entertaining. His recommendations were great. We were the first for dinner so there was no waiting for anything which was a plus. We started with mushroom soup. Definitely home made and such a large portion. Appetizers promptly came, baked clams and Italian egg rolls were delicious. I had the shrimp risotto special and again no complaints here. Dessert was tiramisu and coffee. A BYOB place that I hope stays around because it is definitely better than the casino or water park restaurants! We will be back. There was live music Saturday night playing classic Italian songs. If we weren't stuffed and ready for a nap we would have stayed just for the entertainment. Bravo to the chef! Can't wait for the next visit.
We decided to try this place, called and made a reservation for the same evening, short notice. The person who answered the phone was pleasant and took our information. We were greeted nicely upon arrival, escorted to a table and asked if the table was acceptable. Our server, Carmen came to our table promptly and made us feel welcome. She was very personable and attentive during our visit. We enjoyed the eggplant rollatini appetizer, the New England clam chowder which was the soup of the day. Good size bowl. Three nice size pieces of eggplant rollatini. The side salad was just fine. I ordered the chicken francaise over penne. Portion was good, nice presentation, taste was good. My guest had the fra diavolo which he enjoyed. Plenty of mussels, clams, shrimp. We did have leftovers and boxes were given so we could pack to go and enjoy another time. We chose the tiramisu dessert, which was very good, enough for two to share. During our visit, Carmen checked back on us frequently, always with a warm smile. Dirty plates were removed promptly. We engaged in pleasant conversation with her, making the visit even better. The manager stopped by a few times too checking on us and making sure everything was fine. The restaurant was clean, music played in the background. There were plenty of tables and the booths that I had seen in prior pictures on line were probably replaced with tables. We will go back again.
Restaurantji Recommends
Great place for family and friends to come together to enjoy an awesome meal. Great pasta ? dishes and great ? desserts. Awesome service. Don't forget to come with a ? bottle of wine? you enjoy. The appetizers are ? delicious too. If I could give it 10 stars I would.
We had just settled in about an hour prior to the restaurant closing and we called at 7:15pm saying are you still open? We were warmly urged to come by, they were still open till 8pm. We rushed over with friends of ours, got there 7:30pm. From the warm greeting at the door (who were former Brooklynite like u) to the caring waitress. The place has a warm family atmosphere. The food was awesome. Pasta like mamma used to make. Fra Diabolo was huge and amazingly fresh like it came straight from the sea. Others ordered Chicken Florentine, spaghetti and meatballs, spaghetti and garlic/oil. Everything was delicious. Service was warm and caring. was the perfect end to our 1st arrival in Poconos. You HAVE to go there if you are in town. Buon appetito! Muchos Gracias Castellano's! Also OH the desserts, hard to believe we had room were marvelous, cannoli to rainbow cake. gifts from above!
Had dinner for 4 at this restaurant that ambitiously took over the old Pizza Hut. Always a bit of trepidation when trying a new spot. But this did not disappoint. Service was friendly and really efficient. We received wine glasses as soon as we took out our bottles. Arancini appetizers were fresh and moist. We ordered a wide variety of dishes. I asked them to mix it up - tortellini with broccoli rabe and shrimp in an aglio butter sauce. It looked so good even the waitress remarked how special it was! And it was delicious. All portions were ample with a few leftovers taken home. No room for deserts. Pricing was good. A great addition to the local restaurant scene.
Excellent home-made Italian food, friendly owners. I couldn't figure out what I liked best - meatballs, chicken marsala or eggplant parm... Fried ravioli was a hit.
3 stars at best. It was pretty mediocre Italian. Penne a la Vodka was good but kinda like what we make at home. Nothing special to it. Very generic. The pizza was good. The suace was good. The chicken Marsala was pretty awful to be honest. Hi ken was over boiled. No fry or crisp to it, It was essentially rubber on a plate. There seemed to be a little disorganization with the staff. They were friendly but seemed confused at times.