restaurantRestaurant Stakeout · Season 5, Episode 8 · Aired July 30, 2014
Mario's Tutto Bene
Union, New Jersey
Yes. This one is still open.
What happened after
Active Yelp listing (4.0/5, 280 reviews) shown as "Open Now" with current posted hours (Sun noon-10pm, Mon-Sat noon-11pm).
What happened on the show
Degel headed to Union, New Jersey, for a stakeout of Mario's Tutto Bene, a family owned Italian restaurant with a piano bar lounge. The hidden cameras did the show's usual work, capturing the floor when management assumed no one was measuring the crew, and as aired the footage gave Degel a documented picture of how the room actually operated. His confrontation used that evidence to press the owners on leadership and consistency, while his fixes brought the familiar reset of systems and standards. The stakeout leaned on the format's central promise, using surveillance to show the owners the gap between the warm, well run Italian restaurant they believed they had and the operation the cameras actually recorded across a service.
After the cameras left
Mario's Tutto Bene is open. An active Yelp listing shows the restaurant as open with current posted hours and a solid rating across hundreds of reviews at the Chestnut Street address in Union. The current status and hours listing make this a high confidence survivor. The family owned Italian restaurant with its piano bar lounge is still serving years after the stakeout, a clean Season 5 outcome.
Sources
Confidence: high. Last checked 2026-07-19.
What is there now
Street imagery via Google Maps. Location approximate.