Monterey Grill

Reviews

• CM

  cari magrino

  Feb 22, 2026
  5.0
  Had such a great experience here last night (2/21/26). The atmosphere was lovely, and the live music added so much! Our server, Khalil was attentive but not overbearing, knowledgeable and friendly. Most importantly, the food was outstanding. We shared the crab fried rice as an appetizer (even though it’s technically a side), and ordered the salmon, short rib, scallops and seafood cobb salad. Every single thing was stellar. Such a great night! We’ll be back for sure.
• DW

  Drake Williams

  Feb 15, 2026
  2.0
  Food tasted average. Nothing that said WOW! However, what made our experience so awful was our server, John. Never truly listened just answered yes just to keep moving. I understand it was Valentine’s Day but be in the moment when someone addresses you. His service was so lacking we only tipped 15%. I wanted to tip just 10% but my wife isn’t that cruel. Here’s why he was terrible. 1. Our table had no ambient lighting, had to ask manager. 2. Been there several minutes, no bread when others had it. 3. High scale in appearance, but trash, debris, and dirty plates were never picked up, again, had to tell the manager. 4. Paying attention to your customers. My wife told John I do not drink water, instead iced tea. He said ok. Came back without the tea and tried to fill my glass with water anyway. I then reminded him I wanted the iced tea with a LOT of Splenda, instead of, I get three. Never refilled water or tea unless he was asked to. Not getting the amount of to go boxes that you asked for even after saying it twice. I can go on and on but I won’t. I will end with this, the entire experience was a three hour underwhelming event. In fact, it was so bad that after leaving we drove thirty minutes away to Raza’s at Hamilton just to end our evening on a high note. Side note, your live band was fabulous!
• RR

  Reviewing

  Feb 15, 2026
  5.0
  Such a Great restaurant! We have been 2 times so far and nothing times were great! The service is very personable and staff are nice. They do live music and the Feb 13 2026 performer was wonderful! The hostess Hailey and our waitress Erica were also awesome! Its nice for a date night, dinner with friends, or an after work drink. Its always a good stop. Will be back!
• JS

  Julie Scida

  Feb 14, 2026
  2.0
  Oh boy, what an experience. I’ll start off with the good - Monterey Grill has a very nice and upscale atmosphere. Classy decor and lighting, real candles. They offer complimentary valet service and coat checking. One thing to be aware of - there is a dress code that’s encouraged, which I didn’t know and that’s my fault, so we came a little underdressed. Our server was very friendly. There was a live band, and that was cool. The good things end there. Unfortunately they missed the mark on some very fundamental things for me, the biggest one being the quality of the food. This restaurant is not cheap whatsoever, many entrees begin at and are well above the $30 mark. We went on Valentine’s Day weekend and there were two distinct Valentine’s Day specials which appeared to be an inclusive multi course selection, including soup/salad, an entree, and a dessert. The lower cost option was $195 for two people which listed red velvet cake as a dessert option. I asked if I could have the red velvet cake without the rest of the two person package, and she told me that they couldn’t serve it à la carte. I’m not in the restaurant industry but I can’t wrap my head around why that isn’t an option or why they cant muster a holiday menu with specialty à la carte items like you’d normally see anywhere else, rather than having to commit to $100 a person just to get a silly little cake. I digress. The quality of the food was a low point. We ordered the crispy artichokes and the smoked deviled eggs for appetizers. The crispy artichokes were presented like fried chicken drumsticks, which was cute - however, they were very clearly canned. The only crispy aspect was the fried breading on the outside, but the inside was very distinctly canned artichoke with what appeared to be a cream cheese and pepper filling. They essentially tasted like jalapeño poppers with the soggy texture and strong vinegar flavor of a canned artichoke. Using canned artichokes for a dish where the star is the artichoke itself, at a restaurant supposedly this upscale, is unacceptable. The deviled eggs on the other hand were absolutely inedible. They were very small which made me think they might not be chicken eggs, but they must have been since the menu didn’t specify otherwise. The yolk mixture was not seasoned at all and they were topped with a tiny dollop of some kind of spicy sweet sauce, atop a bed of strange crispy rice flakes. The whole thing was horrendous. I couldn’t stomach it and had to spit it out, which I never do. I also ordered the French onion soup, which luckily was edible, but under seasoned and very mid quality. You can find the exact same French onion soup in practically any other chain restaurant that serves it. Not to mention, there were little clumps of flour from an incorrectly cooked roux floating around. Yikes. From the time I got my soup to the time we received our entrees, it took about 45 minutes, which we understand because it was busy, but that’s a long time to wait. Our server did tell us it was taking a long time and was very apologetic, but then offered nothing tangible to try to make it up to us. An easy thing would have been to comp the eggs, which she noticed weren’t eaten, but we still ended up paying for them. I ordered the chicken Marsala, which was $36, and it was pretty good. Not very hot since it had been sitting, but had a nice flavor, even enjoyable. My fiancé had the salmon and he had no comments or complaints. The entrees were good, but they were in no way mind blowing or the quality I’d expect from a place like this. The point I’m trying to drive home is for this place to expect its guests to be dressed to a certain standard and then deliver the lack of quality and substandard experience that they did is pretty egregious. For $130 we got two soft drinks, two appetizers, a soup, and two entrees. In this economy, that’s atrocious especially for food that’s mediocre at best. I don’t recommend this place because there are plenty of other better and more affordable options in this area.
• BP

  Benjamin Prybutok

  Feb 5, 2026
  1.0
  This evening an associate from out of town and I had an early dinner. The waitress as she went through the motions, with no emotion ,served my soup late and cold. The grilled tuna was well done trisngle block. The waitress did not seem to care. So yes I ordered the cob salad with dressing on the side , she served it swimming in dressing and when I pointed it out she laughed. I usually just forget the experiences that have taken my appetite away . NOT THIS TIME. SAVE YOUR MONEY. EVEN THE STEAK THEY SERVE IS NOT WORTH 72.00 THIS IS NO SPECIAL STEAK HOUSE BUT AN EXPENSIVE ONE THST IS STILL IN THE LEARNING PROCESS . Save your time and money Benjamin

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