The Montague Hotel — Restaurant in Brisbane City

Overview The Montague Hotel, also known as "The Monty," is a welcoming and homely pub bistro located on the corner of Montague Road and Kurilpa Avenue in West End, Brisbane.

Food My wife and I shared an entrée of lemon and pepper calamari ($14), which was the perfect way to start our meal. The calamari was warm and chewy, and nicely presented on a stylish dark plate with a creamy mayonnaise dip, a slice of lemon, and a few sprigs of lettuce. For mains, I had the meatball spaghetti ($24) and my wife had the haloumi and vegetable stack ($22). My meatball spaghetti was delicious, with chunky meatballs in a tangy tomato sauce. The pasta was nice and soft, just the way I like it. My wife's haloumi and vegetable stack was fresh and tasty, and the word "stack" in the description was quite appropriate, as it was arranged in a neat tower-like structure with a few lettuce leaves perched on top. We both thoroughly enjoyed our meals.

Service The service at The Monty was absolutely fantastic, from the friendly bar manager to the polite and efficient waitress who delivered our food. We ordered drinks at the bar and then used the app to order our meals. It was all quick and easy, and within minutes, our meals were on the table in the correct order, with the calamari starter followed by the two main meals. And it was all done with a friendly smile. I later went up to the bar to sign onto the member program, and the same barman who served me my drinks gave me the form, explained how it all worked, and had brought out my new membership card within a few minutes. It was a pleasure to enjoy such fine service.

Atmosphere We visited The Monty on a Sunday night, so it was relatively quiet, but there were enough other guests to create a nice buzz. The Monty is a large venue with multiple dining areas, both inside and outside. It's airy, spacious, and comfortable, ideal for summer dining with the doors flung wide open. However, I imagine it could get a bit chilly in winter. The décor is modern and stylish, with wooden furniture, striking latticework features, strong lighting, and an interesting gallery of old photos on the back wall. It all works well to create a cool and inviting ambience.

Cost Prices at The Monty are reasonable, especially considering the current hyperinflationary economic climate. Schooners of my favourite Byron Bay lager were on special for $8, and a shot of Baileys with milk and ice for my wife was $10. Our food order, of one starter and two main meals, plus the credit card surcharge and a small tip, came to $64. That's fair value, I think, especially in these days when prices are rising so quickly.

Toilets The toilets are clean, well-maintained, and easy to find. I liked the interesting sound absorbent wallpaper on the walls.

Parking Street parking is a breeze anywhere along Kurilpa Road, just a few metres from the venue. There are ample spaces and it's free and unrestricted after 7pm.

Summary We had a great time at The Monty on a quiet Sunday night. The food was excellent, the service was outstanding, and the atmosphere was relaxed and inviting. I would definitely recommend The Monty for a fun night out with family and friends.

Memo There are plenty of specials during the week, both for food and drink, so it's worth checking out the website to...

Opening night: My housemates and I were eager to try give this place a try. We walked in and although it seemed like the place was full, managed to get a table fairly quickly. We were served moments after sitting down and shortly after, they brought out our entree and drinks. After waiting for well over an hour, we saw what looked like our meals sitting under the heat lamps waiting to be brought to our table. However we were quite disappointed when the waiter picked them up an did SEVERAL laps of the place looking for who the meals belonged to. After about an hour and a half, we went up to the register and told them it had been too long of a wait for our meals and said to just cancel them. We were offered free drinks as compensation.

I decided to cut some slack as this was their opening night. Watching the food come out it looked DELICIOUS and the drinks were very cheap so I thought if they managed to work out these kinks it would be quite a nice place.

Sunday Night: As it has been a few days since opening and some slightly better reviews had been posted we decided to give The Montague Hotel another chance. This time we had a table booked but had to wait well over 15 minutes to have our orders taken (which is understandable for the most part as they were fairly busy). We were brought out a bottle of warm water which again I assume was due to them being busy. The wait for our food was pretty standard this time (roughly half an hour) however upon receiving the food we were severely disappointed. The burger I ordered was luke warm at best (the bun being the warmest part). The wagyu patty seemed to be unseasoned and didn't really have much of a flavor. As for the rest of the burger, well its awful hard to mess up a salad.. The chips however were great, crispy and nice and hot surprisingly.

All in all I tried really hard to love that place as it seems like such a good idea but I feel it is inexcusable to serve cold food no matter what the circumstance. If you are after a nice cold beer and maybe some chips, by all means The Montague Hotel is probably the place for you. But if you want food? Look elsewhere..

PS: Probably not a great idea to serve ONLY tomato sauce with chips unless its a kids...

Very disappointed.

A group of us came in for dinner but when we went to order we were told we cannot split a bill if we sit in the restaurant, but if we sat in the bar we could. Unfortunately none of us are rich enough to pay for everyone so we had no choice. Their reasoning was that it is part of the "fine dining experience."

Can someone show me where in the "fine dining experience" guidelines it dictates that we can't split a bill?

We were banished to the bar area where we were forced to listen to game show sounds and the trivia guy talk over a PA system to the two people who were playing trivia, I did notice some of the staff playing trivia though.

I'm not sure if the food tasted horrible, or if the way we were treated just left a bad taste in my mouth. The $17 chicken burger was bland and unsatisfying, but the $11 can of beer was tasty.

And be very careful when using their paypass machine, it automatically puts a surcharge on AFTER you swipe your card, with no warning.

Overall the experience wasn't enjoyable, I can't say I would recommend this place. I'm really upset about the paypass thing, surely...