Monster Kitchen and Bar — Restaurant in District of Canberra Central

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

This has been my favourite restaurant in Canberra for years on end and has previously been my #1 choice for celebrating birthdays, anniversaries but most notably valentine's day.

This year was no different. I booked a few weeks out to make sure I could get us a table. On the booking it gave us option to do both a la carte and set menu.

I showed up and we waited in line for 15 minutes while the FOH tried to figure out the POS, clearly stressed but I just assumed it was because it was one of their biggest nights of the year and they were booked out.

Once I got to my seat we noticed there was only an omnivore set menu available - now I was aware monster was now offering both meat and plant options which I had no qualms with, as I saw on the website the vegetarian menu was still available.

I asked if I could have the vegetarian menu and they said they were offering it but the printer had had issues and they didn't have the vegetarian menus printed. The wait staff didn't have it on hand and only knew vaguely what was on it based off some notes in their pocket.

What I also noticed was that, while I had anticipated there would probably be a set menu, the booking said we could do a la carte or set. I looked at the set menus on monster's website before booking which were priced at $85 and $99 for the vegetarian and omnivore menus respectively.

So not only did we have to order the set menu, but when I got to the restaurant, the price had gone up $50 because it was valentine's day, without being informed. Which I shrugged off as I knew it would be worth it because every other meal I'd had at monster had been outstanding.

And then we waited 45 minutes for our entrees to come out, on a night where everyone was doing the set menu. When it finally arrived, mine were alright but it was crazy that they only gave me a single zucchini flower the size of my thumb. I stayed optimistic as the panisse was nice, my partner was pretty disappointed with the mediocre oysters though.

Then we waited, and waited and waited. By this time it was nearly 10pm (note our booking was at 8:30pm and we had only had entrees and drinks served).

At this point, we had struck up conversation with other disappointed couples and were finding out that other people had been waiting even longer than us for food, and yet other customers had come after us and were onto their third courses.

The wait staff eventually disappeared from the floor and were nowhere to be seen.

We were debating whether or not to call it and go home as it was late, and then as the wait staff finally brought out mains as we were getting ready to stand up and go, which is where Monster put the final nail in its coffin.

The cauliflower.

OG Monster fans will remember the best menu item - cauliflower shawarma. It was everything. You simply had to be there and I'm so sad that this experience is now something that won't be available to future diners.

I looked at it. It didn't look right but hey maybe it was going to be okay. Whatever. It's Monster cauliflower - surely it'll be done right, if they can do anything right it's this.

One bite. Nope. Mushy, cold, miserable, and I honestly wish I hadn't tried it because it just made a mockery of my favourite dish I had been enjoying repeatedly for the past two years.

It was also ironic that there was a rogue french fry on the plate that wasn't part of the dish, as the couple next to us couldn't get a bowl of french fries from the bar while trying to get through the 2 hour wait for their entrees.

Needless to say, we were out of there and were refunded because in 1.5 hours we left with nothing but new found grief for the dish that was once Monster's...

Hey Monster,

I don’t usually write reviews, but tonight wasn’t a great experience—especially for Valentine’s Day. I understand that it might seem unfair, as most people don’t leave reviews when they have a positive experience, but when things go wrong, a review suddenly feels necessary.

With that in mind, I’ve kept this as a neutral 2/5 review because I feel it’s important to provide feedback from my perspective on tonight’s experience.

For context: I booked and prepaid for a table ahead of Valentine’s Day, securing the set “Omnivore” menu for 8:00 pm. The booking process was simple and straightforward—although a little unusual, as I’ve never had to pay in full for a set menu upfront. But so be it.

My partner and I arrived early and were seated by 7:50 pm—so far, so good.

And then things got a little chaotic.

At 8:00 pm, we recieved mains that didn’t belong to us but after a bit of detective work, the table next to us—prompted us that it was their mains. We let the waitress know, no big deal. Our first entrée arrived at 8:10 pm, which was great.

Shortly after, we received another table’s mains… then another table’s drinks. Three mix-ups in a row—what was going on?

By 8:45 pm, we checked in with the staff to see when our next dishes would arrive. We were told the kitchen was busy and our food would be coming soon. Looking around, it was clear that many other couples were also waiting.

By 9:00 pm, my partner was hungry and uncomfortable, so I asked if we could order a side of fries. A few minutes later, we were told the request had been denied because the kitchen was overloaded and, to maintain quality of everyone’s dishes, they couldn’t accommodate our chippy request.

Our next dish, steak tartare with a fried seaweed cracker, arrived at 9:15 pm. Unfortunately, the cracker was stale and oily, and the steak tartare was lukewarm. Should we have eaten it? Shrug. At this point, we were starving.

By 9:50 pm, it was clear that we weren’t the only ones feeling frustrated. The couple behind us requested a partial refund, and the couple next to us—who had also been waiting a long time—asked how long we’d been there. When their steak tartare finally arrived, they also found it stale and lukewarm.

At this point, I could see the light fading from my partner’s eyes. That was our cue to leave —and, as it turned out, the table next to us felt the same way. It took another several minutes of us waiting as there were no staff seen in the area we were sitting.

With multiple tables now openly discussing their missing food and dissatisfaction, another couple struck up a conversation with us about their own experience. Them having booked for 8pm but not seated until 8:45pm.

At the register, the floor manager couldn’t find our table to process the refund and turns out our table had also been cleared in their system, I assume that means we wouldn’t have received any food. I would’ve thought our communication with staff would’ve prompted an investigation on what was going on.

In the end, we were told our bill would be written off, and we’ve been advised that a refund will be processed sometime next week.

What’s going on monster? I’ve never experienced...

We have stayed at Ovolo Nishi since it opened in it's original incarnation as Hotel Hotel in late 2013. Been eating and drinking at Monster Kitchen and Bar in all its different variations since then.

Shout out to Miles and the Monster bar team. Amazing cocktails and fantastic service as always. We were staying for the long weekend for Midnight Oil, and had drinks and cocktails each day. All faultless.

Which leads me to this review for the Kitchen. Over nine years the only thing Monster kitchen can be relied upon to be is consistently inconsistent. It was at its best under the opening chef, Sean McConnell. Open till 1am, it was for a brief four years a true big city late night spot for fine food and cocktails after a show. Contrasted with breakfast service, which was regularly an episode of Fawlty Towers. Although in its heyday the food and service could be spotty, it was overall very good.

Sadly this is no longer the case. Most disappointing of all was the dinner we had with friends and family on Sunday night. This was one of the worst meals I have had anywhere, ever. Full disclosure, I am omnivorous but I do eat vegetarian dishes and know what good vegetarian cooking should be. What we had on Sunday was utter slop and I would not use it as food waste composting for my garden.

The Shiitake and sweet soy dumplings were an utterly clueless dish. I like chilli, however there was so much chilli in these that I couldn't taste any other ingredient. I could have been eating marinated cardboard instead of Shiitake and would not have been able to tell. And at $28 for five pieces, an utter rip off. The icing on the cake was that they were cold when served. God knows how long they were sitting on the pass waiting for the rest of the food.

The stuffed savoy cabbage was a glutinous mess. Pretty much baby food shaped into a cylinder. The only component with any taste was the apple(?) sauce. No sign of any Comté cheese whatsoever. Apparently "crispy sage" was also an ingredient. There was nothing crispy about this dish at all. Also another utter rip off at $28.

The edamame hit the table tepid verging on cold, and I had to send them back. The waitstaff are all lovely, but it is very hard to get anyone's attention. A new serve of edamame was eventually delivered which was at least hot, but nothing special. The waitress was very nice and offered us a complimentary cheese board to make up for the fiasco. Cheeses were very good, but it is almost impossible to stuff up a cheese board. Likewise the chips were excellent, although if you can't fry a chip you should probably pack up your chef knives and become a lumberjack.

Note to Ovolo management. I understand the vegetarian initiative and it is commendable. We will continue to stay at Ovolo Nishi, but while Monster continues to serve such atrocious food we will never dine there again. @Chef Matthew Bentley you should be ashamed that your team served such a...