Montana’s BBQ & Bar — Restaurant in British Columbia

No one was available to greet us, which isn't a huge deal, but the 2 staff members that did see us didn't acknowledge us, which is something that really bugs me.

Ok - no big deal. A guy comes out and we get seated right away, since the restaurant is half empty.

There are two tables near us that haven't been cleared. Little did I know that one of them wouldn't be cleared of the dirty dishes and food leftovers until after we had received our own food.

So at this point, while we are waiting a really long time for a server to come take our drink order, we've noticed that we can only count 3 staff members and no one seems to be moving in any kind of a hurry. We have 4 adults and 4 kids under 5 years old. We think: should we pull the rip cord (it's now been 15 minutes since we were seated and we haven't seen our server to order drinks) or should we just order our food with the drinks and hope for the best? We made the wrong choice.

As far as the staff go - I understand if you got hit with a rush. I get that. But, having worked in the restaurant industry - you should at least be working hard to catch up. Like I said - no one was in any kind of a rush. There was no urgency. There were no apologies for things taking time or even for screwing up the order.

Finally, the server does come over. He is pleasant. He takes his time. This actually kind of annoys me because I know I'm not the only one that has been waiting. But, at least he is pleasant.

Waters arrive promptly, but there aren't enough of them. The final one comes after the first round of our alcohol, about 15 minutes later again. Hilariously, my draft beer actually takes 5 minutes longer to arrive as my friends Cesar, which is a far more complicated drink.

Food arrives a few minutes after this. All of the food is cold, except for the baked beans. All of the baked beans are in paper cups. My wifes sour cream is in a measuring cup. It's clear they haven't been keeping up with the dishes.

They forgot an appetizer for my friend and forgot to sub carrots for my son.

Ribs were not exactly fall apart, as they are advertised.

We ask for the bill, which arrives promptly, I wait 10 minutes before I have to go find someone to pay the bill to.

What I thought was the final insult, was that they put on an auto-gratuity of 15%. With all of the chaos of the kids - it would have been easy to miss and accidentally tip the server twice - since he didn't bother to mention the auto grat at any time.

But - this adventure isn't over. The final insult is that the receipt asked me to fill out a survey. The survey asks if I want a response from the company - which I check that I do and give them my email address.

I fill out the survey, write out this story above, and expect someone to reach out. It's been 5 days. I haven't heard anything. That's the final insult.

So - don't come to this restaurant. They obviously don't care about service or the quality of the food or about working hard for...

To say that we don’t visit Tsawwassen much is an understatement. Located in the southern tip of Delta, most people wind up here if they’re heading to the ferries, to do some US shopping at Point Roberts, or if they’re heading out to Tsawwassen Mills (that large outlet shopping centre on Tsawwassen First Nations land). We were here for the latter and, after finishing our shopping, we stopped by Montana’s for lunch.

We don’t make it out to Montana’s very often (wish they had a location that was closer to Vancouver). The last time we were at a Montana’s was at their location out in Coquitlam (which I’ve heard has since closed). From what I recalled, the serving sizes were pretty generous… something which was echoed in this visit.

Let me just say that I always enjoy eating at a place where we can draw on the tablecloths… something which we did here while we enjoyed our Sweet Tea Lemonade ($3.99) and Blackberry Mule ($6.50) while we waited for our food to arrive. I know… we’re not exactly artists but it’s still fun.

The Buttermilk Country Chicken ($16.99) is served with veggies, cornbread, and mashed potatoes. I thoroughly enjoyed the light and crisp chicken (marinated in buttermilk) and the fact that the garlic mashed potatoes incorporated the potato skin. And oh that country-style gravy! Damn!

The Rib Taster ($14.99) includes 4 bones, which may not sound like a lot… but is a good size. Served with crunchy/creamy coleslaw, cornbread, and lightly crisp yam fries. Man, those yam fries were so addictive! We had the ribs prepared with their Texas Bold sauce but I actually think I preferred their Apple Butter sauce. Thankfully, they have extra sauces table-side that you can use.

Now, I know that I started off saying that we don’t get out here much but we did return for a revisit a couple of months later. Since we were here during happy hour, we figured it’d be a good chance to try out some of their other menu items. First up was the Sweet Tea Lemonade and Shirley Temple along with their Four Cheese Spinach Dip. The dip comes with a mix of some really good pita chips as well as multi-colour tortilla chips. Before I go further, I do have to say that I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t have crayons and a paper tablecloth to draw on 😦

The Double Dusted Wings ($6.50 happy hour) were large and saucy and a steal at this price.

For something a bit more filling, we also ordered the Large Pork Rib ($25.99) which comes with about 9 bones in your choice of bbq sauce and enhanced it with a fully loaded baked potato ($1.99) and a side of Beef Brisket ($5). Obviously, they know their ribs… but I found the beef brisket to be too dry.

If you visit, make sure to grab some corn bread (we actually ordered extra to bring home). On second thought, maybe it’s a good thing that they don’t have a Montana’s closer to us… I’d definitely wind up packing on a few too...

Not happy! I dont normally write reviews but We came in later in the evening, so it was not busy at all with only 2 other tables on the bar side and it took them 15 minutes just to come over and take our drink menu! I ordered a taster meal that was only $23 and was told they were out of the ribs but there was a beef one. Which I said okay to but she did not specify that I would be charged $36 instead. When I seen the bill and asked the waitresses, I then spoke to the manager as there was no communication that I would be paying extra. He would not budge. And to top it off, the service was shocking! They did not come to our table once to check on us and by the end of the evening, we were the only ones in there. So again not busy at all! My partner had to bring his cup up to go get his own refill! And can't forget to mention that he found a hair in his potatoes and all they did was grab his plate, take the baked potatoe off and put a new one on and brought back the same plate without even apologizing! Shocked! And didn't even offer a discount, which we had to ask for and then only took $4 off! So my 23 dollar meal ended up being $44 because I also had to pay more for the wing combo that was not included, which they only told me after my food was being prepared! All in all, not a happy camper and will not be going back to that location...