Monki Breakfast Club & Bistro Beltline — Restaurant in Calgary

I really liked the atmosphere (old brick building, clean and well lit); the staff were friendly; and the food was decent ...a little expensive for a smaller portion. However, I would say the presentation was very good and that's probably where the extra money is going. I do not recommend it for vegetarians. Otherwise, it is a nice place to check out.

It's a small place, and the tables are pretty tight (which it's enough, unless you are really big, then you may want to go somewhere else rather than rub shoulders and squeeze by tables).

The brunch menu is similarly small, but has interesting dishes. Mainly it lacks some good vegitarian options (for each type of dish). ...Or options for meats other than those containing pork (one had salmon). Their dinner menu looks better (hopefully better value, maybe I will return and try it).

The little entrance was really packed, and even after we were called we waited for about 10-15 min (which isn't the end of the world) apparently there is an app to make a reservation? I would definitely recommend using that.

I am a little put off by how their tip system is rather presumptuous, the machine starts at 18%. That's what I would've done anyway, but the expectation made me want to give no tip at all (I did though, as I said the servers did well). I am also of the mindset that a business should not collect tips unless it is using it as a rewards system rather than wage supplement (so perhaps you don't see an issue demanding a high tip but not knowing how much goes to the servers).

The staff's mannerisms seemed to hurry us out after we finished, which I will happily take ....over having to chase the server down after waiting for the bill. (Just something to bear in mind, if you wanted a long visit).

*As an aside to the management (I would suggest a better waffle recipe, it's not expensive or difficult to make the waffle itself better. ex: heartier, fluffier, less oily, more crispy, or all of...

I came to Monki this week for the first time as I had heard good things. First of all, I will say that my bacon bene was so tasty! Would highly recommend and would order again. I am only giving 4 stars because of two things. First- I ordered coffee with cream and it immediately curdled when I poured in the cream. I noticed that the cream cup had a thick ring of surface cream that was caked on to the pouring cup so it had obviously been sitting in there for several hours, if not overnight, so was obviously not fresh. Not a big deal, the server apologized and brought fresh coffee and cream and it was fine. They brew Rosso coffee, drip coffee only- no specialty Americanos or lattes. My second critique- I asked if there was anything I could substitute for hash browns to make the meal healthier. The server offered to give me more fruit instead of the hash browns which I agreed to. When I got my bill, the total was higher than I anticipated. I had been charged $2.50 for the fruit substitution. Again, not a huge problem, but I truly believe in transparency for up-charges in this industry and was frustrated by being blindsided. I was led to believe it would be substituted. And it was an extra strawberry and slice of orange and grapefruit, so was not excessive. It’s a tiny venue, I would recommend going during the week on a rainy day, like I did. No wait for a table. Good service. Limited menu, particularly for healthier options with more vegetables, but just a small menu overall. The food was very tasty though, and reasonable price at $17. But with $3.50 for coffee and $2.50 for fruit, plus tip, it quickly became a...

Beautiful spot on the beltline, but food was not anything to celebrate. We came to calgary for a weekend and wanted to try out local restaurants, and decided on monki. We had the halloumi benedict and world famous french toast- our friends shared the morning after. Our consensus as a group: 1- Wow everything is sweet. We expected the french toast to be sweet, but it was swimming in chocolate and caramel syrup and really didn’t have much else flavour besides that. We sadly didn’t taste any banana or cream cheese. The drinks also were SUPER sweet, like drinking a dessert. I couldn’t finish my earl grey tea as it was just too sugary, my friends who got iced lattes and the banana coffee also agreed. 2- Portions were less than favourable. The side of hashbrowns was maybe a handful, which was a shame as they were probably my favourite thing I ate there. The waiter notified my friends that they recently changed up the menu a bit and that the sausages for the morning after are smaller than usual, which we were okay with - what we weren’t expecting was one butterfly cut sausage, just one. The plates felt pretty empty which was a shame for the price point. For a halloumi benedict, it was so skimpy on the halloumi I had maybe a couple bites with halloumi and the rest was just eggs and a hollandaise that tasted like coconut?

The atmosphere is gorgeous and we had a lot of fun searching for the wooden monkeys hidden around the restaurant, but the food really didnt shine. Next time were going back to...