Montana’s BBQ & Bar — Restaurant in Halifax

May 19th, 2025. (edit)

Server seemed slightly friendly, but not really nice. Seemed preoccupied and just " going through the motions ", can't blame her, probably hates her job, but it was quite robotic and not very personable. It was a "here's my name, here's the menu, anything to drink? ok, back in a bit. Ready to order? K, got it." no small talk or smiling. I know, they don't owe you that. sure. but I guess by that logic I don't owe a tip.

Let's get to the important part, and reason I'm writing the review: the food. Wow. I don't know where to start. I actually had a few people recommend the place, and i'm wondering if perhaps I've been trolled (can't wait to ask and find out) The menu itself kind of sucks, there aren't many options, its like a hybrid bbq/steak/drinking food, but really disappointing and uninspired. I ordered a sampler plate of sorts, to try 3 different things, pork back ribs, chicken, and beef burnt ends. Now if you've ever been to any type of bbq competition or restaurant that specializes in bbq, you know burnt ends are kind of like a delicacy. Montana's should probably consider taking them off the menu, to say they missed the mark would be way too kind. Black, burned (yes, it's in the name, I'm aware) and just gross, the flavor was charcoal and fat, several pieces were inedible because they were chewy like leather. The chicken was dry, completely flavorless, you had to take a sip of water to swallow your bite, it was like eating paper. I expected like an actual piece of chicken, but it was just a flat patty of sorts, similar to something you might get at a school cafeteria or knock off version of subway, on top of it was a sugar syrup like a fake honey or something, it didn't help or redeem it in any way. I could only manage one bite of the chicken. The pork ribs, well, at this point I was starving, and had been waiting a long time to eat, I was determined to find something on my 45$ plate to eat. I guess with that in mind I'd say they were " ok " certainly not great. The meat was soft like mashed potatoes, and the sauce was like a no-name bbq sauce from a corner store at 1 am. They had no bbq or smokey flavor at all, and reminded me of like, those fake " rib " things you can get in a frozen entree section of a supermarket, that you can cook in a microwave. I substituted onion rings for my fries, since I don't like fries. The onion rings were 1/10 quality, I wish my server had have given me a hand signal or something, so that I would have just stuck with the fries. Soggy, flour-y, tasteless, raw onion inside. I left most on my plate. The corn bread was like a twinkie kind of, so if you like snack cakes you might like it, it was 5/10 for me. My date ordered the nachos and they were a mess. They weren't terrible per-se but had globs of congealed cheese on the bottom of the tray, it was unappetizing, does the cook not know how to make a cheese sauce? Most of the chips were burnt, they seem to have a passion for overcooking, there was only enough salsa for about 1/6th of the tray of chips, so hopefully you don't like salsa. There was easily an entire cup of largely cut green onion/scallion all over it. I love green onion, and for me it was about 5x too much. Did the entire kitchen just get hired, with no experience? is the owner sitting on a yacht somewhere, not caring about quality or customer satisfaction? Now... I cook a lot at home, and i've been to some impressive restaurants in my time, so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I would avoid this place personally. The bill was nearly 100$, and for that kind of money I expect to at least enjoy everything and not leave hungry.

Don't get me started on the warm, flat beer. Gross. Left and went to a gas station for a bag of pretzels and...

Go to DARTMOUTH location! It's a much better location.

When we arrived, the 3 of us, the hostess was completely thrown off and asked us why we were there? When we said table for 3, there was sooo much confusion on where to place us the hostess needed help and we were walked like 10 feet and were set beside the door. Why was that so hard ? It certainly wasnt inviting.

Then it took what felt like forever, for a server to show up and ask our drink order. Forever for those drinks to arrive, and we definitely should have had our order ready, because she said she would be right back to collect the order, and it was a while before she did come back.

Went to the bathrooms while waiting, it was so strong smelling of pee from both bathrooms that it disgusting to use the facility. A gentleman came out of the mens and the smell was unbearable of pee, as I walked by to the gross ladies room.

The food took a while, we didnt get anything fancy, just onion rings, fries, soup, anjitoes, and a buttermilk chicken dish. Fries were over seasoned with salt and pepper by the kitchen. Soup was so salty you couldnt eat it. Asked for no pesto in the sour cream and it's like they threw in extra, so yuck. Fruit flies flew around us while we tried to eat the salty food. Server slightly stopped by to ask if things were okay but left so fast I couldn't even say what was wrong.

Server was very slow. Her section was too big for her. She seemed fake friendly, run off her feet, and very anxious yet really uncaring. I clearly ate none of my meal and she didnt even ask if everything was okay while clearing..it was more, she knew our experience sucked, but wanted us out, as the door way was full, and more tables were coming. She also had her phone in her back pocket, unprofessional, and didn't deliever our food ....so hopefully the runners are tipped out for their work as the server doesn't buss the table either.

It was just so disappointing. The prices are really expensive to be so hit and miss. Also check your bill closely as i was charged for my friend's kid's Ice Tea at...

Party of 4. Spinach dip was so full of red onion it was inedible. Chicken wings were tossed in so much sauce they were soggy Mains Ordered - steak with lobster sauce, shrimp and mushrooms - steak and shrimp were cold had to send back. Lobster sauce was rank, actually smelled like a fish plant. Second attempt at steak had it so rare that it was removed from the bill. 2 attempts couldn't eat this main Southern fried chicken for my dad was burnt, the gravy had cooled to the point you could tell it was cold by looking at it. He was so hungry he ate it but it looked so bad they took 50% off of this one. Chicken fajitas- fajitas were cold and hard, lettuce was rotten and slimy, chicken was burnt to the point the waitress apologized for the fact it was served to me that way. The peppers were mush and when they took my plate back to fix it, they put raw/ barely cooked chicken on top of those mushy peppers - I'm scared I may get sick from even eating the bit I did - 20% reduction on 2 attempts and it still being wrong and inedible, let's charge 15 bucks for that Finally my sweet husband who didn't want to add to the poor waitress needing to deal with this- HATED THAT DISGUSTING PRE MIXED Austin cheesesteak. He asked for no cheese and was told they can't "because it's all mixed into the pre bagged portions" I'M SORRY BUT WHO BAGS CHEESE WITH VEGGIES?????? Everybody at our table had worked in kitchens and we've never bagged a dairy product with vegetables or meat. IT'S AN ALLERGEN Anyway the waitress really tried but there was no saving this. And to hand us a $25 off the next visit is pretty awful considering WE WON'T EVER BE BACK On top of this, it was a birthday celebration for 3 of us. This terrible meal (and every one of us is so grateful to be able to eat out) still cost over 100. And not 1 of us felt the...