Monroe's Restaurant — Restaurant in Albuquerque

UPDATED: Monroe's response to my review is inadequate and insulting, attempting to dismiss and/or drastically discount my review to nothing more than a problem with a server's attitude and "these crazy times," when there was actually a potentially serious issue with an adulterated food item that Monroe's sidestepped.

Monroe's says they did not give me an item from someone else's plate, but DOESN'T explain how I was given tartar sauce with a chunk of fish in it, which certainly has the potential for food poisoning, which is a heck of a lot more serious than a lack of smiles from the servers.

Monroe's tells me that their system of not assigning a waitress to each table and making everyone responsible for every table is "more successful." It wasn't successful in our case, and I am the one writing the review, but Monroe's is actually not talking to me. They are talking over me and addressing all of you who are reading my review and trying to get you to ignore it.

Judge for yourself how you would feel if you were me and you experienced what I did. HERE IS WHAT HAPPENED:

On Friday, I ordered the special "fish and chips" for lunch. It consisted of three fish portions about 5 1/2 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide, served on top of some nicely crisp fries, a little paper container of vinegar, another of "tartar sauce" and on the side a few fresh lemon wedges. The fish was hot, delicious, crunchy on the outside, with firm but tender chunky fish on the inside. The flavor was GREAT. I was very pleased with it.

I am mostly a lemon enthusiast, but I did try the vinegar. It wasn't to my taste, but that doesn't say much. I am more of a lemon gal myself anyway, so I ate the fish with lemon juice squeezed from the lemon wedges, and that was VERY pleasant.

When I had already eaten about 2 and 1/4 of the 3 pieces of fish, I decided to try the tartar sauce. I couldn't manage to get any tartar sauce onto my fish. Something was in the cup that was preventing the sauce from depositing on the fish. It turns out that I had been given a container of adulterated tartar sauce. There was a chunk of fish in the bottom of the container that I had not put there!

Was I given a container of tartar sauce that had been on someone else's plate? Was there a mishap in the kitchen in which cooked fish had found its way into their mayo-based tartar sauce?

I waved down a waitress and explained the issue. She brought the manager. I showed him the chunk of fish in the tartar sauce. He offered to replace the meal, but I had eaten most of the fish already anyway, so I opted to just get a new container of tartar sauce. I told him, "I don't want anything, I just want you to know about this because fish in your mayonnaise is not a good thing." He agreed and said that the would look into it and try to figure out what happened. (Apparently, he did not do that.)

We never saw a waitress again - until one of them dropped the check on the table and disappeared. No one had asked us if we wanted dessert, which we did. I had to flag her down to ask, "what if we want something else?" She looked at me with a sullen expression and said, "so what do you want?" She sounded irritated with me.

I asked her, "Do you have desert?" She said, "It's on the menu" and stormed off. She never returned.

After another 5 or 10 minutes, I flagged down another waitress and asked her, hopefully, "are you our waitress?" She replied, "we all are," which might be part of the problem. No assigned tables means no assigned tips (and no responsibility when something goes bad!)

We finally were able to order some flan. The taste was blah and the portion was small.

When we went up front to pay our bill (which had not been discounted, by the way, in case you are wondering.) I also bought two bottles of salsa.

I would say, in general, that the food is a 4 and the service is a 2, and the management response to a problem is a 1 - which amounts to a...

As much as I hate doing this, it has to be said. Monroe's was once the best New Mexican restaurants in ABQ. My family and I have been eating here since I can remember, usually for lunch when my mom worked at a nearby hair salon. I hadn't been to the new location after they moved from Lomas and I guess I should have trusted my husband when he said, "are you sure you want to eat here?" The waitress was horrible, such a sullen and sulking attitude. Not to mention she never returned to refill my coffee nor our water much less ask how we were doing (common waitstaff etiquette). When she brought out the plates, she nearly slammed them on the table. My over-medium eggs were barely cooked and tasted like fish water. The red chile was more like mole. The only redeeming part of this misadventure was the fluffy sopaipillas. Waitstaff should never ever ask if you want chips and salsa, just bring some. Plus we were never given the bill, we had to walk up to the front to pay. Menu items are ridiculously overpriced for the low quality food we were served. Long gone are the days of true New Mexican food, service and making your patrons feel welcome. $35 (for cheese enchiladas and runny eggs) down the drain. 🤮

PS. Having your hostess eating while customers are waiting to be seated is TACKY and...

I'm not a local, but I do have over 50 years of experience eating solid food, so I do feel qualifed enough to write a review. This place was BUSY on a Sunday morning, so that was the first good sign. After a short wait I was seated at a table and started looking over the menu. It covered the range of what one would think a local joint would serve, with lots of focus on dishes made with those delicious regional Chile peppers. I went for the special of the day, which was Tamales and Eggs, and I strongly feel that I made the right decision. The tamales were plump with pork that was super tender and surrounded by soft masa. The eggs were cooked to order at over medium. The plate was rounded out with some skillet potatoes, my choice of Chile (I chose Christmas red+green) and a dollop of sour cream. As if that wasn't enough, it also came with a fresh made sopaipilla the size of a softball. Being so busy I didn't have "a waiter" but I was well taken care of by the village of servers constantly buzzing past my table. Bottom line - you can't go wrong eating here unless you just don't...