Montero's Restaurant, Bar and Catering — Restaurant in Elizabeth City

If you're looking for a quick review, I'll just say "DON'T MISS OUT!" If you want the long story though, read on...

I haven't been to Elizabeth City in years, so I'd never have discovered Montero's had it not been for a family event with my in-laws this evening. In short, I'm glad we did.

I'll open with this, my wife and son both had the Delmonico, and I had a NY Strip. My son is 11, and doesn't eat much in one sitting, but this child not only ate an ENTIRE adult-sized steak, but spent half of the trip home talking about how good it was. My wife and I both agreed that our own steaks were the best we'd had since our favorite local steakhouse closed over a decade ago, and she's very particular about her steaks. We've been together for over 20 years, and I can't remember the last time she went through everything on her plate like that and didn't bring home leftovers.

I'd like to add that these people KNOW how to run a restaurant. Their hours are limited and it definitely shows that they focus on quality of food and service over the quantity of people they can get through the door, which is a very rare thing in the world we live in now. What really stood out for me was this:

I absolutely hate going to a restaurant in a large group, and by large I mean more than like 4-6 people. I was with a group of 12, so my anxiety was already pinging when we got there. I'm used to the usual chain restaurant experience of the hosts hastily slapping a few tables together in the already cramped space, then throwing the group at some poor server that's task saturated with half a dozen tables already with little more than a "oh, here's a 12 top for you, good luck!"

This was NOT the experience I had at Montero's at all. When our party was called, we were taken to a HUGE room that was neatly laid out for large groups with long tables and convenient counters at either end. Rather than one or two already overworked servers, it seemed like we had a dedicated team taking care of us VERY efficiently, which I didn't realize until afterward even included the owners! All questions were answered, and more importantly, all orders were accurate and no mistakes were made. I've NEVER had a group dining experience that was this smooth and flawless, and we weren't the only large group in the room. In fact, there was a group that had to be at least three times larger than ours, and I don't think the staff missed a single beat.

It was obvious throughout our visit that Andy and Karin are amazing in their field and they truly love the business they've created. I'm so happy that a place like this can still exist and thrive in the world of modern corporate chains that care more about high volume and shareholder dividends than providing a great experience for their customers. Thank you both for what you've created, and I wish you, your family, and your staff the best.

I don't know when we'll be in the area again, but we will definitely make it a point to...

This was the first time I'd been here since before the pandemic. We arrived early, before they opened for business, which is always a good idea unless you want to spend your evening waiting for a table. Fortunately we only had to wait about 15 minutes, but when we left, the lobby area was full, and there was a line out the door & extending nearly to the parking lot. Thankfully it was a clear, pleasant evening outside. I got my favorite, the crusted pork chops with apple sauce, which was again wonderfully delicious. The basket of assorted muffins & breads they served before the main course was delightful; much better than just offering a single variety. The boxes they provide are also nice. I gave 4 stars for food only because I feel the description for the Karen Salad is misleading. I reviewed their menu online before our arrival to save time. The description said "on a bed of spinach," but when mine arrived, there was only 1 piece of spinach in the whole salad. I personally do not like iceberg lettuce, and was dismayed to receive a whole salad of iceberg lettuce rather than the "bed of spinach" as described. It has an Asian flare to it with the mandarin oranges & ginger dressing, which I also like, but they need to either change their menu description or add significantly more spinach to it. I gave a 3-star rating for the atmosphere for a few reasons; there was a man at the table across from us who was very rude, repeatedly, and very obvious, behaving as though he was someone of great status & importance. Honestly, I don't care who a person may be; loud, public rudeness is not acceptable, especially in a busy establishment and with families/small children present. The employees handled the situation with tact and professionalism. Another reason was because it was so LOUD where we were, we couldn't even carry on a conversation, much less a reasonable one. It would have been nice if we were given an option of where we'd like to sit---in a family-oriented area, or a quieter area. I'm very much a family-oriented person, but also do not enjoy a loud, chaotic atmosphere at mealtime. The final reason was simply because I felt like we were treated like cattle; herd them in & herd them out as quickly as possible. The whole atmosphere was "hurry, hurry." The waiting staff were all friendly & prompt, but their "system" is kinda strange. One person took our meal order, another brought us our drinks & the bread basket, another person brought us our salads, & still another brought us our main dishes. Then yet another went around taking care of drink refills. With that many different people rushing around, plus the customers, it was crazy. I don't know how they determine who gets what percentage of the tips! Overall, we basically enjoyed our meal, but think next time we'll try to either go later in the evening or go on a weekday, maybe it won't be quite as...

Our experience was during coronavirus, so this may have affected things. We were welcomed and seated quickly. Our table was not cleaned and the seats had crumbs on them. This was a concern to us more than usual due to coronavirus. Our waitress offered us a new table which was kind and appropriate. After getting our drink orders we began looking at the menus and noticed how large it was and how there were things spelled wrong such as “El Hefe”. With cuisine styles from Mexico, India, France, New Orleans, and Italy, we felt choosing simple dishes might be a better choice. My husband did go simple but I went with what was suggested as our waitress’s favorite. While we were looking our menus over another server tried to place salads at our table so I showed him our menus and informed him that we hadn’t ordered yet. Later after we did order, our waitress asked if we had gotten our salad and bread yet, which we replied no to. Seemed like just some poor communication between staff. Some of our bread arrived burnt and the napkin it was wrapped in had something brown on the outside of it. The speed of service was generally good after that. However, when my dish arrived my chicken was pink and tough. We chose to go to the restaurant because we had a 10% discount from the place we were staying at locally. Our check came back with a 5% discount. Could have been something inaccurate from our lodging but I would have hoped a manager would have come to speak with us to address it if we or they had it wrong. We had a rough day so we honestly just went home without discussing it with anyone (that is certainly on us) and with the hopes of having a better day the next day. We heard some great things, so it might have been an off...