Monument Inn — Restaurant in Houston

Well it has been 1 week since I emailed Monument Inn about my visit to their restaurant. As of today there has been no response. So I will post it here. On Saturday February 03, 2024 my husband and I came to your restaurant for my birthday lunch. I have mobility issues and my husband has bad knees. No where on your website does it say the only public dining area is upstairs. Yes there is a chair lift but you have to see a hostess to get the remote. There was no hostess downstairs. If my husband had gone upstairs to get the remote and then back downstairs to give to me he wouldn't have been able to get back up the stairs. I finally found a waiter that was attending to a private function downstairs. He said that I could go up in the freight elevator and that he would get someone to escort me. I sent my husband upstairs to put our name on the seating list. 10 minutes later a young lady came to get me to escort me upstairs. She was very kind. However she kept yelling guest in kitchen (I am sure she has been instructed to do this). She was very pleasant and even offered me her arm in the slippery areas. When we got to the door she yelled again "Guest in kitchen" (the door was open) and a lot of the people eating just stared at me. Found my husband and we were escorted to our table. We ordered our tea and appetizer. Appetizer was o.k. Alligator was overcooked. Then we got our 2 entree's, (seafood platters) I had onion rings with mine and they were inedible. Catfish had 0 flavor on both of ours, Shrimp had no seasoning. The waiter (he was being trained). brought our bill about 5 minutes after we got our entree's. This made me feel like o.k. you got your food, hurry up and eat and get out of here. We asked for to go containers because I was very upset and wanted to leave before I caused a scene. I tried to reheat at home with added salt and pepper but it did not work. The "cinnamon rolls" had 0 cinnamon on them. I was very disappointed in our experience and the wasting of almost...

Great place for an excellent lunch. Sunday does get a little busy but the expected 45 minute wait took only 25 minutes. The ladies seating you, rock it to get everyone seated as quickly as possible and in an orderly fashion and they thanked us for our patience, but read on it was so worth the short wait. Mom and I had a window seat but the windows are big and nice views can be seen from anywhere in the dining room. The shrimp and onion rings are easily some of the best mom and I have ever had. I can't say exactly why but my guess is quality ingredients. My ribeye was cooked perfectly medium well and the baked potatoe was chock full of the goodies! Our server was excellent, he checked on all his tables often but not so often as to disturb us, as we were entranced by the view, so relaxing. I could not have asked for better food or service. Bread and rolls are free and so worth it. We did ask about desert and he mentioned they have key lime pie, raspberry cheesecake and chocolate cake. I guarantee we will be back and next time I will try and hold back so we can have desert and coffee. But even without we had such a wonderful experience. I have to say that mom and I agree, The Monument Inn did not disappoint and I highly reccomend. I guarantee you will have an enjoyable experience!!

Update 2/15/23 Went to take Aunt Margaret for Birthday lunch and again what a great experience! The food is so good!! Our server was the bomb!! The rolls and cinnamon rolls with butter are to die for. My cousins came in from Silsbee and we had such a great time and so nice to see the ships going by just outside. My steak and shrimp was excellent perfectly cooked. Rave reviews from my cousins for the Ceasar salad and the seafood was hot and deliscous!! Key Lime pie...

I know the restaurant has been there for years & it's known for being an expensive restaurant with waterfront views of the ferry & barges/ships passing by. But honestly the best thing about our time spent there was having several family members being together for our family reunion & celebrating our birthdays together (some family members were visiting from out of state), some family members wanted to get together there. But...it was awful from the moment we arrived on time for our reservation & wound up having to wait about one hour for our "reservation" the bar area & everywhere there was overly crowded & seemed understaffed. The bartender was very nice but the drinks were very strong, not very good, way overpriced & we wound up not drinking them & just ordered a tea instead. Then we all finally got a table for our group. The waitress was very nice. The food was greasy, cucumbers tasted very bitter, the cinnamon rolls had raisins in them, the food was very overpriced & not good at all, not worth at all what it costs to eat there. But...eventhough the food/drinks were awful & overpriced, & eventhough it took about an hour to be seated at a table even with having a reservation...we all managed to make it work out & enjoy visiting together. I do not recommend this restaurant based on above mentioned poor quality food/drinks, poor quality service, & it's overpriced for what they serve for food/drinks. We will have our family get together at a better restaurant next time...maybe go to Gaido's in Galveston as that was a family members first choice to go to anyway...

Good luck to those who go to this Monument Inn restaurant, be prepared for a very long wait for your "reservation" table, poor quality overpriced...