Monty's Blue Plate Diner — Restaurant in Madison

Nov 2019 - Had dinner, and was again pleased with consistent excellent meal! Service was especially good and fast and competent. I do have to note, though, that there were two tables of LOUD women, one of which was so loud I was compelled to walk over and ask them to hold it down. They got to insane levels, and if I could post audio of them with this note, I would. Is was as if they were all drunk, but nobody at the table was drinking alcohol. Oct 2019: Was in the mood for some nice comfort food for dinner after a hectic weekend in Chicago, and a stressful drive home on the dizzying Interstate highway. Always reliable is: Roast Turkey Platter - Cranberry applesauce, garlic butter broccoli, and turkey gravy; with fries or mashed potatoes - for $11.99. It was delicious, like it always is. If you're ever in the mood for a decent Thanksgiving dinner and it isn't Thanksgiving, stop in for this, I think you'll like it. I always get it with the coarsely mashed potatoes, a real winner! Eating it tonight made my up the score from * to ** for consistent and reliable deliciousness. May 2019: This is my favorite place to go for a meal when I'm craving comfort food. In my case, for whatever reason, that usually means breakfast, which can be had any time they're open. The service is generally quite good, and the kitchen usually does a good job of cooking my eggs to my specification. However, if I get there and find that "the joint is jumping," and they're really busy, I turn around and leave, and come back another time. If it is busy, experience has shown me that I'll be waiting too long for things. Seems to be a little room for tweaking management of staff to be sure there are enough people working to "get the job done." That said, I've never eaten a bite of anything I didn't love.

Oh, and THE DESSERTS ARE TO DIE...

PARKING: The restaurant has a small parking lot. I mean SMALL. It is very limited so do not expect to get parking unless you come early or at just the right time! There is also street parking available which is what we did.

ATMOSPHERE/SPACE: Local, cute, vintage diner vibe. It's quite small, so it's not ideal for big groups. Customer service was decent and the restaurant was well organized for being so busy.

FOOD: We got the GBLT and Bistro Burger. I didn't try the GBLT, but my friend said she would rate it a 4/5. I got the Bistro Burger which I would rate a 3/5. I could tell the ingredients were fresh and the textures were nice, but it was nothing spectacular. A pretty basic burger I would say. The Swiss cheese added a nice tang, but I did find myself desiring more flavor/acidity from the meal. It tasted more fatty if anything. The fries were definitely the highlight. They were nicely fried and crispy.

OVERALL: At 12pm it was very busy. We couldn't find parking and waited 30 minutes to be seated. Some people had to wait outside (important to know for winter!) We left around 1:30pm and there were still people lined up to wait. Overall, everything was just okay for me. Nothing spectacular but it wasn't bad either. Normally, I am not so indifferent about a restaurant but this one was not particularly good or bad.

I didn't get to try any of the dessert (by 12pm, most were gone) or other dishes like the veggie loaf so I would like to try this place again and update my review.

It is not a place I would regularly attend, but I would recommend at least trying this location. It is a better quality alternative to...

Left very confused from my visit other day. Came in because I'm vegan and they have a whole menu for VEGANS. Well i ordered the warm brownie sundae under the vegan menu and my friend ordered a regular one. They both came looking the same so i asked are you sure this is vegan? She said yes so i started to try and and it didn't taste right.. so i started to watch the person making the ice-cream stuff and seen they only had a dairy whip cream which was all over my sundae. So i asked again and said to please go check again for me and she came back to inform me yes it’s NOT vegan??? Claimed theres no vegan sundae button yet it’s on the menu? Heard me ask for vegan stuff but still clicked this “non vegan button”. So i was served dairy ice cream, dairy whip cream, idk even if the brownie was vegan?? Im not sure I’ll ever come back for the fact that some employees don’t seem to give af about people’s restrictions/lifestyles. Ive been vegan 10 years and i maybe once or twice been served wrong things but not from a place that has a vegan menu. Our desserts were comped rightfully but I'm left with an awful experience and unsure my next visit would be guaranteed vegan. Triple ask if you come here.. beware is all i can say. Hope mistakes like this have not been made over and over with victims not sure as i am about the taste of stuff since I'm very familiar with veganism. Milk product after 10 years taste sour to me, and I'm left feeling so gross having some of it in my body. I got sick from the thought of it but couldn’t throw it up enough. Ew. PICTURED IS A NON VEGAN SUNDAE CLAIMED TO BE VEGAN HERE. glad i only ate...