Monterey Cookhouse — Restaurant in Monterey

Worst service Ive had in a long time. I am normally very patient, but apparently my kindness and patience was interpreted as "we can neglect her table of 4, she'll still tip". A big top (large table) finished coming in after us, meaning that about half their group arrived after us. So, of course, they no longer cared about a table of 4. A couple that was two tables away, seated 30 minutes after us, received their food 5 minutes, yes 5, after we received ours. At that point we had been waiting 50 minutes. Its really convenient that as soon as I stood up to complain, somehow our food was magically picked up and brought over from the warmer shelf. Really?? Myself and one child had cold food-- they could have at least brought their food sooner. I had wine and no one asked if I wanted another, or if Id like something else (a soda, etc.). No one asked my other daughter for a refill. Our server never gave her name. Never asked how we were until the very end when I was obviously upset. We made no special orders, requests, or adjustments. Simple kids menu mac&cheese, chicken tenders, then adult lasagna and a burger. Pathetic. For the first time in my life I left NO TIP. In the past, I have always left 20% as a rule, or much more (30% to 40%) for good service and 15% for mediocre service. My burger was cooked correctly, but the fries seemed to be purposely pathetic- even one of my daughters said my fries were entirely different than her delicious fries. I was polite even through all of my upset. I did not cuss or yell. Another guest told me their BBQ pork, or another similar dish, was like pot roast with bbq sauce. They also waited a long time throughout our experience. Another man, seated alone across from us, did not even have a server ask if he wanted a drink for an entire 10-15 minutes after he'd been seated. We left shortly after, so who knows what happened. Pathetic service. Dont waste your money. Yes, my burger was good, but not worth the time and irritation. If I had not had hungry children, I would have walked out without any food at all. As a sidenote, we are a very polite family- my children and teen always say please and thank you....

At first we thought this would be a great experience. As we entered everything looked like a really nice restaurant. We were greeted and seated quickly. The waitress offered drinks and we just asked for water. That’s when it started going downhill. She brought water and seemed a little arrogant. She just had that fake-nice thing going on, perhaps she doesn’t like mixed-race couples or something, but there was definitely a vibe. The prices were high for this type of restaurant and with the vibe we were getting we were hesitant to order but we did anyway. We ordered the BBQ combo with ribs, tri tip and pulled pork with mashers and veggies along with a house salad. We aren’t big eaters so we split the meal. Maybe that’s what offended her due to the potential of a smaller tip. I’ll start with the good part: the salad was incredible. The mashed potatoes and veggies were good. The bad: the meat is cooked on a wood fired oven and everything was very dry and had no flavor. The BBQ sauce was tasteless. I’m not one of those BBQ snobs so if it’s decent I’m happy. I’ve never had BBQ that bad. I could not even eat it and that’s VERY rare for me. I did eat the ribs because I was hungry but I couldn’t choke down the tri tip or pulled pork slider. We were not offered more bread or water so I drank some of my wife’s water. We asked for the check, she brought it and I put my credit card in and set it on the edge of the table. The waitress walked by several times and didn’t pick it up, so we went to the register which obviously highly offended her. She took payment and just kind of faded away back to more important things. I don’t wish anything bad for this restaurant. Actually I hope they succeed, but they really need to take a look at this review and consider making...

Had an awful experience with this place after placing an order online for takeout. The order was confirmed, we showed up at the given pickup time and after they confirmed our order in person again, they told us the food would be delayed by another 20 minutes. That was fine so we came back 20 minutes later only to then be told that the chef had flat out refused to make our food and there was nothing they could do about it. This was just ridiculous since it was an $88 meal we had already paid for and had waited over an hour to get. It was already past 9pm at this point too so most other restaurants were closed, leaving us with limited options. All the ladies at the front could tell us was that they were understaffed and if we wanted to we could take it up with the chef ourselves, which we definitely weren’t comfortable with doing. I just don’t get why if they didn’t have the bandwidth to make our food why they didn’t tell us the first time we came in or just close online ordering entirely and reject our order when we initially put it in to begin with? The whole thing just left a sour taste in our mouths when we were really looking forward to the food we ordered. I don’t fault the ladies in front since they were doing their best but the overall lack of communication was disappointing. They were kind enough to give us a free slice of cake but now we have to figure out how to get our money back since, again, the food the chef refused to make was already paid for from the start. Will definitely not be ordering from here again but the restaurant itself seemed nice. Just only done in person if you actually want to get your...