Monte Cristos Family Grille — Restaurant in Town of Lake George

Sat August 20th is Barry's birthday and he is friends with the owner so he gets priority seating for 15. He apparently had a reservation and was sat within 10 mins. My party of 12 had to wait over an hour to be sat. I was told the restuarnt doesn't take names or reservations and if I want a table I should just stand out front, where they can see me until a table becomes available. We were originally told 40 minutes for a table. We checked back in with the hostess and she told us 10 more mins and that they were just cleaning off a table for us, which we believed because we watched a huge party leave. I asked her if we were all sitting together and she said "yes I got 2 tables of 6 pushed together for you" ......until Barry arrived for his birthday bash. 10 mins later Barry's name gets called for his table and they walked right past us after waiting a long 10 minutes. As they are walking in my wife asked one of the lucky girls associated with Barry, how long did you have to wait? She replied "oh we know the owner" then another girl said "oh we made reservations way in advanced" meanwhile last night I tried making reservations, which they said they don't take. Then today I want to leave my name for a table, but they don't take names, unless you're Barry. 15 mins later I was finally sat. However, I didn't have my 2 tables of 6 pushed together because hey guess what! That's where Barry was sitting. Instead we had 1 large table and 1 small table that WE HAD TO PUSH TOGETHER OURSELVES. I wonder if Barry had to push his tables together. Fast forward 20 mins we start to order our food and then obnoxious automated musical pianno starts playing by itself that is so loud you cant hear yourself talk. Do you think this musical piano is behind Barry? No. Do you think it stops after a few seconds? No. This lasted FIVE/TEN MINUTES. We had to yell our orders to the waitress. We ordered quickly and waited an hour for our food to arrive. Meanwhile 15ft away Barry's crew has our waitress and another waitress running drinks for them every 10 min, while we basically need military flairs to flag a waiter down to get drink refills. We asked for bread and ordered apps, but they came with the meal. The meals came out 6 plates at a time in 2 waves so 1/2 the party ate while they other 1/2 watched.

Overall: Host/seating: 0/10 Service:3/10 Apps: 8/10 Dinner: 4/10 Barry factor: 0/10, but hope he had a...

My wife has been looking forward to eating here for about a year. We came for our anniversary dinner. The hostess should have been a warning when she barely shifted her weight on the stool and motioned to the deck and said sit anywhere. The waitress could barely speak English and could not take separate appetizer and food orders, so we hurried and ordered. Got a jungle juice drink which was genuinely delicious. The bang shrimp were decent. Certainly have had better elsewhere. Some guy that really couldn't speak English brought the shrimp. The main dish, shrimp and scallops casino, was $37 a plate. It sounded amazing. Again the guy brings it to us. It came with bread which was good. My wife was enjoying the bread while I tried the pasta. My first response was to think, this is going to be very disappointing to my wife. It had zero flavor. Totally bland. No seasoning, no salt, no flavor. My wife takes a bite and I see the disappointment in her eyes. I asked what she thought. "It's edible". What do you really think. "This is terrible". We waited 10 minutes to see if we could get a visit from the waitress to ask for some Cajun seasoning or seasoning salt or something to help. She never came. So I went to the welcome desk and asked the hostess for some Cajun seasoning or seasoning salt and she responded in utter confusion about what I was asking for. Had to explain it twice. She left and we waited a few more minutes and she showed up with a cup of seasoning. She says I spilled it on myself. I said you ought to try it. She says nope, I don't do spice. I thought apparently neither does the chef. The entire seasoning cup and a bunch of salt and pepper made it edible. The waitress came back for the 2nd time of the whole night to bring the check, which was not complete. A different person brought the final bill. So bottom line go...

I love the porch seating at Monte Cristo and the ambiance, it’s even nicer if you can get a second floor table outside with a view of the park across the street. What to order at Monte Cristo? For me it is always the Monte Cristo of course! Not too many restaurants offer this indulgent sandwich anymore. Egg battered and deep fried or grilled ham, Turkey, and cheese. It was served with Russian dressing which I liked but I would prefer the traditional confectionery sugar and jam. A deep fried version is delectable but their grilled version is tasty as well. The fries were seasoned to perfection. Service was fast and friendly. For cocktails a blueberry mule, not served in a mule and some type of strawberry concoction filled with pulp from all of the mashed up fruit. I wish I had just ordered a wine or beer especially considering the drink prices. I will put that in the memory bank for my next visit. It is always on my go to list when visiting Lake George!

Updated review

... I always have a meal at this establishment when in town and it is always the Monte Cristo. And it's always good, l'd love to see it served with confectionery sugar sprinkled on top and jam! Probably better off not deep fried as traditionally served but still a good rendition of the classic. Friendly fast service. I recommend to sit on the upper deck if available with view of the park and bustling town. I also enjoyed the strawberry thyme martini on the summer cocktail menu! I will be...