Monroes Restaurant — Restaurant in Town of Pittsford

I really really wanted to like this restaurant. I had been there in it's previous life as other restaurants but not since it became Monroe's. My husband and I were there last night for our wedding anniversary. It was cold and snowy but we were looking forward to it. The first issue was when we got there. My recollection is that, coming from 590 S on Monroe Ave, there was a driveway between the restaurant the the plaza housing Mann's Jewelers. But when we got there, not only was there not a driveway that took you to the back to park, but where to park was not clearly indicated anywhere. Nor was the actual entrance to the restaurant itself, in fact. We parked in the Mann's plaza and walked to the front. Sign says, entrance in back; walk to the left of the building around where the "back" should be" and come to a fence. The sign on the fence says there is parking around the back, but there is nothing there but more businesses. We cut through the grass between the back and the businesses (no path) and see the stairs leading upstairs to the "entrance". There are cars parked back there but it was very unclear how they got there. (in fact they got there by going to the extreme left of that plaza on the left and then circling all the way around it to the back of the restaurant). Ok. Still looking forward to our special dinner. Climb the steps and walk into a VERY noisy bar area. (this is a Thursday night so I wasn't expecting this). My husband tells the "hostess" (and I use the term loosely) our names for the reservation and that it is our anniversary. Let me say, we are in our fifties. Clearly NOT there for the bar scene! She starts to leave her station to seat us -- while we stand there in winter coats -- when I notice a coat rack to her left. She was already walking as I'm trying to get her attention "Miss! Miss! May I please hang up my coat first?" Once we have done this she leads us to a table IN THE BAR area. Where it is so noisy we would not have been able to hear ourselves talk. I said to the "hostess" "this is too noisy, cancel our reservations, we will go somewhere else" To which she said, "oh really, i can bring you to another room" and Lo and behold there is an entire different HALF EMPTY room right by the bar. She then seats us in a mini, two person table pushed up against a support beam and next to a large group of people just being seated (12 people, at least). She then walks away. My husband and I got up and reseated ourselves to a better table. Ok. on with the food. I'll keep it short and sweet. The artichokes french was WAY over seasoned and over lemoned. Maybe I should remind their chef that artichokes french (or chicken french or veal french) was literally created right here in Rochester NY. It should be a light taste of lemon and sherry. It should not be so overpowering you can't eat it. The house salad was like lawn clippings. My husband's chicken parm was almost dry -- barely any sauce. And my chicken marsala was BLAND. I mean it made the chicken marsala at the Olive Garden taste like five star dining. And the waitress kept forgetting to bring my husband his drink (again the room we were in was half empty so they really need more staff.) I have no words for what a disappointment the night was. Management needs to reeducate this generation of 20 and 30 somethings why people go out to a nice restaurant. The comfort of your patrons should be the first thing you care about. You are in the hospitality business. Look up the meaning...

Two friends and I had dinner at Monroe’s the evening of February 21st. We are good friends who look forward to a leisurely get-together once every few months. Our less than stellar experience started as soon as we arrived. We were told that we couldn’t be seated until all three of us were at the restaurant. The restaurant was nowhere near capacity and the fact that we had to hang in the foyer until all three of us were there started the evening off in a negative fashion. When we asked the hostess why, we were told it was “company policy.” We were not made to feel welcome in any fashion. When were seated after all of us had arrived, we were unhappy with our table. The chair seats were very low, and it would have been very uncomfortable to eat dinner there. We politely asked to be moved to a different table for a more comfortable experience. We were moved with an eye roll and a big sigh from the hostess and her assistant. Another big negative. Our server, Sarah, and her trainee, Abby, were lovely. Personable, engaging, and helpful. We placed our orders and shortly after that received our salads. We were not even halfway through our salads when our server came to the table to ask if there was anything she could clear out of our way for dinner. We told her that we were in no hurry, we were enjoying our salads and our conversation and to please make sure our dinners were not coming out for a while. A few minutes later, still about halfway through our salads, our dinners arrived. We told the person delivering them (who turned out to be the manager, Jeremy), that we had asked for the dinners to be held. We were told he couldn’t do anything about that, they were already cooked. After much shuffling of salad plates, our dinners were set on the table. We then had a conversation with Jeremy about our dinner timing requests and how unhappy we were about the apparent disregard for our them. Jeremy had very little compassion or patience for our unhappiness. When we asked when the dinner orders were sent to the chef, he said as soon as the orders were taken, which is a terrible policy, especially in a fine dining establishment. This wasn’t a fast-food restaurant. In addition, we had all ordered rare steaks, which should have only taken a few minutes to prepare and should not have been ordered until salads were finished and cleared. Again, while the restaurant had several customers, it was nowhere near capacity. As we sat at the table with our steaks getting cold, having this discussion we received no good answers or consideration from Jeremy. One of us said that we were not looking for anything free, just registering our concerns and he immediately shot back with the fact that they do not give away anything for free. Rude, and severely lacking in customer service. Sadly, while the food was good and the server and her trainer were lovely, none of us will ever go back to Monroe’s. This is not an inexpensive restaurant and is clearly thought of as a fine dining establishment. They have a long way to go to live up to that...

Last Thursday (June 15th) our girls night out dining experience was less than pleasurable. Before I begin, I must give kudos to the hostess (the younger one), who was very accommodating. I requested inside seating, but one of our guest wanted to sit outside and I thought that was very nice of her. We had 7:00 reservations and was seated around 7:20.

Here is where it turns for the worst - slow service. After we were seated, we actually waited for someone to come over and at least say, I'll be with you shortly, or can I get you something to drink? That did not happen until about 7:40 - 7:45ish. I found that to be a concerning, but decided to just go with the flow. We ordered drinks and decided NOT to get appetizers. The drinks took FOREVER literally, and you would think we had a table of ten people - it was just four of us.

Finally, after about 20 minutes, the drinks came, and we ordered our food. It's about 8:00ish by now. We ordered our food, and we didn't get our salads until 8:25 - by this time, we still had NO BREAD, and we also had to return a few drinks because they were poorly made.

The manager came out and greeted a few tables, and we called her over to explain our plight. She knew that we had to send our drinks back and told us that they were remaking them. We asked her about the bread , remember, we already had salad. She stated the the bread comes out after the salad - interesting.

Now, about this time, it's about 8:45 and we still did not have our entrees. Finally, a little before 9, here comes the food. One bite and I was DONE. Tasteless, hard pasta, hard broccolini and some type of sauce that was supposed to be a pasta sauce. I usually get the salmon, but since I had the same pasta dish in January, I decided to get it again. The dish reminded me of an amateur chef - horrible. I asked the waitress if I could order something for my sister, and guess what, the kitchen was closed.

The manger came over and asked us how everything was, I immediately inquired if they had a new chef. You should already know that answer - yes, new staff due to being joined to the Ridgemont County Club. She apologized for everything, and tried to explain, but at this point, I was done.

I have crossed this restaurant off my list. I used to love this place and looked forward delicious food. After reading the most recent reviews, I am not the only one who will not return for dinner. Drinks and appetizers - maybe.

Oh, and about the food - I could not eat the dish the next day, everything was hard as a rock so I threw it away. What a waste of 34.00 (Calabrian Rigatoni).

Thank you for a...