| Montana’s on birthdays! The horns of a dilemma.. |
| For a family restaurant, Montana’s is one of those places, That people keep flocking to, though the food isn’t aces? If you go on your birthday, I find it quite corny They’ll all take a picture of YOU looking horny! I just know that I won’t be back on a regular basis! |
I’m not sure exactly what it is about Montana’s and birthdays but over the last few years, whenever there is a birthday celebration, over 50% of the time, we seem to end up at Montana’s. Most recently, it was at the Ottawa, Orleans location on Innes Road. As I write this post I realize that it has been more than just a few years since I have a snapshot of our son Ian wearing that annoying horn hat when he was about 13 years old and he is now pushing 30…
Unfortunately, what stands out for me, as I think back over the years, is the lack of stellar service that we have received. On this particular occasion, other than having to wait an inordinate length of time to get our orders taken and then to actually get our food. Worse still, when it came to paying the bill, they refused to divide up the bills as requested and members of our group were required to pass cash between themselves to sort things out. This is not good customer service.
When it comes to the food, I cannot say that it is bad, exactly, but I have never been really impressed. On a previous visit, I selected the pot roast with Yorkshire pudding and found it to be tough, overcooked and lacking flavour. This time, I selected the Smokehouse Wrap along with a side salad. Once again, while I cannot specify anything particularly lacking, I was not blown away either.
Fortunately, when a group of people are together to celebrate a birthday, the food and service are not front and centre. Perhaps that is why people want to go back: because they had a good time in spite of them and still come away with a good feeling. Or maybe they just like seeing the person of the hour being humiliated as they parade around in that dumb hat!
Finally, let me point out that the Urbanspoon rating at the end of this post indicates that this particular location only scores a 54% approval rating. that indicates that almost every other guest leaves dissatisfied.
Summary
- Positives: We keep going back, so I guess it can’t be all that bad.
- Negatives: Service always seems to be a weak point and the food is just OK!
- Recommendation: In the case of restaurants, I guess ‘not bad’ is not really a recommendation but in the case of Montana’s, it is the best I can do!
| Category | Rating | Explanation |
| Food Quality | *** | Just so-so |
| Price | $$$ | Not overly expensive |
| Decor | *** | Ok, Western Style |
| Service | ** | THE weak spot |
| Overall Rating | ** | Not recommended |
| Frivolous Foodie Facts |
| A 2008 ruling by the Royal Society of Chemistry has it that “A Yorkshire pudding isn’t a Yorkshire pudding if it is less than four inches tall |
3 comments
1 ping
Semantics maybe, but if I recall correctly I believe it was for my 17th birthday, which is sufficiently different from a 13th celebration.
Author
“Semantics” would be taking issue with the way I constructed the sentence 😉
Pointing out my faulty memory would be simply nitpicking. I guess if it was really your 17th,
then you were really young looking for your age! Unfortuantely, I can’t locate the picture in
question
Roy, the title is misleading.:) When do we get to see more impressions about the food on the Old Continent?
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