Montrel's Bistro

We tried to have dinner on Sunday at Montrel's Bistro. This has been one of the worst experience in a long time. First we got seated at a table that still had stuff from previous guest on the plate and was not cleared, the tablecloth was a under-liner for a linen tablecloth; sticky and full of spots, covering about 90% of the table. The menu was dirty and sticky as well, the waiter and a waitress almost got in an argument who's table we were and over the crowd some 'chef' yelled about 4 items that he is out of.... was that information for the guests or the staff? We sat down and asked for water and the wine list; and ordered the craw fish appetizer. The waitress was apparently the one that won the fight over the table and declared that there was no wine list to be had - we should just say what we want and she would find it...... She returned three more times to the table asking us what it was that we wanted....... The water arrived in dirty glasses with the shell fish cocktail - two minuscule crawfish and 3 size 40-50 shrimp on lumpy salad for $12.95. This was the last straw and we left for another place. Recommendation: Fire the whole crew, CLEAN the place top to bottom and start over. Do not go there!

This place smacks of a greatness that once was. We were seated promptly, and our drink order was also taken promptly. Drinks came, no big issues. Unfortunately, once our orders were taken...that's when the awfulness started. We sat. And sat. And sat. Most of the people at our table had finished their first cocktail, so we had a table full of empty glasses, and apparently no waiter. When the waiter did reappear, he was totally unaware/unconcerned about the drink situation a foolish situation for him, given that the "specialty cocktails" were $12 apiece and would have boosted his automatic gratuity. As the food ever-so-slowly began to appear 45+ minutes, the wrong sides were given to a few of the diners. As I was one of the people who hadn't yet received their food, he re-asked me what I ordered and spoke to me as though it was the first time I ordered. Again, the waiter didn't have any concern other than walking away. When the prime ribs came out, we were shocked to find, while chewing, that there were SOGGY TOOTHPICKS LEFT IN THE STEAKS. The first person to discover this did so while the waiter was walking by our table, so they asked him if he could identify it since at that point we didn't know. He said "Oh that's just a toothpick, the chef puts them in there." ...and, again, he walked away, no "sorry you almost ate a toothpick" or "be on the lookout for unexpected toothpicks." We had ordered three trays of boiled crawfish, which didn't taste very good and were quite small with limited meat. Under normal circumstances, I would have left and eaten somewhere else much, much earlier in this experience; being with individuals from my service-learning group, I stayed for the good company. I had ordered the jambalaya, which would have been okay had it not tasted rewarmed. The rice was hard. Yuck. There are photos of celebrities who apparently have eaten here in the past, but even the photos are tattered and don't appear to be very well taken care of. The condition of Queen Latifah's picture was particularly saddening. Ugh.

We had gumbo, shrimp poboy n red beans n rice. It needed seasoning n flavor. Took 10 minutes to get to order, 15 more minutes for food. Never got our water refill. In the restaurant, everyone in d restaurant waited longtime for food.

Food was not awesome, but was decent. Slow service to be sure and the waiter had to be reminded of what he was supposed to be getting us. Best thing was, we were hungry and and got seated very quickly.

Horrible service. Took forever to be seated in a relatively empty restaurant. The staff was confused and disorganized. Tried to go to the bar to get drinks and they took just as long. If they can't get their stuff together when they're empty I'd hate to see it packed. Food was luke warm and average at best. Got spilled on and the server laughed...worst place I've been. Should close soon enough.

We didn't even eat. After hearing F-words coming from the kitchen and noticing that they didn't have a stocked bar or any drinks of any kind, we then started to notice other weird and questionable things about the "restaurant" that made us feel "unsafe". Don't go here.

Great staff. Great food. They went way above and beyond catering to girlfriend's food allergies even making sure she avoided anything that was near seafood.

The food was amazing but the service was very lacking. If you don't mind bad service its worth the food. I had the Crawfish Etouffe.

The greeter wasn't too enthused about his job and our waitress was a little better but not by much. Fortunately, the food was good.

Our server, Alvin, was wonderful! We had to wait a while for our food, but it was worth it. Going back for lunch!