Monster Kitchen & Bar

Review summary

1. T

   Tim

   Canberra

   1 review

   1.0

   1 review

   Dined 3 days ago

   1. Overall 1
   2. Food 1
   3. Service 1
   4. Ambience 1

   We visited as a group of four, having reserved a table in advance. Upon arrival, we were seated in an undesirable spot near the entrance, right next to a noisy table, despite the restaurant being mostly empty. After requesting a change, we were moved to a window seat, which was appreciated. We ordered three set meals and one large plate (ricotta pasta). While the pasta was delicious, its portion size was disappointingly small for a "large plate." As a result, we decided to share the set meals, but they were served together on a single plate. We requested that all future dishes be served on separate plates, but the next round still arrived on a shared plate. After reiterating our request, the dishes finally began arriving separately. Unfortunately, the steak from the omnivore set meal was served completely raw and cold—clearly uncooked. Additionally, each dish took 15–20 minutes to arrive, leaving us hungry and frustrated. Given our time constraints for an event, we eventually had to ask for all remaining dishes to be served at once. Despite this, our visit ended up lasting an unexpected 2.5 hours. Overall, while some dishes were tasty, the portion sizes, service, and painfully slow pacing left much to be desired. This experience was a mix of highs and lows, with room for significant improvement.
   

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2. A

   Ashleigh

   Canberra

   1 review

   2.0

   1 review

   Dined 3 days ago

   1. Overall 2
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 1
   4. Ambience 4

   I had booked a table via the online booking system for 5pp at 5:30pm to ensure we had plenty of time to enjoy our meal before our movie at 7:10pm. We were seated at our table, provided with water and menus. We waited a considerable amount of time to be approached to place a drinks order but ended up having to call someone over, we ordered a bottle of wine. A short time later we were approach to place our dinner order. we each ordered a entree, main and a side of chips to eat with our mains. in this time we had still not received our bottle of wine, on enquiry we were advised it was not cold and the bar were 'chilling it'. we waited a considerable amount of time for our wine, when it did arrive it was barely cold. Our entrees arrived and were quiet nice, our chips arrived well before our mains but we enjoyed them anyway. It was then a timely wait on mains. we had ordered 3x ravioli and 2x spatchcock, the 3 ravioli arrived and was very nice. However when asked where the 2x spatchcocks were we were told they were out of spatchcock. This was the first time we has been advised and were very annoyed we had not been told earlier so another meal choice could be made, at this stage we only has 25 minutes before our movie and we missed the opportunity to enjoy our meal together. we were told a meal could be rushed through so a 4th ravioli was ordered, There was no appropriate 5th dish to order so we enquired if we could order something from the bar menu, after checking with the manager this was arrange and thankfully bought out quickly so we made it to our movie just intime. Overall the food was decent but the service was not great. for the prices you would expect high quality service and this was not received.
   

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3. L

   Louise

   Canberra

   1 review

   1.0

   1 review

   Dined 4 days ago

   1. Overall 1
   2. Food 2
   3. Service 1
   4. Ambience 2

   Want know call me don’t want waste my time writing take to long
   

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4. L

   Leslie

   New York City

   1 review

   1.0

   1 review

   Dined on November 15, 2024

   1. Overall 1
   2. Food 1
   3. Service 3
   4. Ambience 2

   In short, food was simply bad. I have eaten here several times before and it used to be very good. Unfortunately, not anymore. All five dishes my wife and I had were just poorly prepared with no proper thought given to how the blending of too many ingredients in the one dish could overwhelm its taste.
   

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5. M

   Michael

   Canberra

   8 reviews

   3.0

   8 reviews

   Dined on October 31, 2024

   1. Overall 3
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 1
   4. Ambience 5

   We were at Monster, one of my consistent favourite places in Canberra. From the start over a decade ago it has been terrific. We had signaled a need to finish our 6.00pm dinner by 7.15pm to ensure arrival in time at Canberra Theatre for a show. We were a party of 4. 2v of us were on time but 2 were about 15 minutes late. The on timers ordered promptly given the time limit. We ordered 2 small share options which were excellent - a crispy tofu and a beetroot tartare which were both excellent. We ordered mains - Eggplant and Nasi Goreng, both again excellent. Our friends ordered the Nasi Goreng and Spinach Gnudi. The small plates and the mains ordered "late" by our friends arrived promptly. However, the mains ordered earlier went missing until we asked if they could be hurried up as we were running short of time. We were told they would be 5 minutes, which stretched to 10, with the result that they had to be consumed quite quickly. Our waitress was also not very well versed in the food and gave us some very strange answers when we had some questions. Hopefully this does not foreshadow a drop in quality as Monster has done marvelously in its vegetarian phase. Even friends who are confirmed meat eaters have praised Monster when we have gone there with them.
   

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6. M

   Mike

   Canberra

   6 reviews

   4.0

   6 reviews

   Dined on October 26, 2024

   1. Overall 4
   2. Food 4
   3. Service 4
   4. Ambience 4

   Good vegetarian food. Wedding reception was in the main dining area which meant we were in the bar area and table was small for 4 diners. Other than that all was good.
   

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7. P

   Paras

   Canberra

   1 review

   5.0

   1 review

   Dined on October 22, 2024

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   Amazing vegan food that had top notch flavor with excellent portion sizes. The servers were all well dressed, very friendly and helpful, and with welcoming with a warm smile. The ambience was also wonderful. All in all, a wonderful birthday meal!
   

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8. L

   Lanora

   Canberra

   1 review

   4.0

   1 review

   Dined on October 10, 2024

   1. Overall 4
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 1
   4. Ambience 3

   Food was excellent, but service was incredibly slow and we often had to call out and wave to get attention to order, check where our drinks were as it had been a long time since we ordered, we had to get their attention to be able to ask for dessert or more drinks, and a few times they brought something different from what we asked for. Quite disappointing for a fancy/expensive location, and on a quiet night too.
   

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9. L

   Lauren

   Canberra

   5 reviews

   5.0

   5 reviews

   Dined on October 6, 2024

   1. Overall 5
   2. Food 5
   3. Service 5
   4. Ambience 5

   As slways, fabulous food, service and experience . Preyush is amazing!
   

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10. T

    Tim

    Melbourne

    1 review

    5.0

    1 review

    Dined on September 27, 2024

    1. Overall 5
    2. Food 5
    3. Service 5
    4. Ambience 3

    Vegetarian creativity. Generous portions. Well-spaced tables. Lake view. I was glad to be seated as far as possible from the singer - too loud, too flat, a burden on our conversation. A quiet restaurant is a good restaurant.
    

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