Monna is definitely one of the more beautiful restaurants in Montrose. The interior has a very…read morepolished European feel to it, the restaurant was spotless, and the overall atmosphere works whether you're coming in dressed casually or making it a nicer night out.
We tried quite a few things: hummus, muhammara, Greek salad, chicken souvlaki, salmon with asparagus, and the 32 oz tomahawk.
The biggest surprise was the muhammara. Easily one of the best I've had and probably my favorite thing we ordered. The chicken souvlaki was excellent too -- flavorful, well cooked, and something I'd absolutely get again. The hummus and Greek salad were both solid.
The salmon was good, but for $38 I thought the plate felt a little bare. It was essentially just a piece of salmon over asparagus. Nothing necessarily wrong with it, but at this price point I expected a little more in terms of presentation and overall composition.
The tomahawk, unfortunately, was where the night really fell apart for us.
We ordered the $135 steak medium, and several parts came out borderline raw. We initially tried eating around those areas and sticking to the more cooked portions, but the bigger issue was the flavor. It was extremely bland and lacked the kind of seasoning, crust, and sear you'd expect from a steak at that price. There was also quite a bit of fat and gristle left over.
We explained the issue to our server, who went to the back and then returned with the chef. I wasn't expecting that, and the interaction honestly felt a little uncomfortable. The chef came to the table asking what the problem was even though we had already explained everything to the server. Maybe that's normal practice here, but the tone made it feel more like we were being questioned than someone trying to understand the feedback.
They offered to cook the steak further, but by that point we had pretty much lost our appetites and declined. Eventually, we were told the tomahawk would be removed from the bill, which seemed like a fair resolution.
Then the bill arrived and the $135 steak was still on it.
We ended up waiting about another 15 minutes before someone came by so we could have the bill corrected.
Overall, Monna has a lot going for it. The ambience is beautiful, the restaurant feels upscale without being overly formal, and some of the food was genuinely excellent. The muhammara and souvlaki alone would bring me back.
But when you're charging $135 for a steak, both the execution and the way an issue is handled have to be better.
I'd return, but next time I'm sticking with the smaller plates and souvlaki.
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Update after the owner's response:
I originally left this review trying to be balanced because there were several things we genuinely enjoyed here. Unfortunately, the response from the restaurant actually made me feel worse about the experience.
To clarify: my issue was never that I didn't understand what "medium" means, that I thought the red color was blood, or that I was unaware ribeye contains fat. None of those things were mentioned in my review.
Our issue was that the steak was much rarer than what we expected from a medium order, and more importantly, the portions we did eat were extremely bland and lacked the seasoning, crust, and seared flavor we expected from a $135 steak. There was also a significant amount of unpleasant gristle and fat left on the plate.
The response also says the chef came out because he needed to understand the problem. That's fair in principle. What I described in my review, however, was how the interaction actually felt to us as guests. We had already explained the issue thoroughly to our server, and the chef's approach felt more confrontational than concerned. That was our experience.
Regarding the bill: I never claimed the steak was ultimately not removed. I specifically wrote that we were told it would be removed, the first bill still included it, and we then had to wait roughly another 15 minutes to get someone's attention and have it corrected. The photo is of that original bill, which is consistent with exactly what I wrote.
I'm also not sure what the comment about menu prices being available before ordering is meant to address. I never complained that the price was hidden. My point was that when a restaurant charges $135 for a steak, I expect a higher level of execution and service recovery.
I appreciated the good parts of our meal and said so clearly in my original review. The muhammara was excellent, the souvlaki was great, and the restaurant itself is beautiful.
But I also think restaurants should be able to receive specific, good-faith criticism without reframing it as the guest misunderstanding steak doneness or pricing.
Unfortunately, this response lowered my opinion of the experience rather than resolving it.