Monte Carlo Steakhouse
The Monte Carlo Steakhouse is suppose to be one of the better steak houses in town and it was recently covered in Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives (3D). The Monte Carlo Steakhouse is definitely a dive. It's located off of Central and east of Atrisco which is a long way from my normal stomping grounds. My friend Park and I decided to leave the heights and try the place out a few months ago. We have a vague idea of where it is and arrive to find a brick building painted in tan with red lettering and trim.
The parking lot is in bad shape and disorganized, so park carefully. We do a lap around the building looking for the entrance when Park recalls that in the episode of 3D the entrance is through the liquor store. You walk through a liquor store that is small, dirty, and old to get to the steak house. The waiting area is towards the back south of the bar which is next to the grill. You wait for a bus boy to scribble your name down onto a legal pad and wait for them to call you. I look to sit in some chairs in the southeast corner of the restaurant near the bathrooms. This was not a good idea. I think I ended up sitting in a storage area. I go to the bathroom and I find one of the worst restrooms in restaurant that I have ever seen. It smells like things I do not want to mention in a food blog. The fixtures and decor are dated and very worn.
This caliber of a bar is not what you normally find in a steak house. The selection of spirits and beer were pretty bad. I do not know if wine was an option, but I don't think it was. I asked the bar tender for about three drinks before I settled for a Negra Modelo. Do not go here if you are a booze snob. I also did a quick lap around the liquor store and nothing spectacular was found: about 99% of the beer were macro brews, a spattering of imports that I could find at a small grocery store, and about half a dozen selections of various basic spirits.
We are seated after about a thirty minute wait. Do not go here if time is an issue. They do not take reservations and the bus staff is wrong sometimes about your wait time. We are seated in a well worn booth and we have an additional wait before we see our server, who was new and not too familiar with the menu. She was friendly though. We start the meal off with the Greek sampler that has salami strips, Greek olives, pepperonici, blocks of feta, tomatoes and a dolma. The feta cut into blocks was different than the feta chunks that normally come in salads. This block of feta was interesting because it allowed me to taste a block of feta by itself. Feta is really a dry cheese. I didn't think that feta was good on it's own, but when added to a salad makes it greater than the sum of it's parts. The remainder of the plate was just average. I asked the server what type of lettuce is used was used with the Greek salad and was disappointed with the answer, it was a mixed bag that is mostly made of iceberg lettuce. When the salad came it was one of the worst Greek salads that I have had: the dressing drenched the salad, the other vegetables were cookie cutter, and the lettuce as mentioned before, the iceberg variety. When I say this was the worst Greek salad that I have had, it was not the worst salad that I have had, but I have eaten some awesome Greek salads. On the overall salad spectrum I would place this on par with the McDonald's or Burger King salad. The steak was great. Their grill is not hot enough to do Pittsburgh, but they inform me that this was not possible and made my steak as rare as possible. The fries there are crisp and not overly salted. Overall great steak. You can speak to the cooks about the grill if you'd like to due to the open area, which I thought was pretty kewl.
Guy Fieri of 3D called the Monte Carlo ”just an average off-the-hook steakhouse with homemade Greek.” I would agree with him. The steak was very good, but the overall cleanliness, bad bathrooms, the booze counter that is called a bar, and other things take away from the great meat. I would give the Monte Carlo Steakhouse two and a half stars out of five.
The parking lot is in bad shape and disorganized, so park carefully. We do a lap around the building looking for the entrance when Park recalls that in the episode of 3D the entrance is through the liquor store. You walk through a liquor store that is small, dirty, and old to get to the steak house. The waiting area is towards the back south of the bar which is next to the grill. You wait for a bus boy to scribble your name down onto a legal pad and wait for them to call you. I look to sit in some chairs in the southeast corner of the restaurant near the bathrooms. This was not a good idea. I think I ended up sitting in a storage area. I go to the bathroom and I find one of the worst restrooms in restaurant that I have ever seen. It smells like things I do not want to mention in a food blog. The fixtures and decor are dated and very worn.
This caliber of a bar is not what you normally find in a steak house. The selection of spirits and beer were pretty bad. I do not know if wine was an option, but I don't think it was. I asked the bar tender for about three drinks before I settled for a Negra Modelo. Do not go here if you are a booze snob. I also did a quick lap around the liquor store and nothing spectacular was found: about 99% of the beer were macro brews, a spattering of imports that I could find at a small grocery store, and about half a dozen selections of various basic spirits.
We are seated after about a thirty minute wait. Do not go here if time is an issue. They do not take reservations and the bus staff is wrong sometimes about your wait time. We are seated in a well worn booth and we have an additional wait before we see our server, who was new and not too familiar with the menu. She was friendly though. We start the meal off with the Greek sampler that has salami strips, Greek olives, pepperonici, blocks of feta, tomatoes and a dolma. The feta cut into blocks was different than the feta chunks that normally come in salads. This block of feta was interesting because it allowed me to taste a block of feta by itself. Feta is really a dry cheese. I didn't think that feta was good on it's own, but when added to a salad makes it greater than the sum of it's parts. The remainder of the plate was just average. I asked the server what type of lettuce is used was used with the Greek salad and was disappointed with the answer, it was a mixed bag that is mostly made of iceberg lettuce. When the salad came it was one of the worst Greek salads that I have had: the dressing drenched the salad, the other vegetables were cookie cutter, and the lettuce as mentioned before, the iceberg variety. When I say this was the worst Greek salad that I have had, it was not the worst salad that I have had, but I have eaten some awesome Greek salads. On the overall salad spectrum I would place this on par with the McDonald's or Burger King salad. The steak was great. Their grill is not hot enough to do Pittsburgh, but they inform me that this was not possible and made my steak as rare as possible. The fries there are crisp and not overly salted. Overall great steak. You can speak to the cooks about the grill if you'd like to due to the open area, which I thought was pretty kewl.
Guy Fieri of 3D called the Monte Carlo ”just an average off-the-hook steakhouse with homemade Greek.” I would agree with him. The steak was very good, but the overall cleanliness, bad bathrooms, the booze counter that is called a bar, and other things take away from the great meat. I would give the Monte Carlo Steakhouse two and a half stars out of five.
Labels: Monte Carlo Steakhouse
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9:12 AM
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