Montrels Bistro

The red beans and rice were HORRIBLE!!! Like someone dropped pepper in the pot :-(Don’t even think about ordering it even if the waiter tells you it’s delicious. Guess thats why there wasnt a wait… The fried chicken on the other hand wasn’t bad. This def isn’t a place I’d visit upon my return.

The Good: The eggplant appetizer was delicious. Fried eggplant doused in an amazing sauce. Yummy.
The Bad: The only restroom is upstairs and it isn’t air-​conditioned.
The Ugly: My friend ordered the jambalaya. What was brought out was an orange blob of rice covered with «shrimp» without any chicken and a single tiny piece of sausage, The shrimp was not the tasty gulf shrimp in most NOLA fare. It appeared to frozen from a bag. She sent it back. Twenty minutes later, the server returned with another jambalaya and explained that it had shrimp and sausage… but no chicken (per the menu description). When the waiter brought the bill, he explained that he forgot to tell us that the debit card machine was broken. He informed us of the nearest ATM and told us he would wait. He was serious. They did not comp anything or offer any additional dessert or ANYTHING. This place is horrible.
Initially, as we walked up to the restaurant, I said to my friend, «Didn’t we come here before? I don’t remember liking it.»
Her: You were sleepy. It was good.
Me: Okay. {looking concerned}
There are far too many tasty restaurants to waste your time eating here.
PLEASE DO NOT EAT HERE.

In town on vacation and walking around the French Quarter, we stopped here because they had outside seating and we had our dog with us. It was mid afternoon and they were not busy as the other places near by. It took quite a while to get our meals so I hoped it would be worth the wait. I had Crawfish Etoufee $ 18.95. My wife had Jambalaya $ 14.95. For the price, both dishes were very small but tasted ok. I guess that is the price you pay for the location.

This place gets one star for the host who sat us and ran around fetching the staff to man the tables. I felt so bad for the young guy who needed to be running the place because he was the only one on top of things. The wait staff was super slow and too scatter-​brained to handle more than one table at a time. I witnessed them forgetting to assist customers more than once.
We ordered the jambalaya and it took forever to come out. Shouldn’t it be seemingly ready to go already? The bread is store bought freezer loafs with I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter spread all over. It was a bit salty but we were hungry. And Cokes were flat. Lol!
The only reason we stopped in was because we were so tired from walking and needed a desperate break. We should’ve followed out instincts and walked out once we noticed how slow the service was taking.
By the way another clue was how dated and dirty the place is. It needs a good dusting and wake up call. The place seemed to be good once upon a time. They have old photos of celebrities that have stopped in… kind of a joke. Queen Latifah from the 90s come on man! :)

Our first crawfish experience and we really liked it! Perfect amount of spice and we devoured the entire bowl. This place is also great for their jambalaya — be sure to squeeze the lemon on it as it makes the world of a difference! We sat outdoors during the evening and really enjoyed the jazzy musical afar and the heated fire. Our waitress was friendly — and we even ended up switching tables at her request since our first one was wobbly and slanted.
NOT fans of the gumbo. As I understand, gumbo can vary greatly and this too was our first experience. This gumbo was more brothy, with bits of cartilidge and bones throughout. Biting hard pieces and fishing things out of my mouth is not what I imagine when consuming any type of «soup.» Maybe gumbo was not for me but it definitely was nothing 5 star served here.

Chef Tumere made shrimp and grits especially for us. He prepared wonderfully fluffy fried grits in a sauce based on the flavors of their crawfish boil. A little salty, but delicious. We’re really impressed with the effort to accommodate us,
In response to other reviews, our dishes and silver were clean. While the service was slowish, it was friendly. I’m sure our custom order explains our delay.

Overpriced slop and filthy. This place even recently made the front page of the paper for their shocking amount of health code violations… not at all surprised to see how many people have rated this place so low. Yes there is a fancy patio and jazz but you can find both at any BETTER restaurant. This place needs to can its kitchen cause that’s what their food tastes like… CANNED!

I am sad now that I read the reviews. I wanted to pick one nice place to eat while here in NOLA. I love the location, the patio is super cute! There was even a jazz band playing across the street at another bistro so it was picturesque. We ordered the crab cakes to start. They were tasty. Not the best I have tried but not the worst.
The main course was Crawfish Etoufee for me and it was a bit too salty and even a bit too spicy. I just figured this is how southern food is suppose to taste. Now, my boyfriend had made a better choice with a seafood au gratin. It was shrimp, and crab pieces all backed together into a cheesy goodness… YUM! His even came with a side of sauteed veggies and mashed potatoes.
Josh was our server and although, yes, the service was slow, it was refreshing being from Chicago where EVERYONE is in a hurry. Again, I just relaxed and figured it was the culture here. Our total bill, tip included was about $ 60. I can’t say I know authentic NOLA food but I didn’t think it tasted bad!

I’ve read reviews about this place that really slam them. We’ve been there a couple times and it is always good. The staff are funny and very helpful and the food is great.

Not good at all– be weary of the hustled in seating– I can cook the food better.

It was Gud the first time we went there 2yrs ago now its not anywhere I would go back to. We didn’t get any bread the waiter said the oven had been broke for 3month

Not good. Don’t go. Too many problems to list. Just avoid it.

The service was terrible. The food was barely tolerable. This restaurant is just plain ratchet. That is all.

This place was so bad, we actually walked out! They were missing items on the menu and then acted like it was our fault for even asking for that item. They tried to bring us a sample of Bread pudding to make up for it, but there were close to 15 of us at the table, and they brought 5 Dixie cup samples. When we asked if we could get one for everyone, they said no.
They also refused to split the check.

OHMYGODDONOTGOHERE. EVER. This was the only bad place I went to during my entire trip. My friend and I were aimlessly walking around when we decided to get a quick bite to eat at Montrel’s. Why not? They have a cute little patio, there’s a sign for Famous Bloody Marys and specials, and it’s right in the heart of the district. Perfect, right?
WRONG. Oh, how wrong we were. We got seated immediately on the patio, which was very nice. After about 15 minutes of waiting, the hostess came by to see if anyone had helped us. No, they had not. Then, for some unknown reason, a manager (who was extremely nice but EXTREMELY CONFUSED) helped us instead of getting a server to help us. We try to order Bloody Marys and waters. After awhile, the guy comes back to tell us that there is no vodka. And he is waterless. We asked for just the waters then. 10 – 15 minutes later he comes back to see if we are ready to order. We say yes, but we would still like our waters and mimosa. He leaves. Without taking our order. (OBVIOUSLY he has NO IDEA how to consolidate trips). He finally comes back with the mimosa and takes our order. After awhile he comes back and tells us that they don’t have shrimp. The hell is going on here?!? As he is telling us about the tiny shrimp he won’t sell to us, a guy informs him that they DO have shrimp. Fine then, we’ll have it. Somehow, while waiting FOR EV ER for the food, he realizes we are pissed and brings us a gumbo. With one spoon. Then gets confused when we want more spoons. After the spoon debacle, we are about to walk out because we are starving and lunch STILL HAS NOT COME (I mean, besides taking turns slurping gumbo from our community spoon) and he sees us frustrated so brings out another mimosa and tells us he will get our shrimp. After about an hour and fifteen minutes, we get our shrimp and ask for the check immediately so we can get the hell out of there. The shrimp were good (but warm), the gumbo was delicious, but the debacle of the whole experience was AWFUL. I was waiting for a camera to come out and tell me it was all a joke, but alas, it was not.
(P.S. The bathroom is also insane. You have to go up 2 flights of stairs, it doesn’t lock, there was no soap in the dispenser and watered down soap in the pump, and the toilet barely flushed. Really?)

Wow… what a huge disappointment! This review is for Montrel’s on decatur and n peters st. (there are two listings for this dump on Unilocal) My boyfriend’s friend recommended a restaurant near the river on Decatur st. However, we ended up here on accident and I am so pissed that I didn’t check Unilocal before we came here.
We ordered the fried seafood platter, which was okay (it looked like five pieces of fried seafood dumped on top of shitty fries and hard french bread) but we received no napkins, no utensils, no drink menu, no drinks, and no customer service!!! What the f***!!!
We waited forever for someone to notice us and ask us if we needed something. We had to go look for people to help us out. The last time I checked I thought waiters were supposed to serve you… if I wanted to serve myself I would have eaten at home!!!
Also, the women’s restroom was out of order and female customers had to share the male restroom with the multitude of male customers …(note the sarcasm) and the bathroom was filthy!
So in addition to the horrendous lack of customer service or non-​existence of customer service, the host tried to get in a fight with my boyfriend and tried to blame our bad time on me!!! Are you f***in kidding me? The reason why we were so upset was that my boyfriend was trying to show me a good time in new orleans (it was my first time visiting) but your shitty staff, terrible attitudes, and ignorance made it the worst night I have ever experienced! Hey Montrel’s you should teach your staff that when you are running a business the customer is ALWAYS right. If your customers are unhappy, trust me, your business is going to FAIL!!!
Whoever runs this «restaurant» needs a restaurant and staff makeover. I will never recommend this place to anyone, not even my worst enemy. I can’t believe this restaurant is still open with the mass amount of negative reviews about this place. P. s. it is never appropriate to yell obscenities to a woman and yell at her boyfriend just because your restaurant sucks. C’mon Montrel’s where’s your class?

My brother and girlfriend came in for Mardi Gras and were too hungry to walk any further so we stopped here for lunch. The prices are a little pricey considering the food is NOT that good. I had the fried chicken with some red beans and rice and it was definitely NOT worth it. The red beans were bland as hell, but the fried chicken was pretty good.

it was christmas. many other places were closed or had a long wait. this one did not. that should have indicated something… but we drove down from memphis, were tired, never been to new orleans and just wanted something to eat!
it was awful. the food, the service, the seating…

Service was slow but personalized and attentive. The outdoor patio was positively LOVELY; the weather was perfect, and it’s an ideal place to people watch, especially on a Saints Sunday :)
Didn’t get anything to eat, just had a Bloody Mary, which was the best I’ve had in the city so far (I’ve had a handful of very bad bloody Mary experiences in NOLA, so this being the best really only means it’s the best of the worst.)
Still, a charming and repeat-​worthy performance. I’d love to come back and try the food!

Horrible service, mediocre food, you can do better…
It was hot — they had air conditioning, we were hungry and very thirsty — they had food and water, they had a guy posted outside to draw people in, and well… he drew us in. He politely placed us in the «cooler air-​conditioned section,» which we much appreciated, where we then informed him (before even being seated) that we were in a hurry and had to leave for the airport shortly, we already knew we just wanted some crawfish before leaving for home, and would like to order right away. His reply was, «I’m not a server, but someone should be with you shortly. Well we sat there for quite some time, where I even tried flagging down a few people that appeared to be servers, and they either ignored me and rushed by, or said they would get someone to serve us… at least 5 – 10 minutes, where we didn’t even receive as much as a glass of water (remember we were very thirsty and were very much looking forward to those glasses of water) before finally, a very polite bus-​boy finally took our order after seeing how long we’d been waiting. We promptly ordered, remember we knew what we wanted before even walking in, and asked for some water asap. I then watched him go up to the actual servers, relay our order to them, and get the job done. It was very annoying and inconsiderate to be left there for so long, and strange that after so much effort was made to bring us in the restaurant, so little effort was then spent on serving us. Its also worth mentioning that the entire time we waited, right in front of us a person dressed in a suit (perhaps the owner) and a person dressed in a cook’s outfit were standing at or near the bar just talking and having a good time, living it up and paying no attention to us or their surroundings. I should have walked out after a minute or two of being ignored, but I couldn’t imagine it to continue for long…
So after the food was finally ordered, it didn’t take too long for us to receive our order of crawfish. The crawfish itself was decent, not the best I’d had on the trip at all, but not the worst either. The corn however, was by far the worst, disgusting and inedible actually, and the potatoes were almost as bad.
I regret choosing this place as my last meal in New Orleans, I think I wouldn’ve been happier eating at a McDonald’s on the way to the airport (and I hate McDonald’s).