Mona’s Bistro & Lounge

Right by my house and the hh is a great deal. Get there.

This place is very quaint. The food was good as was the service. Tried it out because we couldn’t get in next door, I was very happy with the decision.
There is a lack of insulation in the building though so dress warm or look for one of their space heaters.

I am impressed by this dark little space. I usually use Unilocal but I stumbled upon this joint on a different app and am so happy I tried it out not knowing anything about it, but that it had a new killer happy hour. My boyfriend and I went in and got a seat at the bar, the place had only a handful of people in it. It’s super dark romantic lighting (a little brighter at the bar top) but it makes for a great date!
They had a long list of signature cocktails, but I hadn’t drank a Manhattan in a minute and I was feeling fancy plus. it was only like 8 $. It was SO delicious! The bar tender definitely knew what he was doing. From a long day of shopping the boyfriend and I had worked up quite an appetite and got a full taste of many different things from this menu, here it goes! (I’ll make this easy)
Caesar Salad: This is a REAL Caesar, sardine fish across the top of the bed and all. The dressing was good. And i’m a Caesar connoisseur so that’s saying a lot.
Shrimp Tacos: Corn tortilla was a little rough — didn’t keep all the ingredients in, but the shrimp alone was citrus and tasty.
Margarita Pizza: mmmm my favorite. Fluffy crust, oozing cheese and plenty of basil and tomatoes. They did a fantastic job on this dish.
Feta Fries with Truffle Oil and a Garlic Aoilo. Need I say more?
With all that food — plus a cocktail and a beer, we spent less than 40 $ and were perfectly full and satisfied. I highly recommend this place!

Let me start off by saying that the atmosphere was great. It’s cute, trendy, easy to find, very «loungy» and close to the University District which is always a plus among my friends and I. It seemed like a perfect location for post graduation reunion for my friends and I.
That being said, I wish it was a more enjoyable experience. First off, it took forever for our server to take our order. Not only this, when he did, he seemed very rushed and eager to get it and get out. Almost borderline «I need to move onto the next table» mentality.
On top of this, he starts off by saying, «this is what we donthave on the menu» which comprised of literally HALF of the menu. The pizzas, the lamb sliders, and the orzo were gone. Which was a severe dissapointment cause thats what my friends and I were hoping to order. Other substutions were made but it still put a damper to the evening. It would have been better if he had let us know of this when he first greeted us. We appreciated the fact that they offered us complimentary «lemon drops» for the lack of food options, but the time he did, none of us wanted to even consider a drink.
Also, regarding the billing. He charged my friends card for the wrong item TWICE. It was a split check and we had directly told him what items to charge to each card presented. Despite this, he managed to screw up twice, prolonging getting our final bill by 15 – 20 minutes.
The food overall was fine. There was nothing special about the arugula salad and baked brie that I ordered. My friend commented that her seafood pasta was drenched in oil and felt very heavy after eating it. It was edible and we left content. For any people considering going, I’d suggest go elsewhere if you want something special in terms of a meal.
One more thing, I personally find hygiene very important. To our server, if you think we didnt see the «snot» drooling down your nose and you sucking it back up, we did. Actually 3 out of the 5 girls had direct view of it coming down and being pulled back up. It was quite the site to see and made our appetites go down significantly. Clearly you had a cold so perhaps you should have stayed at home instead of working. This was clearly your off night which I understand. Nonetheless, I will not be returning nor suggesting this establishment to other people. We can get the same food, same vibe somewhere else.

Everytime I come here I looks so cool inside I wonder why I don’t come more often. The lights are cool, nice music, the menu looks yummy.
About a year ago I came in for a drink. i sat down and the bartender never came over. I assumed i needed to go up and order it so I did. then as I sat Iat the bar I watched him serve other people. Maybe I was to eager. He never came over to see if i wanted another drink. I eventually had to interupt him, walk over and ask for another drink.
Last week i came in and sat at the ba and we ordered drinks. They came pretty fast. We drank our drinks and then tried ot flag down the bartender to get more. He litterly walked by us twice without asking if we needed more drinks. He wasn’t busy. We waved our arms, we tried to get his attention. Nothing. Eventually we got his atention about an hour later after the last of us had finished our drink.
We finally got his attention and asked for our tab. Our drinks were $ 8 apeice. Perhaps at the Happy hour price it owuld be acceptable servie but then at a drink an hour I’m not sure its worth it.
I’ve decided i can’t go here If I want to eat or drink. Therefore I’m not sure why it exsists.
I feel like this happens almost everytime I go. It would probably be more efficient if i brought my own booze here and I’m pretty sure the bartender wouldn’t notice or care.

The food is nothing amazing, but I’m a sucker for the moodlighting and wine selection. Good place to catch up with a friend over a glass of red and maybe have a dessert.

Smooth live jazz, good food, fun menu, not to expensive, good service, semi-​fancy atmosphere.

Sexy bartender alert!
So there’s that. And the drinks are great, too. I didn’t try the food but my mouth watered as I saw a couple eating something that looked and smelled delicious. I tried not to stare because of the rudeness factor but I decided that my needs are to be met before anyone else’s. So I stared.
Great live jazz, too. I felt very comfortable in there. Ambiance was mellow, fantastic lighting… did great things for my complexion.

What an awesome random place we found in Washington. Had great food and wine. It is at a very random street corner and we would’ve never found it without Groupon. The people who go to this place seem very social and mature. We connected with a few random patrons and were delighted throughout the night.
Definitely check this place out for a nice, slow, low-​key kind of a night.

This was my 3^rd time back at Mona’s for dinner and was not satisifed as I was my previous visits. Our waiter was not personable and seemed scripted and forced. Our food took a long time even though the restaurant was maybe at 10% capacity. We ordered the truffle frites to start because I absolutely love truffle potato anything. Not only did it take forever to get our fries, but I didn’t taste a bit of truffle oil. The fries were good, but I was definitely misled to expect truffle flavor.
For our entrees, we had the braised short ribs and roasted chicken. The meat was good in both dishes but they were also served with the same starch and vegetable. It was advertised the same on the menu — yukon gold mash and vegetable. It’s just not impressive when the only difference in our entrée was the protein. The food was okay this time. I was quite disappointed in the service and truffle frites. Maybe I’ll come back for live music and drinks sometime.

My hubby and I drove all the way down here from Vancouver, BC with our Livingsocial voucher, and we are glad we did!
This place is the kind of restaurant we wished we had in Vancouver. Located in the northern part of Seattle and right off the I-​5 it was an easy drive for us after some shopping in Lynnwood. We made our reservations online via OpenTable and were greeted by the bartender and seated very promptly. The place was warm, roomy, and very cosy on a rainy, winter night!
We managed to find street parking (very residential area). We had $ 50 to burn and it got us plenty of food. Lamb Sliders, Brie appy, shrimp tacos, orzo with shrimp, and sausage pizza. The portions were so large that we had a ton of food packed to go (in recycled paper containers to boot). I did have a glass of riesling, and it wasn’t that good, but I will let it slide.
Our server worked really hard, and it appeared it was only him and the bartender. The food tasted FANTASTIC, and the hubby and I are already talking about our next trip down south – they have Happy Hour!

BF and I went here to use a LivingSocial deal and try a new place. We were pretty much the only people there since there was a torrential downpour outside. Service was decent, food was good.
They brought my meal first and my BF’s food didn’t come for another 10 minutes or so, when I was halfway done (luckily he is a fast eater and I am slow). There was some sort of miscommunication that they thought my meal was the appetizer and his was the main? Not really sure because we made it pretty clear that we each ordered our own meals. They didn’t offer anything to make up for the mistake.

HORRIBLE, was the consensus on both service and food. Worst I’ve had in recent memory. From beginning to end our experience at Mona’s Bistro & Lounge was HORRIBLE!
No table setting, no water, no bread, no salt/​pepper coupled with poor and exceedingly slow «service». Awful food absolutely awful Spaghetti with Browned Butter and Mizithra, a very simple dish, lacked any flavor other than the oily mess it was soaked in. I asked for salt and pepper which was of no help no matter the amount. I should add that I was first delivered a dried up salt shaker, waited, asked for another, waited, and then received a bowl of salt. Odd. My friends Risotto was no better. A gloppy mess with no flavor. Both entrees went back nearly full with no questions asked as to how we liked it. I can imagine why, the poor fellow didn’t want to hear how horrible the food was — he knew it was lousy.
Toward the end of our meal our waiter apologized for the food and service. Said they were slammed and added «next time you come back it will be much better». Next time? Why would we ever go back?

Went out on a Friday night to watch the band Karimina play at Mona’s. My wife and I split the Warm Pita, the Mac & Cheese (with added sausage) and the Lamb Bolognese. The food was good but not great, with the feta spread for the pita and the mac and cheese being the best of what we ordered. While the spicy feta spread for the pita was excellent, the hummus was surprisingly bland. The mac and cheese was very flavorful, but also very rich and served in a very large portion, impossible for one person (or perhaps even two) to finish it at the table. The cheese sauce used was very rich… almost as if they started with Alfredo sauce and added a lot of cheese to it. The Lamb Bolognese, however, was rather disappointing as it’s flavors did not go well together at all.
I liked the décor… lots of vibrant reds used around the restaurant. The acoustics for watching a live performance were decent, although the bar in the middle of the restaurant blocks the view from about half the seats. The waitstaff were friendly, albeit very confused — getting a full set of silverware proved to be a challenge. We started with one set missing, and the extra we asked for was missing a knife. After the appetizer they took the silverware away, leaving us to ask for another two sets, one of which was also short a knife.

I came here tonight to hear Karmina and didn’t really care much about the food. Thank god for that because it was really nothing special. (Karmina on the other hand was awesome!)
Food: 2 stars
Warm pita Appetizer — This was quite good. It comes with a feta cheese spread that is quite good and the hummus is decent.
Mac and Cheese — an enormous portion of decent mac and cheese. It’s very heavy and seems to have a generic seasoning/​alfredo blend in it but it also has a lot cheese so it fulfills the ooey gooey need that only mac and cheese can fill. I would recommend sharing this between several people as it is quite heavy.
Lamb Bolognese — Very poor quality ground lamb, so poor it tasted like poor quality ground beef. The noodles were undercooked and the whole dish was very dry. This is definitely an item I would pass on. I would order hamburger helper instead of this if they offered it on the menu.
Tea– OK I know you don’t come here for tea but on the off chance you want to order some, know they do have green tea. It’s crappy and in a bag, but they have it.
Service:4 star
The servers were very nice and went out of their way to make sure we had a good experience. It did seem as if the wait team didn’t communicate too well sometimes, but they were very nice, which more than made up for asking for silverware, not getting a knife and having to ask again.
Atmosphere: 3.5 stars
It is a bit too dark in here and the music is a bit too loud, except the band we came to hear, which wasn’t loud enough. Other reviews talk about how it’s a bit confused and I must agree. There doesn’t seem to be a cohesive idea of what this place is supposed to be… and I like that about it. It has a vampire bar, meets fancy restaurant, meets night club vibe that I found quirky and endearing.
Overall I will not be driving to Green Lake for the food here, but if they have a band playing that I like, I would look forward to going; endearing.
Overall I will not be driving to Green Lake for the food here, but if they have a band playing that I like, I would look forward to going, I would just order something different.

I’ve tried this place three times. The first two times, it took 20 minutes to get a drink. And they weren’t busy.
The third time, we got as far as placing an order for dinner. When my pasta came (with a spaghetti noodle), and it was stuck together — kinda like long ponytails — it was pretty bad. And the waitress, when she finally came by to see how dinner was going (long after someone else had dropped it), DIDN’T BELIEVE ME; she actually PICKED THROUGH THE PASTA, on the table, right in front of me! «Oh, yeah…» was all she had to say, when she realized the whole dish was a conglomeration of ponytails…
I wouldn’t send anyone here. It’s the biggest bummer, because I really wanted to like this place.

I enjoyed a cocktail at Mona’s with a friend, and it was quite tasty. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to try any of the food so I will definitely have to go back. The atmosphere is nice and cozy and a great place for socializing.

I am not really sure how I feel about Mona’s. There is a good neighborhood vibe here and I really like the feel of the space. The live music, when I have seen it, is great.
The food is fine. I ate off the Happy Hour menu. They have a good selection of HH food. The portions were pretty reasonable for the price. I had an arugula salad and a shrimp taco. The salad was actually pretty good with a honey vinaigrette. The taco was a pretty bland and need hot sauce and salt to perk it up a bit. We also ordered the baked brie which was just OK, not a whole lot of flavor.
My drink was sub par. It was a signature cocktail with Bourbon. My feeling is that signature drinks don’t contain well alcohol. If you are going to use good ingredients in a drink then use it ac cross the board. I am not asking for Knob Creek, but Maker’s should be as low as it goes… not Evan Williams!
The service was fine, nothing special. I wish they would lock one of the doors. There are two doors to the front of the place and when you have people coming and going out of both, the temperature drops.
Parking can be a bit of a problem. It is all street and it appears that nobody uses their garages in this neighborhood or they own way too many cars.
Mona’s is a good neighborhood joint and if I live or was visiting the area, I would stop by otherwise it’s not really worth the trip.

I am adopting this as my new «date night» place with one of my gf’s. After our plans fell through, we decided to go out and grab some food and cocktails.
This place is super cute and I love the décor. The lights hanging from the ceiling are kind of melted and it’s a very trendy/​hipster vibe.
We sat at the bar and I ordered a pomegranate martini which was DELICIOUS. Just enough alcohol, just enough flavor, and I love how it was chilled just perfectly.
We decided to split the roasted brie appetizer with balsamic pears and a warm spinach salad with fondued brie, candied walnuts, and cranberries. I loved both and think we made an awesome food selections.
It was a LITTLE difficult to find parking but to be honest, I’m surprised there weren’t more people in the bar. We got there around 8/​9-​ish and then there was live music that started playing which was great.
I cannot wait to come back here! I absolutely love this place!

I was recently looking to catch up with a fellow Unilocaler friend, and we decided to go somewhere that had drinks (and food!) that we could enjoy while having that conversation.
Mona’s ended up being the spot.
The bartender was nice, and I enjoyed my glass of wine. I also enjoyed the Poke Crocantini! Very delicious and just my kind of thing. Next time I’ll aim to try something new, but I definitely enjoyed that menu item a whole lot!
The only truly bad part of the experience was some other person that happened to be there for a birthday party that’s… well, someone that I’d prefer not run into. But, eh. Oh well. Can’t control who hangs out where! Apparently it’s a good spot to invite friends to celebrate something, though?