Montana's Review

Why go to Montana's if it's faster to drive to Montana?

Heading to Montana’s restaurant at 9 p.m. seemed like a good idea- the mall just closed, dinner rush was over. Pulling up to the western-themed establishment the parking lot seemed fairly empty.

Standing at the front podium there is time to look around and take in all the restaurant has to offer. A sign that says staff will be pleased to serve you, benches to sit and wait for take-out orders, televisions showing Western movies are all at the front greeting you when you come in. Trouble is the staff isn’t.

Standing up at the front for nearly five minutes and still no one has even said hello to us. There is a microphone at the podium. I walk up to it, press the button, the music in the restaurant goes off, and I say, “Service to the front, please.” My friend is embarrassed and turns red. A woman on the bench waiting for take-out food begins laughing. Patrons in the bar look over to see. I have everyone’s attention... except the staff. There is still no response from anyone who works there. Moments later an employee leaving for the night calls over to a staff member and he says to come to the front. We are seated and told a server would be right with us.

A long sheet of brown paper is used as a table cover and a cup of crayons is there for the guests to doodle while, presumably, waiting for service. Our server comes over and grabs a crayon from her apron and writes her name upside-down (to herself) on the paper. We grab crayons and write our names for her and she laughs, saying that the trick is to write your name upside-down like she had to do. This takes our attention away from the frustration of waiting for a seat but within moments were are able to complete the challenge she gave us.

The server takes our drink order and brings them to us moments later, mixing them up and giving me the wrong beverage. At the same time she takes the food order and sends it off to the kitchen to be made.

The food is ready and is delivered to us. Before we even have two bites of our food, the cheque is brought to the table and we are thanked for dining at the restaurant. I didn’t even think we had begun to dine. But she seemed to want us out of there quicker than we wanted to be after the prompt and friendly service that welcomed us when we first arrived.

The server checks on us once to see if everything is OK, (essentially on our fourth bite of food) and we see her walking past every few minutes thereafter but never hear from her again. Instead of refills for our drinks we simply waited for the ice cubes to melt and we drank that.

Maybe a drive to Montana would be quicker than getting service at Montana’s restaurant. The atmosphere inside is warm and cozy, but the staff is cold and distant.

INSTANT UPDATE

Following the release of this story, the restaurant manager of Montana’s called the paper‘s newsroom. He wanted to meet with JB and discuss this experience. The two met the next day and the manager offered his sincere apologies and gave JB gift cards, inviting him back to “give them another shot."