Montrel’s Bistro

Great southern beeakfast simple with eggs grit meat and toast all for $ 4.99. Fast service and pleasant atmosphere this was a great find on a Saturday morning for budget conscious travelers… service was fast and friendly!

don’t go!!! food is bland bland bland… they comped our bill cuz we didn’t eat the food

Friendly staff and excellent crawfish, we even got complimentary lessons on how to eat them! Extremely accommodating

This was probably the WORST dining experience I have ever had. I went here with a large group of friends. The food was basically inedible. The po boys were all bread and extremely dry. My friend ordered the shrimp cocktail and they brought it out to her with a shrimp the size of a penny. I’m not lying. It was a joke. With so many amazing food establishments in NOLA I’m embarrassed that we ate here.
From here on out I will ALWAYS check Unilocal

The only reason it gets one star, besides the fact that Unilocal won’t allow zero, is because the maitre’d was helpful. Their service made New Orleans slow look like New York minute fast.
We were greeted promptly and seated, and placed our order. We asked for coffee with our breakfast breakfast order and were told by the waiter it would be a few minutes because they needed to brew another pot. Fine, we’re on vacation, no rush. Waiter comes back out after ten minutes, no coffee, and asks to take our order. Umm… we gave it to you? 10 more minutes goes by, we’re getting antsy, waiter says food will be right out. 5 minutes more, main plate comes out (eggs, grits, bacon). No coffee, no toast, no butter, salt, pepper, jelly (you get the idea). Maitre’d looks, asks if everything is ok, we tell him what we’re missing. He goes in and a minute or two later comes out with everything but the coffee. Waiter follows, and tells us coffee machine is broken. Never mind we saw another table get coffee while we waited for him to grow the chickens to lay the eggs for our breakfast.
We go to pay with a credit card, and lo and behold… credit card machine is down. No surprise there.
If we ever go back to New Orleans, I will never eat here again.

I should be giving only one star but the staff was friendly– super friendly. And the food was well ok. We were going to try another restaurant but found out it was closed on Monday’s. Since we were hungry we started walking around to find somewhere else in the area. Staff was friendly, offered suggestions, the chef came out and asked some questions about what we were debating on.
We placed our order, including my glass of wine (Pinot Grigo). We got my app and our main courses before my wine. IT appeared that what they did was go to another establishment and get a to go cup of wine and brought it back for me. That was über nice. The 2^nd time they came back to ask what kind of wine it was I said that I could order something else if they didn’t have that flavor.
The food was OK just not super impressive. Kind of bland. Huge portions though for the money.

I went here with my family on a Thursday night. Not at all busy, and we were all starving so we thought we’d give it a try. BIG. MISTAKE.
We sat down in the outdoor patio, and our waitress brought us water, and we ordered appetizers and dinner. 30 minutes goes by… No silverware. No appetizers. No waitress to come take our drink orders… Pissed. So I go to the bartender and ask what’s going on and he says he will take care of us right away… Still nothing. We got up and left, and after seeing the rating and other reviews I’m glad we didn’t waste our money at this place. If I could give it 0 stars I would.

So… this is to supplement my prior review. I’ve been to this restaurant twice now and had an ‘ok’ experience each time. The first visit it took forever for our server to come to our table and they messed up our order. They made it right by bringing out extra crawfish. On this, my second, occurrence the experience was similar. We were sat and no waiter came for quite a while before I got up and stopped someone. When we finally were able to order, the order was incorrect and this time the food was… how do i put this nicely… disgusting! The crawfish was under cooked and not seasoned while the chewier that i ordered was simply heavy cream with paprika sprinkled on top! Gross!!!
I try to support the family-​owned restaurants when i travel vs. chains but Montrel’s will NEVER see another penny of my money! There are soooooo many better restaurants in the quarter that deserve my funds… Montrel’s… you lose!

Meh. for sure. The 2 stars comes from the food not being terrible.
It was the weekend before Mardi Gras and after much walking around, it was getting late and we were starving. We wanted to eat a good meal and not just street food so we randomly decide to walk in to Montrel’s Bistro. We were promptly attended to and our waitress had great southern hospitality (Forgot her name).
I had the crawfish ettoufee and I think they mistakingly brought me a raw celery ettoufee but after the 45 min wait and two orders of complimentary bread I didnt want to complain about it.
My wife ordered the Jambalaya and it was just as good as Zattarins microwave tv dinner. Good. but not 20 bucks good.
The biggest let down was the Ribeye steak my friend ordered. How can you charge so much for such a thin piece of dry meat… which by the way was ordered Medium Rare.
We made the best of it because we were still having fun as a group but I shoudve atleast done a little research on my phone before walking into this place.
I will be avoiding this establishment during my future New Orleans visits. There are about 100 better choices within the same area.

Super friendly and helpful staff. Hands down some of the most professional and friendly people I have met.
However the food and environment seem to be a bit in decline.
Not really understanding how bad crawfish can get when they are «out of season» I ordered a plate and soon learned my lesson. I’m a northerner but have had some seriously good crawfish in my many visitis to LA. I don’t understand why a restaurant would serve crawfish if they were so poor at this time of year. The rest of their menu may be fantastic, but if you can’t get a quality product then you should not attempt to pass an inferior one off, especially for $ 9 a pound.
I would like to try this place again some time before I really make my mind up, it just felt a bit like a burn after enjoying the staff so much.
meh.

Wanted Jambalaya. The menu advertised it as made with chicken, sausage and shrimp. What was served to me was a few spoonfuls of rice with a couple shrimp on top. (see photos) Disappointed. My dining partner got the shrimp creole and let me taste that and it was much better. Our server was a little flighty but he did come by to notice that we needed drink refills soon enough. And yes, the restrooms are up many steps, so keep that in mind. The saving grace for us was that we sat outside, the weather was lovely, and we could hear the live music from across the street.

Awesome way to finish out my wife and I’s vacation to da Bayou. We visited the Bistro back in August and were initially lured in by the saucy spicy smell of the Craw fish boiling on the curbside.
We were sat outside on the patio and to be honest it’s a little shabby but in a fun way. I for the life of me can’t remember our server’s name, but we were lucky as he was the only one who really seemed to care about us as the customer and our experience.
We split about 15 or so craw fish and then a fried shrimp Po-​Boy. Food was actually pretty decent definitely not bad.
The highlight of the meal was our server’s lesson on how to «Properly Eat» a craw fish. He explained to us how to twist off the head of the craw fish, eat the meat and then «You godda suck da juuuices outa da head». After the meal was over he presented us with a little «Certificate» made out of receipt paper for «Successful completion of Crawfish Eating 101». A nice little scrapbook memoir.
While the food is not 5 star and the décor and setting is sub-​par. The over-​all experience was fun and we left with our bellys full and content. Check this place out, it may add a smile to your day while in New Orleans.

We ate on their patio one late morning for breakfast because our original plan had been to go to Café du Monde but the line that crossed from one side of Jackson Square to the other deterred us. We were drawn in by their cute little patio and their $ 5.99 breakfast platter. Can’t beat that!
Our breakfast platter came with eggs in the style of our choice, a slice of toast, bacon or sausage (we went with bacon), hasbrowns and savory grits. None of each option was a huge portion so the whole breakfast plate came together to be quite filling, that plus the chickory coffee with some of their homemade creamer made it a nice breakfast. None of the food was «out of this world» great, but it was all homestyle and tasty. We were actually impressed by the grits, so I guess we caught them on a good day.
The reason I’m rating them only three stars? The service! No one is particularly friendly, but I wouldn’t say they’re rude they just kind of ignore you. They talk to each other a lot but it took FOREVER to get our order taken, to get our first cup of coffee, even though we were there an hour and a half we only got one refill on the coffee and it sat empty for a long time and we asked for help several times. When it came time for the check we almost just walked it because we had asked to pay so many times it was getting ridiculous. I didn’t have a lot of free time on this trip to New Orleans and had I wanted to just sit and enjoy the people watching that would have been fine, but I found it a little annoying.
Want pretty good, cheap breakfasty food? Great option. Want it fast? Go somewhere else!

Don’t believe those bad reviews! So the interior is old, who cares… sit on their beautiful patio overlooking the french market! Our waiter, Alvin, was so attentive and friendly and brought us samples of the food to help us decide what to order! The jambalaya was fantastic, the gumbo yummy and spicy and the bisque soup was some of the best I’ve had.!! The red beans and rice w the sausage was mmmmmm! Great drinks too! Go!

Best fried chicken in NOLA! That was the highlight here. My crawfish bisque was also great. The crawfish etoufee, on the other hand, was served cold and wasn’t as flavorful as I had hoped. My husband got the burger, which he liked, but it was heavily spiced, so if you’re trying to escape those creole spices (God know why you’d want to!), look elsewhere.

Montrel’s is a family-​owned restaurant in the French Quarter. I have been there three times in three separate trips to NOLA, and always had a great time. As a connoisseur of pork chops I can tell you that their chop is great. The sides are good, but most impressive are the crawfish (especially if you are there on a nice, slow day and they do a crawfish boil outside).
Great service, but I’m the type that avoids French Quarter hot spots during Mardi Gras. You do need to be prepared to take your time, but it’s a leisurely meal. Get a pound of crawfish as an appetizer and relax — what are you rushing for anyway?

It truly breaks my heart to give one star to ANY restaurant around the French Quarter because we have eaten at SO MANY places there and have, generally, found GREAT food. But, I can’t even justify this place getting TWO stars and Unilocal won’t let you do half, because the gumbo was the ONLY thing that might’ve bumped it up by that much.
We saw Montrel’s while walking around the French Market. We had already eaten so we were going to try it the next night. Why, oh why I didn’t look it up on here, first, I’ll never know — but I wish I had! When we walked back there the next night, we also noticed another café across the street. The guy at Montrel’s gave us this big shpeel about his and one other family being the only two «original» families to open restaurants in New Orleans. He gave a great pitch about his food, his passion, his… why do I get suckered by these charlatans???
So, we get seated… and that was that… we waited a good 15 minutes before ANYbody came to us. Oh, there are waiters o’ plenty buzzing around, taking orders, delivering food. It’s a busy place. But, that’s no excuse for waiting that long for initial service. After the second time of, «I’ll be right back to take y’all’s order,» I was set to leave when this little waitress came along and asked if we were ready to order. Are you kidding? So, I ordered a cup of gumbo, the jambalaya (I almost have to try this dish at every place — a benchmark for me) and, oh yeah, some ICED TEA since NObody bothered to at least get THAT. My wife ordered the pork chop.
Again, wait, wait, wait, wait, buzzing around, «it’s coming out soon,» wait, wait, more buzzing around, «it’s almost ready.» This is the longest we’ve ever had to wait at any restaurant. Even the biggest, busiest ones are faster than this! Finally our order arrives! The gumbo was tasty, I will give them an ounce of credit on that one. There was some really spicy sausage in it so, if you have a weak palate, be forewarned. But, that ended up being the peak of the dinner. The tea was stale, the jambalaya was BLAND and had some weird SAUCE on it! Seriously??? My wife’s pork chop looked like it had been done in the oven with Shake-​and-​Bake! It was tender, but the coating was weak and not crispy and the only flavor for the chop.
We SHOULD’VE gotten a basket of bread with the order (like everyone else seemed to be getting). We asked and the waitress said they were making more bread in the back and it would be just a moment. Sure. Okay. Wait, wait, wait, wait, and all the while we see waiters going by with baskets of bread! We asked again, and she gives us the same story, «oh it’s almost ready, I’ll go check.» Still nothing. I asked her why I’m seeing other waiters go by with bread and she said, «oh they’re getting it from another kitchen and I’m not allowed in there.» WHAT??? That is the most assinine thing I’d ever heard. And that was the final straw of the night.
From the «maitre d’» to the lack of service, to the lackluster food, this restaurant is a TRAP in every sense. No, I will not give it a second try. At these prices, if you don’t grab me at the first go, forget it! Maybe the only reason this place is still open is because it IS one of the two original families, but they won’t be staying open with my help!

I don’t normally look at what others have said about a place BEFORE I write my review, but this time I did. Is it because I was the out-​of-​towner, unsure of the local expectations? Had I lost my self confidence? Did I lose my ‘pair?’
Dunno. But really, based upon what others had written, we must have gotten to this restaurant ½ hour after the owner showed up. Why? Because our waiter was there right away, and was able to explain to a northerner (…um, a North Carolina-​er) what Abita was, and at least tried to explain the difference in their brews. The filé gumbo was hot and delicious, and plentiful. (Fer cryin’ out loud, I grew up on Long Island in the 60’s — and I’d always wanted to know what that song was all about!)…
Our waiter visited us three times, each time just when we wanted him, and was courteous, friendly and appropriate. Did I find anything to complain about? Yeah, but the fly that buzzed our table was probably just making the rounds at all of the restaurants with outdoor seating. No dessert. (My babe was just achin’ for some of those wonderful pralines at Sally’s, just down the block.) And the acid test: Would I go there again? YEAH! As a matter of fact, I look forward to it, next time I’m down in the Big Easy. (I’ve always WANTED to say that!!)
Oh — the only real negative was the bathroom. You have to scamper up three or four flights of stairs just to get there — so if you’re having lunch with your dear ol’ mom in a walker, this is NOT the place for you!

Went here after some shopping at the French Market. The displayed food and steaming cooker made this place drew us in. We decided to get a mid afternoon snack. Location is definitely working for this restaurant.
There were probably 2 – 3 tables with customers at the most (3pm) Might be busier toward the peak eating times. Service was friendly and attentive.
We saw crawfish on the menu and ordered a plate roughly 2.5lbs. The crawfish tasted good and large size. Overall, it wasn’t wow… just good. Satisfied our crawfish-​in-​NOLA craving a little bit. Didn’t order anything else other than Abita Purple Haze beers. So my rating is a solid 3 for our experience.
*Crawfish wasn’t in season during our trip… a bit sad, but there’s more seafood to try.

I brought a fellow Southerner (Arkansian? Arkansite?) to eat here. Too hot to enjoy dining al fresco, we asked to sit indoors. We were placed directly in front of the AC units. which were straining to keep 50% of the restaurant cool.
Our waiter, while very friendly, was definitely a newbie. He forgot most things, like telling us this is a BYOB establishment (and I would have left immediately), or straws with our drinks, and bringing the appetizer well after receiving our entrees.
The food?
Eggplant Napoleon — this appetizer was the highlight of the meal. Huge portion of sliced fried eggplant with layers of cheese (not quite sure about that; I don’t want to see cheddar cheese ever, unless it’s mac & cheese), and covered with crabmeat, and three large shrimp atop this pile. I wished the shrimp had been peeled to make this dish a perfectly pleasurable one.
I ordered the fettuccine Montrel and my friend had the shrimp Creole. The creole was spicy and well-​seasoned (not over-​salted). The fettuccine needed more of everything: cream sauce, shrimp, and spices.
If this restaurant can pull it together and create a consistency with food, service, a liquor license and the AC, then everyone’s experience would be a stellar one.