Monument Cafe

Reviews 4

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Ryan Hammond

Monument Cafe in Georgetown, Texas is another local treasure that boasts as "on of the best small town cafes in America". I always tell my wife that, "if the place is packed, they must be doing something right." Sure enough, this saying held true again on our first visit to this unique restaurant. When you first arrive, Monument Cafe appears to be just another restaurant, but theres something original about the place. Maybe its the retro decor combined with new-age styling. Or perhaps, its the servers scurrying about in their chef smocks, while diners lean up on the 1950s bar stools. Whatever it is, the normality of this cafe stops at the appearance. Theres nothing I love more than a business owner who isnt afraid to do things differently. These guys created a new mold of how to run a successful restaurant. First off, everything that is served is fresh and I mean farm fresh. The freezer is smaller than what you will find in many larger homes. They dont believe in prepackaged foods. When you see the biscuits on the table, they were made from a bag of flour and locally collected eggs that morning. The dinner salad youre about to eat, the lettuce, tomatoes, and other produce was brought in by local farmers that morning. Need some coffee to wake you up? The coffee is roasted by the business down the street. Even your drinking water is purified by a three-stage reverse osmosis system you can see in the back. From the gravy to the cobbler, nothing in this amazing restaurant is made out of a bag mix. Try finding that in todays food world. On top of it all, this place is reasonably priced. I had the seafood special on our first visit. It was a huge portion of fresh salmon over creole rice, fried butterflied shrimp, hush puppies, and vegetables. It was one of the most expensive things on the menu and was just $15. The salmon was amazing. Fresh and flaky with a light seasoning on top. It paired perfectly with the creole rice. The only thing I could even think was bad about the experience was the hush-puppies, which were dry and hard. Perhaps they were in the fryer too long. One final thing Id like to mention, our son has an unusual number of food intolerance and has a very strict diet. He is Gluten-Free along with a number of other items. The server and staff were extremely accommodating to his needs and would get down to his eye-level to talk with him. They called him by name and included him in all conversations we had. While Texans are known for their friendliness, these folks took it a step higher. I really want to applaud Dawn and the rest of the crew for making this a moment to remember. You guys are great.

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Martha Stark

My family of five arrived at the café at 6 pm. It was crowded so we had to wait for 45 minutes for a table. We had driven up from Luling because The Monument Café was my choice for our Mothers Day meal. While we were waiting, we saw the hostess erase some of the specials choices. To our surprise, all the choices we wanted to order were still listed. When we were seated, our waitress, Libby, took our drink orders and returned to take our food order shortly thereafter. It was at this time that she informed us that our choices were actually not available. I was disappointed, but instead of apologizing or making other suggestions, she immediately left our table and returned with another young woman who Im guessing was a manager. The woman asked us if there was a problem. I felt like we had been reported for bad behavior. We should have gotten up and left, but were too hungry to start from scratch trying to find another eatery. I explained to the woman our disappointment that there were still several hours left before they closed, and all the specials were depleted. She told us that they had been very busy. Well, duh...it is Mothers Day. You would expect to be busy on such a day, and order plenty of food accordingly. That is, if you were a respectable establishment under appropriate management. Not once did she apologize for the inconvenience, but continued to make excuses for her poor management. I felt patronized and humiliated. All of us except my youngest placed our orders; he was too discouraged to eat some random choice he had to make since his first choice was no longer available. My daughter was not informed that the sausage she had ordered with her breakfast was no longer available until her food arrived without it. Her eggs were runny, and her ham, which she chose for her meat, was nasty. My fish tasted disgusting. My oldests burger was undercooked. And, who serves unsweetened tea, but doesnt have a tea spoon to offer? The Monument, thats who. All in all, our experience was horrible. I can assure you, we will never give The Monument Café another chance at our business. Thanks for ruining my Mothers Day dinner experience.

MA

Mark Oxner

My wife and I had the opportunity to eat at Georgetowns Monument Cafe while on a road trip. We got there at 3 PM on Sunday. We were seated immediately. We started with iced tea. The tea was good. After reading about the sources of their ingredients on the insert that came with the menu, I opted to try out their Cheeseburger. The restaurant uses organic, hormone free (etc) local beef, fruits, and vegetables, and many sauces and breads and things are made there in the restaurant. Ive considered this for over 24 hours and I do NOT say this lightly: That was the best cheeseburger I have ever had. There was no bacon or secret sauce. It consisted of: beef, cheese, mustard, mayo, lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion, whole-wheat bun. It was perfect. Its my new standard by which to judge cheeseburgers. The Cafe makes their own frozen custard. I was hoping for a berry flavor, but all they had at 3:30 PM was chocolate and vanilla. So I opted for a root beer float. Please note that they get their root beer from Maine Root Beer in nearby Austin. You know what Im going to say. It was the best root beer float Ive ever had. (I admit Ive not had nearly as many floats as Ive had cheeseburgers.) Our server, Brittany, added a second scoop into the float, and also sent over a mug (frozen mugs!) of root beer, in case there wasnt enough actual root beer. Maine Root Beer is very good. Before we left we stepped over to the Monument Market and picked up a few things. They have their own coffee blend roasted by a roaster right there in Georgetown. The Market and the Restaurant have an herb garden out front and a small vegetable garden out back. The restaurant and the market looked bright and clean. The Art Deco Cafe decor was really neat to see. The restrooms in the restaurant are four separate unisex restrooms with individual locks and indicators similar to airplane restroom indicators. Of course the restrooms themselves were much larger than an airplanes. HIGHLY recommended. If youre within 45 minutes of Georgetown, you should go there and check it out.

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Alfred Hajka

I am a Georgetown resident and I am embarrassed that a business like this exists in our town. If there were negative ratings this would get the lowest rating of any where I have been. Just had the worst dining experience of my life at the famed Monument Cafe in Georgetown, Texas. My daughter wanted to have a birthday breakfast here this morning and since I had never been we went to start her day. Unfortunately for us, the day started with biscuits that were dry and hard as hockey pucks. Then our orders, came to the table, the 9 dollar two egg plate looked more like 1 egg, then my plate arrived two eggs over medium, the eggs were very small, and scorched, on top of that no one received their sides of toast or other sides. When they asked if we had everything, I stated everyone still needed their toasts and other sides. You cant eat over medium eggs without toast. Finally I received my sausage but still no toast for anyone. When they came up and asked again, I requested they take my breakfast off the bill, and remove it because it was cold, and I did not want another order. Still no toast for anyone. The manager then said she would take care of the bill. The server however kept pushing food and trying to cover their ass. To all my Facebook friends, NEVER eat at the Monument Cafe in Georgetown. Service stinks, orders are not complete, and most of all the Price of their food and the portion size is ridiculous, the choice of menu items for breakfast is lacking severely. It was my first and last time to ever visit the Monument Cafe. ..and yes I will post an online review. My youngest daughter is a head banquet server and manager at Berry Creek Country club, she was disgusted as well. I should have let her handle it because it may have been less painful for the establishment, but I have no patience for poor service, incomplete orders, smallish food portions at a high price, especially breakfast, and cold food.