Monks on the Commons

We had one dinner and two breakfasts here during our two night stay at the adjacent Marriott. In my opinion the breakfast staff was superior to the one evening we had dinner there. But their main fault here is the food quality. It's like they're trying to get things wrong. To start with the "no Coke only Pepsico" products - you should have a case of Coca Cola cans stashed somewhere - there's no reason for it to be a fountain drink especially at the prices sold here. They also seem to be trying to save the planet one cardboard straw at a time (ergh...) In the end I wound up having iced tea and it was so watered down that I think the tea in it was homeopathic: A single drop of tea in a glass of ice water. Secondly I had their 18$ hamburger (under protest) and they managed to get that wrong by providing a small beef patty on a generic oiled bun, with generic mayonnaise in the bun and nothing else, basically no trimmings other than a slice of tomato, a single raw onion ring, and a leaf of iceberg lettuce. I can tolerate this low level of effort at a ball game or a Nascar race but this is a sit down restaurant at a Marriott hotel and the restaurant prices reflect this. The fries were very forgettable. Breakfasts were not as bad but still not great given the prices. At least the breakfast service was great compared to the evening dinner service. In the end I concluded that this place was more of a bar than a restaurant.

Beautiful set up, the waiter was very accommodating, and sweet. Food was excellent. The shrimp saganaki was incredible, definitely a must try. The dinner portion of gnocchi was semi small, but had excellent flavor. The cheesecake was very creamy, and delicious.

Drinks are good. Service was solid. Food is AWFUL for the price. $30 for Gnocci with Short Rib "Ragu" , which looks like Gnocci in a can of Campbells canned stew. $27 for shrimp and tortellini pesto, which they confirmed was from a jar/can after asking about nuts in the pesto. Fries were clearly frozen and soggy as well. A shame because the hotel it's attached to is very nice.

If you have not had the opportunity to stop into monks, you definitely should go and try the 18 karat drink that they carry. You will not be disappointed, by the drinks nor the amazing service they have to offer.

The restaurant is a nice hidden area in the Marriott hotel, the food was good and I especially recommend their ‘little bites’ menu which offers pulled pork blt sandwiches and grilled cheese with soup, it was a great intermittent meal whilst waiting out the rain. Their dessert selection was also great, I recommend the Creme brûlée.

Service was exceptional. Food was great and they have great selection of local beers. Try the Flower Power.

Still a little disorganized from just opening a couple weeks ago but food was great. Deviled eggs, veggie burger and veggie pot pie surpassed expectations. Layout is a little weird with no separation from the Hotel main lobby. This will become a popular spot in the summer when you can sit outside and they work out the kinks.

Such a great place to stop and get great food. Every one of my family’s dishes was amazing and well enjoyed. Service was phenomenal and the atmosphere was perfect. 10/10 would come again!

I never think to hang out at a hotel in Ithaca as a townie, but Monks has proven to be the exception. I always feel super welcome, and the folks who work there are very kind and deeply skilled at their jobs (whether it's crafting drinks or running tables). Their gin cocktails are excellent, as are their truffle fries and Caesar salad! Looking forward to live music coming back on the patio!

The menu available online was NOT the menu that they gave us. Our server said the online menu was super outdated but that menu is what we based our decision on to go to that restaurant. The burger was good, juicy & flavorful. The chicken tenders were good but basic they cover them in the sauce you choose instead of giving you it on the side. The friends are shoestring, not my favorite but crispy. It did take a while for our food to come. The waiter was great, super nice & very prompt. I can't say I'd recommend going here or go back.

Terrible experience! My girlfriend and I decided to order out for dinner. She really wanted chocolate cake, so we ordered dinner from Monks, and paid extra for expedited delivery. When the order came, they forgot the cake. I've worked many years in the service industry and know that mistakes are inevitable. What made the experience unforgiveable was that there is no means of redress whatsoever -- and that is by corporate design. Of the 5 items that we ordered, all 5 were messed up (including the forgotten cake). Wrong sauces. Wrong temperatures. Mislabeled to-go dishes. Aside from screwing up the orders, it appears that they also source their steaks from BF Goodrich. So, I called the number listed on Google to provide them the opportunity to fix the missed cake oversight. After 10 minutes of navigating an incomprehensible phone directory, you end up talking to an underpaid schlub in New Jersey (or wherever) at the corporate reservation desk who can't help you. After the third attempt at the corporate directory (10 minutes per attempt), the concierge/breathing body finally gave me the direct number to the restaurant (she had a really hard time identifying which US hotel I was referring to, and had obviously never heard of Ithaca, NY). It was the wrong number. By the fourth attempt, I left a very scathing message of choice words for the Director of Food and Beverage (even surprised myself, I was so irritated at this point), and, to no surprise, I have not been called back. If I could, I would rate this review by the number of dishes they got right (zero out of five). If you are looking to blow $100+ on a sub-par dinner ordered through an un-peopled corporate directory, I would recommend skipping Monk's and heading to your nearest airport kiosk instead.

We ordered takeout from here a few months ago and liked it a lot, so we decided to dine in person last night. It wasn't a great experience. The issue wasn't the service: Kira was awesome-- friendly, welcoming, and very helpful. The problem is that the food isn't nearly as good as it should be for the prices they're charging. We had: Poutine: It's hard to make a truly bad poutine. This one was perfectly fine. Italian flatbread: This tasted like something I could have bought frozen at Trader Joe's for less than half the price. Salmon: The portion is too small. It's supposed to be stuffed with crabmeat, but there's very, very little of it. It was too salty. Lamb chops: They came out overcooked and we had to send them back. The replacement was much better, but the cook was inconsistent. About half were a perfect medium rare. The other half were medium. We both had macaroni and cheese as a side and neither of us could eat it. It was so ridiculously salty that it was inedible. I was also kind of annoyed that a manager was breaking down tables as we finished our meal. If you're going to charge these prices, please act like you're a nice restaurant.

This was a fun restaurant on a busy corner in Ithaca. We had a window seat and it was nice to people watch. Our food was delicious. The pretzels were hot, soft and the cheese was to die for! My waiter recommended the salmon and it was cooked to perfection. We also got a side of Brussels sprouts that we loved. Waiter was friendly and helpful. We were too full to have deserts but they sounded great! We will go again

There is good and bad here. Ordered an Old Fashioned that was just decent. Side Caesar salad - very good with homemade excellent croutons. Unfortunately they brought my entree before I was even half way through my salad. By the time I got to my salmon it and all sides were cold. They did reheat for me but blackened salmon, while nicely cooked, was bland. Ate at the bar and bartender was far more interested in chatting and making lattes for his coworkers than serving bar patrons. The convenience of being in the hotel after a very long day might make me come back. Maybe.

I recently dined at Monk's Restaurant, located in a luxurious five-star hotel, with a group of friends. We expected a great dining experience, but unfortunately, it was far from what we anticipated. To start, I ordered the salmon dish, which turned out to be overcooked. I realized this after taking just one bite - it was extremely dry on the inside. I politely informed the server about the issue, hoping for a resolution. However, the server's attitude was rather unprofessional and negative when I asked if they could recook the salmon for me. What followed was a 30-minute wait for my second plate of salmon. During this time, I inquired about the dish three separate times. It was only after the third inquiry that I finally received my salmon - but to my surprise, it was a plain piece of salmon with no sides or garnish on the plate. They took away my entire plate, leaving me without food while my friends continued to enjoy their meals. I was utterly confused as to why they didn't just remake the salmon and put it back on my original plate, especially since I hadn't touched the garnish. This experience was not at all what I expected from a restaurant situated in a five-star hotel. The combination of the overcooked salmon, the server's poor attitude, the long wait, and the lack of compensation for the inconvenience has left me feeling very disappointed. I regret to say that I will not be returning to Monk's Restaurant in the future.

Came for dinner with family during a fundraiser for Habitat for Humanity. Kudos to Monks for supporting a great cause! Service was great as were the drinks and salads. Sadly, the margherita flatbread reminded me of the Chef Boyardee mixes we baked during my early teen sleepovers! It just seems that consistency would matter at these prices. I'm hoping that the kitchen pays attention to this feedback.

I had the avocado toast and my husband had the eggs Benedict and it was worth the wait. Both meals were delicious and Caitlyn was such a pleasant server. The music of the restaurant was also very relaxing....

Tanesha was amazing. So friendly and efficient. Love the laid back atmosphere over looking Ithaca commons. The food was delivered fresh and fast with a smile on Tanesha's face :) I walked around Ithaca Commons for about 20 minutes looking for a breakfast place open I couldn't find anything so I decided to eat at the hotel I was staying at and I'm very happy I did.

We spent 7 nights at the Ithaca Marriott on the Commons hotel. The breakfast service in the morning was hit or miss. Very slow to take orders and bring coffee. On two occasions the orders were wrong and had to be sent back. This restaurant was short handed and had a new cook, who wasn't quite sure what went into the omelet we ordered. Needless to say the last two mornings, we went to the College Town Bagel for breakfast and bypassed this restaurant and its lack of poor service.

I came here on a whim because my group wasn't sure where we would go out for dinner. Monks on the Common is so conveniently located and was walking distance from where I was staying. When I arrived I saw that they were having a trivia night which made me super jealous because I've always wanted to do a trivia night. The guy who was leading the trivia night was also a lot energy. Since we couldn't join last minute on the trivia we just ordered some food. We ordered their shrimp tacos, fried dumplings, salmon, lamb pops, and a burger. I liked the appetizers a lot. The shrimp tacos were definitely a hit. I ordered the lamp pops as my entree and it was a pretty big dish even though it was listed under appetizers. The sauce that it came with actually was better than the lamb. The food overall was ok. What I did like about Monks is that the service was great! The bartenders were so sweet and nice I would come back just for that.

We stayed at the hotel and were given discount coupons for breakfast at Monks On The Commons restaurant downstairs. The service was pretty okay (depending who your server is; first time it was less friendly lady, second time it was an amazing server). They had couple of options for breakfast and I ordered avocado toast with sunny side up eggs. The dish was presented really nice and tasted delicious. The bread was really crisp and delicious, just perfect (picture below). I also had soy cappuccino $7 that was decent but not the best. Their coffee tasted a bit sour and I wish they had unsweetened almond milk instead of sweetened soy. Second time we came here I ordered the same thing but this time my dish had salsa added on top of my toast and under avocado (apparently its in the menu but first time they must have forgotten to add salsa - good for me). It was not a good idea to smear salsa all over the toast because my toast was soaking wet, unappetizing and soggy. I usually prefer double toasted bread so you can imagine I couldn't even eat this toast. I left hungry. Hopefully they will change the recipe and add salsa on the side or maybe on top of avocado.. My husband had sweet potatoes and eggs, and his dish was amazing. I would absolutely come back again.

Lovely service. Mediocre drinks. Abysmal food. You are literally a stones throw away from a million places that sell tastier food. This was really, really bad. Don't waste your money.

I like Monks' concept (communal bites in an open area with bar seating, adjacent to the hotel lobby) but the food leaves a lot to be desired. Some of the items were college cafeteria level quality if not worse (e.g. poutine, grilled cheese, shrimp angel hair pasta) and nearly at NYC bistro prices. It was a little insulting actually. Also, the menu items at the restaurant were not exactly the same as the ones currently on their website. The drinks were fine. A lot of places in Ithaca are closed even on Tuesdays so we ended up here.

In search of a new cocktail place, we made our way to Monks. Situated off the Marriott lobby on the Commons, Monks has a hotel feel while still managing to create a warm ambience (for a hotel restaurant), which was assisted by a live jazz band playing on the night of our visit. Behind the bar, a handsome bearded and chatty bartender took us into his care. We got four cocktails that featured local ingredients. All were well-crafted, one included an herb clap, but our favorite by far was the Perpetual Help (an interesting interplay with shrub and mezcal). There is also a "secret" menu, not found online but behind the main cocktail menu page. In addition to excellent drinks, Monks also offers excellent food with many local farming partners (we recommend the brussel sprout appetizer). The daily happy hour (4PM-7PM) offers a chance to sample both food and drink at cheaper prices. We're not sure why this place has a three star rating. We'll definitely be back and look forward to sampling more of what they have to offer.

This place is decent among the hotel restaurants. The price point is about the same as the hotels in the similar class - meaning a bit over-priced for the food but that is what it is. You are paying for the convenience. The restaurant was at the side of the lobby but was not noisy. The service from every staff was exceptional. Everything was prompt and efficient and yet they paid attention to the details and anticipated my needs. Since they did not have a lounge, they gave me a discount for the breakfast as one of their top elite levels frequent stay program. The food was good but nicely presented. The atmosphere and the decors were enjoyable and liked it - especially the the view of the top-to-bottom windows. Finally, I have to give a shout out to the manager of this eatery She really got involved with the operations and she continued to make sure all details were perfected. She came over and had a friendly chat and we appreciated the attention. She and her staff differentiated this hotel from the others. Thank you for the friendly attention. I highly recommend this hotel is you are in Ithaca.

Staff was super friendly. Menu was the best in the area and one of the few places open in morning in commons are. I had the avocado toast...good...nothing super amazing. Like someone else I requested salsa and sour cream on side and was glad.

Went here for brunch on a Sunday morning. The food was pretty good but the service was incredibly slow. We sat waiting for drink refills multiple times. Once we got our food, we didn't see our server for about 20 minutes and eventually had to get up and go to the bar to refill our coffee. We were told she went on her lunch break. Fair enough but then is no one covering the tables? We had various brunch items - french toast, bacon, scrambled eggs, avocado, home fries. Everything was good and the presentation was lovely. Nothing against the staff - who were all very nice - but I'm not a fan of any place where you are sitting, looking around for service until you have to get up or flag someone down. Happy I tried someplace new but don't think I'll be back.

I made a reservation here for my husband's birthday, which I mentioned when placing the reservation (after their online system simply failed to work). Upon arrival I discovered that the online menu was entirely inaccurate, and that half the dishes simply did not exist. I attempted to order a salad with steak, but was told that they could not expand their side salad to an entree portion--easily the strangest refusal to make a substitution I've ever heard. Getting water for the table was also a strangely complicated endeavor that eventually required getting up to bug the host stand. When the food arrived, I ended up with a dry and overcooked burger and a pile of what can only be described as French fry stubs. Bewilderingly, this cost $17. (Their "build your own burger" option in which the only customization is a beef, veggie, or chicken patty) My husband's lamb was better, although the side of asparagus was a desultory pile of stems with no flowers. At no point was the birthday mentioned. Which, look, these things happen, but with everything else being so lackluster the strong impression is of a restaurant with no real investment in making people's night special. Which would be fine if they were an affordable gastropub. But this is a $20-30 an entree supposedly high end restaurant serving food that struggles to equal any of the more casual (and affordable) places that surround it. The overall impression is an international hotel corporation doing some cynical market research into what Ithaca is like and producing a sort of extruded farm to table product. And then overpricing it dramatically. I cannot imagine a reason why I would go again.

Shit service, food took two hours, asked for a ribeye cooked at medium temperature and it turned out raw. Also, the $38 ribeye was a thin piece of meat. Not worth it. Money better spent in a bonfire.

The avocado toast was phenomenal. Definitely a must visit if you're in the area. I will return!

We had a delicious breakfast here. Thank you to Andrew our wonderful waiter for keeping the coffee flowing. We both had the Classic omelette with aged cheddar and ham, hash browns, and rye toast. The aged cheddar was soooooooo good. We stayed in the Mariott..which was pristine.

Ordered lamb chop for $28..... received 2 tiny thing (smaller than 2 chicken wings). Tasted awful. Don't order their collard green side. Waited for almost 1.5 hrs‍ please eat somewhere else if you have the option

Very conveniently located in the Downtown Marriott. Food was good and the staff were great in their Covid safety implementation. It felt like life was normal again!! Food was tasty too :)

Monks On The Commons is a bar/restaurant in the new Marriott Hotel Therefore, I would like to reference the Marriott Business Conduct : Continue the Marriott Tradition of Integrity. Be Accurate, Honest, and Fair. Avoid Even the Appearance of Wrongdoing. Obey the Law. Understand the Implications of Your Actions. Be Trustworthy. Treat Others with Dignity and Respect. Work for the Good of the Community. This experience however was not in the least bit. To preface, I recently moved to Ithaca one week ago. I was celebrating my birthday and I was experiencing my first Commons festival (The Chili Cookoff Festival). My friends and I had stopped by the Monk's booth to try their chili and they were giving away $15 certificates on their booth table to encourage chili participants to venture to their restaurant location afterwards. After indulging in all of the chili we wanted/needed, my friends and I headed to Monk's restaurant. We walked right in with no issues. We reviewed the certificate provided "$15 towards featured Rioja Wine" on the drink menu there were 3 options for Rioja wine - 2 blushes and 1 red. We laid out our certificates and asked the bartender, if she would please describe the different types of Rioja wines to us. My friend and I had the blush wine for a 9oz carafe for $11, her boyfriend had nothing. We drank our wine and when the bill came, we laid our certificates into the check presenter. The manager said, "Oh, those are only for the red Rioja wines." My friends were disappointed and with an unexpected, "oh...." laid their cards into the bill presenter - to pay for my birthday beverage. I had asked if I could speak with the manager. I specifically asked him before he would run the cards if we could discuss the certificate situation. Without a blink of an eye, he ran the cards and said, "Well, you should have asked your server which specific Rioja wine the certificate covered." I said, "I'm sorry, but we had our certificates out and we were asking only about the Rioja wines, the certificate doesn't say specifically the red." His response, "I wouldn't have bothered to tell you either, if you didn't criticize her wine descriptions." She was standing next to him at that moment. I apologized, "I'm sorry that we criticized your wine descriptions." Her response was, "You didn't. I don't know why he said that," and walked away. He laid the paid bill down and walked away. For a mission statement to state: Tradition of Integrity. Be Accurate, Honest, and Fair. Avoid Even the Appearance of Wrongdoing. Obey the Law. Understand the Implications of Your Actions. Be Trustworthy. Treat Others with Dignity and Respect. Work for the Good of the Community. None of these were portrayed and in fact left me and my friends insulted and disgusted. We will never visit or recommend this place again. If you received the same $15 certificate, please be aware that only the red Rioja wine is included.

We went here for Saturday brunch. It's very cute inside with not many tables and we were seated immediately. However, there was only one waitress for all of the tables. It took a very long time for her to even get our drink orders. The food didn't take too long to come out but the waitress didn't have time to check on us. She ended up forgetting my drink order but I had to flag her down after we were served breakfast. The food was exceptionally bland. We ordered the chicken and waffles and the huevos rancheros. I ended up needing hot sauce just to make the huevos rancheros taste like anything and the chicken and waffles had very small portion sizes. Overall, the food was over priced and the staff and atmosphere were not enough to make the experience worth it.

Overpriced and underwhelming. The space is quite nice, bright and open, and reminded us of a brunch spot we went to in Philly recently. We ordered the Build Your Own Bloody Mary, a cup of coffee, sweet potato kale hash and crab Louie salad. The coffee beans were roasted too long, and the coffee itself was incredibly weak. Bloody Mary was pretty good, and came with a nice selection of things to choose from. The sweet potato hash was decent, but it was basically just that: roasted sweet potato with an egg on top and barely any kale. I believe they just crumbled a few kale chips and added that in. Also, I think the menu said "eggs" (plural) but there was only one. The salad was tasty and the dressing was flavorful, but there was way too much of it. I tend to like a lot of dressing/sauce on my salads/sandwiches/food in general but this was excessive. Overall, the food wasn't bad, but it just didn't live up to my expectation - especially for the price. There's a lot of room for improvement though, so I hope they continue to do that!

Monks On The Commons is found on the bottom floor of Ithaca's Marriot hotel. It's quite different from anything else Ithaca has to offer, at least in the commons area, as it's an exceptionally clean, quiet and classy cocktail bar that also has a variety of beer and wine options. There's a very neat ambience here; Monks is well-lighted, tidy and somewhat elegant. Prices here are fairly standard. They have a bar, plenty of tables and booths, and They fill up at night, so you may have a small bit of trouble getting a table for a group if it's after 8:00 or 9:00.

Hannah was great. Food was very good, even for the vegetarian in our party. Drinks were good as well. Nice spot to try.

Preface: I completely understand the strain restaurants are experiencing with COVID and I give them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to timelines. Called this restaurant ahead of time to hold a table, arrived and was seated right away, then notified there was only one waiter on staff- Max. Max did an awesome job juggling tables on the patio and presumably inside too. Everything was going smoothly until we ordered and the item we each planned on getting was not available. So we ordered the strip steak and the lamb chops- big mistake. Steak was an awful color that looked barely suitable for my dogs. The lamb chop appeared to be cooked three times over. The best part of the meal was the beer and the side of Mac & Cheese. We felt bad for Max having to tell customers dishes were unavailable and then serve terribly mediocre food. We stayed and finished our drinks and moved the food around on our plates until we could pay the bill and give Max an appropriate tip. PLEASE DO NOT TAKE OUT A POOR DINING EXPERIENCE ON WAIT STAFF. Tip them as you would if you enjoyed your experience- they are trying their best under the circumstances. That being said, I would not recommend this place to anyone. Best of luck to Max and other wait staff in the future.

This bar is a nice addition to downtown Ithaca. It is in the ground floor of the new Marriott Hotel, which is kind of fun. It isn't my favorite spot in town but I would definitely go again. Pros: - another spot in town to get a nice cocktail! - nice service (waiters and bartender were friendly) - great decor (it's new and a little nicer than most spots here... but not so fancy that you feel out of place) - a good selection of mixed drinks and wines (a few hot drinks too!) - decent view (windows along the wall let you look out on the commons) Cons: - drinks are decent but I haven't had a showstopper yet (still prefer Argos) - small plates for food are just okay (and at the price, I haven't gotten main plates)

I'm staying at the Marriott hotel (which is great btw). Have eaten at the restaurant twice and have been very happy. Menu is inventive, food good and service excellent. Casual and lively bar. I know, it's a hotel restaurant, but it's good and worth a try.

On a rainy, chilly day in the Commons, this restaurant allowed us to sit outside covered by a tent so that my we had something to do! We had our dog with us to keep him from getting bored while on vacation. It meant a lot to us that Andrew was so kind to serve us outside! We also loved the Benedict . Thank you guys!

The food is overpriced for the quality. It was mildly confusing about where to go to find the hostess. None of the dishes we ordered were terrible, but for the price I would expect them to at least be good. The service was baseline.

I had one of the best meals at this restaurant. The pork chop was AMAZING, it was cooked to perfection. It also came with the most delicious sides. Dessert was also great, and the bartender made truly awesome drinks. The atmosphere was nice and the service was also great. I highly recommend dinner here.

The service was good, excellent in fact. We came for breakfast and had a very good meal. I had the eggs and salmon with avocado. It was delicious and the eggs were perfectly cooked. My girlfriend had the eggs Benedict and she is very particular about sauces, but found it excellent. The sweet potato hash and kale was only okay, or I'd give five stars.

We had a New Year's Eve dinner here and a New Year's Day breakfast. The staff here was very pleasant and service was wonderful on both days. Dinner: Portions are large so definitely skip the appetizers. The pesto spice fries were really good and has a nice small kick to it. We had two entree specials - a prime rib; a lobster and crab - both very fantastic! We also had the wagyu sirloin which was also very good. The bruleed marshmallows and brûlée cheesecake ended the year perfectly! Breakfast: We had the benedict; smoked salmon avocado toast and the french toast, bacon and eggs - all really good.

Had a great date night here last night. Honestly, the food is a 3, but service brought up this rating. First impressions matter! Caprice, who greeted us warmly, introduced us to the restaurant, and brought us to our table was wonderful. I instantly felt transported out of the Ithaca restaurant scene and truly felt like I was in a nice, upscale restaurant in a big city. Thank you Caprice! So, I need to say this next - the prices are a tad outrageous for Ithaca. 4 drinks, a $5 appetizer special, biscuits, 2 entrees, and 2 desserts came out to $140 before tip. Hmmmm. Don't get me wrong - that's a lot of a food, and we both had leftovers, but this seemed steep. That's even more expensive than Mercato, which I think is the priciest and best restaurant on the Commons. Okay, so before I dig in here, bear in mind that they have not been open long, and I am sure are still working out the kinks. Food Problems: I was so excited for a nice southern biscuit that I bit the bullet and bought the $7 sweet potato biscuits. They were extremely dense, dry, and flavorless unless you had a ton of the honey butter on them. Some pieces of the short ribs were dried out, but some pieces were fine. The sauce on the parppardelle was weirdly sweet. Lastly, and Big Problem here, the desserts were honestly just awful. "Creme brulee" was not even close to creme brulee. Sure, there was a custard (the "creme"), but no brulee. Just fruit on top of a small amount of custard for $9. I guess I'd call this a parfait or something? Name failure aside, it was still just okay. Our other dessert, Milk & Cookies, was aptly named, but just plain not good (basically a large, hard loaded cookie with a side of cream). Otherwise, food was good. We liked our shisito pepper appetizer, we liked the bread service with the F. Oliver's oil & spice mix (nice touch), I liked my Soul Plate which was the certainly the best value of the night - $24 for mac & cheese, fried chicken (great), fried trout, cornbread (meh), and collard greens (really good, even though I don't usually care for them). Note: 2 people could easily share the Soul Plate, or a group could probably share this as a smorgasbord app. And we liked our drinks, which were quite tasty (though not strong). Overall, great service by the host and by our server Gina, nice decor/atmosphere, a fun date night for sure - but I'm not going all-out here again until the food is more consistently good (and I'll probably never get dessert here again - what's the point when Madelines is right next door).

This place is a wonderful spot for cocktails and a quick bite. The staff is very friendly and knowledgeable. Don't be fooled by any of the bad reviews this place is a gem. Highly recommend!

I'm not sure what is going to happen with this place. Its fare is too expensive and not special to justify regular community attendance. An $18 burger that pales even to Ale house? Come on. Even the bread they give you feels like it was bought from a grocery store a few days ago. Didn't try the drinks, but someone else in my party liked them.

We were sorely disappointed today at brunch at Monks. There were at most 3 tables when we were eating. There were 5 of us. Our food was cool to lukewarm, not all brought at the same time. Some of the menu items did not show up as stated - no avocado, minimal goat cheese could not find it in the omelet (!). No butter or jam with dry toast for all. Had to ask for syrup for Waffle. The omelet special was very heavy and definitely not appetizing! As stated in other reviews food somewhat bland - more so it seems the cook is not on top of what they are doing and coordinating their orders. We had been so excited to try it. Very overpriced for the food we received. $93.00 for 5 people with no alcohol and no one was happy with their meal and we are all pretty flexible. Nicely set up - I hear the drinks are wonderful. Have to up their food game QUITE A BIT to be competitive in downtown's market. What a shame

We ordered breakfast with the family after staying at the hotel, we were seated at two different tables and arrived at the same time. Our food came out 30 minutes before the other table and we were done eating before they got their food. As for the food I got two eggs over easy and they came out over hard. In addition the usual two eggs over easy with home fries and bacon costs $14 for breakfast. In total our table of three people for breakfast cost over $50 and we had water to drink. Service was slow but polite We will not be eating breakfast at the hotel again for the duration of our stay.

Like someone else said- overpriced and underwhelming. I've lived in a number of larger and small cities, and Ithaca needs to realize it's not that special, it doesn't know what it's doing, and charging these prices does not make it "on trend." Their wine menu is under par, their menu is blah (the "pretzels" were bland pieces of overcooked dough) and for the prices, I could buy the same crappy bottle of wine at the grocer. they also have the stingiest pours! 6oz? for $12? JEEZ?! The only thing they have going for them is outside seating - but being right on State St, it's loud and congested, not exactly a relaxing atmosphere. get a grip Monks- you're not that cool.

I hate leaving such a negative review as the first comment, but it can't be helped. My husband and I wanted some place nice for our anniversary, and we liked the menu options of Monks so we decided to give it a try. Our first sign that something wasn't quite right came in the form of our waitress who obviously didn't know what was going on. She didn't know what items were included with one of the options on the menu and only remembered to tell us what items were sold out when we went to order one of them. It happens, we're all new at one time or another, so we laughed it off and enjoyed our small serving of bread. We'd ordered apps and entrees, and our second sign that something might be wrong was when two tables that were seated after us got their apps before us. About a half hour went by when we were approached by a second waiter who said he would be taking over our table. That's when I saw our original waitress leaving. Before we have a chance to speculate what was going on, our appetizers were finally brought out. Yay! Except that less than 5 minutes later, before we'd even finished, our entrees were brought out too. I had the fish, which wasn't bad, but it was smothered in sauce when I'd asked them to go light on it. To add insult to injury the sauce was a tad oily and really brought down what was otherwise an okay meal. We also got the scallops, which were another story. They were over cooked, gritty, and had the feet still left on them. Also, we got the blue crab deviled eggs and there wasn't any crab to be seen. Since it was our anniversary, I figured that we might as well get dessert, since that's the hardest course to screw up. We decided to split the berry creme brulee. On the very first bite, one thing was obvious...it wasn't even a creme brulee! They'd made a panna cotta and called it creme brulee. THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT DESSERT THEY'RE SERVING. I mean...come on. It wasn't bad once we stopped wondering why the creme brulee was so gritty, but it also wasn't what we wanted. We finally got the bill for the sub par meal, and the total came to over $70--and we didn't even order alcohol! Outrageous price for a sub-par meal.

Very good food and great for a date night. Drink selection is great. Nice out door seating, although there were "lawn games" and kids walking by stopped and played and made the dinner not as relaxing as I hoped.

Absolutely the best customer service here. Everyone is absolutely amazing and cares about your experience and makes it the best possible. Laura one of the servers is absolutely genuine and amazing never had such a great customer experience. Fun games everywhere for everyone in the family. It has the best food available for any types of cravings. And a good variety. Everything was fresh and with good timing. If I were to ever come back to Ithaca again this would be the best place to come back to.

Had breakfast there and needed a gluten free option. Andy our waiter suggested the avocado toast with gluten free bread. It not only looked delicious it was. Beatific presentation. Had to come back today. Andy was a great waiter.

Two great morning breakfasts and excellent customer service enhanced our stay. The gluten free adjustments to the entrees recommended by our waiter were spot on. Looking forward to returning.

We visited Monks on Mardi Gras and had a fun, low key time. The service is just awesome-wish I remembered the names of the hostess and server, but you know who you are! We didn't eat dinner, but had the special New Orleans style appetizers-gumbo and crawfish sliders, both tasty and plenty of food. For cocktails we had the classic sazerac, and while a bit sweet compared to NOLA, it was tasty and did the job! I see others here have complained about the price-maybe it was happy hour? Or a special night? Whatever, it was much less than we expected. We're going to keep checking it out.