Montana's Cookhouse

The area surrounding my office has a lot of restaurants to choose from when you’re looking for lunch or somewhere to eat while you wait for traffic to die down at the end of the day. There are a lot of restaurants that serve the same kind of food, which is probably why I tend to forget that Montana’s is literally up the street, even though I drive by it every single day I go into the office. I just never think of it because there are so many options that we tend to go to that have pretty much the same thing. This one evening though, someone mentioned that Montana’s had donuts that were exactly like Tiny Tim’s (oh, summers at the CNE, how I have fond memories of you!) and I needed to try them to reminisce about summer during this frigid winter.

A group of us went for dinner one night after work and although it was prime dinner time, the dining room didn’t seem very full. The decor is a mixture between wood cabin and Texas cottage – complete with moose head on the wall. We were seated at a booth with a long, wide table and ordered our drinks. Speaking of tables, I hate narrow tables in a restaurant. I don’t know why restaurants insist on having narrow tables and really large serving plates. It’s cramped and I have to play Tetris with plates and cups and whatever else is on the table, just so I can eat. It annoys me to no end. There. I said it. It’s tough love, I know, but someone had to say something!  Thankfully, Montana’s didn’t have this problem and the four of us sat comfortably with our dishes.

Feeling nibbly rather than hungry for an actual meal, I split an order of 16 medium wings ($17.99) with one of my companions, with a side of French Fries ($4.99) and Cornbread ($0.79). The wings were tossed in a light breading and deep fried, then tossed in a generous amount of sauce. The meat was tender and moist and very hot in temperature, so they tasted fresh from the fryer. The sauce reminded me of bottled barbeque sauce with a bit of ground black pepper. It wasn’t unpleasant, but it was very mild and a little sweet for my taste. The French fries were crispy and salty, but overpriced for the portion size. Lastly, the cornbread was a mini loaf that was unfortunately stale and cold, so it came to the table dry and hard. This made me so very sad because I love cornbread. :(

The Caesar Salad ($7.99) was a large portion that had shaved cheese, fresh bacon crumbles and crispy garlic croutons. Though generous in size, they kitchen was overzealous with the dressing and it was an extremely soggy salad. Not to generalize, but I find that salads in most restaurants are overdressed for my taste, so I always ask for the salad to be lightly dressed or have the dressing on the side. Lightly dressed usually comes out how I would normally dress a salad anyway, so it doesn’t feel like I’m missing anything (and think of the calories that are being saved)!

Sweet potato fries ($5.99) came out in a measuring cup lined with paper with a garlic aioli dipping sauce. Though the presentation was creative and seemed like a decent sized order, upon further inspection we noticed that the fries sat high up in the cup and there weren’t really that many. They were hot and crispy, but were no different than buying a bag of frozen ones from the grocery store. The dipping sauce was creamy and full of garlic, which went well with the sweetness of the fries.

Lastly, the Cheeseburger & sweet potato fries ($11.99) rounded out everyone’s meals. The fries again, were crispy and hot, but no different than the frozen ones you can get at the grocery store. The burger was fully dressed on a poppy-seed bun that was not toasted and a little dry. The patty itself was overcooked, so it too was dry with a slight burnt taste to the edges. The cheese was nicely melted, and helped to mask the burnt taste a bit. Overall, it was a very disappointing dish.

Finally, the Shake ‘N Share Mini Donuts ($4.99) were brought to the table in a sort of mini-production. The server set the plate on the table and held a paper bag with the donuts in them, then put the sugar into the bag and gave it a shake before dumping the donuts onto the plate. There were eight donuts in the order, each piping hot and coated in icing sugar. The dough was light and airy, and the sweetness of the sugar complemented the dough nicely. It was served with chocolate and caramel dipping sauces, but we all found that they tasted best without the sauces. It was too thick and cold, which made the dipping difficult without getting icing sugar everywhere. The donuts were absolutely the highlight of the meal, and I would recommend them if you are stopping by.

Overall, there are a lot of restaurants that offer the same kind of food as Montana’s in the area that I like a lot better. Aside from the donuts, I’m not sure there is anything that we tried in this outing that really made it stand apart from the crowd of competitors. I would probably go back if a group of people wanted to go and it was their choice, but I don’t think I’d be back on my own accord.

Edit:
So...we went for lunch. It was close to the office, we were driving around, and they have a "15 Minutes or it's Free" policy if you order off the lunch menu. The choices were fairly standard with mostly sandwiches and wraps with a side dish and pickle spear.

The Chipotle Chicken Sandwich ($10.99) was a breaded chicken breast tossed in their wing sauce and placed on a toasted kaiser with lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise. The chicken was tender with a crispy coating, and the sauce as mentioned above, was pretty standard. The bun was fresh and the toasting added a nice crisp. The fries were cold and needed salt.

The BBQ Peameal Bacon Sandwich ($8.99) was grilled pemeal coated in bbq sauce and topped with melted Colby cheese (is it just me or does that look like cheddar?). The kaiser was not toasted but had thick cut tomato slices and a leaf of lettuce. The peameal was dry but the bbq sauce helped moisten the sandwich. The cheese flavour was lost in the overwhelming bbq sauce, which is a shame because I really like Colby cheese...or maybe it was to mask the fact that it was cheddar. I'm still not convinced it's Colby. The sweet potato fries were the same as the review above.

The service was quick and friendly and our food came out in short order. If you're looking for a quick lunch that isn't anything fancy or exotic, this is probably one of the quickest sit-down restaurants in the area you can go to - we were in and out in about half an hour.

Montana’s Cookhouse
2530 Hyde Park Gate, Oakville
www.montanas.ca