We went to the Monroe Diner on Friday night. What a disappointment. Looks nice inside. But service was mediocre ( poorly trained service although they were very nice).
Food: what food? I ordered the pastrami sandwich...out of pastrami. Ordered the corned beef..out of it. Ordered the Salmon burger....no salmon. Ordered a burger...no buns they stuck it on bread! There is a Wegman's down the road, send someone to buy some buns for goodness sake ( and salmon while you are at it!).
The fries were very oil soaked. The physical burger was good but the experience and not getting anything I really wanted was a turn off.
Our ketchup bottle was empty and the waiter took it but instead of grabbing a bottle from another table next to us, he takes it and leaves and does not come back for about 7 minutes. In the meantime I took one off the empty table next to us.
This is not good. Also, the kitchen and the staff need to communicate better. When you are out of something notify the wait staff so they can be informed. Not 10 minutes after the order was placed. This kept delaying our final orders and waiting too long. (it was 8pm when we first came in and it was not busy at that point).
Not sure I want to give this place another try after this ridiculous outing.

It will be interesting to see how long this place lasts... in five years, this is the THIRD incarnation of a restaurant at this location...

This is not a good sign. Is it something about the location? I guess the restaurant business it just hard all the way around. I'll try it anyway. Always like to try a new place.

A group of four of us went on the first Friday they were open, which also happened to be the Friday all of Rochester area schools had a snow day. Needless to say, knowing they had only been open for 4 days, plus the weather can change schedules of food deliveries, I was not surprised the waitress immediately informed us that they were out of Pastrami, Corned Beef, and wheat bread. Three of us ordered club sandwiches; the fourth ordered the turkey burger. Our ketchup bottle was empty so we took the liberty of grabbing one off the neighboring table without even having to bother the wait staff. All of our plates were clean at the end of the meal, and we ventured even further and ordered a slice of cherry pie and coffee. Prices were reasonable and for a lazy Friday afternoon on a snowy day we were all very content with our experience. Yes the wait staff seemed a little uncomfortable still, which is typical, but I would give them another chance.

So bad. If you are interested go now cause I don't see how a place with such bad service and mediocre food will last long.

A+++The monroe Diner is a must see in my eyes. The buildings renovations are incredible. I was in there the first Friday they were open, during the snow day. Yes they were out of a lot of stuff, but they were slammed. I give the restuarant staff a lot of credit, they did the best they could for being that busy and only being open 4 days. The wait for my dinner on friday was well worth it. I went back today, and most of the kinks were worked out, the food was on time, and the staff was on their game. The Captin Crunch French Toast is A deff. A++

Tried out the new Monroe Diner Tuesday night. The place was slammed, but servers were curteous and food was awesome! Four of us enjoyed a veggie burger, grilled cheese, and two omlets. Fries were tasty, homefries even better. The food took a few mintues longer than I would have expected but still within a reasonable time for a diner. The manager visited the table, was visible throughout our stay and everyone was pleasant and friendly. Given they've only been open for a short time, this was impressive. Definitely returning and telling my friends!

First, the restaurant is still owned by the family that owned Pare. The manager from Pare apparently moved on to a new project, hence the revamp.

Second, its not really fair to judge a restaurant that has been open for less than a week because they ran out of food. A new place can't necessarily gauge the crowd and not much of the Pare staff is left. (Not to mention that the concept is quite different.) Likewise, it takes a bit for most new places to get their staffing grove down.

That said, I tried Monroe Diner last weekend and was pretty struck by how rude a lot of the customers were. They were clearly short staffed with only 3 servers on the floor, and ours warned us that there would be a bit of a wait due to being a bit short staffed. She was very gracious and the food was excellent. But the people around us? Were just plain mean. As someone who has a lot of experience working in restaurants: you do yourself no favors loudly badmouthing servers to their face.

I'll check back in a couple of weeks - it seemed like a management issue. If they get that straightened out, things will be perfect.

We went to the Monroe Diner on March 4th, based on the review by Susie Hume. We arrived just about 6:10 pm and were greatly warmly and seated promptly. It took a few minutes before a server came by who apologized for the delay in getting to us as he indicated they were very busy; he took our order (chicken creaser wrap and classic Ruben) and a few minutes later, came by with the drinks...Sprite & water...which would have been fine, but we ordered Sprite and a ice tea...no matter, it was correctly promptly. Which was the last prompt action for the evening, then the wait began. Our server would come by about every 15 minutes or so and apology once again for the delay, explaining that the "the kitchen staff is new" and " we want to make sure we get the orders correct rather then get them our fast" and "I apologize its taking so long", I just spoke to the kitchen staff, your order will be out shortly"...and so on. Looking around it was obvious we were not the only ones who were waiting. We overheard a couple across the aisle from us tell their waiter that they have been waiting over an hour for pancakes and a sandwich, the group in the booth behind us were finally served after an hour and a half. When they asked for the bread that was supposed to have been delivered with the meal, the sever told them "it will take a few minutes to warm up". That's when we got up and left.. There was no manager on the floor, just three or four servers who were doing nothing more than apologizing for the slow service...all around us customer were getting up and leaving. We order nothing more than a chicken creaser wrap and classic Ruben, and we had been waiting an hour and 20 minutes...and all we heard were excuses. To be fair to our server, he did offer to "comp" the desert for us, but by then we had enough... Typically when we go to a new restaurant, if the food or service is not what we expect, would return on the chance that it was an "off night", but in this case, we will not be back...

John

I'm very curious about this interesting sounding wrap that John had. I cannot wait to visit the Monroe Diner and order this "chicken creaser" wrap. Do they crease the wrap of something like that?

To "The Stickler” Sorry...my bad! Spelling error, I had really meant to say “Caesar", I guess I should have checked my spelling before posting. I will need to keep a sharp eye on my spelling in the future!

The monroe diner needs help! The food was bad and service was real bad! A girl (i think) with a mo-halk came to my table and said sorry were new .......

Disappointing... Went to Monroe Diner last night and have found all the above comments match the experience we had: Service slow and inattentive, order mix-ups, our server said they were slammed but they were JUST reasonably busy, food prep was slow & the food was room temp.when it finally arrived. And who serves a fish fry w/out tartar sauce or a lemon? Mashed potatoes without gravy (or at least asking)? The Monroe Diner is a good idea, poorly executed.

I had the pleasure of going to the Monroe Diner on sunday. Although they were busy and I had to wait for my table the staff was very professional. I was offered a cup of coffee and a free newspaper until my table was available. Once seated (which wasn't long) I ordered my food which was served hot and to my liking.
I would recommend going to the diner for breakfast (which is served all day) and lunch to anyone who enjoys a traditional diner atomsphere.

I had just recently been to the monroe diner for lunch. the staff was very friendly and treated you like they were friends or family and you've known them for life. Our food came quickly and was tasty, and the atmosphere was fun and inviting. i would definitely recommend this for a nice summer day eating lunch out on the patio.
The prices were reasonable also!

I brought my mother and father in-law there for dinner over the weekend and what a mistake! The service couldn’t have been worse. I could have made my own roast beef from scratch faster. The food took a ridiculous amount of time to get to the table, and when we were finally served the food was COLD! I wouldn’t recommend that anyone wastes their money or time on the Monroe Diner. The entire experience was a huge disappointment; I should have taken the majority of reviews more serious instead of trying it myself!