Sunshine, Fresh Salads and Great Service at Monk McQueens

A while back, my boyfriend had purchased a Groupon deal for Mon McQueens. It was a $40 worth of brunch or lunch for $20! It was valid only between 11am – 3pm along with complimentary valet parking. We decided to avoid valet parking since it means tipping the guy but another reason was because literally one street away, there are tons of free parking. I would say the valet might be a good thing for dinner time or during prime lunch hours. None the less, we went into this quiet neighbourhood near False Creek and its filled with. (I’m sorry to say, but elders) so its a very very quiet neighbourhood.

Monk McQueens is located at 601 Stamps Landing in Vancouver BC. Overall, when we went in, the greeter didn’t seem too happy that we had a Groupon and we overheard the same greeter saying to another table how she dislikes these groupons because she feels like shes working for nothing… but I mean in my opinion and from my standpoint, Groupons are a way to bring traffic into your restaurant during down times and to encourage people to over spend. Much like the concept of how Giftcards work 🙂 Most people with giftcards OVER spend because they feel like they wouldn’t have maximized the deal if they didn’t use all of it 😛 (Okay, I’ll stop with my marketing point of views and my digression).

The other server was great, cheerful and was happy to serve us.

When the server took our order, I asked for their Prawn Salad since it sounded really good but they were still prepping them… I asked for mussels.. and they were prepping them as well.. so he offered me their organic greens salad with their grilled salmon on the side. So I went with it and it was amazingly good. The salmon reminded me of those cedar smoked salmon with a maple syrup glaze over it. Just amazing! The greens weren’t your typical ones, they included a few blackberries and strawberries in it too and they were just right!

Next up is his Salmon Burger, I believe its the exact same salmon as mine ( see image above) but in a burger. He said it was a good burger because of the salmon but he still says that the Salmon burger he had at a Food Cart in Downtown was better (I’ll ask him for the name later). We didn’t really finish the fries because we had fries almost every other day for the past week. I guess a little grease turned out into a lot 😛

The view from the restaurant is breathtaking! Overlooking Vancouver from False Creek. We got a seat on the patio which of course was perfect for our rare 28 degrees sunny afternoon in Vancouver if you get what I mean 🙂

Overall, the food was great, the view is spectacular but I would say it is a bit pricey without a groupon. The total came to $58 before tax and tips (including two drinks) and after the coupon it came to around $18 still but we had paid $20 before.. so technically we spend around $38 in total… Deal ? Not sure but would I go again? probably if there was another groupon since the prices are slightly steep for a lunch 😦 but probably if it was a special occasion I would go again. Though it’ll be a tough decision with so many competing restaurants sharing the same view of Vancouver!

 / out of 5