Monsterland Bar & Grill

Great food, awesome atmosphere, but TERRIBLE service outweighs these positive qualities. Expect to wait up to an hour for your food, even when it’s not busy. Slow kitchen (god knows what they are doing back there), unorganized front of house, and apathetic management are to blame. If you have a couple of hours to kill, it’s not a bad place at all, but do not expect a timely meal.

I’m really sad this place is closed, it was a great place to hang out with friends, their themed event nights were always a blast, and the décor was unlike anything else in the valley. The employees that worked there were like family and the food was tasty.

What a cool place that is now closed! I’m not sure if it’s permanent but there is a notice up in the window that says they couldn’t pay the rent. Word is, Paradise Pop Culture and Comics on Mill is in the running to buy this place according to their Facebook.
The décor here is awesome. They have a Haunted House and a huge amount of actual movie props, some of which are animated! Kids (not to mention myself…) go nuts for these things when they start growling and lighting up. Like Ann S. mentioned there are only 12 tables in the ENTIRE place yet the room exists for at least 12 more.
The staff was fine. Not much more to say. Some of them were in some really skimpy outfits but I’m not sure if that’s the norm because there was a motorcycle rally going on all down Main Street. They were playing vintage horror on a big projector screen which no one but myself really seemed to care about.
It really seems like someone bought this place from someone else who had a great idea, then just sort of let it go. It’s a good thing it still retains all the charm of the decorations, not to mention a decent beer on tap selection. Don’t let me forget to tell you the entire bar is less than 10 seats.
Maybe the new owners will put all that extra space to use!

I went the other night for the first time. I was really impressed… Waay cool theme, and the animitronics were really cool.
Our server was very knowledgeable and had good suggestions for drinks. he was prompt and funny.
My friends shared a burger and said that it was very good. It looked good. But the atmosphere was just fun. Will def go back!

Absolutely incredible. I can’t wait to go back, I’m even considering being one of those weirdo regulars LOL. If you’re going to open a restaurant with any kind of theme (not only did Monsterland choose a theme I find deeply interesting, fun and pleasing for a broad audience) Monsterland executed theirs perfectly and in such a way that will bring them much business in the future from regulars to people visiting because it is simply one of those places you have to see when in the area.
Food was amazing, service was very kind and prompt (I can’t remember her name it was something different.) but she was awesome.
As for if Monsterland is good for kids or not, there is no yes or no answer. Every kid is different. I have a five year old niece who loves every «classic» scary movie out there and there are some that can’t take it. I think as long as the parent teaches them that they’re not real I think any kid could do great there and enjoy it.

This is a solid 3 star place. if we were just rating atmosphere it would be 5.
The food is pretty average as far as everything we tried.
The beers were great.
Service was ok.
Seating is quite bad and uncomfortable. Not to mention a table for 4 is about 2.5ft x 2.5ft so I hope you like the people you are sitting with.

Crazy cool! Is the best way I can describe this place! If you’re into Halloween (year round) monsters, Goth, Scary Movies… all that good stuff, this place is a pretty cool bar to chill at on weekends. I just visited this establishment for one of my gf’s get togehters. I was skeptical at first, but it turned out pretty cool! It’s nice to go to a different place and be surrounded by a theme that isn’t cheesy or half done. This place has gone all out! You go through a haunted maze to get in, they have animatronics that are monsters, Freddy staring at you from the corner, werewolves, vampires… Its beautifuly disgusting!
Their late night menu is pretty small, but gets the job done at midnight when you feel like snacking on a little somthin. Regular bar food like nachos and wings, they were pretty decent! I saw that they have a pretty good selection of breakfast, lunch and dinner! I would like to go back before it gets too late and try some more of their food.
The only thing I didn’t like was they don’t offer any drink specials. At night on the weekend you would figure, it’s a bar, they have to have some kind of specials? Not here. Their cheap bar rum is pretty awful, so if you like hard alcohol I would ask for a specific kind like Sailor or Captain, but they have decent beer, so something for everyone!
Lastly, what do girls like to do the most when they go out??? DANCE! Of course! When we got there the DJ was playing a lot of EMO and Alternative music, which wasn’t bad, as I am a fan, but when it got later in the evening when more people were showing up, we were hoping for a better selection to dance to. The DJ that night was just off his game, really wasn’t spinning anything worth dancing to! These minor details won’t keep me from coming back though. It was a nice night of catching up with friends at an off the wall different cool place!

3.5 stars
My fiancé and I were in the area and starving. After a quick Unilocal search we found this restaurant. We were NOT expecting the monster-​themed atmosphere (although the name says it all) but it was a great experience. The server was nice and the food came out fast! They had a surprisingly decent selection of beer.
Appetizer:
Children of the Corn (sweet potato corn fritter with roasted corn, sweet potatoes, garlic, cilantro, pepper jack cheese, and a green chili lime aioli)
Entrees:
1) Dr. Jekyll Chicken Sandwich (grilled season chicken breast, bacon, pepperjack, avocado, tomato, spinach, and red pepper aioli on toasted bun)
2) The Monsterland burger (pepper jack, roasted poblano peppers, fried onion strings, and cipotle aioli on toasted bun)
For a bar restaurant the food was decent. Overall just an interesting experience although I won’t be rushing to come back.

OMG OMG OMG OMG!
This place is where I want to throw my bday party, anniversary party (if I ever get married), childrens bday parties (if I ever had lil nuggets)
I came down to Phoenix for work and was told by a pal to visit this establishment.
I thought it was going to be like other themed restaurants, a few tacky decorations and sub par food… NOT THE CASE.
When you enter the building you go down a few dim lit hallways with posters and legit decorations. We were seating immediately. I was surprised since it was Halloween.
The walls look like there from an old castle (large grey bricks), I couldnt focus on anything for at least 3 minutes, werewolves, dragons, monters, ghouls…
The waiter was super friendly and told us the seasonal beer and a little bit of the history of the restaurant. We both ordered the Monsterland burger and the seasonal pumpkin beer.
The Monsterland burger: Im not a burger fan, I only eat them when Ive heard they are amazing. IM TELLING YOU THIS BURGER IS AMAZING. cooked to perfection, great combo of flavors, fried onion strings, poblano pepper, some amazing sauce. I couldnt speak while eating it.
When we were done and went to leave there was a line down the hallway, glad we got there early, 3ish
Im planning a trip just to take my mom to this restaurant. Its that serious

I am thoroughly pissed off with this place.
My boyfriend and I bought 4 tickets for the Halloween party.
Website said the party was till 1 am.
We arrived at 11:30, got our will call tickets, and was told the party was over, and that we needed VIP tickets to get in.
The website said nothing about this, and we ended up leaving completely disappointed and ripped off. What a waste of time and money!

Halloween happy hour left us ecstatic. Our sassy waitress Alexis, was masterful at getting our (7peeps) orders in for food and drinks by the cut off time of 6:00pm. We arrived at 5:30 (they don’t take reservations) and did not get seated till 5:58. Not a problem, as we enjoyed the attentive/​mechanical monsters surrounding us. As teachers, after a long week, we are ready to relax and laugh. A distance for us, but well worth the journey.
Our 4 $ 3 appetizers arrived quickly; all delish. Entrée’s amazing (you can read other posts on food details) and chef even split my monsterburger order on two plates! It was tapping for pumpkin spice night, a Fall fave beer at our table.
One of the folks asked to have check split into 5 reciepts. Alexis didn’t blink, and willingly obliged. Took some time to return bills, but with good news. She said the manager comped our apps. due to the unusual bill, which divided each item into small increments, very spooky. ie $ 3 drink listed 10 times for .30. Just a minor error that paid off well for us.
Alexis was VERY attentive and patient with our table. We all left in a much better mood than when we arrived. Thank you Monsterland staff for setting the tone for our weekend.

Monsterland you make me sad and confused…
I called here on October 3^rd about 1 PM to inquire about bringing 25 +/​-​of my software engineers here for lunch. I was prepared to spend several hundred dollars on my corporate credit card to give my staff a nice pre-​Halloween lunch. I love this place and I love showing it off to new people.
Well, the phone rang and rang and rang and finally went to a voicemail that was full so I couldn’t leave a message. (WTF? Nobody is answering the phone or checking the voicemails?)
So I got on their website and sent an email to the restaurant’s ‘contact us’ email address asking if someone could please call me so I could make a reservation. A few minutes later I got an email from an employee named Kristy Smith in Marketing who said that they were booked solid for parties for the WHOLE ENTIRE MONTH of October.
Call me a bit of skeptic, but how can a restaurant that is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays be booked solid for five days a week from 11 AM to close for the ENTIRE month of October? I can definitely imagine that they’re busy as all get out right now, but booked completely solid for a whole month? Really?
To be fair she did say we could try to come and just squeeze in wherever we could be seated, but I’m of the mind that if you can find a way to fit 25 extra people in here or there, you can *probably* also find a way to push those tables and seats together into a group with little effort. Being the person paying the check, it makes sense to want your group together, not shotgun blasted across the restaurant. Otherwise it’s just a confusing mess with a potentialy messed up check, and there is no group interaction…
So I replied and asked her if she meant booked solid for lunches, or dinners, or both? And she replied that they were booked solid for BOTH. O_​o
Wow, seriously??? That’s GREAT news for you guys!!!
Maybe seeing as how popular Monsterland is becoming (thanks in all part to Unilocalers like me who extol the virtues of this restaurant to almost anyone who’ll listen) you guys should (at least though the whole month of October) open an hour early, or maybe even consider being open 7 days a week this month, so you can accommodate all the extra business that wants to give you several hundred dollars at a time? This is THE month that people are most likely looking for spooky dining, so I would think this is the best time to maximize your profit potential, no?
I was really, really looking forward to treating my staff to a fun, Halloween lunch and I foolishly even told them I would try to set it up this month before Halloween… Now I feel like a weenie because I already got their hopes up and now I have to tell them that it isn’t gonna happen after all. Wonderful…
Monsterland, I really, TRULY am thrilled that you guys are getting more and more popular, but it sucks (like a starving vampire) that a huge fan like myself can’t bring you 25 potential new fans AND spend a big old wad of money in your establishment this month. :(

Restaurant up top, haunted house below.
I absolutely love halloween, and absolutely hate being scared. Enter Monsterland: the scaredy cat friendly establishment. Now, i’m not saying that it’s not scary. In order to get to the restaurant you have to walk through an mini maze of haunted creatures and blind turns. But nothing is going to come at you. I think. The restaurant is pretty chill. A big room with castle décor framing it, with props, anamontronics, the whole deal. Again, while the anamontronics go off at random intervals, you’re pretty safe while eating.
And the last and best part for a scaredy cat? They have belt/​sign/​thingie that you can wear in the haunted house that signals to the actors that you have a more delicate constitution. It’s mainly for kids, but they won’t judge the adult that choses to wear it. It actually has me tempted to brave the downstairs.
As far as the restaurant, there’s a great selection of creative dishes fitting the monster theme, all expertly prepared and locally sourced. I’d like to emphasize the creative aspect, Monsterland is always looking to try something new, and gladly accepts customer suggestions. My recommendation: the chips, which i know– weird thing to really love but they were amazing. Made from scratch, with different powders that you can add to them, and a little bit of a kick. Delicious. The idea of ordering a thing of chips at a restaurant seems a bit odd, but trust me these chips are amazing.

Okay, Monsterland. I’ve been here 3 times and it’s time for things to get organized.
1^st time: waited in line for 2 hours and we were only able to go to the bar. We were planning on eating but saw that no on had been served yet. It even took forever at the bar to get any type of service. Several friends were so irritated by the poor service that they decided not to buy anything or spend money there. It was shocking to me to wait in line for two hours and then see that most of the restaurant tables were empty. I decided not to come back to Monsterland unless I had a really good reason.
2^nd time: Unilocal elite event. Food was amazing, service was wonderful, and staff seemed like they were really trying to turn things around. I was excited to bring people back since it seemed that Monsterland was really invested in customers and salvaging their reputation.
3^rd time: our server was kind but forgetful and slow. We waited 15 minutes for drinks, 20 min to have our orders taken, and about an hour for food. We were often without water and I had to chase our server down several times for things like napkins or our bill. He did apologize for the delay in getting things but when I looked around the restaurant, it wasn’t that busy. There were plenty of staff to wait on the 12 or so tables in the restaurant.
Food: not bad but not great. The hot wings are TOO HOT. They are impossible to eat. Friends were unimpressed with their burgers and fish.
Moral of the story: I’ve given Monsterland a fair shot and I’m still not impressed. The Unilocal elite event was wonderful but maybe a fluke. If I hear that things are better and service is prompt, maybe I’ll be in again. Otherwise, I probably won’t be around Monsterland without some coercing. I know that none of my friends will be eager to come back either.

I went here for a friend’s birthday several weeks ago and I am just now getting around to writing the review. I think I needed some time to gather my thoughts because this is not your everyday bar & grill.
To get the full monster effect, you can enter thru the entrance facing Main Street where you will go thru a long, dark hallway filled with various scary creatures before you get to the hostess stand. If you are a haunted house fan, this is the way to go. Otherwise, if you go thru the other entrance, you walk in right next to the bar. From this vantage point, it almost might be considered just a goth bar with some gory décor rather than a horror museum. We arrived early before the rest of our party so my husband and I spent some time at the bar hanging out. The bartender was super friendly and let us sample some of the various craft brews they had on tap, all of which were from Arizona! How awesome is that!
Once we were all seated and I got a chance to observe the various anamatronica that sporadically activated with motion and sound effects, I came to the realization that this is basically a Chuck-​E-​Cheese for adults. What, why adults? Your kids like monsters plenty you say? Well in spite of the recent trend of parents dragging their kids to bars now that smoking has been banned at those establishments, not every place is automatically kid friendly. Don’t get me wrong, there were a few kids in our party and plenty at other tables ranging from elementary school age to teenagers. But the younger ones were all scared and uncomfortable and the older ones were all bored and thought the whole thing was a big joke. I just don’t think kids will get anything out of this place at all. It might be a little different during the day… I don’t know…
For adults however, it is another story. Fantastic bar with great drink specials, servers in sexy angels and demons outfits, and a cool elevated stage with great live music. Its a recipe for a pretty good bar… and if you happen to be a horror/​monster fan then its a recipe for a really great bar. Notice up until now I haven’t mentioned the food. Well, since we were a big group we ordered almost everything on the menu and it was a bit hit or miss. The general consensus seemed to be burgers=good, salads=bad and the only appetizer that was worth ordering was the Children of the Corn.
Definitely worth a visit. I know my explanation is not doing it justice because it is such an unusual place. You just have to see it for yourself.

I have to say I was a little hesitant about my first monsterland visit, My girlfriend and I had stopped into MIlano Music to get a Guitar tuned and she had raved about the Chicken Sandwich at Monsterland, so I suggested we go.
The Foyer/​Entrance is very unique, classic monsters and I was pretty nervous someone would jump out at me :)
Once the host had seated us, (wait wasnt bad, there was a brief lunch rush, so it was a few minutes) Table set was perfect, untensils were clean and the waitress was fairly prompt with service, she offered drinks from the bar.
There different spices on the table one was a cheddar, dill pickle, habanero cheddar and some other one. Two were labled two werent.
We looked through the menu which was very «diner”-Like. It didnt look bad, but nothing really stood out. Some of the names were creative, others weren’t.
We ordred the Casket of Chips and the Children of the Corn, The Chips could have been hot, they looked homemade, but the fact that they were cold kinda put me off, They could have tossed them under the heat lamp or in the oven for a few minutes. «The Children of the Corn» Fritters were pretty tasty.
I had the Green Chile Chicken Soup (Green Slime) it was very tasty and my girl loved the chicken sandwich for the second time.
The lighting was too low, it made the menu hard to read.
The live music was a nice, the radio was too loud when it was on.
I liked that the servers were able to pick and dress how they choose, its a nice touch.
For a new Restaurant I would have expected the Manager to make a stop by the table to make sure the experience was good.
All in all I will come back and continue to try more items. Its nice to see unique places popping up on Main Street.

I wanted to go here for SO LONG… So when I finally got to go we really appreciated the ambiance. The food however was meh.
The pizza was burnt, the fried whatever they were were swimming in grease and overcooked. I got a salad that was pretty much out of a bag and kinda wilty. BUT the soup was AMAZING. By friend got a burger that he liked but it wasn’t cooked to order, so we wondered why they asked.
I wont go out of my way to return again however the environment was fun, kinda like a horror set/​haunted house.
I think its ok for bigger kids but it may freak out some of the younguns. Maybe take bitty wheebles for a walk thru before you condemn them to sit through dinner with ware wolves, corpses and cave trolls staring at them.

Ehhh, I SO wanted to like this place. I heard about it through a friend and everyone else started talking about it so I got curious and finally made it out tonight.
It was literally like eating smack in the middle of Spirits Halloween Store. A lot of animatronic ghouls that were actually kind of neat but to maintain the spooky factor, they lacked on lighting. I couldn’t read the menu without the glow of my cellphone, so if you like to do that and have fantastic eyesight unlike myself, this won’t be a problem for you. (I also forgot my glasses. Double score.)
The limited menu offered few options but I’m not going to say anything about the food other than the Monsterland Burger was pretty decent. I didn’t understand the homemade potato chips, though. Not a whole lot going on there. I would have preferred french fries but since that wasn’t an option, it was easier to cut a few calories. We also had the Bat Wings, demon flavored… the fried, extended appendage of a chicken corpse. No legs, just wings… but the name warned me so I blame nobody but myself.
Things I also didn’t like that totally weren’t their fault: Waitress’ first day and a little wet behind the ears but no ones mad about it. You progress and learn things along the way. It did take 10 minutes to split the bill on 2 different cards because of a system error. Her trainer should have been a little more attentive and the woman who identified herself as manager could have presented herself better than to wear short shorts and weird slipper booties on her feet. It was also Trivia Night… again, if you like that stuff and nothing about it annoys you, you will enjoy it.
I hate leaving bad reviews unless my experience was absolutely horrible but Monsterland is schtick and the novelty wears off really quickly. So honestly, make it out at least once before it… isn’t there anymore.

Was invited to the @MonsterlandAZ grand re-​opening. My roommate was the head chef, and had a table reserved for our party (30 people) for 7 PM.
The problem centered around the GM arbitrarily deciding that our party was not on the list, despite being shown by multiple people that we were, and arbitrarily deciding that we could be shuffled down the priority chain.
We agreed to wait for other tables to clear, and chose to move next door for drinks, while we waited for our table.
By 10 PM we decided to eat at the restaurant next door.
Myself and my friend left, but we learned that none of our party actually made it in to the venue, other than drinks.
This was a gross display of poor customer service, and ridiculous favoritism on the part of the GM.
I have not ever been, and will not ever go.

The «professional» scary people were very very believable. They were all mingling amongst the Unilocalers during the event. Totally in the characters.
The sneak peak to Monsterland was awesome. The place is based on movie themes: Jack the Ripper, Werewolves, etc. Very well put together. The automatic spooky pop up were very detailed. The details are so realistic that we were not sure who was real or fake. It is going to jump or touch me? And that is only from the first level sneak peak. I can’t imagine the basement or dungeon as they called it.