3 Monkey’s Pub and Grub

Regular bar food, nothing fancy. However, super long waits and not enough staffing.

First of all, that damned apostrophe is KILLING ME. In no way can you contextually twist it so that it is grammatically correct. I’m not lying when I say that this fact alone is a huge reason why we had not gone to 3 Monkey’s even though it’s a quick walk from where we live. Secondly, Bali was my favorite restaurant in the Cities so I was a bit butthurt that something so generic in concept, let alone so anti-​Strunk & White, would take its place.
But let’s set that aside and judge 3 Monkey’s not by its cover.
This is a middle-​of-​the-​road, generic sports bar, period. Yes, it has an impressively huge screen in its back room. No, it does not get all fancy with hosting boxing PPVs or anything else I might care about. This is the kind of bar I found everywhere I looked back in my Iowa hometown. In that way, it’s comfortable. But, y’know, I left that town for a reason.
The food, again, is middle of the road sports bar fare. I won’t say I didn’t enjoy my buffalo chicken wrap because I most certainly did, even more so when I added extra hot buffalo sauce to it. And I won’t say the sweet potato fries with SUGAR on them weren’t fabulous. AND I won’t say the beer selection was bad, nor will I say it was overpriced. Honestly, for what it is, I don’t have a bad word to say about it. Nothing thrilling to say either, but that’s what 3 stars means. A-​OK.
There are just so many better alternatives living in downtown Minneapolis — at comparably decent prices, even — that I can’t find any reason to go back to 3 Monkey’s. Except, maybe, to make an offer on buying that apostrophe to get rid of it once and for all.

The best part of this place was drawing chalk on the tables. That makes for endless entertainment when alcohol is involved. Drinks were all right, but the staff was nice.

I’m not usually a «sports bar» kind of person… Maybe it’s me, but the idea of sitting in a cloud of musk and testosterone hasn’t ever been that appealing… But the literal HUGE screen in the back made football and hockey games VERY fun!
But that’s about where the good times end with 3 Monkey’s.
Never in my life have I been more apalled by service, food quality, and overall «don’t give a shit» attitude from both wait staff AND management. I emailed them regarding the service I am going to tell of now, and the only response back was «Sorry you didn’t enjoy your visit, we hope next time you will enjoy your chance to ‘Monkey Around’ with us.» Yeah. I’m for real.
My friend, cousin, and I decided that we would go watch the Vikes game on the big screen and much to my dismay they were only playing it on the small TV above the fireplace with some other game playing on all the other ones. The loud, obnoxious, overly intoxicated crowd of people there for the other game were spilling, swearing, spewing racial epithets, and all in all ruining the ambiance of what should have been a nice Sunday afternoon. It got to the point where the police had to be called because they started a fight on the smoking patio.
Needless to say, the waiter ignored us for the first twenty minutes we were in there… No drinks, no menus, not even an «I’ll be right with you.» I loudly complained when she was at the next table about how slow the service was and she looked right at me and smirked.
Finally I walked over to the wait station and grabbed the menu’s and silverware myself and ordered everything through the bartender. The bartender also had an «sorry, but I don’t really give a shit» attitude about our experience thus far.
An hour after we ordered our food finally came out, undercooked (ALL of it) and cold. I sent it back. When the waitress asked me why I showed her the inside of my burger and asked if she would eat it, of course she said no and hastily grabbed all the plates and sighed loudly as if it was an imposition for her to avoid giving us salmonella.
After another 30 minutes of no food, we walked out. I don’t really care who paid for my drinks, I won’t ever be going back there AGAIN.

It’s, er, a sports bar, with, like, fried crispy salty things and, like, beer. AND BIG HONKIN’ TVs!!! one
I’d usually subtract a star on principle for the apostrophe holocaust in the place’s name, but then they’d be down to one. That wouldn’t be, like, cool of me.
Bali was, like, cool. I miss it.

I live across the street and have watched Bali leave and 3 Monkeys come in. As I am a single mom but not into cooking, I was excited to have a pub/​café type restaurant come in. And the name implied that it would have kid-​friendly fare.
When they did open, we went. Lovely patio and opened glass window/​doors to allow fresh air and the T.V.s are everywhere; the most impressive being the humongous screen in the back room. Wow. Obviously a great spot to watch the game. Any game. But, you may want to bring your own food. First trip there: soup on the menu but no soup in the kitchen. My daughter ordered Monkey Barrels (tater tots) and loved them. So did I. My chicken ceasar wrap was soggy and salty. The next time we went, still no soup, my brother’s burger was raw in the middle and salty. Beer fries were… o.k. Got Monkey Barrels for my kid and she was happy. I got a salad that I know I didn’t eat much of. Nothing special. Third time, I grabbed a pizza-​to-​go; the kind of pie that you take home and cook yourself. To be fair, I’m a Jersey native as well as living and going to college in Manhattan for many years, so I am a bit of a pizza snob. Still, this was not even a half a step up from a high-​end frozen pizza. I was starting to lose hope that 3 Monkeys would be the great epicurean savior I had hoped… but the staff is so friendly, the atmosphere so relaxed and my kid just loves those Monkey Barrels so… we gave it one more chance yesterday.
I got a Deli (turkey & cheddar) Sandwich, to go. I shouldn’t have. Because when we got back home and I opened the box to eat, I took a huge bite into over salted turkey and no cheese. They forgot to put the cheese on my turkey & cheese sandwich! WTF? I was too tired to go back so I reached into my fridge and slapped a piece of my own cheese on it. And shared my kid’s tater tots with her.

Since 3 Monkeys has come to the area I’ve been there several times. I have to say it is nice to have a «sports bar» in the area but… just because televisions are tuned into football/​baseball/​hockey/​basketball doesn’t make it a sports bar. The clientele is no different than any other bar in downtown or uptown. That being said, the food is great as well as the service. They also open up the front windows to let in fresh air. Poker and trivia on Wednesdays and Thursdays are fun and free to all.

I debated weather or not to write this review. However, after reading subsequent reviews that have been written after my original, I feel no remorse and the management needs to WAKE UP and do some serious revamping of the food quality in this establishment.

Today, May 15^th a friend called me to go to lunch and suggested we go to 3 monkeys as he has not been. Jason is a huge wings fan, so of course he ordered wings. Myself, I ordered a Mushroom Cheeseburger and monkey barrels (AKA Tator Tots)
The service was great, atmosphere great. food… leaves a lot to be desired. My burger was still pink in the middle, barely cooked through, bland tasting. Tatar tots were awesome although I didn’t get to eat many as I gave them to my friend as I felt bad for him. His order of boneless wings came. 8 very small boneless wings, My friend stated that they tasted and i quote «exactly like tyson frozen boneless wings slathered in more hot sauce.»
When the bill came my friend asked the waiter how many wings supposed to be in an order. The waiter stated he believed 11. My friend told him he only received 8 wings and at a price of $ 8.95 plus an additional 75 cents for a side of blue cheese? Really?
The waiter came back and offered to give 3 more wings, my friend let him know he would rather have money off the bill as he was full from eating my tater tots. The waiter said he was not able to take money off the bill, in the end however, he did. It’s no issue to pay decent money for good food but to charge a customer $ 8.95 for 8 wings and then additional 75 cents for a dipping sauce all for frozen boneless wings that isn’t even white meat but rather some horrible compressed meat?
Wing fans may i suggest the green mill, runyons, even applebees will give you a much MUCH larger and high quality boneless wings that this place does at a lower price.
«SERVICE”=2 thumbs up «ATMOSPHERE”=2 thumbs up «FOOD”=left back in the jungle with the monkeys
I’ve never written this bad of a review before, but after seing numerous bad reviews on the food here it’s clear the management isn’t going to do any changing of food quality issues. Perhaps hire someone experienced in culinary service. I really hope the management does some turn around here, it’s a very neat concept restaurant/​bar but there’s a reason most new restaurant establishments fail within 5 years.
PS if anyone cares to see the pathetic order of wings my friend received let me know I actually took a picture.

The atmosphere of 3 monkeys is not bad at all… good service, flatscreen televisions with every conceivable sport broadcasting, and a jukebox playing nice tunes. My problem was the food left much to be desired (taste and quality), and is expensive to boot. The selection of beer on tap was minimal as well, which was a turn-​off for me (although the enormous 34-​ounce glasses were a nice option). All-​in-​all, there are way better places in this area of town for a beer and some grub.

It’s nice to have a legitimate «sports bar» downtown that isn’t Champs. The food and beer selection isn’t great, but it’s acceptable. Probably a 3 star place, but the location bumps it up to 4. Now you don’t have to drive to Roseville or St. Louis Park to watch the game.
I had a burger and sweet potato fries. The fries were good, crispy and nice flavor. The burger was about average. I think it was about $ 6.50 and add $ 1.50 for the fries.
They have a huge TV in the back room, it has to be about 8 feet by 6 feet.

My wife and I went to 3 Monkey’s (good lord– why didn’t anyone tell them where that apostrophe goes?!?) to watch the US-​Canada gold medal hockey game.
The interior was really quite nice for a sports bar. We liked the ambience. The huge TV in the back was great for watching the game (though the skylights need shades!).
The service was pretty good, considering there seemed to be only one server for quite a while.
My burger was, perhaps appropriately, pretty much a hockey puck, even though I ordered it medium. It seemed to be hand-​pattied, so that’s a plus, provided they don’t overcook them all the time. The other food was quite good– the fries, the sweet potato fries, the wings.
One thing that really needs help is the beer list!!! I’d be inclined to get there a lot more often if there was something– anything– interesting on that list. There are a lot of options, but they’re the same ol’ same ol’ that every place that hasn’t really considered their beer list has. Are you listening 3 Monkey’s [sic]??? RECONSIDER THAT BEER LIST!!!

I was really excited to hear about this place opening, I live in Stevens Square so it’s always nice to have bars/​food within walking distance.
The staff are great, prices are average. But I must say that I’ve been kind of disappointed by the food. The menu looks great but food is only so-​so. I did love the Philly Cheese Steak I got there. I’ve had a veggie burger which wasn’t good. The pizza look great, but doesn’t taste very much so, crust seems pre-​made. Had a few other things on the menu that I wasn’t impressed by.
I do hope they start serving brunch/​breakfast. One staff member mentioned that they are thinking about it. For all the people who live in Stevens, there really isn’t a great weekend brunch spot within close walking distance.
I would go there again for a drink or light meal, but if you are looking for a good meal I would not recommend it. They do have good drink specials you can find on their site.
(not that it’s enough to make a difference, but the music they play is terrible)

I came here on NYE with two other friends. Place was pretty quiet, which was nice for starting off the night. The food was tasty and they had a huge (34oz?) of beer for $ 7.50. There were a ton of TVs, I’d imagine this being a great place for Sunday football. I will check this place out again as it no doubt will gain in popularity!

I first heard about this place at a community meeting where they were hoping to get the board’s endorsement for their license. It was unanimous.
Fast forward to last night. We were just getting back from a New Year’s trip up to Lutsen, and wanted to grab some food out before getting home, because the idea of cooking sucked, especially since we knew we had ticked off cats at home.
Walk in, and the place is colorful and warm, an awesome looking bar with a stone back and plenty of booze, a whole bunch of TVs (don’t care about sports much, but it’s sure impressive), lots of seating choices, and well lit. A good start.
Sat down, and someone came to get our order within a minute or so, but the drink menu takes a while to digest — there are quite a few specialty cocktails, mostly monkey themed, very amusing. My wife had the ‘Bubbles’, I tried both the Purple Primate and the Three Monkeys. Bubbles and Purple Primate were like alcoholic Kool Aid. My wife doesn’t appreciate that as much as the 12 year old in me, so I loved them. The Three Monkeys is a ‘put everything in there and make it blue’ drink, it was good, and then I was gone. Good times.
The food menu is typical American grub fare, with a long appetizer selection, burgers, pasta, pizza, and salads. I still felt like I was on vacation, so I got a burger with bacon, onion ring, and BBQ sauce. My wife got the French Dip. The burger was good — not the best burger in town, but it tasted like grilling burgers at home, complete with the grilled bun. It certainly hit the spot, and their BBQ sauce is really good, really smoky. I intend on trying something else with that sauce. The French Dip had a very very salty au jus, but the roast beef was delicious and flavorful, and didn’t taste nuked or sitting around. Good sign.
It looks like they’re open til 2AM on weekends, near the meter lot on Nicollet, surrounded by some other great choices, and close to downtown, though they seem to really want to cater to the locals of Stevens Square/​Loring Park.
This place is definitely in the running for ‘favorite place’, and the fact that it’s about five blocks from me goes a long way. Now, if only it were summer right now and I’d actually feel like walking five blocks. :P

I stopped by on my way home from work this week. i thought that the food was good, beer was cold and the televisions were abundant!
I am happy to finally have a sports bar in the neighborhood!