The Rusty Monk

Didn’t have a great experience. Me and my gf where both hungry after the hike at the hills and we settled on this placed. The décor is going for a belgian/​german thing, but it feels spacious.
Everything is mid price ranged, we got two beers which ranged from bad to horrible. I ended up ordering a bratwurst and my girlfriend got a salad. The food was decent, but the service was horrible! Our server was nice enough, but spent a large portion of our dining time hiding with all the other girls in the back. It wasn’t busy, maybe like 5 tables were taken on a Friday evening, yet they where staffed so well that one food runner had the luxury of caring only one plate each. There’s no excuse for our food to take an hour to get to us. I’ve worked in the food service industry and this girl is just being lazy.
Bottom line is this place is over staffed and the girls who work here take forever to bring you your food/​drinks. The food is decent, but pricey for what it is. Maybe you’ll have a better experience after someone reads this review.

I went here tonight and I have to say the service was excellent. I ordered the Monk Burger and nice Dark ale and it definitely hit the spot. I will be returning here with more of my friends. Also the customer service was great and loved the atmosphere.

This place was awesome. The food was great. Our waitress Colleen was completely knowledgeable about the food, wine and beer menus. And she was super friendly. She is the reason we will return soon.

Rusty Monk is amazing! I typically get their pretzel and bratwurst. Their shnitzel, grilled cheese and tomato soup is also very tasty. The staff is also very kind. Make sure to stop by!

Update from the last review!
Checked out The Monk again and boy was the experience different. My buddy and I got there a bit after they opened for the day and immediately got seated. The waitress, wish I got her name, was really friendly and sweet, very knowledgeable with the specials. Service was top notch and nothing like my first visit.
We started with ordering our entrees, my buddy got the Shepherds Pie, which is back on the menu, and I got the lasagna, their special. The shepherds pie was great and the lasagna was through the roof! Our waitress suggested a few ciders that I was impressed with, I got the Zombie Killer, a honey based mead cider. Killer drink ;)
My buddy ended the night with the bread pudding, and I quote, «this had to of been their best bread pudding».
Although there were many great changes from my last visit, the price to portion was a bit steep, I’ll for sure be coming back again though.

I have been wanting to try this place since I moved to Whittier 4 years ago. Its a nice little place that has the feel of an English Hunting lodge. My wife and I ordered the Bavarian Pretzel for an appetizer and it was amazing. The softest, freshest tasting pretzel I have ever had.
Next we had the Sheppard’s Pie and the Schnitzel. Both were amazing. The service was pretty good, but nothing to write home about. This place is a hidden Gem.

Great service, decent pricing and different food selections. Also the environment reminded me of a classy rustic cabin with awesome portraits and mounted animal heads. This place had an ok selection of craft beer, which was overly priced. I’d suggest coming to this place for a date or a birthday dinner and then heading over to the bottle room or the cellar for drinks afterward. Definitely coming back.

The Pretzel with beer cheese is amazing!!! Good Service and tasty Food. Give them a try you wont be disappointed.

I come here for their amazing pretzel and beer selection. Service is great. Before I can see the bottom of my glass the waitress is there to offer another drink.

Nice ambiance… definitely great food, great service, great beer, extensive beer on tap.
FOOD was amazing. Gotta try it

New menu
Pork belly. Check
Bone marrow. Check
Salmon. Check
Sausage. Check
Beer selection. Check.
Monk burger. Check
Tomato bisque. Check
Strawberry Cronut. Check
Honey brick toast. Check.
All around great new menu.
Will def return

This is my new favorite place, without a doubt! LOVE IT! Happened to be walking through Whittier and decided to come here and was not disappointed at all. First off the ambience is totally fun and reminds me of being in a lodge.
Had the Schnitzel, Pretzel and Schneider Weisse (which is on tap and is my favorite German Bier so already loved the place because of this). The food was really awesome as well. The pretzel was sweeter than others I’ve had, but soft and delicious and the Schnitzel was amazing. Really great mustard dressing on top with garlic mashed potatoes and Brocclini, and all was great.
But even though all of this was already making the place good, what sets it above any others was our Waitress Colleen. She was hands down the BEST waitress have ever had. Super customer service. She was very helpful with all of our choices, especially with the beers on tap and had great suggestions for further choices in the future. Really was attentive even though it was super packed. She made time to not only make sure that everything was good with the meal and choices, but to get to know us a bit as well, which was great. She even had us try some dessert beers for next time, and was awesome. She was the BEST
No doubt will be making this my regular place for weekend dinners as I already love German/​European food, and this is at the top!

This is not a place to just go for a «beer and pretzel».
It is pricey but the food is amazing, the service is great, and the hipster ambiance is pretty relaxing and laid back.
I ordered the beet & goat cheese salad which was so great! I also got the pretzel. Don’t get the beer cheese with it– it has zero flavor but the mustard it comes with its great. My boyfriend got the crab sandwich & raved about it.
Please don’t complain because it’s so worth it! We won’t come here often, but when we do, it’ll be for a special date night! :)

The Rusty Monk is located on Greenleaf in downtown Whittier which hosts a handful of other great places to eat like The Bottle Room and Crepes and Grapes. I’d been curious about Rusty and decided to check it out on a Friday evening with a friend. From the name of the restaurant I had a couple ideas of what the interior might look like but none of them were spot on. When I first walked in I got the impression that I was in a vintage looking diner. The interior is dimly lit and its walls feature heads of stuffed game such as deer, brick wallpaper and a line of beers on tap — it’s also a gastropub. I wasn’t quite sure how the Rusty Monk played into the theme.
My friend had been here once before and mentioned that they were able to make any of the burgers portabello instead of meat. This was a key reason why we chose this restaurant as she is a vegetarian. We were informed by the waitress that they no longer allowed that option so she had to opt for something else. I decided on the spiced lamb burger that comes with fries. I asked if they could sub fries with anything else, preferably sweet potato fries. They didn’t have them, which is fine, but they also weren’t able to sub it with anything else either. The spiced lamb was very tasty and juicy and the feta really packed a punch. The taste of the cheese was very evident in every bite. If this is a testament to the quality of their burgers I would return and order another burger. My friend got a salad whose presentation was pretty cool. It was a stacked cylinder of ingredients that included watermelon at the bottom of the salad. My friend enjoyed her salad though the portion didn’t look very big and she also got a pretzel and mustard which she didn’t finish — not sure if she was full or if it wasn’t appetizing enough to want to eat all those carbs. Our waitress was pleasant and attentive and when she saw that we were a bit bummed about the lack of menu items she mentioned that they were getting revamped menus soon. I’ll definitely give it some time before I decide to come back to the Rusty Monk. I feel that there are still a few menu kinks they could work out and I’m curious to see what the new menu will include.

This was not horrible but was terribly disappointing as a pub both for food and beer. The place feels like it’s in search of an identity. Inside, it looks like a divey hipster bar, but the prices for everything are too damn high. Despite being a small place and only half full, the two servers seemed frazzled as if they had been working all day and night.
All the food was just okay without being memorable or rating a return visit. As I said, everything is overpriced. As far as beer, it isn’t a real special place. There aren’t a ton of beers and you won’t find any regular beers like Guinness or Boddingtons for example. I’m sure they have some special stuff, but I prefer a beer snob joint to have both unique microbrews and some decent normal choices. Luckily, they supposedly just got their full liquor license and will be opening a full bar.
On to the food. The Bavarian pretzel was large and okay. However, it had an odd sweet flavor as if the salt was put on with a brush of melted sweet butter. Kind of odd. The extra beer mustard was not worth the 2 bucks and should be given for free on a 6 dollar pretzel.
We had the 18 dollar Moules Frites entrée as a shared appetizer and did not receive the frites (fries). The mussels were okay but sauce was just okay and one of the mussels had gone bad.
For an entrée, ordered the Monk burger (a 14 dollar cheeseburger). It was okay but not amazing as a 14 dollar burger should be. Ordered it with toppings on the side and instead got a burger with no bun. That got fixed easily enough. They also could give more fries for the money.
Also had the shepard’s pie. While okay, it tastes spice-​wise like a Mexican food version rather than British. The big problem was as I scooped into it there was hardly any filling or meat. I hit two small chunks of meat in the entire filling. Everything else was just sauce and some veg. Mainly all mashed potato.
Not planning on a return.

I pray for training cuz the office is in Whittier, which means Rusty Monk.
Sausage, pretzels, ciders on draft that are so good, its like angels peed in my cup… in a good way. Hip patrons… what more could a girl want?
Try the lambic. Trust me.

This place is great — if you’re not in a hurry. I had the burger & it was really flavorful but the highlight of the meal was the carrot cake. I don’t even like carrot cake but this was delicious — the candied walnuts were the best part.
As for the service well you need to be a patient person to eat here it took forever to get anything & they screwed up accepting payment for our check. The only reason I didn’t dock them any stars is my inner fat girl loved that cake!

WARNING!!! As of April 20, 2015 the old chef is GONE and they have a completely different menu… NO MORE shepherds pie, fish and chips, schnitzel and other favorites. New menu is American. Burgers, Sandwiches, Salads… that’s it.
I’m crying as I write this review of the RUSTY MONK! We were soo excited about this new gastro pub in our ever struggling little Uptown Whittier. The German food was on point. The décor transports you to a small pub in a small town. So many selections of beer and although the beer is a tiny bit over priced I was ok paying since the food was delicious. Now that we return with a group of friends for the 3^rd time you slap us in the face with this overprice, over salted hamburger menu. Not to mention the inattentive and at some instances rude waitress. I’m afraid to say it but the Rusty Monk will probably not be around much longer if they don’t bring back the food for which it got its 5 and 4 stars reviews!
#TRUTH

I have had the following items at the Rusty Monk:
–La Fin Du Monde
–La Fin Du Monde
–La Fin Du Monde. On draft. And reasonably priced.
–The Rusty Monk– burger patty topped with aged white cheddar cheese, sauteed onions, mixed greens, house-​made Russian dressing, and house butter pickles. Delicious. And. You do not have to pay extra to get fries which gastropubs, nowadays, make you do. Kudos to that.
–Fish and Frites– beer battered and fried cod loins… also served with fries. The fish is not overpowered by the batter and crispy on the outside.
But, I come to The Rusty Monk for their soft Barvarian pretzel, which is so soft, but has just the right amount of pretzel casing on the outside. The best part? Even after it has been sitting for a while, the pretzel does not harden like most pretzels do. Amazing. Most amazing of all (and at the cost of 2 additional dollars) is the beer cheese. THE BEER CHEESE. What does this beer cheese possess? I do not know, but whatever the case, I would pay an additional 2 dollars for this bad boy any day.
If you find yourself meandering in Uptown Whittier, definitely make a pit stop at The Rusty Monk. The prices are reasonable for a gastropub, and the food is amazing.

wieners n mustaches
Sounds like the name of a gay porno I accidentally downloaded one day.
MOUSTACHES
WIENERS
I’m pretty sure these tasted way better than the ones I saw in that movie.