The Monkey Tree Gin Bar & Restaurant

Had a lovely champagne brunch with my son today. Nicely presented. Cooked perfectly. A lovely little gem tucked away.

Lunch menu was okay, lots to choose from. Biscoff pancakes were delicious! Would definitely recommend. However, two of the desert orders came out incorrectly. Overall, experience was good, service a little slow but it was a Saturday lunch time.

Recently celebrated my husband's birthday here and had the Tomahawk Steak, absolutely fantastic, followed by the gin cheesecake which is another little gem. Love this place

Really nice place to have a gin or cocktails. Lovely friendly staff too. Recent afternoon tea was fantastic too.

Great little place! We had seafood pasta and lamb burger- was fantastic! The yogurt sauce for the burger was ready nice- and the pasta was also fantastic- I’ve been trying to get a good pasta dinner in this region and it’s failed miserably except for this evenings dinner! Only wish is that I had some bread to soak up the lovely sauce! The desserts were really nice too! Service just right- book asap if you want a spot here! I’ll be back for sure!!

If I could give the Monkey Tree a 10* rating I would. Fabulous restaurant and bar. I always suggest meeting friends, business acquaintances and going as a couple at the Monkey Tree. Both Julie and Sophie and amazingly welcoming as hosts and the staff are an absolute joy. Always making the time to chat and have a giggle. The food is exquisite, everything is freshly made, no microwaves here. The cocktais are divine and are 2-4-1 on a Thursday, great way to begin the weekend. If you're looking for a good atmosphere with excellent food all for a reasonable price, you can't go wrong at the Monkey Tree

When a venue requests a £40 deposit to confirm your reservation, it's fair to set your expectations somewhat high. Unfortunately, after arriving at the Monkey Tree we were kept waiting ~30minutes beyond our reservation time, and the disappointing trend continued with our starters and mains arriving around 1 hour apart. The food itself was okay, but inconsistent, and we had expected better after having to pay to secure our booking, the prices, and reading the positive reviews. It seems like we might have just come on an off-night for the kitchen.
The service staff were very friendly and responsive, but didn't apologise for the wait for the food. Looking around the dining room we weren't the only ones to experience this on the night and maybe the wait was to be expected? The drinks came quickly and the selection of gins and cocktails were very good. Not sure we'd return, given the overwhelmingly positive reviews on here we were left feeling slightly disappointed overall.

To all the kind staff,
the food was absolutely divine and we couldn't have asked for more. The fellow staff had amazing service and really nice manners.
we thank you guys for your brilliant customer service ❤ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Thank u for our amazing day out in Ashby.

Very Disappointing!
After reading positive reviews we were looking forward to our New Year’s Eve Breakfast, (even though we asked on the phone if it was a normal breakfast, in actual fact it was a fixed brunch for £18.95 a head.)Fair enough.

We ordered our hot drinks and they came quickly however our starter (waffle) took 1 hour to arrive! Why? By that time my tea was cold! After the starter we then waited another three quarters of an hour for a very average “full English” !
My partners scrambled egg and salmon on toast was poorly presented and more like what you would expect from a cheap cafe, as you can see in the picture, she didn’t eat all of it as the toast was almost black!
At No time did anyone come and ask if everything was ok, even at the end, no questions at all!
My friend couldn’t eat the salmon and we all agreed it was far too salty! Even the bacon on my breakfast was too salt for some.

No one cleared the table at the end or asked if we wanted anything, we had to approach the bar for the bill, we mentioned the poor/slow service and overly salty salmon and burnt toast, they agreed to take off 10% but only by us asking.

When we checked the bill we had been charged 5x main brunches! Considering there was only 4 adults and one child that didn’t have brunch, just the starter, did seem to show even more incompetence unless it’s a mistake which coincidentally benefits them? (Cynical I know)

The seat at the end of the table kept getting nudged by the waitresses and customers passing by which was annoying also. There is no dedicated baby changing either just a mat if you ask. Toilets are very small.
The actual ambiance is ok if not a little cramped.

Our main disappointment apart from the food itself was the waiting times, you should never have to wait an hour for a starter! Let alone 45 minutes for your main!
We arrive just before 1130 and did not leave until after 2pm!

Unfortunately a poor experience and we all agreed we will not return.

We have eaten in most of the places in Ashby and unfortunately this venue was underwhelming for the reasons mentioned.