Monarch Lounge

Didn't stay long, but what a beautiful setting. Comfortable lounge chairs and sofas for everyone... enjoyed prosecco late on a Friday evening date night. Was pleasantly surprised to enjoy live singing and piano accompaniment by some very talented local artists. If we lived in the area, we would definitely come again like every month!! Nothing like classic entertainment in a beautiful, classic setting!!!

We stayed at the hotel for an early anniversary-winter Doldrums get away which made going to the Monarch Lounge easy! The bar is wide open with lots of tables, various seating options & a beautiful backlit marble bar. The Friday night martini specials & live music was the perfect way to start our weekend. The bartender was alone & super busy but was great at keeping on top of drink orders despite the crowd. Definitely one of the nicer hotel bars I've spent time in.

I can only talk about the bar as I didn't have any food ordered. The waitress seemed pretty overwhelmed with the amount of the persons in the lounge, didn't follow up with requests. After waiting over 15 minutes, I just went to the bar and bought it myself.It's a beautiful location in a great historical building.

This month's Yelp's Boozin' and Schmoozin' event brought us to the Monarch Lounge on the second level of the lobby area at the Milwaukee Hilton Hotel. It was my third visit to the Monarch Lounge, and I haven't figured out why this place isn't packed every night, other than perhaps, people just don't know it's there. We had a Yelp event last year, I think, to learn about the Wednesday Whiskey tastings that probably could have gone well with some promoting. They don't do it anymore and none of the staff I talked to even knew it once existed.The lounge is very classy looking, with high end furnishings, a fireplace and a piano, but the prices are not high end, at least no more than any other downtown lounge.The food is pretty good, too. I attended Milwaukee's first Taste & Toast event a few months back and chose Monarch Lounge from the list of participating businesses. My friend and I ordered the short rib with gnocchi, the crab cake, truffle fries, and a pear and wagyu salad. All were excellent and perfectly executed dishes!They recently launched Maki Mondays. Sushi chefs have a counter in the lounge where they make sushi from a limited menu. The rolls ranged from $6 to $10 and most rolls, if not all, were 6 pieces each. I ordered the Spicy Tuna ($6) and the California Roll ($6), since Josh B pointed out that the California Roll here was made with real crab. Both rolls were good and the seafood in each piece was ample. I did not feel cheated, but I also didn't feel like I was eating some of the best sushi in town, to be honest. However, The flavors were good and I think the value was good, too. I would return for Maki Monday.The appetizers are 50% during Happy Hour, which runs from 5:00-7:00 weeknights, so I also tried the bacon-wrapped steak and the truffle parmesan fries. The steak came with two dipping sauces, which I belive were a bearnaise and comething closer to a steak sauce. The fries also came with a dipping sauce, but there was so much flavor on the fries, I couldn't really isolate the flavor of the sauce, other than it tasted good.Monarch Lounge is one of Milwaukee's best kept secrets IMHO, and I'm pretty sure they don't want to be. Take a pass on the Miller Time Tub and venture upstairs to Monarch Lounge to give it a try.

I had a drink here today after dinner. Very nice decor and prompt service. Good drink menu.I could do without the large screen TVs and the too loud background music (when the piano player isn't there), though. Good enough that I will definitely be back soon.

an old school looking swanky hotel lounge...the way "lounges" were really meant to look. High Windows covered in long gauzy curtains, big cushiony chairs, lots of gold and chandeliers. Its at the top of a big stairway in the Hilton City Centre.old school lounges are nice and all, but sushi makes just about everything better. They've added a "maki monday" happy hour series to take advantage of sushi's beneficial properties, and have a nice appetizer-sushi selection. I was very pleased with the spicy roll I got.I was here for yelp's "boozin and schmoozin'" series, and therefore, (for scientific research, naturally) i tried two of their playfully named cocktails, the monarch muse and oriental affair. Verdict? Don't abandon the muse to have an affair. They were both good but i personally preferred the midori based "muse" to the (i think) cognac based affair.Either way a nice addition to westown.

Met a friend from out of town here to catch up and converse. Another place that I bookmarked that I finally decided to check out. I was in the mood for a couple drinks and an appetizer and they have pretty good happy hour specials. Happy Hour is Monday - Friday from 430-7pm and half off all drinks and appetizers!! Cant beat those prices and great ambiance and atmosphere. Parking can be a little difficult but it's worth it. The calamari was decent, flavorful, roman style with tomatoes, capers, and lemons. Nice size portion. It was tangy and flavorful. The bartender was really cool and poured with a heavy hand but I am not complaining . I had three top shelf drinks and a appetizer under $30. Can't be mad at that! Had a good time and would be back again. Until next time

I'm a fan of classy hotel bars - you never know who you'll run into. An exiled princess from some now-defunct Eastern European country? A mysterious Don Draper type? Or, more typically, some hard drinking Regional Sales Managers shooting Fireball and sucking down Miller Lites - so it was when we visited.The atmosphere is wonderful - lots of deep, cushy sofas and club chairs spread far enough apart to keep conversations private. They've kept and restored the old woodwork and chandeliers which is a nice touch. There's a fireplace too but alas it was not on....I was surprised that there was no option for service other than ordering at the bar on Saturday night, especially since the hotel was pretty busy with events. That plus a cold fireplace was a bit disappointing when you're paying $12 for a drink. I did glance at the wine list and was unimpressed - not much worth drinking there. Our cocktails were well made and the bartender was nice but with just one person working, things took awhile.The space is gorgeous but overall, the Pfister offers a better experience for the same price.

I am a fan of the Hilton City Center hotel. I have stayed there several times and always enjoyed the service and ambiance. Each time, I've attempted to visit the Monarch Lounge lobby bar, because it is so beautiful. But it is often closed and when open, understaffed. On my last visit, on Saturday May 4, however, I finally was able to pay a call. Alas, it was a bad experience. The entire bar was staffed by a single bartender, a short, elderly woman with white shoulder-length hair and glasses. We sat at the bar for 20 minutes but were unable to get a drink or even be acknowledged. I chalked it up to her being overwhelmed. There were about 40 people in the bar and she was all alone. So we left and went to dinner, thinking we'd try the bar again afterwards. We arrived again around 11 p.m. This time, there were just a few people in the bar. So we took seats at the bar, but were again neglected. Not a hello, or a menu. Nothing. The bartender stood with her back to us and talked to friends and colleagues. She was not busy. It became clear to us at that point that she was ignoring us on purpose for some reason. I can't imagine why. My life brought this to the attention of the front desk, but they seemed not to care. I thought the hotel would want this deliberate bad treatment of customers brought to their attention.

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