The Merry Monk - Albany

Absolutely great place. The food is excellent and the staff is really friendly. I'll be coming again when I'm in the area.

While I'm not the biggest Belgian beer fan, I can appreciate the quality that the Merry Monk carries. I really just come here for the Mussels & Duck Wings - worth it for those alone.

Great little Albany gem you probably haven't heard about. Plus great craft beers. The Duck is amazing

Great beers on draft and authentic Belgian foods. The burgers are really good too.

Best French dip and salmon burger in albany hands down!! Awesome beer selection!!

The fries with garlic and herb mayo were amazing! Beer selection was very expansive

This place is wonderful! We loved our server Kate and the food was exquisite! We had the Thai curry mussels, the sausage plate and the Norwegian salmon. All were prepared perfectly and went great with our beer choices as well. What a wonderful evening! Plenty of bang for your buck here as well, big portion sizes and large international and local beer selection.

Been here twice now, once for dinner and once for lunch. They have outdoor seating in the warmer weather and have an excellent beer menu. The food menu is also pretty good. I've enjoyed everything I've had there. A bit pricey for the portion sizes but still a great meal and a good place for a lunch date.

Was there today with my daughter and husband. We all ordered something different and everything was delicious. I got the fish tacos with the potato pancakes. Both were awesome. I got 2 tacos and two potato pancakes. Generous servings. My daughter got the Mediterranean chicken which looked delicious and my husband got the spicy chicken tacos.

Nice bar/restaurant with a German theme. Menu made it hard to pick something because there were so many choices, with some being out of place but it was ok never the less. They have a big drink menu with many types of beer

Had the French dip which was actually a brisket sandwich. The brisket was a little dry but it came with a side of au jus to help.

Good food, service was a bit slow. Nice music, good lighting. Bar a bit poorly stocked but kind people.

Great beer options, limited menu with interesting choices all done well.

Great place, had an awesome oyster special running on Tuesdays, they we're really good.

Bavarian style food and beer. Went here for lunch and tried the meatballs with cherry sauce appetizer. Got two meals out of it, and so tasty! Knowledgeable companions said the beer was good also. I will definitely be back.

Delicious food, hip atmosphere, friendly service. Went here on a Sunday afternoon after noticing McGreary's was packed to the gills with obnoxious Bills fans; Merry Monk was a much better atmosphere for lunch with the wife and daughter! Sausage plate was delicious, and battered cod looked crispy and flavorful and was a generous portion. The assortment of dipping sauces for the fries had quite the variety, and I found a nice level of heat and flavor to the chipotle aioli and spicy ketchup. Our waitress was friendly, attentive, and quirky in a good way. However, one of the waters showed up with a bug in it, and the feta/cucumber/tomato salad came lacking feta. Both of these problems were quickly rectified by our server, but only after we pointed them out. All in all, a great place for a Belgian-inspired lunch, where you can watch the game without the rowdy college kids.

I've had a mixture of experiences there, but overall they have been good. The food, particularly the steak frites, is delicious. They only have belgian beer on tap, however, so consider that if you are not a fan.

Was in the area in search of a cold one after a 3+ hour drive and Yelped this place using my Android phone. Being a fan of Belgian beers, this was a logical choice. It was a Sunday afternoon, around 4PM and finding street parking was a breeze. There wasn't much going on in the area, but this place had a few customers. We walked right in and sat at the bar and were given a beer list to peek at. The bottles range from $6 to $65 in price and while you won't find any sours like Cantillon, the list is still pretty solid nonetheless. They have about 100 bottles and about 15 on draft and we were easily able to find something that suited us. You can get a lot of classics like Ommegang and Duvel here but they also have a lot of the Goose Islands, some Maredsous, and even Unibroue. But if you look past those, the remaining selection is actually quite good. They were out of the first beer I wanted so I settled for a Gavroche French Red ($9) which was actually from France; I've never had it and it was good. My friend was able to get a recommendation from the woman and was pleased as well. People around us were eating but we decided to forego that option and explore another area of town for that. The service wasn't all that great but there was only one young woman working and she was expediting the food and handling the bar so it wasn't much of a surprise there. The food did look good though so if I'm in the area again, I probably would consider eating there. The place seemed clean and had a fun Belgian theme to it. Service is decent as are the prices. Parking was easy. No complaints. Oh and if you are in Saratoga, they have another location there.

Sat outside and had a round of drinks with some food. The meat and cheese board was really good and so we're the fries. Drinks were slow to come out but the waitress was really good and made up for it.

This place has decent food, good staff and, so I've been told, good beer. It's location is perfect for a quick bite before an event at one of the many locations downtown, or for an evening it with friends.

Good restaurant with a large variety of burgers, sandwiches, and other types of bar food. Good beer choices. Nice for lunch or dinner. Recommend the fish tacos or fish sandwich special.

Great place to go after a concert with the kitchen open for food until 11:30. Very casual and pub like. Interesting assortment of mostly Belgian beers too!

Wednesday special is buy 1 pound of mussels get a second pound free. The blue cheese and bacon mussels are the best I've ever had.

This place surprised me. I expected a bar instead I found a great beer selection, home made fry dips (try the garlic!), and a fabulous variety of steamed mussels.

Delicious mussels, swing by on 2 for 1 Wednesdays. If you like Belgian beers the Merry Monk has a good selection.

The food and services is a bit hit or miss which sis the only reason they would not get 5 starts. They have Bavarian style food and beer. I have a been for dinner only not lunch.

They had good food and good beer choices, unfortunately I heard they have been closed and property seized for unpaid taxes.

Great beer options, menu sounded great but good was just ok.

Great food. Had a big table (12) and service struggled a bit. Would definitely come back.

Came here for a quick bite and drink before they closed after an event at the Times Union Center. This seemed to be the only bar in the area that wasn't packed to the windows and obnoxiously loud, so in we went. The beer list is extensive, albeit a little bit expensive. With the selections they had, the price was justified. For food, we went with the duck drummers and the frites. I thought that the food was good, I was impressed with the flavor of the duck drummers and it was a good sized portion for three of us. The atmosphere is a little plain but nice, and they have big windows on two sides so that you can look out to the streets. I didn't get to take it in too much as we weren't here long, but from what I saw I would definitely come back to give it a full visit.

I've been to the Merry Monk several times now and it has been always been a good time. The extensive beer menu always has something that looks interesting and I've had some great food too. The mussels menu is worth checking out and the food is produced with care and consideration for good sauces and presentation. The atmosphere is rather like a pub, but the food and drink is a cut above the rest. Lorre-Bob sez: check it out. The have great specials like happy hour and 2 for 1 mussels deals.

Great service & yummy mussels. Wednesday special buy 1 lb. get 1lb. free! They are delicious, I got the blue cheese/bacon & Thai curry. Excellent choice of beer too!

Really good food. Service was just ok. I would go again...

Meh. I didn't try the food but the tap list was slacking. The paint scheme is very Belgian.

Great crew service, very apologetic with their mismatched drink menu and those on the board. The board has the latest selections. The burger was ok, and the fries are not as good compare to the one in Saratoga. As for the Thai curry mussels, it can't come close to Saratoga's original version, the one before the change of chef. I was secretly hoping that Albany's might had retained the old flavor. Putting that aside, the Thai curry itself is ok, although nothing amazing but also nothing much to complain about. One thing to note, it is summer right now and the inside of the restaurant is full of house flies, not the greatest experience to dine with.

The 2-4-1 Wednesday Mussels were well worth the money. On the downside - the iced tea tasted like chlorinated city water straight from the tap.

Food great. Service slow, but very busy. Meals arrived not hot. Likely sat for a white waiting on server. Friendly staff. Fair prices

I've been to the location in Albany only and it's been hit or miss. They are known for their mussels and the first time I had them they were fantastic, but this last time they were just mediocre. They have an extensive beer menu, with a few gluten free options as well. The atmosphere is cozy and inviting and the staff is always curteous.

Went for the duck and they were all out of duck. My black and blue burger had 1 small piece of bacon and this blue cheese style paste as a topping that was pretty tasteless in my opinion. Wasn't a very good burger either. Also got the sausage platter advertised as 2 sausages and got 1 sausage Hmmm. Brussel sprout appetizer was bland and over oily. I'll try again if they have the duck, otherwise no thanks.

I went here two days ago with a friend from out of town to grab a quick bite after she sat for the first day of her NY Bar exam. I'd been to Merry Monk about a dozen times before with coworkers and each time I'd had a great dining experience. This time however, I received the worst service I've ever received as a restaurant patron in my life. We ordered frites and oysters and it took about 40 minutes for our food to arrive. About 20 minutes into the wait I realized that they'd seated us directly underneath a leak in the ceiling. When I got the check I saw that they'd charged me for an item I'd initially ordered but canceled because of the long wait. I argued with the manager for about 5 minutes before deciding that it wasn't worth it and just paying the full bill. Every other time I've gone to this establishment I've been with White coworkers. Me, and the friend accompanying me, are both African-American. I am not saying that the abysmal service I received was because of my race...but it certainly made me wonder. I will never patronize this establishment again and would not recommend it to anyone at all concerned with quality of service.