A very famous restaurant in New Orleans actually has a table set up in the kitchen so diners can watch all the hustle and bustle of a world-renowned chef and staff working their magic.

Montana Grille unintentionally has a similar situation with one of their booths.

Unfortunately, their chef and staff isn’t world-renowned, and sitting in this booth wasn’t an experience I would choose again.

With that said, there are plenty of great tables and booths in this handsome western-motif authentic log structure. I’m sure Montana Grille would have seated us elsewhere if I would have complained. So why mention it? Only to suggest that in some restaurants some diners may actually prefer to sit near the kitchen once in a while just to observe. If you are one of these folks, you may want to request this booth.

Montana Grille is a truly outstanding restaurant, from the grounds surrounding the building to the decorative accessories inside. Surrounding three tall pine flagpoles are river pebbles and nearby is a huge compass of inlaid stone. The two huge doors invite you into one of the most unusual buildings in town.

Make sure to take a minute to look around before you are seated. Notice the two huge stone wood-burning fireplaces. One features an elk head mounted above it. High along the back wall is an old-time canoe, and the rotisserie is surrounded by copper. Lots of cast iron highlights the cooking area. Don’t miss the black iron artwork featuring elk, deer and wolves and pine trees. It’s all custom-built Wild West décor.

Obviously, the menu is strictly American, with such offerings as cowboy sirloin, Jackson Hole filet, West Texas barbecue and the like. To the left of the kitchen along the back wall as you enter is a rotisserie that always has a bunch of chickens over an open fire just waiting to please your palate.

My companion choose the Big Sky shrimp. Eight jumbo shrimp with a light tempura batter are served with a side of sweet and sour Thai pepper sauce. This makes for a very interesting and tasty combination. The shrimp lived up to their billing as jumbo, making this a very filling meal with a golden and truly light crispiness.

I choose the specialty for the night, Mac’s smothered pork chop. Here’s a rave: This is a Friday and Saturday night-only special. If you need to change your dining plans from another night, just to have this chop, it is well worth the effort. If you have to wait in line because it’s Friday or Saturday night (even though we didn’t), it is worth the wait.

I loved this pork chop. The menu bills it as a 12-ounce center cut chop, pan fried, then baked in homemade gravy. The cliché &#8220you can cut it with your fork” is absolutely true in this case. The chop was an inch thick and I never used my knife. Obviously this pig was never driven across the plains by cowpokes. It was delicious from first bite to last.

The only downside was the garlic mashed potatoes I had as the side dish. I’ve eaten Montana Grille’s mashed potatoes before, and whoever prepared the potatoes this particular night was having an off night. You know in the movie &#8220Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” where Richard Dreyfuss tries to build a model of a mountain out of mashed potatoes? That’s the consistency mashed potatoes should strive for. These mashed potatoes were more like the lava that would flow from a volcano. They appeared to have been heated in the microwave, which is always a turn-off for me. You can tell this has happened when one end of the potato dish is the correct temperature and the other end is scalding.

For dessert, I had their vanilla Heath Bar ice cream crunch, which is pretty much self-explanatory. It’s hard to mess up ice cream and candy bars with a chocolate topping, so it lived up to its name.

You’ll enjoy Montana Grille’s fine menu and unique surroundings. I recommend you pay them a visit soon, pardner.

Montana Grille

Scottsville Road • 746-9746

Hours: Monday-Thursday: 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Friday: 4 p.m. to 11 p.m.; Saturday: 3 p.m. to 11 p.m.; Sunday: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Lunch Pail daily 11 a.m. to 2. p.m.

Specialties: Rotisserie chicken

Cuisine: American

Price range for dinner: $9.95-$15.95

Libation Situation: full bar

– New restaurants are given an eight-week grace period. Comments can be sent to Managine Editor Mike Alexieff by telephone at 783-3235 or by e-mail at malexieff@bgdailynews.com.