Two Hippies Beach House - Camelback and 5th st

Brien -

As of late, I've not been going out as much, so not as much blogging, as I'm sure you've seen :)  Well yesterday, I had to take my kitten, Ms Joker (dont ask... long story why she's named Joker) to get spayed. They told me to pick her up at 5, and I got there, got her, and headed home. Well on the way there, I passed this place - Two Hippies Beach House. Another friend and I had been talking about trying this place for a while, especially since the atmosphere was incredibly cool looking! Outdoor patio seating, neon lights that say Vegas (fave place!), etc. Just a cool looking place. Theres a little rat-race entrance, and lots of seating even in "front" of the place. Its just an awesome looking little place.

 So I get in, and I'm waiting at the counter for someone to come... and i'm waiting... and I'm waiting... After about 5 minutes I see the cook in the back and he motions for someone, but no one comes. I'm was starting to get a little impatient but finally the girl came. Finally....

Their menu is very easy. Either tacos or burritos (I hear hennifer lopez in my head...) with your choice of filling. I dont remember them all, but I wanted fish tacos, so I got 3. One thing is the price. SUPER cheap - $1.50 for 1 taco, or $4.50 for 3. That'd be why I got 3 ! I also got a "loaded chicken chz crisp" whcih had a crapload of stuff. The drink special of the day was blood orange lemonade for 3 bucks. When they take your order, they just write everything on a brown paper bag, you pay, and then you wait. 

I went ahead and went back outside to check on my kitteh (poor kitteh!!!) and luckily I wasn't parked far away. I meandered back and forth between my car and the seating area waiting for my food. I didn't know to go around to the other side, so I had no idea where I'd pick up my stuff, so I looked around. Up on the patio, there's a sign that says, "Pick up food here". I'm glad I looked around, otherwise I'd have had no idea! They should really have some sort of sign saying, "pick up food other side" or something! 

So I get my food, in my brown paper bag :) and head to the car and get home. One thing I noticed VERY quickly was that the cheese crisp, which was folded over (really a quesadilla), was on a paper plate. Normally, I dont mind eating off of paper. Not a big deal. Well here, the freaking thign was soggy and hard to carry. That really bothered me. So I lift up the foil to look underneath, and the filling was completely running out. That really bothered me, but I guess at the same time, its good because you dont have to worry about them skimping! Maybe they should go to stryafoam if they're not against it, being hippies and all.

I got home, carried my baby in, and started munching. I started with the crisp. There was TONS of stuff in it. Tomatoes, guacamole (I think on the menu its listed as "avacado", but I'll let it slide..." cheese, chicken and randomness all mixed together on a tortilla. I took my first couple of bites and was like... ok... this isn't bad... and thats kinda the feeling that stayed with me. Just "eh". There wasn't anything in it that really slapped me in the face and called me Judy. I'm not sure if the mixture of flavors was the problem or there was just a general lack of seasoning, but it needs something. Hippies, if you are reading this, PLEASE, do something about this. This could be a GREAT item. Although, at 4bucks for a GIGANTOR crisp, can I complain all THAT much? 

I then moved onto the fish tacos. The tacos were, to say the least... interesting. NOT bad-interesting. They're pretty good. I liked the fact that the fish isn't deep fried. Instead its like they took white fish and flaked it off. Now, the bad part... they put beans... on a fish taco. Ew. Beans + fish = NOT good. (To me anyway!) I think they do this for simplicity though. ALL the tacos are the same. They all have cabbage, beans, cheese, onions and cilantro. I might be missing something but you get the general gist. 

The blood orange lemonade was actually really good. The problem? It was 3 bucks. For 1 glass. No. No no no no no. I'm sorry, thats WAY too much. And it didn't taste like it was nectar from the Gods. 

Overall, I did like the Beach House. And I definitely want to go back to try their other proteins. But its not something I'm planning on rushing out and getting to ASAP.

I give Beach House 3 1/2 pieces of not-deep-fried whitefish out of 5!

Urban Tea Loft - Chandler, AZ

Brien -

I'd been to this place previously three times. The first two times were at the beginning of the summer, and the last time was recently on a saturday. This past saturday I actually didn't go with Kristi, so this is just a review of my own. 

Wow. Thats all I have to say. What a change. Previous to this, the food was great, they'd used high quality ingredients, and everything was great! This past time has been amazingly bad. Its like they went to Sams Club and threw together anything they could. Incredibly bad.

Soul food saturdays? I thought I was in a tea house. If I wanted soul food, I'd go to someone who knows soul food - Lolo's or Mrs White's. The mac and cheese was the worst mac and cheese I've had since KFC. It was dried out. How long had they had the mac and cheese sitting there? The sweet potatoes tasted like it had about 5 pounds of sugar in them and had a strange maple undertone. I've never tasted maple syrup in Mrs White's sweet potatoes. Though the sauce they use for the sweet potatoes might be good on pancakes...

The tea was good, but nothing I can't get cheaper at Adagio. (Adagio.com) And I can get the "Ingenuitea" pots cheaper there too.

Seriously, if you want real soul food, go to Lolo's. Skip this place. Its not worth the hefty price they charge...

Eliana's - 24th St & McDowell

Brien :

The other day, Kristi and I were trying to decide where the heck to go for our next review, and we went round and round, til I rememebered Eliana's. Eliana's is salvadorian for "good pupusas". ok thats not true, but i'd like to think that! I had been to Eliana's only once before, and it'd been over a year ago, but I knew kristi had been wanting to try it, so I suggested it, and she immediately said, "duh!" We were on for some salvadorian!

After work, I met her and our friend Rex there. Its right on 24th st just north of McDowell. Easy to find with the bright blue sign, that says, "Eliana's"! (Who woulda thought!) When you first walk into the place, its very... the only word I can think of is kitchy. I'm not sure thats entirely right, but there are knick-knacks and brick-a-brack everywhere. Very homey feeling, I think!

I was the first one there, and since I had been there before, I went ahead and got a tamarindo drink, which I love. The tamarindo drink is basically tamarind juice and cirtusy type juices. I'm a citrus-WHORE so it was awesome :) Very good! As I drank my drinkie-drink, Kristi and Rex arrived and we got started.

Kristi, of course will speak of her dishes, but for my dinner, I got their combo appetizer platter + 1 extra pupusa and an extra order of posteles. The combo platter has 1 pupusa on it already, along with 1 order of posteles and a tamale.

We got our food, and immediately, I started nomnomnoming on the pupusa. It was absolutely incredible! They give you some cole slaw and some tomato based salsa to go on the pupusas (or so I've read) and I just rolled the thing up, put some salsa and cole slaw and ate away. I was definitely in pig heaven. Next up was the tamale. I cut into the tamale and was slightly disappointed. It has way more masa (do the salvadorians really use masa for this?) than any filler. The filler it did have seemed like patato. I could be wrong on that but thats what it tasted and had the texture of. Not bad, mind you, but not great. Just... there. The posteles were INCREDIBLE. deep fried half moons of beef, potatoes, and spices were all together in a dough that was hard to place. These were comfort foods for the masses, let me tell you. I thoroughly enjoyed every bite, and had lots to take home!

One side note, I did get beans on my platter, and the beans were ok, though a little... bland for my taste. They really needed something to kick it up a little.. But for everything I got, the total was just above 10 bucks - not bad for dinner + lots of leftovers! :D

I give Eliana's 2 1/2 half-eaten pupusas out of 5!

Padre's - Camelback & 10th St

Brien :

Every Thursday night, I go out with a big group of friends that I have met through work. Last Thursday, I invited Kristi out with us to go to a place called, "Padre's" on Camel back and 10Th st. The signage is hard to miss, and I'd been saying that I'd wanted to go there for a long time. From the sign, it looked sorta nouveau, but I couldn't tell until we actually got inside. One thing you'll learn about me quickly is that I definitely prefer little hole in the wall places over nouveau places - or "hip and trendy" places. This is because I'm a schlub and when I go into one of these hip and trendy places, I tend to feel out of place. Hole in the wall type places dont care what you look like - they just want to serve you good food!

So Kristi and I arrived there, and we were seated at a table for 8. The waiter, who was a little sassy man-clam, let me tell you, took our drink orders first. I got a "mojo martini", which consisted of Coconut & mango rums shaken with orange, pineapple and cranberry juice. After a short wait, a few of our friends arrived, and I got my drink. The drink was GREAT! Strong enough that it tasted good, but not overly alcoholic tasting. I was in heaven.

While we were waiting, Kristi got the chips and guacamole. Once it arrived, we all dived onto it like it was a life raft, and we were sinking fast. The guacamole had a great avacado flavor that wasn't overpowered by much else. There seemed to be a good substance to it.

We were still waiting for a few more friends so I decided to then order the Cilantro Mousse. Once that arrived, again, we all dived on it as if it were the last remaining food on earth, and WOW. I've never had anything so strongly cilantro, yet not slap me in the face and call me a bitch. It was wonderful! The mousse was a thick substance so it held up on the chip. When you took a bite of it, the cilantro really did a song and dance on your tongue, making sure to thrust its cane directly into the roof of your mouth before going down your throat! SO GOOD!

By this time, everyone had arrived, so we all ordered. My dinner order was yet another chip and (insert something here) dish... I got the Cazuela De Queso Fundido. When I ordered it, I didn't realize at the time that it was basically a spinach dip... When it arrived at the table, I was severely disappointed, to say the least. *PLEASE NOTE* The disappointment was *MY* fault for not asking the waiter. Here is what the description says - melted Oaxaca cheese, spinach, roasted garlic and poblano chiles, topped with spicy sausage. For some reason, all that translated in my head as basically a chori-queso dip with spinach. I should have asked. I took a few bites and by that time, I was almost full anyway. The few bites I took definitely had a lot of spinach, and I could taste the pablano, so it was all good, and definitely had what it said it had in it, but I just wish I'd gotten something different. Overall though, the experience at Padre's was very very good! And I highly recommend it to anyone looking for mexican thats a little "higher" class!

I give Padre's 3 1/2 chips topped with cilantro mousse out of 5!

Lolo's Chicken and Waffles - Yuma and Central Ave

Brien:

Last night, Kristi and I went to Lolo's Chicken and Waffles. OH EM GEE SO GOOD!

Kristi and I had been trying to decide all day what we wanted to do. We usually will get together on Tuesday nights and head out on the town to grab some food of some sort. We'd been bouncing ideas back and forth when we'd initially decided on another place (It escapes me now which). Suddenly, a beam of light shone from the heavens onto my forehead, and low and behold, I had the idea for Lolo's. I had been there once about ... oh 8 months ago maybe? But Kristi had never been, but had been wanting to go! So I suggested it to her over IM, and she immediately said, "YES!" We made plans to meet there and after many mishaps for me on the 10 and the 17, (dont ask) I arrived to park right behind her!

My entire family is from the south (Arkansas), but I've never had southern food the way they make it in southern-food-restaurants. Even though I was raised on my grandma's southern cooking, having southern from a place like Lolo's is an entirely different experience. With that in mind, Kristi and I strode into the restaurant. Immediately, the place felt like it welcomed you in. One waitress (who I *think* is Taytay? but could be wrong!) told us to go ahead and seat ourselves. You can really tell the layout of the place used to be a house - there's a long narrow area off to the left side as you walk in, and a few other "rooms" with tables around. I have to admit, its a very comfortable place to be. There were people here from every walk of life, including caucasions, african americans, and even an asian girl! I felt very at home.

Immediately, another waitress (this one I couldn't identify) asked what we wanted to drink. I asked for the southern sweet tea. I love sweet drinks, and I thought this would be right up my alley. Kristi and I bantered back and forth about what we'd have. When the waitress brought the tea, I immediately loved it - it had a VERY sweet kick to it, which I LOVED. Its not for everyone, but I'm a sweet junkie. You should see what I do to my hot tea! Hehe :)

Anyway, I ordered the special that had two fish + 2 sides and cornbread. It was $12.50 (Sorry I can't get you the name - its on the second page at the top! Their online menu isn't currently working for me. Adobe eats my brains for dinner! And I'm an IT guy! I digress.) I chose the mac and cheese and cheesy grits.

After about 10 minutes our food came, and I was immediately in heaven! 2 big pieces of fish and 1 "finger" of fish came with two big bowls, 1 each of cheesy grits and mac and cheese. The first thing I dove into was the grits. I've never had cheesy grits before, and these were great! Pretty cheesy (though theres never enough cheese for me!) but with lots of butter the flavor was awesome! Definitely I'll get these again! The mac and cheese, again, stellar! Very thick and definitely cheesy!



I got to the fish next, and had a little apprehension. You'll find through this blog, that when I order something, I almost always order only boneless things. I'd had a tramatic experience when I was younger after I'd choked on a catfish bone, and since then I've been skittish about bones. Even ones I can't fit in my mouth (ala chicken breast bones, et al). But I dove into the fish anyway, to test it out. My first couple bites were bone-free and I added some of the rooster hot sauce on the table (YAY SPICY!!!!) It was really good! The cornmeal breading was insanely good! As I was eating, I got a few more bones here and there but I tried to not think about it and work around it! In the end I still had two pieces of fish left, which I gave to Kristi to take home.

In all the rush of eating, after drinking all my sweet tea, I decided to try the kool-aid. Oh wow! So good! I loved it! It was the red fruit punch, and man did it have the sugar in it! It was made just as I'd make it, if I were in the kool-aid making business! (And selling it to children to rot their teeth!)

I so badly wanted to try the red velvet cake, but I was so full from all the other food, I just couldn't get a piece. That and they were closing. Their hours? 10A - 7P and we were cutting it close to that 7P. I definitely will give Lolo's another go very soon - I loved everything I had, even with the bones. Next time I think I'm going to actually get chicken and waffles, and BRAVE my evil hatred of bones and get some drumsticks :)

I give Lolo's Chicken and Waffles 4 1/2 fish bones out of 5.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Kristi:

Let me just start out by saying I love me some fried chicken. When I pass the deli at the grocery store, and the smell of fried chicken is hanging in the air, I have to make sure I don't slide and fall in a puddle of my own drool.

Brien suggested Lolo's on Tuesday, which is funny because Monday night I was obsessing over fried chicken. So I agreed on our dining choice wholeheartedly. I had never been to Lolo's but had heard so many good things.

I bypassed the kool-aid and sweet tea and just got a jar of water. I knew I wasn't going to drink much, so water was fine by me. I tasted Brien's sweet tea though when he got it. Wow...you want some tea with that sugar? I know that's how it's supposed to taste, but I drink my tea with a couple of Sweet 'N Lows, not 1/2 cup of sugar. I tasted the kool-aid too. They certainly don't water it down. It was good and strong, and of course, sweet.

I got the combo plate ($12.50) that Brien mentioned (that we can't think of what it's actually called on the menu...what kind of dingbat reviewers are we?!). I got mine with the southern fried chicken and chose the mac & cheese and fries as my side. We got our orders very quickly, and as soon as the server put my plate in front of me, I salivated like one of Pavlov's dogs. I had been engaged in a conversation with Brien, and I totally lost my train of thought. The smell....the glorious smell. I could bottle it and dab it behind my ears.



My three pieces of chicken (wing, breast & thigh) were sitting on the bed of fries with the bowl of mac & cheese and corn muffin sharing the plate. I started with the wing. Absolute perfection. It took me about 5 seconds to declare that it was the best fried chicken I'd ever eaten. It was so simple, but done so well. No 11 herbs and spices. Just lightly dredged chicken, fried to crispy perfection. Then I tasted the mac & cheese. Sooooo good. I'm not a huge fan of mac & cheese, but I wanted to try theirs because I heard it was so good. I wasn't disappointed. No boxed mixes here, folks. It's the real deal. The fries weren't anything special, but they went well with the meal. The corn muffin was tasty.

I also tried a bite of Brien's cheese grits and his fish. Both were very good, but it put me in an immediate panic: which would I get next time I visit Lolo's? The chicken? The fish? Both were delicious.

Our service was friendly, and the only complaint I had was that we had to ask for our to-go boxes twice. Not a big deal because we weren't really in a hurry. I took enough food home for two more meals.



I'll give Lolo's 4 1/2 greasy chicken fingers out of 5.

Los Dos Molinos - Baseline and Central

Brien:

Hey everyone!

So this'll be my first post with an ACTUAL review! As Kristi said in her introduction, I'm not a professional so this is just my opinion. But I eat out... almost every night of the week - so I think I know just a little about restaurants! (From a completely non-culinary perception, of course!)

First up is Los Dos Molinos. I had been talking to my aunt, mom and grandma about this place for a while. A friend had introduced me to it almost a year ago and I've been dying to go again since. I had ALSO been talking about a family outting for a little while, and was able to wrangle everyone up to try this place. I met them down at Big Lots in the area, then led them to this place, and as I remember, LDM did NOT disappoint. (Me anyway!)

We were seated at a booth very near the door which wasn't a problem. What we did find disconcerting was the fact that no matter what anyone said, you could hear regardless of where they were. The only people you couldn't hear...? The people at your table! Unfortuantely, we chose to go at about noon, which wouldn't have been so bad initially, but there was a LARGE party that was sitting less than 3 tables down from us, and the accoustics made every laugh sound like the person was right at our table. We were literally yelling across the table at each other.

Of course any good mexican restaurant worth its salt has chips and salsa, and LDM was right there with them just a few moments after we got there. There was a red and green, both with lots of flavor. Now if you're reading this, I'm sure you've heard about the reptuation that LDM has for being extremely hot, and the salsas are just a taste of things to come heat-wise. I bit into the first chip with the red and was immediately reaching for the water. HOT! Caliente! It was AWESOME! I'm a HUGE fan of spicy food, and of course this was RIGHT up my alley. My entire family is, in fact, and my aunt and mom were in heaven! My aunt said that the red was her favorite, and my mom liked the green - I bounced between them both. The green was definitely the more chunky, with bits of pepper and onion. The red looked like it had crushed peppers in it also, definitely obviously hot.

The waiter came and took our order. My grandma (who compares all mexican places to Arriba's, and always gets a cheese crisp) got, surpise, a cheese crisp. I warned her to get it extra crispy as she likes it as crispy as possible, but she did not. (More on this to come). My aunt got a combo plate that included a taco and a tostada. My mom chose the ground beef taco salad, and I got the machaca mexican pizza. I also ordered a lime margarita on the rocks. My aunt and mom had iced tea to drink, and my grandmother had water.

Now, a few snags that were noticed right away. My family (including myself) are always looking for values. One thing we noticed is they are charging .75 for refills of pop (soda for you southwesterners) and ice tea. This is the first I've seen of this, and I hope the last. Esp in a place thats known for its very spicy food. To me, though not this drastic, its a slight slap in the face. "We hope you love our hot food. But dont think you can cool your mouth down with a beverage of your choice without paying!" Maybe I'm just a little penny pincher that way, but I can go through 2-3 ice teas in one sitting (arnold palmers) and with hot food it becomes even moreso. Another kick in the pants is that they charge a buck everytime you want more chips and/or salsa. ($1 for chips, $1 per bowl of salsa.) If you want chips and both kinds of salsa, thats another 3 bucks. Thats just disappointing to me, to say the least.

And then, an ADDITIONAL snag that really made me wonder was, my aunt had originally ordered the two taco platter, but asked to have ground beef instead of shredded beef. She's not a big fan of shredded beef in general. The waiter said that they do not have ground beef for tacos. I looked at him kind of funny, considering they DO have ground beef for taco salads... I didn't quite understand. But we all frowned and continued on.

I first got my margarita (along with the rest of the non-descript drinks) and tasted it. I am not a huge drinker, so when I took my first drink, I was very impressed. I was able to drink it without tasting an overpowering tequila/alcohol flavor. I took a few more drinks and was pleasantly suprised that it was so mild. I could drink it as I would pop or arnold palmers.... so I did. And then I realized after a few drinks that I was getting tipsy. Since I was driving i chose to back off, but I say now - if you are not driving, GET A MARGARITA! They're awesome :)

The food came out next after about an approximately 10 minute wait. The first things were my grandma's cheese crisp and my mexican pizza. My grandma was immediately disappointed. Refering to the crisp, she said, "Its not crispy at all". I looked and indeed, it was very limp. Basically its just a large tortilla covered in cheese, and unfortunately, LDM was skimpy with their cheese covering... Much like Seth over at http://www.feastinginphoenix.com/ , I can't understand how a restaurant can call a something a cheese crisp if its not... crispy.. It just boggles my mind! After a few bites, it was apparent that she was unhappy. This, however, is not an unusual phoenomenon. Her favorite mexican place, as stated above, is Arriba's, which is good... but... Well you get the idea :)

When the waiter set down my mexican pizza, my aunt and mom immediately said, "oohh Bri that looks GOOD!" And it indeed it did! A large torilla crust was covered with machaca beef, enchalada sauce, and large hunks of tomatoes with cheese covering the top of everything. I looked at it and immediately drooled. I love machaca and its so hard to find good machaca around here. Immediately, my aunt and mom wanted to try, so I cut each off a piece and gave to them. "Oh Bri that is REALLY good" my mom exclaimed immediately. My aunt was just a little more critical. "I think I'd like it better if it didn't have as much enchalada sauce, but it still has a good flavor". I dove in after hearing their thoughts and was immediately satisfied with this choice. The machaca and enchalada sauce both had a heavy kick to them, heatwise, but moreover, the machaca was tender and melted in my mouth. The sauce itself had a very smoky quality to it that immediately endeared me to it. I love smoky flavors, and heat + smoky = heaven for me! I loved it! I picked off the tomatoes, as I'm not a huge fan of moderately cooked, large chunked tomatoes, and gave them to my grandma. (Who should grow a veggie patch, with as much veggies as she eats!)

Next out was my moms taco salad and my aunts combo platter. My moms taco salad was a large crispy shell with 4 sides that had one side broken out and laying flat. The other 3 made up the rest of the bowl. The piece that was laying flat was covered in guacamole and sour cream, and I have to say, very generous portions of both. I am impressed when a restaurant doesn't skimp on those kinds of items. The taco salad itself was a mound of shredded lettuce, whole beans, tomatoes (again, big chunky tomatoes), and ground beef. All this was topped with a dressing, which I unfortunately didn't catch what kind. (My apologies, my first review! Sorry!) My mother immediately exclaimed, "The beef has a REALLY good flavor! Its too bad they wouldn't put the ground beef in the tacos!" to my aunt. I tried my moms gauc (as she doesn't like it) and was very impressed with the flavor. Slightly chunky, lots of avacado flavor.

And last my aunts combo platter came to the table. A large taco and tostada sat on the left side of the plate, along with a small generic salad (shredded lettuce and tomatoes), beans and rice. She took her first bite of her taco, and made a funny face. I asked her what was wrong, and she broke a piece of the shell off for me. Tasting it, I noticed immediately - it tasted like they'd decided to keep the shells someplace that lots of air and light and anything else that turns a shell into a stale, icky piece of cardboard. I made the same face she did and immediately said, "we'll get the waiter on that." She continued, "The meat and the filling of the taco is really good, but the shell is really bad" she said and frowned. I could understand.

After the disappointment of the taco, I think she was hesitant to continue, but being the trooper (and hungry person) she was, she did. "Oohh The tostada is really good!" I was happy to hear that the platter had been salvaged. After a little while I asked her about the rice and beans. "The beans are very good, and they have whole beans in there, but the rice is bland and has little seasoning to it. Its also slighty dry and you know how I love rice." Indeed I do, so I was sad to note that LDM didn't pass the rice test.

Once we flagged down a waiter, we told him about the taco. Before we could even finish and say it was stale, he immediately said, "i'll go get you a new one". It was as if he already knew that the taco shells were stale. He brought my aunt a new taco within a few minutes, and she tried that one. "Oh this is much better. MUCH." She then took some of the red salsa, doused the taco in it, and munched away happily.

After we'd all finished our food, we sat back, full and were chatting about the place. My first question was, "So would you guys come back?" My mother immediately exclaimed, "yes! but I would get what you got!" My aunt said, "I would, but I wouldn't make a special trip. If I'm down this way, then absolutely this would be a first stop." My grandmother... well... She can keep her Arriba's! :)

My aunt snatched the check immediately before any one of us could see it, so I dont ahve a total but I believe it was in the ball park of 45-50$ for all of us, that includes 1 alcoholic drink and 1 refill of chips + salsa. An "above average" value considering my gripes above, however not spectacular.

Good points : VERY good food overall - very spicy, good flavor - Fun atmosphere if you dont mind loud. Moderately good prices.

Bad points : At times the waitstaff tended to disappear into thin air - substitutions? We dont do no stinking substitutions - You want heat? that extra! You drink lots? THAT EXTRA! - When the flavors of something were not good, they were really NOT good. (Rice, etc)

Overall, I'd give LDM 3 3/4's cheese crisps out of 5.

Monti's La Casa Vieja

Kristi:

Yesterday, our office had a lunch outing at Monti's in downtown Tempe (on the corner of Mill Ave & Rio Salado Pkwy). There were 11 of us, and we had made a reservation.

Everyone in our group except for myself and 1 other person had been to Monti's before. I was really excited to try it out. It seems like everyone and their brother have been to Monti's, considering it's been there since the beginning of time. The place is a lot bigger inside than I expected. It's kind of dark and dungeon-y, but I guess that's part of the charm. The hostess led us through the restaurant to a room near the back...or I guess it could be the front if you come through the back door :P

I was happy to see that we were going to have 2 servers for our group. They were very friendly with a welcome splash of humor. Our beverages came quickly after ordering them (it seemed like we alternated between iced tea and diet coke around the table - and they gave us pitchers for self-serve refills). One person in our party ordered some fried zucchini for appetizers for all of us to share. They came out about 10 minutes after we got our drinks. I love fried zucchini, but I only had 1 piece because I didn't want to spoil my lunch (read: make a pig of myself). It was good...hot and crunchy, and not greasy. It came with ranch for dipping, but it had more of a consistency of mayonnaise. The server also brought us baskets of their roman bread. I'm not supposed to eat bread (rules of the lapband), but I had to try it because it had rosemary on it, and I LOVE rosemary. It was delicious! Pre-lapband, I probably would've eaten a whole basket of it. I must say, it was the highlight of the meal.

The server(s) took our orders, and it took a disappointing 40 minutes to receive our lunches. Not good when you're on your lunch HOUR from work. I had ordered the 5 ounce filet mignon and chose the onion rings as my side ($9.95). I ordered my steak medium, but it came out well done. Ick. Unfortunately, three others in our party also had overcooked steaks. We didn't say anything to them at the time because it took us so long to get our food in the first place that we wouldn't have had time for them to cook us new steaks. Even if my steak would have been cooked as I had ordered it, it was just ordinary. I wasn't impressed. I've had better steaks at a chain restaurant.

I understand that when you have 11 people in the party that it's difficult to cook the food so that it's all up at the same time, but the cook obviously didn't know the meaning of "carry over cooking". When the check was presented, one of us asked to speak to the manager. When the manager-on-duty came to our table, the problem with the steaks was brought up. He asked us if we had told the server when he came back to check on us, and we said no and explained our time crunch. The MOD basically chastised us for not bringing it up at the time we discovered the problem and basically said "what do you want me to do about it now". We brought it up mostly to let them know that the cook needs some more practice at getting steaks off the grill in time. We weren't looking for a free lunch. He graciously took $2 off each of the 4 steaks that were overcooked.

Oh! And I have to mention that we had one vegetarian in our group. At the time we were placing our orders, she asked what the soup of the day was (chicken noodle and split pea). She asked if there was meat in the split pea, and the server said no. So she ordered the soup/salad/bread combo with the split pea. When she got her soup, she noticed right away that it had ham in it. Last I checked, ham was meat. She excused herself from the table and went to hunt down the server and asked again about the soup because she swore she saw ham in it. The server then said that yes, there was ham in it....and would she like the chicken noodle instead? Seriously? She declined, and they took the soup off the bill. I shared my onion rings with her so she wouldn't starve.

Needless to say, I was disappointed with my first visit to historic Monti's and will most likely not return. I'm sure they have hundreds of other satisfied patrons though, so my lack of business isn't going to put them out of business.

I give Monti's 3 out of 5 filets.