Finally, I was able to try Cafe Monarch. I've been wanting to go there for years! There was a group of 6 of us and we had made our reservation over a month in advance with a request for the patio, but it was inside seating for us. I was kinda bummed because we had heard so much about the patio, but our table was nice and felt like our own little dining room. Our food was delicious-- especially the salmon with squid ink risotto-- everyone that had that cleaned their plates. Dessert was a simple strawberry shortcake type thing, that was SO perfectly sweet and fluffy.
Love the simplicity of the very few options-- you know if they are only making a few things they are doing it right. We had a vegetarian and a gluten-free diner with us and the kitchen impressed them both by creating dishes for them that they could enjoy. Our server on the other hand was totally confused by the dietary needs and continually forget that they had them. He gave a poor representation of what was going on back in the kitchen! We did the wine pairing and he didn't bring the wine in time to drink with the food it was supposed to be paired with (every time). He couldn't remember what was in the dishes-- it was almost painful, we helped him by looking at our menus and reading them for him.
We'll go back for sure, but it IS hard to want to sign up for the same type of service experience-- I hope they can work on that because the food is money.