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| - After reading several on-line reviews of Cafe Monarch promoting its concept of a personal chef for a night, and fantastic food preparations it became a "Must try!" for me. I went with a group of 4 people total (two from out of town) to enjoy chef Chris' creation. We made reservations several weeks prior for a Sunday night. We were hoping for Saturday night, but it was rented out for a private party, which is quite common for this place.
We show up and get seated at our table inside in a little bit of an alcove so we were away from the rest of the tables, and certainly enjoyed the privacy afforded by such placement. Chris comes right over and welcomes us, double checks for food allergies or special preparations (he asked when we made the reservation as well), and opens our bottles of wine (BYOB in case you did not know). He tells us to relax and enjoy ourselves while he prepares the first course of hummus and arugula salad with capers and corn chips. The portions are very large and most of the table did not finish the dish completely, saving room for the main course.
The main course comes out and we have our choice of pork medallions in a citrus pepper glaze or a salmon fillet with a tarragon cream sauce. We get two of each in order to try as much as possible. Neither dish disappointed. The pork was cooked perfectly and tasted like it was dry rubbed with a red pepper mixture and then grilled and topped with a sauce that resembled confetti. As best as we could tell it had a mango and pineapple base with basil, chilies, and a variety of other seasonings. The pork was good enough to stand on its own, but the glaze made it exponentially better.
The salmon was pan fried and topped with a simple cream, sherry, and tarragon mixture. Once again, the protein is more than capable of standing on its own, however the sauce takes it to the next level.
Dessert was a poached pear dish in a burgundy reduction with a chocolate drizzle and a puff pastry, which was mentioned in previous reviews. It was very light, and a perfect ending to our meal.
Overall the meal took about two and a half hours, but we were in no rush and really enjoyed ourselves. Chris was an amazingly gracious host and making people happy seems to come to him NATurally. It was a wonderful experience and we plan on making up reasons to justify going back to see what else this one man band can serenade us with again and again.
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