I am writing this review as we’re sitting in this place and being refused service. We are a group of 7, one local(AZ), four from vancouver b.c, and the two of us who drove from LA. 6 of us are of Asian descent and I...am not. The local friend who had made the reservation was promised a private room as we were 7 and non of their tables could fit us according to the person who assigns the tables. He said that we had to wait till 9 o’clock as the previous group were leaving and they needed to make the room ready. We stayed at the bar and ordered a bottle of champagne while waiting for the room to be ready. As they are serving the champagne, there’s an insect in the first glass! And there was never a mention of it throughout the whole time all this happened by the restaurant side. When they saw a group Asians all of the sudden everything changed. There was a table which they had sat a group of five, they moved that group whom had already were being sat and served to that room and told us to sit at that table which is designed for 5. We ordered wine and the food and when the wine was served, they let my gentleman friend who ordered the wine taste the wine and they just poured one after another in a row. To those readers who have the experience of dining in a gastronomic restaurant the above defects are just the indications that this restaurant does not deserve the recognition it’s been receiving. Wine is served in particular fashion and that is, after the ordering guest confirms the wine by tasting it, the server serves the ladies at the table and then the guys. It’s really hard to believe that a server of table of 7 with extensive knowledge of wine isn’t aware of such protocols, and the only thing that could possibly come to my mind as an explanation of such behaviour is that, “why would I bother, what would they know “. Now, my 6 friends have been living in North America for decades, all of them are extremely successful at what they do and ironically, two of them happened to be in restaurant business and owning 15 restaurants combined. My two friends who are in restaurant business couldn’t bare with all the insults and complained to one of the staff, he listened, very reluctantly said he was sorry and walked away. Another gentleman named Chris who claimed to be the owner came to AZ and listened to him. At the end he said “you guys can leave if you don’t like the service “. When AZ told him that this is not the answer to complaining guests, he said that they were not going to serve us anymore and that we didn’t have to pay for the table to that point. (We had the first course, a bottle of wine, a bottle of champagne and a beer). We ended up paying for the wine and soup and they didn’t charge us for the champagne probably because of the insect in the glass. All this time I remain silent and just observed the whole sequence of events. I was extremely tired because I’d been driving almost directly from LA to this restaurant for 7 hours plus, I wasn’t wearing a collared shirt, I was sent back to the hotel to change and now I was being kicked out of a restaurant which is owned by people who still don’t acknowledge acts of discrimination is no longer a classy thing and it is profoundly condemned by any decent human being. I lost my temper as I couldn’t take it anymore and told them with a very loud voice that “they screwed up badly “. Another guy who claimed to be the owner came to me and said it’s time for you to get out of here. When I was reminding him the series of the insults as I was screaming at him, he threw a filthy lie and said that, “those people had booked the room from months ago “. That’s simply not true as explained. Emotions were very high at that point and I may have said things to him that I am not proud of, but not one shred of regret about what I said , since my conclusions were all very fair. This restaurant has too much business and this may not affect them at all, but that is the point. These are the kind of people who would show their true face when the universe helps them to accomplish something. Two thumbs down.More

After reading about Cafe Monarch we decided to incorporate it into our Arizona vacation to celebrate our Anniversary. Having been to a few other multi course restaurants in NYC and Paris we knew what to anticipate and look forward to in this restaurant. We were...seated promptly as soon as we arrived. We marveled at the beauty and the ambiance of the dining room. Our table was perfectly situated in front a window. Our head server who was extremely friendly started helping us with menu questions and selections. Once we decided on what to have our service started along with meticulous explanations of each dish preparation and its ingredients. As a foodie I always love this part. At one point however I started feeling that the service was a little too hurried. It seemed the minute we were putting our forks down someone was appearing to clear our plates and another one was putting down the new ones without giving us a chance to cleanse our palates and linger with our wine just a little and enjoy. The minute the last course was cleared a server appeared and plunked a plate of dessert down for our Anniversary. We were not even done with our wine yet. So, we decided to finish the wine before having the dessert and wait for the head waiter to come and take our coffee and after-dinner drink orders. After finishing our wine we started with our dessert and not one person including our server came over to ask whether we wanted some coffee or drinks with it. It seemed to us as if he was waiting to finish our dessert so he could bring the check. We had been there barely an hour and a half. I finally motioned to him. When he came over I asked him whether Monarch serves coffee with dessert. When he said yes we asked for two espressos, didn't bother ordering the drinks any more and left promptly after that. We almost felt cheated as we were leaving. A $600 dinner per couple and we had not been able to savor and enjoy the great food. A glamorous fast food restaurant, pretentious servers who leave you stranded once you are done with the main meal. I still gave 4 stars for the amazing food! The food was definitely top notch!More

Hands down one of the best places in the USA. My 2nd time here and wow it was amazing. Did the wine pairing and it was amazing. Don’t miss this place