One of the top 10 Romantic Restaurants in America

As usual in our travels, I have researched the best Restaurants in the city and made reservations to try it . This time it was Old Town Scottsdale, Arizona and the name of the restaurant is Café Monarch. The chef, Christian Lewkowicz believes in local sourcing and changes the menu daily based on what is good and available from local growers and ranchers. It was definitely romantic, and the food was very good, but not excellent. The roasted cauliflower soup was excellent as it was served with a dash of truffle oil and herb buttered crostini. The winter salad had all the right ingredients, including heirloom tomatoes, poached pear and cabernet goat cheese, but their was so little vinaigrette on the salad that the mix of flavors tasted too raw. The third course of porcini crusted tenderloin was cooked medium rare and blended well with the parsnip puree. The fourth course was, however a disappointment. None of the fancy ingredients, like the Kabocha squash or Pinot Noir glaze could hide the fact that the chicken was dry and not flavorful. The flourless chocolate cake was also not good. It was also dry, and chalky. We had the wine tasting to go with each course, and they were unmemorable. All in all, a 3 star but you need to make reservations 2 weeks in advance. Maybe the romantic setting and great service make up for some of the misses in food preparation.