You Cheeky Monk

Beer and fried thingies, yes please.  After a long work week when your friends say, "Hey lets go drink!" Of course you don't turn them down.  Well we didn't only go to drink but to have some pub food as well.  The Cheeky Monk on Colfax was our location of choice.  My friends Brendan and Kirsty and I chose this restaurant because we all love drinking but Kirsty has lived in the UK and Australia and I thought she might like some fish and chips, but she had salad, we had other fried things which in my opinion are better then fish and chips.  My friend Daedre told me about the fried pickles here and so we started with those.

Fried Pickles

The lighting in this restaurant is very very dark so the pictures are a bit off....sorry, but the pickles were the best things we had.  I have been thinking about these since I ate there and really want to go back and just eat these.  Kirsty and I ordered steak salad served with frites on top.  Now I love salad and I love fries so I did like the salad but I asked for my steak medium rare and got well done, but by this point I was two beers in so I didn't mind much.  Brendan ordered the best and got Belgian Bangers and Mash, the sausage was a wonderful chicken apple sausage and I will be ordering that next time.

steak salad with frites

Bangers and Mash

Ok now for the beer, and there is a lot of it.  Word of warning, this is not a place to go if you want a $2 Budweiser, the beers are imported and expensive.  I simply don't have the time to tell you about all there is to offer, but the list is large and everything was great.  I will say that when we asked the waitress about the beers she seemed to know a little bit but it would have been nice if she knew more.  I would guess if you sat at the bar the bartender would have a bit more advice and knowledge about what beers are served.  There are pairing suggestions on the menu for beers that go with food and that is always helpful. 

Fearless taster Brendan takes a pull from his beer

Overall this is a nice place to meet friends and have some good food and get a good beer.  It is a bit pricey but when you are getting a nice beer and good food it is worth the extra price.  I will go again, and even if I just go for the pickles and a beer I will be very happy. 

Frites, AKA French Fries with fancy dipping sauce............

 A new place just opened in Old town Arvada, Manneken Frites.  If you like fries and beer at inflated prices, this is the place for you.  That might not be the fairest of statements, maybe it is the American in me, either way very over priced.  I got a small fry no wait Frite and a bottle of water and it was $6.  My sister and husband got one small fry and one medium fry a soft drink and a beer and it was $18.  I went back up to get another sauce and it was an additional $1.  So pretty much it is a place that is something fun to do once in awhile.  They have a ton of sauces I had the Ghent sauce and the sauce Andalouse, the Ghent sauce tastes like aoili with shallots and garlic, and the Andalouse sauce is that mixed with something sweeter it kind of tasted like Thousand Island but less strong, it was very nice.  My sister had Tzatziki sauce and her husband had Curry mayo, both of those were also very good.  Overall the sauces here are amazing, the Frites are amazing but it is more of a novelty than some place that I would go to very often.  All of the tourists to that area will love it, you can have something unique while you shop for antiques. 

Nothing to write home about.............

I will say one thing, Thai is just alright to me, I don't get excited about it, not like Mexican.  I will also say that the absolute best curry that I have ever had in my life was at a Thai place in Portland OR, the Thai House in Westminster is not.  Ok ok it was just fine, but I wouldn't write home about it.  The Thai House is located at 80th and Sheridan.  I did not pick this restaurant one of my friends did because they really like it.  So maybe I am just a bad judge of Thai food, and my friend is a good judge of Thai food?  I would also like to say that there is one Thai place that I love eating in Colorado and that is Chez Thuy in Boulder, but I do not get to Boulder often so occasionally I will go to Thai in Denver.  Please note that when going here the food is really spicy.  I ordered medium and I really like spicy things, and even I was sweating.  If you do not like spicy things be sure to order mild or very mild. Also order the Thai iced tea because it is always good.

Before stirring

After stirring

We started with some appetizers because we were very hungry, almost hangry if you want to push it. 

Both appetizers were very good, but aren't all fried things delicious?  Next were the curries, I had green curry which had a nice flavor and really cleared out my sinuses. 

Both curries were very tasty, but not special, they just tasted like curry.  Overall this place is good, it is in a strip mall location and the prices are reasonable.  I would go again but only if asked by friends, I would not go there just to go there. 

"Drunk" on sausage.................

No, no, no this is not pornography.  But by all of the food that we consumed you might think a bit grotesque and sad.  Recently was joined by my two favorite foodies, Teresa and Jesse, to eat Polish food.  Cracovia restaurant is a small restaurant in Westminster Colorado.  We went on a Friday night, and the place appeared to be busy, not all the tables were full but for this small family restaurant it appeared to be a large crowd.  We were pre-warned that if we took a booth close to the dance floor it would be loud, yes I said dance floor.  There is a one man band, not only does he play trumpet, but he sings, and plays a keyboard.  What this isn't your thing?  Ok not ours either but felt like going to someones wedding and being entertained, hell people even danced.  Be prepared as the service is very slow, but the food is very good.  First off our waiter asked for a drink order, Teresa and I ordered Cokes and Jesse ordered a beer.  When we got the cokes there was no ice, we were informed later that the ice machine was broken.  Ok I love ice so I felt very sad, but it was going to be fine as I was in good company. 

Teresa and Jesse ordered the platter for two and I order the platter for one.  This is not cheap, but it will feed you 3 times trust me.  We started with bread and a pate, was very nice and creamy.  The second course was soup, we all got different ones.  Mine was dill pickle and potatoes, let me tell you this was so freaking good, I love love love dill pickles and I wish I could make this at home because I would eat it everyday.  Jesse got Beet soup which was great, creamy and sweet, Teresa got breakfast soup as I like to call it, had sausage, hard boiled eggs, and potatoes.

Beet soup and Beer

"Breakfast" soup

Dill pickle soup!!!!!!!

Then came the food, lots and lots of food.  My plate came with perogies, kielbasa, cabbage roll, cucumber and beet salads.  Teresa and Jesse's came with all of those plus a croquette of some kind of meat, mashed potatoes and short ribs.  Need I say more

sauces for cabbage rolls

cucumber sour cram salad

freaking adorable

Jesse stop playing with your food

sausage, potatoes, spare ribs

pirogi, croquette, cabbage roll

Ok this place is awesome.  Very slow, but the food makes up for it.  Go support this local family restaurant. 

justice League

What could be better then eating outside???? Eating outside with a lot of food trucks surrounding you and a glass of sangria!!!!!  Went to the Justice League of street food last night, in Denver.  They have parties all summer and let me tell you the food is good.  This event was at 29th and Huron in Denver and included a many fine food and fine people.  The fun thing about this is that you get to see all sorts of different people and eat all kinds of food. 

 So many many choices........

 The Biscuit Bus is where I started....................................

Ok I love biscuits but they are not really good in Colorado, more like rocks, no moisture is hard to work with.  Some how the Bus knows what they are doing.  I ordered the Ellsworth, biscuit, fried chicken, homemade mustard, homemade pickles, and a drizzle of honey..............I think I am in love.  I could eat one of these biscuits every single day.

The biscuit was flaky and buttery, and the other items were the highest quality, explains the 7.50 price tag.  I recommend getting in touch with these folks, follow them on Facebook at The Biscuit Bus and they will tell you where they are for the day.  Next up Teresa had some fried mashed potato balls from the Stick it to me bus, also Jesse had some meat on a stick from there.  Both items were really good.

I had to have some dessert from the Denver Cupcake truck, Lemon Cupcake anyone?

Teresa also got some Milk and Cookies to eat later.

I had to have a sangria to wash all of this awesome food down.......

Teresa and Jesse finished the night with some chicken tacos from the taco truck and an ice cream sandwich.

Overall a great success.  If you are interested in these street parties just follow Justice league of street food in Denver to find out more on Facebook.  I know I will be hitting a few more. 

Eating with a Pregger.........................

Ok if you love to eat like me and you have a friend whom is pregnant then you should eat lunch with that person, and order a lot of items on the menu with no shame.  I recently went to lunch with my friend Daedre, small tiny thing with a baby bump.  I will say even though Daedre is tiny she has always had a love of food and that is one of the things I most like about her, ohhhhh and she has crazy red hair which I love. 

Daedre

Hmmmmmm what should we order?

menu with free matches

I have never eaten at Steuben's but have always wanted too.  This place is so cute, a mix between a diner and a bistro.  Almost all of the items come A la Carte which bothers me, but the prices are reasonable.  Quick mention here, the glasses are tiny, if you order a coke which I did you will need it refilled at least twice. 

Outside entrance

The next things you will see is all of the food we ordered, it might make you blush but I am not ashamed and we shared so keep that in mind......

Hush puppies rolled in sugar

Deviled Eggs, creamy and delish

French Fries

Shrimp Po' Boy

Monte Cristo Sandwich

I really liked this place.  I was filled with your usual 'foodies' but it was also filled with families with small children and older people, I felt comfortable there.  The menu had a nice brunch selection as well but we opted for lunch.  Steuban's now has a food truck and can be found around town for their goodies as well.  I will go back I really want to try dinner here, I hear the fried chicken is good.  Daedre and I left feeling really full and with all that food the cost with tip was around $20 a person, not too bad.  Ohhhhh and I forgot to mention all of the food rocked, everything was very well prepared, how could I forget the most important part, must be having a food coma re-living all of that food.