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.