Monarca: Mexican club restaurant in Gastown

I have been obsessed with Mexican food in the last few years and I’m not just talking about $4 tacos.

We recently had a date night in Gastown and I took my husband to Monarca, a Mexican restaurant in the center of Gastown. I came here before for a friend’s birthday and found the food to be decent with a fun vibe, so I wanted him to experience it as well.

Monarca
181 Carrall St, Vancouver, BC V6B 0R5

The vibe

The inside of Monarca is a lot of fun! It is dark inside once the sun sets but before that, there is natural light that comes in from the windows.

The ceiling has a bunch of (fake) greenery to make it feel like you are going into a jungle or somewhere tropical 🌴. There are quite a few tables in the dining space and they can easily accommodate larger groups (6+ people).

Some things that you may not find in other restaurants is a live DJ booth in the back 🎧. After a certain time, they actually operate similarly to a club with bottle service girls, neon signs and a live DJ. They have another entrance with a red carpet that is similar to the entrance of a club too and there will be people standing outside. Because of all this, this restaurant can get quite loud.

Overall, seating is comfortable and plush. Our table for 2 was a little small in terms of tabletop space, so we just couldn’t eat everything all at once (appetizers had to come first).

Food review

This is everything we ordered to share between 2 adults. Prices are in CAD and rounded to the nearest dollar for simplicity.

Cabbage alas brasas ($18)

From the last time I dined at Monarca, one of my favourite dishes was this cabbage. I know – it’s just a cabbage but it was also delicious. You get a pretty big chunk of it – maybe 1/4 of a cabbage chargrilled and it is served with au jus chiltepin aioli, parmigiano reggiano and pistachio. It has a slightly spicy sauce and the pistachio gives it a nice crunch because the cabbage is soft after being grilled.

My only gripe is that it is $18 for cabbage 😟.

Prawn and skirt steak molcajete ($60)

We ordered this main to share as it says it serves 2 on the menu. Granted, I don’t know what a molcajete was so I was pretty surprised when this arrived at our table.

There was a fun bowl (I usually see guac in this) with a bunch of protein inside, including: marinated skirt steak, tiger prawns, roast chicken, grilled cheese, avocado, and Chorizo sausage. On the side, there are some flour tortilla and salsa verde for you to build your own tacos.

Overall, I didn’t really like this dish 🙁. It was messy to eat and the meat were all wet because it is sitting in this kind of “soup” in the bowl. I found there to be more chicken than steak even though the menu item name had skirt steak in it and not chicken. Meat were also in big chunks so it was hard to take into smaller bites or in a taco.

Pork belly en adobo norteno ($30)

I ordered this dish last time and enjoyed it. The confit pork belly is very fatty and soft – it can be pulled apart with just your fork. Also on the plate are roasted potatoes, apple, guajillo, pasilla adobo norteno al tequila.

My husband didn’t love the sauce, but I liked it and found the apple and pork to go really well together as a common pairing.

Final thoughts

Loewe’s rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Compared to my last experience, I would say this second time was not as good. The food just wasn’t as good as what I remembered it to be and I’m not sure why that is except that I didn’t like our main prawn and steak dish and last time I did not order it.

Price-wise, this is not that expensive of a restaurant, especially in Gastown. I found prices to be reasonable, although I’m sure you can find cheaper Mexican food elsewhere.

Service-wise, I would consider it on the poorer end. This is not due to any negative attitudes, but simply service speed. We had to ask servers to come and take our order in the beginning, but once food started arriving, they were pretty prompt with taking away dirty dishes, etc.

I would recommend you to check out this spot with friends who will enjoy this type of atmosphere, as it is not a spot where you can talk for a long time (can get loud later in the night). Definitely more for celebrations or parties like birthdays or promotions.

Sincerely, Loewe