Monkey Bar (was: Sagittarius)

Walnut Apple Salad

Ah, wonderful NoPo.  This place is right near us.   When it was called Sagittarius, we'd often get the rosemary mac n' cheese on those down and grey sundays.  Now it's "Monkey Bar", under new ownership, and the mac n' cheese remains, with several other unique menu items.

even though they were fresh, the fries were a bit soggy.  they probably need a quick par-fry which they might be skipping.
while the deep-fried veggie burger was unique and very tasty, the extra bits of the "breading", which looked more like a won-ton wrapper, were over-crunched in the oil, leaving a burned flavor.  The burger itself was definitely just out of the supply truck, and they thought it was boca, but were not sure.  It could have used 4 times as much cheese, even though i paid extra for what i did receive.  It would have also deeply benefited from some mayo.

As per usual, the mac n' cheese was very good, very creamy, but perhaps a bit under-cheesed. 

The salad was good, fresh, with a choice of dressing.  Apples were fresh and the combo of toasted walnuts and goat cheese made me feel way more healthy than if i had just eaten that plate of fries. 

rosemary mac

Sounds like the new owners want to move this in more of a bar type direction.  This doesn't bode well for the food.  And it'll be tough to compete in that market with the likes of Yorgos.  although they are very different types of places. 

Monkey Bar (0 to **** (stars), higher=better):

• Food Quality: *  (1 star, decent but inconsistent)
• Vegetarian menu: * (a few options in there) 
• Vegan menu: 0* (slim pickins)
• Service: * * (friendly, seem to pay attention to the locals more than n00bs)
• Atmosphere * (small bar, wannabe sports pub)
• Green: 0* (lots of processed and non-local foods)
• price: $$ (low to moderate)
• overall: 0* (order the mac n' cheese to go, in a pinch.  it's a bar, after-all)