I've been here before when this place must have first opened. I was with a group of people who already killed two bottles of Grey Goose and were working on their third. It was pretty empty. There was another group of gals there that night, but they were quite tame and couldn't handle the karaoke mic being passed around, or the shots of Goose.
My friend had a surprise birthday dinner here too, but I couldn't make it due to a turnt up tween slumber party the night before. I heard how good it was, and they have all night happy hour, so I have been wanting to come back and give it a try.
So fast forward to this past Friday, and after striking out at not one but TWO restaurants, we ended up at the Monkey King. First thing you do when you get there is to write your name and your party size on the list. This list is golden. The list is on some recycled grid paper on a toe-up table in the corner. If there's space at the bar, you can sit there without a wait, but I'm trying to eat more than I drink. There's a small couch to wait on, and if there's a spot available, you better take it because there will be a wait for sure.
This place was crazy on a Friday night, with all kinds of people. I noticed babies of all ages, grandmas passing around plates and carafes of drinks, and ladies with heels of all heights and skirts of all lengths walking in and out of the door. I didn't really think this place to be kid friendly but apparently it is. We waited about 30 minutes and then we were seated at a counter height table in the corner.
The table was sticky and grimy. What was even grimier was that the chick sitting there before us must have spit on the floor. When we were waiting, you can't help but stare at the people eating at your upcoming table and wishing they would hurry the fuck up. This chick was hurt, head down, swervin' as she walked out the door. And now, there was her spit on the floor. I feel sorry for the Asian family with 3 young kids sitting right next to her!
The menu was sticky too, and the happy hour flyer had a sticker to cover up the old cheaper drink price. Janky! It's ok for the price change though, $5 isn't bad. From the happy hour menu, we ordered salt & pepper wings and "disco fries" for $5, and an order of potstickers, also $5. I asked the server if they had white wine sangria, so I got a pitcher of that ($14).
He came back with a small carafe of something red. Apparently he didn't hear me ask for white over the music. They were playing everything from top 40 to house shit. I ended up taking the sangria anyways. It wasn't anything special, and it made me wish I ordered a cocktail instead.
We also ordered the spicy edamame ($6), spicy Korean dried fried ribs ($10), scrambled eggs & shrimp ($12), and garlic noodles ($8). Everything came out in waves, but I'm the type to eat my meat with rice so I had to wait for the rice to come.
The wings were simple and tasty, and the disco fries were skinny and fried to perfection and tossed around with some garlic and jalapenos. This was well worth the happy hour price. The potstickers, on the other hand, had a thick chewy wrapper and could have been panfried a bit longer. I didn't care about those.
The edamame was poppin! It was spicy and had a cheese melted on top. I liked how it was hot and roasted. I needed to have something healthy in the mix.
The ribs were HELLA good! Fried really well and tossed in a sweet and spicy sauce. We killed them. I used to be vegetarian.
The scrambled eggs and shrimp was pretty dense but still tasty. The shrimp was plump and it was flavorful.
Last were the garlic noodles. I already thought I had plenty of garlic until this huge bowl of noodles showed up. The ribs and fries were mixed with a good amount of garlic, but these noodles had triple the amount. I was worried how my breath would smell for the next few days, but after taking a bite I didn't even care anymore. Thick and slippery noodles. Slurp.
We ended up with about 4 boxes to take home, which meant breakfast the next day. I wasn't mad at that. But I don't even know when it was decided that we'd eat there again the next night.
This time we showed up a little later, about 9pm, and it was a whole different vibe. First off, there were no kids and there were already a crazy amount of parties going on. There was a tired looking couple who looked like they've been waiting for a minute. We still wrote the name down and started to wait.
After about an hour, a security showed up and set up at the door to check IDs and make sure shit don't go down. After one party got up and left, this one dude tried to weasel his way to a table. After him and his lady took a seat, Fredo couldn't let that shit slide, and before you know it, the couple waiting before us took over that table, which means we were next. Shit would have gone down if not!
We were finally seated by an apologetic server who hooked us up with two drinks. We got the coconut mojito ($6) and the strawberry + guava martini ($6). The mojito had coconut juice and pulp, and the martini was good. I even ordered a lychee martini after ($5). That made it a bit better, especially since we waited HELLA long for somewhere we just ate that night before!
We still ordered the garlic noodles and ribs, but this time got salt & pepper tofu ($5), ginger & crab fried rice ($12), and corn in a bowl ($6). The salt & pepper tofu was fried to perfection, with a crisp outer layer and a creamy center. It had loads of garlic, onion, and fresh jalapeno, but it wasn't tossed with the tofu so the flavors weren't mixed well. It was served with over a bed of freshly shrimp chips and a sweet and sour sauce. The shrimp chips was a good filler, the sauce was not.
The ginger & crab fried rice was so good. I love ginger, and there was plenty of crab in each bite. So full of flavor.
The corn in a bowl was supposed to be like what the elote man serves in the cart. Sweet corn tossed with mayo, lime juice, and chili pepper powder. It was a good mix to have with the other food, but nothing beats the real deal from the elote man.
We ended up with two huge boxes to take home, which meant another breakfast. I'm not going to eat there again tonight or anything, but I will definitely go back again, just maybe not on a Friday or Saturday night.
