Monarca Taqueria & Cantina — Restaurant in Clifton

There are a few things that this restaurant (former food truck) seems to not understand about the in person dining industry.

Customers at a fine dining establishment where prices are $150 per meal want peace and quiet. Not a loud speaker system blaring music so loud you can’t talk to your friends/family at the table

You can’t cook food ahead like a food truck and charge $150 for old, dry meat on tacos. You can’t make one person order at the table and bring it while everyone watches them eat. You can’t mess up an order and say oh is that ok, when it’s pointed out(no it’s not that’s why I mentioned it to you). You can’t forget I exist and never come back to check on me, then my problems with service have gone from minor to major. Seems like this place hired all their family to work here and they all have zero experience in hospitality or food service. Particularly at FINE DINING as this is advertised and the owner states as a reason for the high prices.

So about those prices. #1 this is not fine dining. It’s a glorified lux lounge with overpriced old food and drink. #2 it’s Clifton Colorado and it’s 2024 when people are broke. Yet you decided to open this place with this plan… just bad business decisions. This is why this place has a 3 star rating if they don’t know or haven’t been able...

This restaurant was a disappointment on so many levels! The music was extremely loud, but the singer thankfully had a great voice! When waiting for a table, BE CAREFUL! There was a metal decorative plant in the corner that was very sharp! One of our party sat down and did not watch closely and stabbed their leg! Once seated, we were hoping for chips and salsa. That was hopeless! You can't even buy them, so we ordered queso with chorizo. Not what we hoped or expected. It had a lot of chorizo and very little cheese. We couldn't hardly scoop it. We had to tear it a part to get bits to eat. Two in our party ordered carnitas and two ordered carne asada. The Carnitas were pretty dry and came out in large chunks. They served baked potatoes on the plate, which was strange but fine. The redeeming factor of the plate were the charro beans, although they had weenies in them. The flavor of the beans was delicious. The steak for the carne asada came out cold, but the flavor was pretty good. The presentation was average. If you're looking for Mexican food, I would try a...

My honest review would have been four stars, but I think these guys are being targeted by competitors and haters so gave them a bonus star haha. My only issue and why I was going to give four stars is the pricing. The tacos seem reasonably priced like when they were a taco truck. But anything on the menu not of the taco truck variety seems extremely over priced. Like its over $20 for guacamole? Seriously??!?! Aside from the pricing, I have no issues or concerns. The food, in my opinion, is absolutely delicious. My daughters also both love it and they are picky and often determine where we eat. So if they approve, thats a rarity. The meats on potato thing they have was effing amazing, and quite filling, I got like 2.5 meals out of that single dish. The churro truck thing they have is cute and we thought it was quite good. I have visited twice and don't recall even hearing music that others are complaining about. The waitress we had both times is a total sweetheart and quite friendly to my daughters and I. We will definitely be...