MONKITAIL
- Mommy the Foodie
- Jul 10, 2017
- 3 min read
Food: 4.25/5
Ambiance: 4.5/5
Service: 4/5
What’s been going on at the Diplomat Beach Resort? Has it just quietly been getting more amazing? It may have just become my favorite hotel in SoFlo…and amazingly, it’s in Broward
How did we get to talking about the Diplomat? Monkitail, that’s how. I have this love for all things Philadelphia that really surpasses logic. I went to college in Philly and I guess the nostalgia just gets me. I recently read about the opening of Monkitail over at the Diplomat hotel and when I read Chef Michael Schulson (of Pod and Buddakan fame) was behind it, Monkitail became that restaurant I was gonna drag my husband to.
We tried the whole damn menu (not really, but kind of). We began with the tuna with avocado and chili oil.
If you’ve read my past posts, you know how I feel about raw fish (it’s the greatest thing ever). The tuna on this dish was so fresh and buttery. Yum. Add avocado and my smile grows. The chili oil gave the dish a little kick. Very tasty.
Next came the toro and scallion roll. Oh toro. The belly of the tuna so you’re raw but also fattier. Sign me up. You know a sushi is top notch when it’s this simple (tuna and a skinny onion) and it’s still delectable. So far so good.
My husband and I are sort of obsessed with all things foie gras, so we had to have the foie gras sushi. The foie melted in our mouths. Yum yum yum.
One of the best dishes of the night? Edamame dumpling (did I mention it had truffle oil?). These little balls don’t look like much, but bite into them and prepare to be floored. The creamy edamame with that hint of truffle oil…I’ll leave the rest to your imagination.
Probably my favorite dish of the night were these guys: double fried chicken wings. I’m gonna have a hard time having wings anywhere else after this. So beyond crispy and then the flavor. Soy, garlic, some amazing sweetness… I’ll be dreaming about these tonight.
Broiled seabass with truffle soy. This fish was buttery and packed with flavor. We find ourselves scooping up the truffle soy concoction with the peas (way to get us to eat our veggies). Also delicious.
We had one really disappointing dish: we ordered the duck shabu shabu. It was as bland as it gets. I had to pour soy sauce into the soup to get some flavor. Surprising when the rest of our meal had been so flavor-packed. On the bright side, Colin (our awesome server) noticed that we weren’t devouring it and replaced it with the next dish.
This NY strip with ponzu . The meat was prepared perfectly and the sauce was bursting with all
the flavors we had come to expect from this meal. Spectacular.
The meal ended with house made chocolate and vanilla ice cream. Can’t go wrong with ice cream.
All in all, an amazing meal. But I told you at the beginning that the hotel blew me away so let me tell you why.
The lobby of this hotel is the epitome of a beach resort lobby: super chill and super hip. Monkitail is located in the lobby but what I loved was a tiny little room called Nokku. Nokku is a beautiful little bar and within that bar are several fabulous looking private karaoke rooms (sound proof, so when I’m belting out “Hit me with your best shot” you wont be able to hear me…lucky you). Another shoutout, each room has three song books: one English, one Spanish (woohoo!) and one international (as in, lots of different languages). Very impressive So at the Diplomat, not only do you get to have an awesome dinner, but once you’re done you can spend the rest of your night in a gorgeous little bar or making a fool of yourself with your best friends in a karaoke room.
Note: parking is FREE at the Diplomat! Well it’s validated at the restaurant. Pretty amazing when you compare it to the steep valet fees in Miami Beach. After tonight I’m dreaming of a staycation at the Diplomat
Address: 3555 South Ocean Drive, Hollywood, FL
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