Far from mundane
Café Mundial is another sophisticated eatery in trendy Old Town Monrovia
By Erica Wayne 07/01/2010
Ican remember when the most exciting thing that happened in sleepy little Monrovia was the train passing through. When the only reason to head east was to get to Home Depot. When the only good restaurant was La Parisienne — and even that was just over the Duarte border, barely in the Monrovia ZIP code, and certainly not in the city center (wherever that was).
Folks in Pasadena didn’t pay much attention to Monrovia. After all, we had Old Town, touted as the San Gabriel Valley’s version of Westwood. And there was Lake Avenue, the Playhouse District and talk of the new Paseo Colorado complex. There was plenty to occupy us locally. When we wanted something quaint and charming, we wandered as far east as Sierra Madre — no further.
But, while our collective navel gazing kept us totally focused on Rose City, something very odd was going on in Monrovia. The sleepy, shabby, nondescript and uninteresting stepsister was transforming into (ta-dah!) Cinderella — a sparkling, witty, distracting, beautiful and utterly delightful belle of the ball.
Its main street (Myrtle Avenue) and all attendant intersections boast more boutiques than you can shake a stick at, enough restaurants to keep the most ardent diner busy for a month, a wonderful farmers market, first-run movies and live music.
Every time I go to Monrovia lately, I’m blown away by its appeal. After parking (for free — take that, Old Pasadena and Paseo Colorado!), we stroll through the city, peering in storefronts filled with must-have merchandise, stopping to read tantalizing menus posted outside intimate, low-lit dining spaces, and enjoying the lack of exhaust fumes in the pedestrian hub. My Pasadena-based narcissism is shaken to its roots, and I suffer from a bad case of Monrovia-envy.
My latest reality check came a couple of weeks ago when we joined another couple at Cafe Mundial. Although the restaurant’s been in existence for more than six years, this is the first time we’d been there. Like almost every other eatery we’ve tried in Old Town Monrovia (and like all the children of Lake Woebegone), it was definitely better than average.
To begin with, we had a nice choice of seating — in the dimly lit bar area, the airy and open dining room or the outdoor patio. Having chosen the dining room, we nibbled on warm foccaccia with a hummus dip while glancing at the menu and wine list and admiring the sculptural wall decorations and lighting fixtures, which appeared to be fashioned from sailcloth.
Although there was very little on the menu that I hadn’t seen before (aren’t you getting just a little tired of seared ahi?), just about everything was appealing. Among appetizers, crab cakes in mustard sauce ($9.50), steamed mussels in shallot cream sauce ($9.25), pancetta-wrapped shrimp, also with an unfortunate mustard sauce ($10.75) and lemon-pepper calamari with spicy marinara ($7.95) were the most tempting. The shrimp were a little overcooked, but the crunchy calamari was wonderful.
Two of our entrees came from the 13-item pasta list. I selected black and white linguine with smoked salmon in vodka-cream sauce ($17.50), and one of our friends ordered risotto with grilled chicken, artichokes and asparagus ($16.75). I was delighted to find that, despite the modest cost, the portions were large. I eventually wound up boxing most of my VERY rich noodles for a decadent next-day lunch.
Our other entrees were butterflied shrimp with garlic-herb sauce ($22.50) and pork tenderloin with porcini (and other) mushrooms ($22). Both were succulent and, like the pastas, came with a house salad dressed with raspberry vinaigrette or a half “Caesar” salad (not the traditional version, since the romaine was left unchopped and accompanied with a slice or two of tomato). Baby vegetables and mashed potatoes also graced the plates.
Although the menu and our waiter both warned us to be sure to order our chocolate soufflé in advance, we forgot. And after we asked for boxes to pack up the leftovers, our server seems to have taken the request as a signal to bring us our bill. Although I was longing for coffee and something sweet, I simply asked for a peek at the dessert menu “for next time.”
And, after my perusal, I can guarantee that, like our governor, I’ll be back. That chocolate soufflé ($7) is topped with vanilla bean sauce. Warm bread pudding, topped with the same sauce, a drizzle of caramel and a dollop of whipped cream, is only $5.50, like the vanilla crème brulee with seasonal berries. Tiramisu (I’m as tired of that as I am of seared ahi) is also $5.50, and an apple tart with cinnamon gelato goes for $7.
I noticed that if you pay an extra dollar per person, you can have your wine served in Riedel stemware. If your wine is over $55, they’ll kick in the glasses for free. And, if you buy one of their wines, they’ll forego the $7 corkage fee on the bottle you bring in. The wines aren’t cheap, but they’re carefully selected, and there are a few in the $20-25 range.
And, bargain hunter that I am, I noticed that the lunch menu duplicates almost everything you can get at night, but the prices are about $4 cheaper per dish on average. If you want a salad with your entree at lunch, it’ll cost you an extra dollar, but I’d forego it and order the sweet and spicy shrimp and spinach salad with sesame-ginger dressing ($13) instead.
Finally, as if good food, reasonable prices and pleasant service weren’t enough, Cafe Mundial presents live jazz on the first and third Friday of every month. I hope they’ll let a poor simple girl from sleepy little Pasadena make a reservation and get a taste of nightlife in the newest “big” city in the San Gabriel Valley.
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