When you can have your dessert ignited before your eyes at your table, and it only costs $6.50, you know you’ve found someplace good.
Amazingly, the Monument Square Cafe on Broadway—in the location formerly occupied by the Cape House—has been open for six months now, and I only just found out about it last week.
From the crowd, though, I might have been the last person in Troy to know. My wife and I dined there on Saturday night, and there was just one open table when we arrived.
The layout of the space is excellent. You enter a large, open area with a wooden bar along one wall opposite a tall partition. On the other side of the partition is the dining area, with a comfortable amount of space between the tables; it’s neither cramped nor cavernous.
It is difficult to classify the type of food served. Lamb chops, sesame tuna, and gnocchi in marinara all share space on the menu—it’s quite a diverse selection, even though there aren’t that many total dishes.
After placing our orders, we had to wait several minutes before bread was brought to us. This, however, was only a minute flaw in otherwise outstanding service. Our waitress was polite and helpful even though she was very busy, and our water glasses were never empty.
Meals arrived in a reasonable amount of time. My wife thought that her gnocchi (a potato-based pasta) were a bit bland, and after sampling some I agreed. My guess, though, is that it’s a rare unpolished spot in the menu—the lamb chops that I ordered were fabulous. One of the sides was a portion of couscous, which I soon discovered had peas in it. I loathe peas, and this was still excellent.
The best part, though, was dessert. I went for tiramisu—their version is a bit more chocolatey than most others I’ve had. However, this counts for bonus points in my book—it was one of the best I have ever encountered.
The pyros out there will be asking, “What about the igniting part?” My wife ordered bananas Foster, and our server wheeled out a cart with a small gas burner on it. She melted some butter in a pan, threw in some sliced bananas, and poured a bunch of rum over top. When she tilted the pan so that the alcohol fumes were exposed to the burner, the whole thing lit up quite impressively, and the flavor was just as good.
The Monument Square Cafe’s presentation certainly gives you the impression that it’s an upscale restaurant that costs a bundle, but entrees range from roughly $12-20. Dinner and dessert for the two of us came to less than $50, putting this a bit out of range for the random student who wants to go out to eat, but just about right for a nice date.
Three suggestions: First, make a reservation, especially for a Friday or Saturday night. Second, dress casual—no t-shirts or jeans. (They don’t enforce any sort of dress code, but you might feel a bit out of place.) Finally, dine here at some point before you leave Troy—this is certainly one of the best restaurants in town, and a visit will be well worth your while.
To get to the Monument Square Cafe, walk down the Approach into Troy. Go around the Best Western and you will be facing Broadway. Walk three and a half blocks and the restaurant is on the right, midway between Second and Third Streets.
