Monterey Cookhouse

After an intense day of moving furniture and boxes, my mom, sister, and I went searching for food. I'm not really familiar with the area yet, so we drove down Fremont Blvd in Seaside looking for a place to stop. Eventually we saw the Monterey Cookhouse (2149 Fremont Street, Monterey) and decided to give it a try (it was the only place with cars in the parking lot at 3 pm). The sign boasts "Wood Fired Cuisine," I was anxious to see what they had on their menu.

From the outside, this place looked pretty big, so even though I was hoping for some quick food, I anticipated a long wait. The inside looked a lot nicer than I thought it would. This could potentially even be a date spot. The three of us walked in and were sort of ignored. Nicole was starvvvingggg and while we saw the one waiter walk around, we all gave him the "you-better-help-us-or-else" eyes. He sat us down and asked what we wanted to drink. We told him that we were REALLY hungry, that we wanted waters, we already knew what we wanted to order, and to bring out whatever gets finished first.

What we ordered:

1. Castroville Artichoke ($8.95) - Brushed with balsamic olive oil & herbs, cooked over the wood grill

2. Caeser Salad ($7.95) - Romaine, parmesean, homemade croutons and house dressing

3. Nachos ($7.95) - Homemade tortilla chips covered with cookhouse chili, cheddar chese, avocado salsa, sour cream, & green onions

4. Bratwurst (3.95) - Wood-grilled served with sauerkraut simmered in beer

Thoughts:

Artichoke was yummy, but overpriced. Loved the croutons on the caeser, much better homemade! You can add meat to the nachos for an extra $2. I think they were good without the meat, but when they say "covered with cookhouse chili, cheddar cheese... etc" they do not mean it! There was like, 1 tablespoon of chili only! The bratwurst was by the far the best deal for the amount of food you get! They were chintzy on the napkins. Upside: the waiter realized that we wanted FOOD, badly. He brought it all out as soon as it was ready for us. We had to order from the bar menu because it was about 4 o clock. I glanced at the lunch menu and didn't see anything spectacular. We didn't quite make it in time for their happy hour (4 - 6 pm, all items 10%).

Bratwurst :) So German.

Artichoke on left. Nachos on right. Caeser in tummies.