MONTEREY COURT CAFE - TUCSON, AZ

This area on Miracle Mile has been transformed, well, at least the Monterey Court area. There are still some pretty seedy and 'ladies of the night' scenes happening and the motel right next to the Court by all appearances is a rent-by-the-hour establishment.

The courtyard is darling with lots of plants and a wonderful big seating area in the center which is not only for eating but also for listening to their regular live music (free!) events. There is also room for dancing. They were having salsa music the night we were there and some of the gallery owners had their dancing shoes already laid out. and there are lots of shops all around the center; paintings, jewelry, gourmet food, pottery, wind chimes, clothes, cards. Lots of stuff to see and buy. The space has a lovely feel to it.

The cafe is small and i entered the restaurant behind a huge gaggling and gabbing group of those red hat'ed purple ladies and i held my breath expecting seating to be nil but there was a table by the window.  Their menu is not very big and even though their website says they serve breakfast till noon; we had the breakfast menus unceremoniously taken out of our hands at 11am- to be replaced by their lunch and dinner menus.

Chris and I shared 2 entrees; a chicken and brie sandwich with a side of sliced potatoes (the sandwich was good but nothing extraordinary and not much chicken and the potato portion was small and tasted like warmed over breakfast sides and this was $8.95) and a dish called Little Sparrow which turned out to be a bowlful of warmed vegetables and tiny dumplings. The vegetables were all cooked too long so everything was limp and had stayed in the olive oil saute a tad too long. but there was a good variety of veggies and the garlic and tomatoes tasted great. The dumplings were pretty gluey and pasty and heavy and because there were so many of them- it negatively impacted on the rest of the entree. this was $10 which was way overpriced. The Little Sparrow came with 2 slices of french bread.

So all in all, i'm impressed with the look of the place but not the taste so won't be back.