Café Monarch

The story

Crafted with passion, served with love

A Scottsdale Table That Earns Its Recognition

Café Monarch sits on East First Avenue in Old Town Scottsdale, a address that has quietly become one of the more serious dining destinations in Arizona. The restaurant earned Wine Spectator's Best of Award of Excellence — a distinction that signals not just a deep cellar but a genuine commitment to pairing food and wine with intention. That kind of recognition is not given to restaurants that treat the bottle list as an afterthought.

Seasonal Cooking at Its Core

The kitchen at Café Monarch works within a seasonal framework, meaning the menu moves with what is fresh and available rather than anchoring itself to a fixed repertoire. Seasonal cooking done well demands discipline: sourcing relationships, a willingness to rewrite dishes, and a kitchen confident enough to let ingredients lead. At Café Monarch, that philosophy shapes every plate that reaches the table.

The Wine Program

The Wine Spectator award speaks directly to the breadth and curation of the wine list. A Best of Award of Excellence sits above the baseline Award of Excellence and reflects a cellar with depth across regions and vintages — the kind of list where a sommelier can find the right match for a dish built around what arrived from the farm that week. For guests who take wine seriously, this is a meaningful signal.

Café Monarch is a dinner destination, and the combination of a rigorous seasonal kitchen and a wine program recognized at the highest level makes it one of the more compelling tables in Scottsdale.