Before Sandra and I went to Alexandra Palace for the fireworks tonight we dropped into Crouch End for a very early dinner. I’ve never really explored this part of London before but to my surprise Crouch End is actually a very nice area with lots of funky bars and restaurants – its just a shame that its not actually on a tube line. Though buses are frequent the inconvenience of getting on a bus makes me just that little bit less motivated to come out this way.

Monkeynuts is a steak house and wine bar which is a meat lovers delight. Though there are some vegetarian options the focus is on burgers and steaks. The menu is largely American themed and, though we didn’t realise until after we’d ordered, it also comes with American-sized portions. However as both Sandra and I went for the ribs we’re not sure if other dishes were also served in gigantic portions.

Not straying too far from the name of the restaurant the decorations are monkey this monkey that from the mini plastic monkeys dressing the drinks, to the barrels of monkey nuts, to the stuffed monkeys spread throughout the joint and to the various monkey pictures. Kind of cute really.

As it was rather early neither Sandra and I had a huge appetitite but that didn’t stop us getting a set of ribs each and sharing sides of onion rings and potatoe wedges. When the ribs came we didn’t know what to think. It was massive (strangely in contrast to the shot glasses we were given to drink our tap water!) Not sure how our petite waitress even managed to carry our platters out to us. The bones on the ribs (beef ribs) were the biggest I’ve ever seen prompting me to wonder whether they had come from a small dinosaur rather than a cow. The meat on the ribs were at least an inch and a half thick too. Just like eating a steak. The ribs also came with coleslaw and salad though they didn’t really get a look in.

For the first time in probably quite some time I couldn’t even finish half my ribs. Disappointingly we left a whole heap of onion rings and potato wedges too (both of which were delicious – I particularly loved the wedges which were super-crunchy on the outside and light and fluffy on the in.) See the pic on the right to show just how much we left. At first neither of us were going to take the leftovers home but our waitress seemed so disappointed that we 1. couldn’t finish and 2. didn’t want to take the leftovers home that I buckled and took my leftover ribs to the fireworks then home.

I quite liked our visit to Monkeynuts. Good service, very kid friendly (not that it is high on my list but could be good for some) with their crayons and colouring-in placemats some of which are displayed on the first floor, decently-priced food, availability of root beer and tasty food. Wish there was one of these nearer to home!