Monti's La Casa Vieja

Monti's La Casa Vieja serves good food at reasonable prices. You can get a good meal, including soup or salad and bread, for less than $15. The dress at Monti's La Casa Vieja is casual--jeans are fine-- and bring the family.

Monti's La Casa Vieja has been around forever. According to the web site, it is the "oldest continuously occupied structure in the Phoenix metropolitan area."

Located in downtown Tempe right across the street from Tempe Beach Park, Monti's La Casa Vieja is a labyrinth of booths and tables, has a popular bar, and meeting/party facilities.

Let's start with the not-so-good: Monti's La Casa Vieja always appears a bit seedy to me. They've improved on the old, scratched up plastic glassware that they used to have with new plastic glassware. The utensils now match, where they didn't used to. The booths are designed such that there always appears to be food in the cracks of the vinyl, and our seats were split. The carpet always looks dirty to me. Of the food items, only one disappointed. The green lettuce in the salad was wilted, and the iceberg lettuce was old and brown.

Now the good news: people love Monti's La Casa Vieja for the beef, and it is very good. Our beef entrees were cooked appropriately, lean, and tender. Delicious. The bread is great (limit one refill!) and we even thought that the spinach artichoke dip was some of the best we've had around town--not heavy with cheese. The prices are good, and there's a kids menu.