Monkitail

Highly recommended for Japanese cuisine enthusiasts.
I can tell that a good cook (cooks) works here.
Descent prices. Very nice, cosy atmosphere.

A friend recommended this spot so I had to try. It much be popular because there was a 45 min. Wait to be seated. I definitely recommend doing a reservation for this restaurant.
Once we were seated, we were told that it is served family style. All the food is placed in front of you to share. The menu ranges and most of the items are smaller portions.
We ordered the Brussels sprouts, sushi, chicken skewers, wings and rice. Everything was really good. There is not a kids menu but the skewers have about 3 pieces of meat on them which is good for small children. I also orders a Japanese 75 was was very light and refreshing.
Since it was my birthday, they came out with a desert and candle, they normally have a sparkler but they ran out. Everything was great!
Our servers name was Erica and she was very informative on the dishes and the restaurant. She did a great job handling our party.

I am ever in the area again I would definitely try go back.

Loved it. I was staying in the hotel for work and happened to find the establishment by chance. I was going to go to the steakhouse in the same hotel. I reviewed both menus and Monkitail was much more interesting.

I had dinner twice, and both times I was incredibly satisfied. On the first night I had the chefs sampler- it was a fantastic experience of something from each part of the menu. I loved the variety, and the freedom to pair lamb with beef and duck all in the same menu oh and also some sushi. Everything was delicious and executed perfectly. It was a fantastic value, and I would recommend trying it. On night 2 I ordered a la carte and had a fantastic dinner as well.

The food is served in a very specific manner and well timed. Nothing ever was sitting long enough to cool down, and as one portion was finished, the next came out.

The restaurant is nicely decorated and even with a full crowd, was not so loud that you could not carry on a conversation without yelling.

The service was impeccable. My waitress was the consummate professional and helped me choose based on my tastes and as well, what I wanted to experience.

Overall, it was sublime, and considering it is in a hotel, it far outpaces expectations. I would come to this establishment if I were staying at a different hotel.

I really enjoyed my three dinners here. I was at the hotel for a work trip and since it's tapas style Japanese, I ate here all three nights and was able to order different things. Here's what I got and what I thought:

Zen Mist - good gin drink. Opted for lime over grapefruit since I'm not a grapefruit fan
Lychee martini - house specially and it's made with tequila instead of vodka, very good
Tuna sushi special roll - it's was good but definitely not worth $20 for 6 pieces; skip this
Edamame dumplings - unassuming but amazing flavor in the broth the come in; loved these
Duck tacos - order them! They are the perfect spicy starters; I had these twice
Kobe beef skewer - cooked to a perfect tenderness; top it with their house mustard
Cotton cake - perfectly light and fluffy with orange flavor; ordered this twice too

Overall, my service was great and so was my food. Did not regret coming here 3 times.

PSA: book a reservation on Opentable!
When we arrived at 7:30, we were told no available tables for a party of 4 until 9:45pm. I took a peak at Opentable and miraculously was able to snag a table for 8:00pm!!! They must set aside a certain number of tables for each kind of booking.


So glad we made it in, because the food was amazing! USA Today named it one of the world's best hotel restaurants and I have to agree! We did the tasting menu 10 selections + chef's dessert for $65. In order for the tasting menu to work, everyone at the table needs to agree to it and the whole table gets the same items.

Our Host listed his favorites and we pretty much went with all his recommendations. We enjoyed all of them, with the favorites being the duck bao bun, broiled seabass and beef short rib! Probably the best seabass I've ever had, don't know how they do it. Also, we were expecting all the food to be bite sized, but the short rib and seabass came in full sizes meant for 2 as entrees. For dessert, we each had two small ice cream cones: skittles and coco puffs flavored. I was surprised at how much I liked both!

We were all stuffed by the end of the meal. The tasting menu is well worth it!

Why is it saying the are still open of the Diplomat Hotel has been closed over a year?

We decided to have a nice dinner for our last night in Hollywood. We chose Monkitail based on their menu, great reviews, ambiance, and location. So happy we did! It is located inside of the Diplomat Resort, which is a huge establishment. The restaurant is located inside the lobby on the right side. There's a hostess stand right outside of the restaurant entrance. If I'm being honest, the hostesses were a bit pretentious and not the friendliest, but luckily they're a non-factor to the dining experience.

So we had a truly amazing server named Pablo. He was friendly, personable, patient, and helpful. He had a great big smile with every interaction we had with him. Great energy, and really proficient at his job. Yes, it helps that he slightly resembles Matthew McCoughnahey as well lol. He gave us a walk through of the menu, and explained how the tasting menu works if we were to go that route. We took our time to look through the menu while deciding on drinks. We got 2 Ming Mules which were really great.

After much contemplation, we did go with the 10 Course Tasting Menu which you can select your own items from each category on the menu or you can do chef's selection. We chose our own items and Pablo would recommend his pick for the ones we weren't sure about. So what we got were: spicy tuna rice cracker, edamame dumplings, shrimp tempura tacos, swordfish robatayaki, lamb&scallion robayataki, NY strip, broiled sea bass, yellowtail toro sashimi, blue crab roll, and mini oatmeal and coco puffs ice cream cones. My friend had secretly told them it was my bday in a few days, so they brought a dessert lit with a candle on the house. It was like a toasted marshmallow panna cotta with lemon curd. We also ordered another drink each: Eastern Sol & Zen Mist. We were happier with the Ming Mule.

To sum up: it was an excellent dining experience. The food came out promptly, and empty dishes were cleared quickly. Excellent food, service, and ambiance. What more could you ask for? Highly recommend and will absolutely return if I'm in town again.

So! Put your fat pants on (or a really forgiving dress) because you will be stuffed, lol.

NOTE: When you enter the Diplomat hotel, the entrance to this beautiful restaurant will be at the back of the hotel (you'll see the bar), on the right side. PARKING: Free valet! Just get your ticket validated before you go. :)

My date and I had the Chef's Tasting Menu, which is 10 items:
.....1 each from the first 6 sections,
.....2 from the Robatayaki section,
.....1 from either Sushi & Sashimi or Specialty Sashimi sections, and
.....1 from the Rolls section

You also get a dessert, which at the time of my writing this is 2 little cones of different ice cream flavors (s'mores and swedish fish). I wish they had other options aside from these two, but that's ok. :)

By the way, total aside: their table service was *impeccable*, and our server was great about taking all my. damn. chopsticks!! lol. Every time he cleared the table and took my "used" plate, he'd take away my chopsticks. They will also be like ninjas with keeping your water glass topped off. (When did they pass by?! I don't recall! haha)

T A S T I N G M E N U
In order of what I liked best with the menu section found in parens!

+ Short Rib (robatayaki): this!!! So good. Tender, juicy, flavorful. I almost wanted to eat the skewer it came on just to relive the flavor haha.

+ Duck Scrapple Bao Bun (small): YUM. I loved the heat (but if you don't, ask them to make it non-spicy) and devoured it. The bun was soooo soft and fluffy. It was a cloud wrapped around delicious duck and... yum.

+ King Salmon & Soy Ginger (sushi & sashimi): Melt in your mouth buttery smooth salmon. My favorite. I could eat this non-stop. Love love love.

+ Broiled Seabass (fish): Well flavored; came with a really decent amount of seabass (was surprised), and flaked apart so nicely. Tasty.

+ Wings (crispy): Loved the sauce and the crispiness. Similar to Korean Fried Chicken. :)

+ Hirame Kombu (rolls): A roll with white fish and some kind of sea salt? It was super tasty for something small/kinda basic, lol.

These are the items I'd probably skip in the future in favor of trying something new:

/ Octopus (robatayaki): Was tasty, but didn't wow me.

/ Tuna Rice Cracker (cold): Your typical fried rice with saucy tuna on top. I liked it, but I prefer Gyu-Kaku's Spicy Tuna Volcano hehe.

/ Black Cod Fried Rice (sides): A yummy filler dish that made my belly happy. It has actual pieces of cod, and was more "moist" than fried.

/ Egg Omelet & Nori (sushi & sashimi): Ordered this a la carte, and it was OK! I've had yummier tamago/egg omelet elsewhere, so I wouldn't re-order this. (Instead, I'd get more salmon nigiri! haha)

- Aged NY Strip (meat): Ehhhh, did not care for this at all. This was the only dish that I did not like. The meat was tough and dry.

Overall, I had a lovely night, so thanks Monkitail!

A good place for a date, they have a chef tasting menu where you get to pick 10 items from the menu. You pick one from each section ranging from cold foods, the grill, sushi, and side dishes. It's a bit on the pricier side, but it's worth it, most of the items will just melt in your mouth. I really do recommend trying the cooked seabass or the duck baos, there are amazing!

We came here cuz we couldn't decide whether to get sushi or Chinese. And they have both!
Not only that the restaurant is very pretty, modern, spacious, the food was delicious. Their food came out in appropriate timely manner, it was fresh and hot.
Our server was attentive and polite.
Per usual we over ordered and we took lots of it to go and he even packed it very nicely for us.
Highly recommended this restaurant if you're in the area and look for somewhere with good food drinks great service and chill vibes.