Every year my father takes us all to dinner for our birthdays, it is a combined birthday dinner for myself, my wife, sister, niece and my kids. It is so nice to know that we have a planner dinner on the calendar every January to sit and relax with family.

This year we went to Hoffstot’s Cafe Monaco in Oakmont, we have been there before and thought this would be a nice place for dinner.

We started with Fried Calamari and the Fried Platter (Zucchini, Provolone and Eggplan Mornay). Everyone loved the calamari, my kids every enjoy calamari, the eggplant mornay was amazing, I was shocked to see my oldest daughter even eat two of these.None of us where very impressed with the zucchini and we usually do like zucchini.

I also had the lobster bisque which is great, it was full of lobster and very creamy. For our

Shrimp Monaco

Shrimp and jumbo lump crabmeat baked in butter garlic, lemon, white wine, basil and oregano

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Jumbo Lump Crab Cakes

Jump lump crab lightly blended together with seasonings, pan seared and served with a lemon beurre blanc.

The meal was outstanding, the food was just as we expected cook to perfection and mouth watering. Sadly the service was less that stellar, the place was not even packed when we arrived, but we seemed to have to wait for our waiter often. I would definitely go back and hope that it was just a bad day for the waiter, he was tipped well since we had a part of 9 and there the 18% was included in the bill.