My wife and I randomly wandered in here waiting for a tow truck for our car. Staff was attentive and friendly. We had great drinks and found out they have karaoke every night. We are coming back! read more

We stumbled upon this place on Halloween weekend after being highly disappointed from the last bar we tried. We're new to Auburn and wanted to explore what we have locally for drinks and date night. We sat at the bar and I absolutely loved that they have hooks for your purse! The place was clean and bartenders very attentive it was a team affair. We ordered bar food asap and it came fairly quick as hungry as we were it went down instantly. Pretty good for bar finger food! The night ended up getting packed and karaoke night was awesome! Even the ones that didn't sound so good sounded good cause that's the point! It was also rock night and I knew almost even jam!!! Wish we had dressed up to fit in, next year for sure! Worth the try. read more

Always a blast here. Servers and bartender are generally very good. Drinks are good and fairly cheap. It's nice knowing their is karaoke somewhere 7 days a week. Food is also very good! Especially the Caesar salad and the bacon wrapped prawns. The clientele is often sketch but what can ya do. read more

We love going to Spunky Monkey! Especially when you live at The Verge it's a great bar within walking distance to go out at night. Their drinks are amazing, the atmosphere is great, and we really enjoy the mozzarella sticks! The employees are also really nice :) read more

This was a great find on Yelp! The interior is so original and different we asked what it was prior and one of the bartenders thought possibly at church? Came here for happy hour it was a great mix of all different people and decor. I loved it! The service was amazing the food was descent for bar food. Highly recommend to stop in and check it out! read more

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So I have just started here (Bartender) After being out of this industry for about 10-15 years. I love it! The food is very good. We have a Happy Monkey Hour from 3-7 EVERY DAY. Since I am the day Bartender, I can't say about the nighttime and Karaoke, but i understand it is very busy and a lot of people go because they like the DJ. I say come and check us out! You'll love the food and if you have a problem let us know most of us are more than happy to help. During the days I am there, I am usually by myself, but I can still keep up or definitely will try! read more

My wife and I must have arrived just before shift change? We arrived and it took 10-minutes to be acknowledged, get our beers and given menus. It took another ten minutes to order our food. By the time we got our food an hour and fifteen minutes had past. We watched most of the employees come in for the night shift and decide to go for a smoke. One person a nice older woman was working alone with a line of five people. You would think someone would step up and take care of customers. The food was outstanding! What was really gross was watching the smaller guy with the beard and reddish hair. He was cutting up oranges and I watched him eat the oranges as continued to cut the oranges. I had hoped he would wash his hands, nope and gross! read more

If you love cigarette smoke, this is the place to go. They have a smoking "section" right near the door, with no divider to stop the smoke from pouring into the bar. They also have no A/C. read more

A couple of things keep me coming back, but one that stands out in particular is one bartender, Matt. The environment he creates is super fun and inviting. He always makes me and my company feel welcomed, and has never steered me wrong when it comes to drinks or food. I'll definitely be coming back for the warm environment and really good staff/patrons. read more

One of my favoritest places in Auburn. There's karaoke 7 nights a week. The bartenders always treat you well. For me there has always been good vibes. read more

Spunky Monkey Bar & Grill - "Something that tastes good with lemonade." - American Near Me - Auburn, Washington

The New York steak special this weekend is excellent and as always they have the best caesar I've ever had. always great food and service

Karaoke DJ on Thursday 3/31/21 plays the music too loud cant even tall or hear your friends. Smh. Headache night. DJ Vinny way better.

Cute small sports bar. We enjoyed the happy hour menu and the food came quickly. The pulled pork sliders were fantastic.

This place is a dirty dive. Eat their food with caution - I got their Caesar salad with hair in it, showed the waitress, she offered me another - I declined. This is auburn tho, they have limited restaurants. Will not be returning! read more

Your typical dive bar feel. They have the dim lights, pool, darts, karaoke, ladies night, list goes on. A lot of their menu consists of average fried appetizers. I've also tried their spaghetti and it was good. Quite a large portion as well. Everything is dive bar cheap. If you want a lively atmosphere, chill place to kick it, or just have random conversation with different people, come here. read more

The best wedge salad EVER!! Not sure what the dressing is, but so good. Love coming to lunch here, always great service and there are so many great food options!! Can't wait to come back! read more

Spunky Monkey Bar & Grill - American Near Me - Auburn, Washington

We ate in the 'family area' / basement. Well decorated, comfortable. New server, newish staff that tried hard, but couldn't answer questions well. Didn't know about the bar food menu until we walked out and saw one on another table. It seemed strange that the dinner menu didn't have any appetizers. Soup of the day was Southern Green Bean. Good clear broth and not too salty. Steak was perfectly cooked and the 'brown sugar and herb crust' was a good adventure. Not very crust-y, but great mix of herbs and horseradish and sugar. BBQ Chicken Pizza had a great crust, but too much BBQ and not enough chicken. Bred puddling and chocolate cake were both good. When the bar upstairs started rocking the evening started to drag downstairs. We were the only people being served and it still took an hour for dinner. We could hold a conversation, but the thumping and singing from upstairs was a distraction. Rating deductions: 1 pt - speed of service ( or lack there of) 1 pf - music volume read more

Spunky Monkey Bar & Grill - Decor is Great for Kids - American Near Me - Auburn, Washington

The absolute WORST people work here. I would give it 0 stars if I could. They make last call at 1:45 and then kick everyone out at 1:46. They give you 30 seconds to drink an entire beer after last call. read more

This is the best bar in Auburn. Delicious food and yummy drinks. The bartenders are always extremely kind and the owner is one of the best people I've met in this city. This is the hidden gem of Auburn. If you're looking for some good dinner or some good times this is the best place to check out. The regulars are hilarious and the music is great. If I could give it 10 stars I would. read more

First visit from Texas. Fantastic bar, great atmosphere and drinks. People are friendly and drinks priced right! Hope to visit soon again! read more

Donnell has best spaghetti in Seattle area come and eat hearty at spunky money best time and best drinks.

The Spunky Monkey is a dive bar with a fun atmosphere, but their kitchen has some issues. We found a long black hair in a salad and my burger came with limp fries. It was like the fries had been thrown in the frier for only a few minutes. My burger was fine but nothing special. Drinks were okay- but again, nothing special. The staff was kind but most the food we ordered wasn't edible. I recommend trying other dive bars instead! read more

Spunky Monkey Bar & Grill - Basic cheese burger. - American Near Me - Auburn, Washington

First time that wife and I came in was today. Captain Kate was amazing with the best personality! It was difficult to find at first due to construction in the area but so worth it!! Food was amazing and we will definitely be back!! read more

This place was awesome! We were in town for a concert and this just happened to be within walking distance from our hotel. The place was packed. People in the 20's to older than me (40's). The karaoke was off the hook. The beer selection was great and the workers were awesome. read more

This is a dive bar and grill in Auburn, WA. I repeat: This is a DIVE bar and grill in Auburn, WA. I choose to reiterate this as a former bartender and Capitol Hill resident because some of these reviews imply this place tries to be anything it's not, which is unfair. Cheap, strong pours; better-than-most bar food; and friendly staff. If you are looking for more than good drinks, good food and real live human beings...you might not be looking in the right place. Pros: strong drinks, strong wifi, pool tables, darts, skeeball, REALLy good food (entrees and bar snacks), nice staff, karaoke 365 days a year, ample parking, good happy hour specials including food, numerous TVs always on with different sporting and entertainment events, really close to the train station with a bus stop out front and tons of room up and downstairs. Cons: It's a dive bar in Auburn, WA (gasp! I know!) read more

This is a great place for karaoke! DJ Chris is where it's at!! The service was very nice, there was a staff person checking to see how we are doing every 20 minutes. However, there is no obvious control over patrons that are black out drunk. This man approached and ruined our pool game and tried to start a confrontation with us. It was clear he was a regular. Absolutely made the environment uncomfortable to be in. read more

Good food, great prices, ok beverages. A funky building with an abundant menu, friendly service but the pours were so so. Spouse had spaghetti, I had a clam po boy and both were tasty and reasonably priced. My mai tai was kinda spendy for the quality and the "double" the spouse ordered was a whole lot of mixer. I don't know who calls this place a dive bar??!! The food was too good and the drinks were too tame. We will eat here again. read more

Smells as soon as one walks in. Smells through out the building. Cleaning is still not priority. So much for the make over. spunky monkey went back to nasty just as Robert Irvine predicted. The owner has obviously checked out. What a waste of Roberts time and money. read more

Took more than 10 mins for our drink order to be taken. From there took another 15 mins to actually get our drinks. Mind you there are less than 15 people in the bar! Once our food order was taken, my order was taken wrong! Once my correct order came, the waitress never came back to check on us. REALLY BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE The food wasn't that great either!!! read more

This little place is such a treat to visit. Nothing special, just great food & drink for good price. Service was very good. There is a lot of choices on their menu- the food really is good and can't beat the prices. The outside looks "sketchy" BUT it's a bar and once inside you'll find a very comfortable place to chill with friends. read more

Thursday 2/27/14 Took 2 friends to the Spunky Monkey Restaurant in Auburn, WA, WOW was that a BIG mistake. If there were a negative number I would post it. The restaurant was featured as a "restaurant makeover on restaurant impossible", so I thought I was going to be inviting "NOT". We walked in and there was no one to greet you, headed to the dining area, where a man in dirty clothes said "it's closed, go up to the bar" this was at 6:20pm). We went up stairs to the bar, waited to be seated, took a few minutes, (only 5 people in the bar 4 staff members); we were seated in a booth which had a broken table. After we ordered, It took the kitchen staff 45 minutes to deliver our meal; I have to give the wait staff credit, a couple of staff members, kept apologizing about the wait. I ordered, Beef & Blue Burger (salsa was slimy - scrapped it off) burger was cook per order, BUT the 5 wedges on the plate 2 cooked 3 raw (gross). My Friends order the Fish Sandwich, fish was dry, roll seemed to be day old, the other ordered Steak, and it was as tough as shoe leather, veggies over cooked. This restaurant is NOT inviting, VERY POOR quality of food preparation and extremely long period of time between order and delivery. I paid the bill, because I was so embarrassed about the place I chose for guest. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS PLACE EVER! I will also be sending the show Restaurant Impossible a CC of this post. dr read more

I never had the opportunity to try this place out prior to Food Network's Restaurant Impossible face lift, however I've heard stories. Stories of the good ol' dive bar - a place where you can go get sloppy drunk, sing karaoke, shoot some pool, play some darts and dance off beat to the jukebox in the background. To me, it sounded awesome. To me that sounds like the place I want to go every now and then when I don't want to get all dressed up and just enjoy myself like nobody is watching. Upon entering the New Spunky Monkey - I wasn't drawn in by anything as the outside of the building looked pretty drab on a cold rainy Friday night. But my friends and I wanted to check it out never the less to see what the hype was all about. I was immediately turned off that I had to walk up 10 flights of stairs to get to the bar area - as any bar hopper would know - drinking & stairs do NOT mix. The main bar area was pretty decent as it resembled a (more or less) tropical feel, however it rather seemed conflicting with the modernistic 3D paint on the main wall with the Ikea style hanging lamps. The dining area was divided off by old folding doors and the dining room side was decorated with paintings of monkey head shots and tables and chairs looked like they were from a parent teacher conference room. We grabbed a seat at a table at the bar and waited around a bit longer than expected to get service. In the meantime - we used our TouchTunes app to select a few songs on the jukebox to pass the time and wait for service. To our dismay - the volume of the music was set so loud it was muffled by the 15 other patrons sitting around the bar area, who were simply just talking and laughing. 20 minutes later we were able to get menus and placed a round of drinks. Guinness, a hard cider and a terribly mixed gin & tonic later - i was far from impressed. This place wasn't a dive. I didn't feel like it was much of a bar either. Nothing to entertain to patrons, the music couldn't be heard. It has more a cafeteria feel than a bar or even a restaurant. Won't be coming back as there are so many other options to choose from near by. read more

When you live or work in or around Auburn, you are bound to end up here. In the daytime you can expect less than average service and bad food. I once had a cesaer salad that had so much garlic powder in it that my lips burned. I once ordered a mojito and the bartender had to go across the street to Safeway to get mint. The only thing worse than the food, service, cleanliness and atmosphere of this place is the crowd. On a crowded night, some of Auburn's finest can be viewed. Tapout shirts, tribal tattoos, bad teeth and Limp Biscuit on Karaoke. Please don't say that nobody warned you. read more

My husband and I went here one evening after work and I was extremely impressed! It was probably around 9pm and we sat at the bar. They had karaoke going, but it wasn't obnoxious drunk karaoke, everyone singing was decent and very enjoyable to watch and listen to. Service was great and the food was even better!!! We ordered bacon wrapped prawns with their house made jojos....omg it was all amazing! I can't wait to go back and try more of their food. read more

I have been coming to Spunky Monkey since 2015. Food is always amazing and the staff are quick to provide service. The only issue right now is the construction and their placement of a Port-a-potty right at the front door. when I stopped by last night on my way home from West Seattle, I didn't even go in because the Port-a-potty was next to the front door. City of Auburn should be embarrassed over the length of the project and those they hired. Placing a potty station near an entrance to a restaurant is simple stupid. read more

I just had a lunch here and must say I was real disappointed, so much so, I feel compelled to post here for others. In looking at other Yelp reviews, it looks like my situation was not totally out of the ordinary. First of all, entering the restaurant/bar is a bit strange, having to go up a bunch of stairs. Right at the top of the stairs in the entry/circulation area they had a table with people seated which you had to go around tightly to get to the rest of the restaurant (fire hazard anyone?) The menu was just a single piece of paper. I asked about one lunch option and the server couldn't even describe it well at all, so, I ordered a burger. Once it came I was pretty shocked to see it with just 5 little Jo Jo's that they tried to "stylistically" arrange on the plate. I stared at it going, "are you serious?" The lady served it and walked off, so I had to quickly call to her if I could get some ketchup with it. Uh, duh..its a burger and jo jo's people! She then came back with this very small half filled cup of ketchup. I had to ask if I could please get some more or just have the bottle. But of course they can't bring out the bottle! The burger itself was good, but was a bit underdone (I asked for medium and it had a bit of pink in the middle). Otherwise it was ok. So, after sitting getting a bit upset at the ultra small proportions, I finally asked the server why they only served just 5 small jo jo's. She didn't say something like, "sorry about that, we can get some more for you"...it was more like, "oh, we were just featured on a food channel show and that was their serving." I was in shock hearing that from her. Hello! I DON'T CARE you were on some show...don't shortchange your customers! It looks from several reviews here, many others negatively commented on only receiving 4-5 small potato wedges, so it wasn't just me. If the owners cared about getting repeat business, they would serve proper-sized proportions. Potatoes are cheap you know! Looks like right now, they don't have a clue and would rather go off some "hip design." Oh, well, let them crash and burn if they keep doing that to their customers, the negative word of mouth and reviews will bury them. If you want to see their serving size of the potato wedges, look at the posted fish and chips photo...YES, that is all you get folks...what a JOKE! Anyway, overall it was a bad experience and I just wanted to get out of there. The whole place gives off a stench of hipster pretentiousness. It was pretty obvious that they were more concerned with how a plate looks (few cutely arranged Jo Jo's), than giving their customers an actual honest meal. That act may work in Belltown or Kirkland, but is soooo out of place in Auburn. I highly recommend staying away, whatever "food show" they were on has obviously gone to their head. Not worth it. * * * read more

Road in front of it is under construction and you have to park in the grocery store parking lot or loop around the block to enter Advance auto parts store parking lot. Place have a good vibe, food was decent and drinks are average prices. They do karaoke every night, which was fun to watch. read more

My wife and I went to the Spunky Monkey yesterday for dinner at 7pm. I was excited to go! We'd been to the previous version of the "Monkey" three times. Previously their food was forgettable, if not blatantly bad! Recently the show, Restaurant Impossible from the Food Network came in and redid the venue and it definitely showed. Whereas before, restaurant patrons would be seated in the basement, in a kind of scary, "day care" kind of decor, they now seated customers in the upper area. This means the pool tables are now gone, which may bother some returning customers. The new decor was impressive. Light yellow walls, textured with stone, with fabric pictures of monkeys in various poses. Tables were elegant and basic with yellow and black motif, MUCH more professional, more refined. Menu consisted of one sheet of paper, single sided, with appetizers, entrees and desserts. Despite the amount of choices, the menu seemed more refined and offered some interesting choices. I ordered a beef and onion burger. My wife ordered the Spunky Monkey Pasta. My order came with Jo Jo's and they were awesome. Fresh potatoes with seasoning, tasted great! The only negative was there was only 5 of them! My burger was a basic burger with fried onions and it was very good. The meat was seasoned nicely and very well cooked. Homemade bun and fresh vegetables (tomato and lettuce). Wife's pasta wasn't as good. She stated it was warm, not hot and bland. The menu stated it was supposed to have broccoli heads and chives in the entree but both were absent, so it lacked some punch. She put a ton of pepper on it but when I tasted it, it seemed to really lack some flavor. The bar and restaurant seemed somewhat busy, especially for a Tuesday and considering the pool table and dart boards are gone, it was surprisingly encouraging to see. The service was spot on and I really liked my meal, but I'll have to bribe the wife to return because her pasta wasn't nearly as good. I wonder if they had stuck to the original menu's ingredients, would my wife's pasta been better? read more

My husband and I have lived in Auburn for a long time and I remember when the Spunky Monkey opened. I tryed to go in once with a freind for a cocktail and we have sat down waited over 15 mintues for a bartender that was on the phone who might have been a freind there we two other tables of people in the place and the server was at the bar to busy with thier freind so we left. Bening that I have been in the restuarant and customer service buisness all of my life we had to see what the T.V show did for this place. We loved what the show did. The Spunky Monkey has never looked better. Our server was very sweet a bit slow as she was doubling as the bartender however very pleasant and gave great attention to detail as she had great suggestive sales to the menu items and great upsale skills. My husband had the Greek burger. The bun looked good and so did the chips. The meat portion seemed to small for the burger bun. More bun then burger is not a good thing however the taste was very nice. I have alot of food alergies that make me very ill. I was really happy the cook got my meal correct. I ordered a fresh green salad with a grilled chicken breast with no salt or oil. They did a very good job. It sounds crazy but ALOT of places mess that up. There were two other tables of people and two guys shooting pool. The one seemed to be in need of bening cutt off from more cocktails and kept getting served. All in all I wouldnt go back. I am a disabled person who has a very hard time with stairs. I also find it not appealing that the kitchen staff is sitting at the bar in uniform on a break it doesnt look motivated or appealing. That seating should be for your guests. When it is time to lean it is time to clean and from the T.V. show your place before was in need of ALOT of cleaning. Also very dissapointing that the manager or owner was not there. After all that work and help to get the Spunky Monkey back up if I was the owner I would be there durning peak hours. All in all nice food but nothing to write home about. Cold and un-professional staff shouldnt be sitting at the bar. Tell your dish washer to remove his apron on entering the dinning/bar for his break. The best of luck to you all and I trully hope you all can make a go at your new place. Parking is not good. We parked in front of the owners house. Very concearning that on a Saturday evening know one was there. No regulars or anything. read more

As others have mentioned this place has been updated due to restaurants impossible. I was told it was very divey before! The new is very unique decor, bright, and modern. Two pool tables. Good beer selection. Staff was super friendly and fast. They were doing karaoke on a Saturday. Only came here to drink so not sure how it is for meals. But it is a good place to come and drink a beer or two! read more