Montalcino Ristorante Italiano

Nice family run restaurant that is always booked on Friday evenings. I've tried many times before realizing I should probably reserve a couple days in advance if I wanted to have dinner there on a Friday.

Stepped into a warm, welcoming atmosphere. Immediately served waters and warm toasted bread with olive oil and balsamic vinegar drizzled on top. Live music played by a good and loud singer. He went around each table asking what song we would like him to play. And we asked for some Frank Sinatra.

We ordered the shrimp and scallops as an appetizer. While scallops could use a little caramelization and seasoning, it was still good and I enjoyed it. We then ordered the salmon with pesto and served with risotto, and tagliatelle with lobster, prawns, and scallops both were specials. Also we got the lamb chops, and the lobster spaghetti.

The food is not overly cheesy like most restaurants would have, in fact, very clean and fresh on the palate. They offer you olive oil, parmesan, and red pepper, if you want. Again, the scallops and shrimp were cooked the same way but it came with a lobster tail and saffron sauce. Generally, food served here is on the light side, not too salty... just the way I like it, but I think a little more seasoning would go better.

Upon finding out that I was celebrating my 21st birthday, the waitress recommended the Limoncello gelato and liquor. She topped it with a candle. The guy with the guitar came along and played me a happy birthday song in Italian. I also got a Montalcino hat to wear while I was eating the gelato.

Overall a very warm and friendly place. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, and eating good Italian food. Excellent place for a small group and remember to make a reservation!

Alright here we go.....

I went here the other night to take a family member out for her birthday.  She has been raving about this place since her and her friends went there so I figured hey this will be a good place to go.  We walk in and I take a quick look and immediately wonder "crap I hope they have something other then wine..."  We get seated and get the menus quickly along with a wine list.  Food choices look good and I start reading.

The waitress comes over and asks if we would like anything to drink.  I ask if they have alcohol.  The answer is no, but they have beer...............................  Being a brewer I realize hmmmm this shall be interesting.  "what kind of beer do you have available."  The waitress says "we have a lager, mumbles, mumbles, mumbles, and a German one."  I ask "Oh what kind of German beer."  I was thinking maybe it's a German style of beer...  She says "it's darkish."  At this point I wanted to bang my head against a WALL!  Oh and Lager means nothing to me since you can make a lager really taste any way you want.........

Oh and everything on the menu DOES NOT HAVE TO BE YOUR FAVORITE!  Every time I asked what was good she said it's her favorite.  This girl needs to work at a coffee stand.....  Needless to say I did not order anything to drink other then water!  When she obviously couldn't tell me the beer selection properly she says "we have soda."  At this point I could have given a crap about the rest of the meal to be honest since I like to pair a mix drink or beer with my meals (I can not drink wine due to a reaction with my jaw).  

We get the antipasti plate which every else loves, but for me it was more rabbit food then any kind of meats or cheeses.  I mean really it was basically tomatoes a piece of cheese and some fruit...

The food on the menu sounded great and the specials sounded amazing as well.  I order the Veal Chop with Marsala.  It sounds great and I'm interested in how good it will be.  Now generally I have a rule of NOT ordering any red meat while I'm out since I can always cook it and pick it better then a restaurant.  I will generally only order red meat if it's at a place that only does steaks.  

I get the plate after a pretty long wait which is fine, but they did have a good amount of fruit flies/nats flying around which was annoying.  I have spend my fair share of time eating in not so awesome places around the world so bugs don't kill my appetite, but at a place like this it annoys me!  The food looks AWESOME!  Well long story short I got about 2 to 3 small cuts off the Veal before it was all fat and gristle.  I would have to say this was by far the WORST cut of meat I have ever had at any restaurant I have ever been to.  The flavor was good, but it was either bland or rich.  Nothing was complex or all that interesting.  Well I finished what I could eat and could only think.   Hmmmmmmm I could really go for a dinner now.......

Well the only decent thing was the desert and the cannoli is a good cannoli....

Over all its too much money for what it is.  If you want great Italian food this place is a miss.  It's just a disappointment!

Admittedly I was a little leary to try after the negative reviews I've read. The owner, however is very nice and she, along with the rest of the place, oozes Italian, which is cool. Ton of character, the interior is pristine and the singer was also a nice touch. As you can read from others, it is small (I assume purposely so, to preserve the character, which I admire). 3 stars because I wasn't in love with the food, honestly. I'm not sure why but they don't serve liquor and there are times where nothing else will do, in my opinion. Perhaps the food is "real" italian, simplistic ingredients, etc... but all I could think of is that they needed a Food network chef in the kitchen screaming for more seasoning. Had the lamb shank (on special) and the clams linguine. In a place you almost feel petrified to try something "normal" like "mama's spaghetti and meatballs" we found ourselves wishing we did.