Montalto Restaurant has been awarded its 14th Chef Hat in the 2018 Good Food Guide with a score of 15.5/20.
Our restaurant is currently closed for renovations, with a new-look dining room and revamped dining experience opening on Friday November 3. Our Piazza Cafe is open daily from 11am as normal.
It looks like a Visit Victoria advertisement: the landscape is all rolling hills and vines, punctuated only by metallic sculptures and parents chasing free-range children across verdant lawns. It's an idyllic scene viewed from the more formal, linen set dining room, where well drilled waiters pour Mornington Peninsula chardonnays and pinots and chef Gerard Phelan draws on garden produce and occasional Japanese elements against European foundations to excellent, artful effect. Scallop tartare exemplifies the approach: it's fresh on the palate, cut cleanly and sharply, with slivers of shiso and chives on an umami-amping katsuobushi cracker. Veal rib-eye is char-grilled till caramel giving way to medium-rare interior, subtly punched up with an anchovy and miso-based sauce and leaves of savoury rapini. And Montalto's orchard is showcased by a dessert of house-grown figs, grilled and set on fennel-inflected custard and sharpened with an elderberry sorbet."
