Presenting.....

Tassie_gal's review of Montys Blessed are the Cheeses Degustation Dinner from the 26th April 2008.

Before I start, I need to preface this with I LOVE Montys. Nat and Matt have a wonderful wonderful wonderful place that serves gorgeous food and has wonderful amazing staff. Kirby the bartender rocks my socks with his non alcoholic concotions - the latest being elderflower, pineapple juice and grenadine which was amazing.

So lets start - I wont use the usual format as my brain cant remember it and I cant be arsed poking back through previous posts.

First Course:
Barilla Bay oysters done 2 ways:
1. a classic mornay with Pyengana cheddar
2. filo wrapped with house made proscuito + buffalo mozzarella
A really lovely way to start. Small, light and flavoursome. I am not a big fan of cooked oysters, but both of these were lovely. Of the two I prefered the filo, as the textures really worked well together with the flaky pastry, the meaty oyster, the spicy proscuito and the soft cheese. Stephen, who isnt keen on oysters at all actually tried to pinch mine, so I suspect he liked them.

Second Course:
“Saint Monty”
crumbed + pan-fried Bruny Island Saint,
with a spiced pear paste + fresh strawberries
This is a standard on the menu, and was essentially what you get on the menu but a smaller serve. Two small wedges of the Bruny Saint, with a lovely pear paste and fresh strawberries. It works, has done for ages and probably will continue to do so. There is something very decadent about melted soft cheese and pear paste...its all sort of rich and creamy and gooey and yum.

Third Course:
pan-fried potato gnocchi with a 3 cheese sauce of gruyere, fontina + raclette
I think this was my favourite dish of the night. Approximately a dozen hand made gnocchi, browned and slightly crunchy on the outside but lovely and fluffy in the middle served with a drizzle of this amazing sauce. The gruyere dominated, but the fontina and raclette left an amazing aftertaste. I cant work out who had the pepper undertones, but it was SO good - I chased the last remaining bits of sauce around my plate with my fork to be able to savour them, and then I did the same to Stephens plate.

Fourth Course:
open fish pie with house smoked blue eye + prawns
over fondant potato, gratinated with Quickes smoked cheddar
This was probably my second favourite dish of the night. A lovely piece of smoked blue eye, all flakey and good, with a large banana prawn, nestled in a tartlet case and covered in a gently melted cheese sauce. By virute of the fact the tartlet case was sitting on the fondant potato there was NO SOGGY PASTRY! (a pet hate of mine). The smokiness of the fish really complimented the gratined smoked chedder, but not the the extent it was over powering, the fish shone through without being fishy. The textures in this worked really well as well. The fish was flakey but firm, complimented by the meaty prawn and the softness of the sauce - it really was like silk and the pastry added the depth by retaining the flavours that it held. I REALLY hope this becomes a menu item (HINT HINT NATALIE IF YOU ARE READING THIS!!!). THis was Stephen favourite despite the fact he isnt a big seafood fan!

Fifth Course:
'Bistecca Gorgonzola'
char-grilled Longford beef fillet over a sour-dough croûte
with wilted spinach, melted Gorgonzola and a cabernet sauvignon juts
Heres where it falls down a bit. The longford beef fillet is a standard on their menu in some way shape or form - but this for me just didnt work as well as it could have done. The spinach was good, the jus was lovely, the croute crunchy, but the gorgonzola and beef just didnt work for me. The beef was cooked quite rare almost tartare like, which generallyI dont mind, but the melted gorgonzola needed a heavier cut of meat rather than the Longford fillet - which generally has a quite delicate flavour which was totally overpowered by the cheese in this case. This was also quite a large serving, and evn though it was served after a considerable break it was probably a bit too large considerin there was still two courses to come.

Sixth Course:
Roquefort Panna-Cotta with a port jelly centre + pistachio wafers
I LIKE blue cheese I really do, BUT my brain and tongue have an ongoing arguement about the right texture. The panna-cotta was a lovely texture but my brain was going "BLUE CHEESE CRUMBLES" at me the whole time - not that it was very blue cheesy. I have the same trouble with Matts blue cheese ice cream, as a concept its great but my brain just doesnt DO it... A straw poll of those sitting around us came to the conclusion that 4/7 wanted more blue taste and 5 wanted less. The port jelly in its intent I think was meant to provide the counter foil to the blue - in the same way grapes etc do on a cheese plate - however it didnt really work. The pistachio wafers were nice, but a bit "heavy" for the dish in their texture...it needed light and fluffy, not shortbread like. I think this was the divisor dish of the night- you either loved it or were ambivilant. I dont like I liked it....but then again I dont know.

Seventh Course:
Baked Tongola goats cheese cake with a ginger biscotti base + roasted strawberries
As a final dish, this was lovely, though once again the serving was quite large. The cheese cake was creamer than usual and the ginger biscotti base provided a nice counter point in texture and taste. The roasted strawberries were amazing, sweet, lucious and firm all at once.

Additional Course:
I cant rememeber where this came in, I think it was just before the beef, but it was a truffle infused sheeps cheese which was GORGEOUS. Earthy and rich and just YUM!

Now we come to the not so nice part...For those of you who have been to Montys you know there are essentially 3 rooms - the cellar for private dining, the main room and the library. We were situated in the back corner of the library - in fact exactly where I was for Christmas with mum and dad. The library has 4 tables in it and is seperated from the rest of the resturant by the entrace hallway. Generally its a lovely oasis with books to browse etc, however this time not so much so. There were 4 tables of 2 including myself and Stephen. Unfortunately the two of the other tables of two talked talked to each other through much of the meal. Not that that was a bad thing, but one of the tables contained one of those people who really wants to be noticed. Phrases such as "I made this LOVELY dish..." and "I make something similar.." and "My daughter and I did this is in the kitchen together.." came over at regular intervals. The couple they were talking to had just completed an amazing sounding foodie tour of Italy and this woman (the I did one) was squawking about how she had been overseas and done this and that and the other....I seriously just wanted to SHAKE her. Her voice echoing around the round made us so restless by the end of the night we didnt stay for coffee, but escaped into the night.

My only other gripe, and the only one that really that Montys could have done anything about, was the speed of the service. The invite was 7 for 7:30. I think we got our first course at around 7:45, and our last was served I think around 11:15pm. There was alot of waiting between courses, and unfortunately when you have the whole resturant on the same menu you loose some of the atmosphere of hustle and bustle. It was a long night, and as much as I love Montys, I am not sure about doing another degustation because of the two factors above - nothing to do with the food.