Monte — Restaurant in Grad Rovinj

We came there to celebrate my birthday, and I think other people came to such places to celebrate big events.

Quality of dishes.

We ordered the red menu. Some dishes were really over-salted (pork with lentils, side dish in sea salad dish). In many dishes there was bad combination of tastes (a lot of sour cream everywhere, bad mix in seafood dishes, very bitter dessert with grapefruit). All dishes look like a very complicated mix, and everything in this restaurant pretends to be very complicated, but it doesn't mean anything, because behind this complexity there is no good taste, or some products just kill any other taste in the certain dish. They don't use some interesting recipes in the menu (regular small beef cutlet, common fish casserole, extremely cold ice cream in last desert and we even didn't feel anything else because of it). The portions were very small, for me it's fine, but my husband didn't get enough food.

Prices.

I can understand the price for menu. But I can't completely understand the price for regular bottle of water "Jana", which we can find in all supermarkets there. It costs 54 kuna!!! or about 10$. So, it is not their production, they just buy it in supermarket and resell 5 times more expensive. For example, 1 cup of coffee with small desert costs 39 kuna. One glass of vine for 69 kuna, but we found the same vine in regular shop for 100 kuna for bottle (that for us insane as well, because it was not some special wine at all). We paid 300 euro for the dinner.

Room.

It was completely full, all tables were taken, and the room was so small. The tables were very close to each other, and some of them were just in the middle of the room. They were very small and you felt uncomfortable. We booked a table about a week in advance, but we didn't get good table. I also noticed some spider web on the decorations on the ceiling which also insane. The lamp above the table blinked! Because of the big amount of tables we had to wait quiet long each next dish, and we didn't almost get any descriptions of the dishes. Waiters gave us few words about products on the plate and that's it (like "it's fish with carrot"). In general I can say about this place like "cosy".

Menu and plates.

It was most complicated und useless menu ever. They have about 30 pages of vines without some certain order, and it's difficult to find english translation in main menu. They forbid to order dishes from different colors. Last terrible thing is they bring you olive oil in test tube (there are 1000 variants in what you can bring it, and this the worst decision ever).

It's already not our first Michelin star restaurant, but with all this insane conditions we faced for the first time. It completely not worth the money and the Michelin Star.

You, guys, have to work for clients, but not just to...

In summary a very poor experience.

It is summer, we booked a table for 3, 10 days in advance, and even the day before we received a call from the restaurant to confirm the table. I repeated the question and confirmation that we eat on the terrace. We get to the restaurant a little late (issues with parking during high season) and we had informed the restaurant of this. The restaurant has no view whatsoever, no terrace (except one very small table outside). We had to eat indoors with collapsable windows all open and a little Aircon running. Very stuffy, no airflow, hot and humid. The restaurant has a smoking area outside across the walkway. It is nice and comfortable, but not maintained throughout the evening, full ashtrays and other garbage on the little coffee tables. Michelin Star?

The dining room is small, filled to the brim and loud. Pair this with a hot summer evening and you get a very uncomfortable mix of noise, humidity, heat, no airflow. Michelin Star?

The bathrooms are clean and well maintained. But so small and even stuffier than the rest of the place. No fresh air. Michelin Star?

The service is superficial, the wait staff memorised what to say about food, serves you from all sides, don't pay attention to empty bottles or glasses, don't even clean bread crumbs off the table. Michelin Star?

The food partially looks good, in our view weird combinations, interesting table ware. However, the shrimp was half raw, the beef tartar (not hand cut) tasteless and warm, paired with warm (and therefore already smelly) Salmon Caviar. What an odd combination. They try to stuff you with bread, which we largely refused. They serve you a test tube of olive oil with the bread. Really? A test tube, instead of showing us the type of oil in the bottle? I had a metallic tasting bad mussel, a really uninspiring dessert of passionfruit. Also warm instead to refreshing and cool in the summer. It is obvious, food is prepared in the kitchen, left standing there until it is time to serve. Doing this time hot food get cold and cold items get warm. Michelin Star?

The timing/speed of service is inconsistent. We waited 30 minutes between courses until we commented and asked for speedier service. Yet, we almost spent 4 hours and left underwhelmed, hungry and very disappointed.

Prices are in general terms for a Michelin Star restaurant acceptable, but the service, quality and food in no way matches the price point.It is not worth the money.

Last but not least, Amex is not accepted. Why?

If there is no need to go there, don't, there is much better restaurants around...

This review is mostly for Monte’s “green,” vegetarian menu. My husband surprised me with dinner at Monte for my birthday. First off, the ambiance is lovely, the staff are thoughtful and helpful, particularly with food allergies. The wine options were spectacular and I appreciated getting to know more about Croatian wines.

While there were beautifully plated items on the green menu, as a lifetime vegetarian, the meal was frustrating and frankly, unsatisfying. It’s like they’d never considered that vegetarians and vegans eat protein. Need protein, just like everyone else, to feel satiated. While it’s cool to see a vegetable focused set of dishes—at some point, if a meal doesn’t have protein, it’s just a frustrating and tedious experience.

Highlights of the meal included the gluten free bread, made in house olive oil and red wine salt (which improved several of my dishes), the amuse bouche with goat cheese, the “bread” with truffles, the mushroom pate stuffed pickled peppers, and the potato with 66* egg yolk. But everything else was pretty but bland. Plates came out so slowly at times that we couldn’t leave for three hours. Honestly, I just wanted to go home and make a protein shake, I was so hungry. The braised oyster mushroom was bitter and yet sort of teriyaki-esque. One dish tasted of a floral soap.

It was uncomfortable, having staff come by to ask again and again if I enjoyed my meals. They were very kind, but my meal was so disappointing and I didn’t want to be a rude American. Everyone around me enjoyed their meals—they were having the meat dishes. My final, gluten free vegetarian dessert was just some chopped fruit. It took forever to get the check. I was stiff when I finally walked out onto Rovinj’s slick streets.

Please, if your friend or loved one is vegetarian, do not bring them to Monte without advising them to eat a lot of protein at home before the dinner. Pre-dinner protein would make the meal a better experience, as exploration of flavors and plating—not satiating hunger.

Monte could benefit from exploring vegetarian proteins, making their lentil dish larger, serving more cheese, adding more olive oil vegan to dishes, and adding more eggs, soy, and legumes to...