Ristorante Fattoria Il Poggio — Restaurant in Montecarlo

The setting of this restaurant is beautiful. It’s a classic Tuscan villa surrounded by vineyards, with massive potential for creating a wonderful experience. The service was decent, and the staff were friendly and welcoming.

Unfortunately, that’s where the positives ended for us. There were quite a few things that left us disappointed:

We booked a wine tasting, which turned out to be four bottles simply placed on the table with a brief explanation. There were no wine coolers or much effort to make it feel special or informative.

The food was a basic antipasti platter followed by a pasta dish that tasted like it was cooked in big batches. It was decent but nothing to write home about.

We found a lead splinter in one of the meat sauce dishes. That was shocking and affected the trust we had in the kitchen.

The DJ setup was a complete misfit for the atmosphere. Every hour or so, loud, cheesy wedding songs like ABBA and Sister Sledge would blast through the speakers. Large groups of tourists, likely from cruise tours, got up to dance the polonaise and shouting while we were trying to eat dinner. We actually asked the staff if this was just a one-time event, but they confirmed that it happens basically every day. It felt awkward and out of place rather than fun.

The whole place seemed designed for quickly moving tour groups through a staged “Tuscan night,” which made it feel more like cruise ship entertainment than a genuine vineyard dinner.

The wines were mediocre, nothing memorable, though at least it wasn’t outrageously expensive.

In short, what we’re trying to say is that this place isn’t worth the time or money if you’re looking for an authentic Tuscan experience. The beautiful setting is there, but it’s overshadowed by touristy theatrics and...

Fabuloso! We were picked up from our hotel with two other people and drove about for twenty minutes to the Vineyard in Montecarlo.

We had a wonderful greeting from our hosts and were introduced to Alice and Bruno the rather large dogs.

We wandered through the vineyard and olive groves then returned to our table. There were six of us on our table. Two from The States, two from The Netherlands and the two of us from the UK.

We had 6 bottles to try, each bottle was explained to us, the grape variety etc. We had fabulous antipasti consisting of breads, prosciutto, cheese, salami's, olives and beautiful sun-dried tomatoes. We then started trying the first bottle of white. The evening continued on, bottle by bottle we carried on then a gorgeous bowl of pasta and beef ragout arrived then a glass of vinsanto and sweet cantuccini followed. The finale was a glass of grappa.

We had a wonderful time. The atmosphere was amazing, the setting was spectacular.

If you want a knowledgeable wine tour, forget it! If you are a wine snob, forget it! This is all about eating, drinking and making new friends in a stunning backdrop.

Brilliant value for money. We have come away with priceless memories. Thank you Isabella and Paolo and everyone else...

Have never been that disappointed in a Tuscan restaurant over the last years. Nicely decorated Cantina (cellar like, oak barrels), but did not feel welcome since we were left alone for 20 min upon arrival despite reservation. Wine tasting meant that they simply put six bottles and 4 glasses on the table, read the information on the wine from a leaflet and left us to it - quite the opposite of the passion for wine one usually feels when visiting a Vinyard in most parts of Europe. Since tastes in wine vary heavily, I do not want to say anything bad, in fact I am sure a lot of people will like the wines offered, so if going you should of course try a couple of them. We can't recommend the food though, pasta was very oily, grilled vegetables and meat partly burned tasting like coal. If you go, I recommend not to take a menu but order a la carte, and simply order 2-3 different glasses of wine instead of doing the rather sad wine tasting experience. But maybe it was only the wrong day, since the main restaurant seemed quite busy, which means people seem to like...