Montaluce Winery & Restaurant — Restaurant in Dahlonega

Bummer that I have to write this, even though I wrote emails and called their management a number of times (the Food manager doesn't read emails and the previous guy is no longer there). I tried to give them a chance to respond to the encounter below and never heard back. November 2024 My friend made reservations for 4 about a month before our dinner date, anticipating our getting together in the Dahlonega area. We were so excited to be going to the highly acclaimed Montaluce.

What a tremendous disappointment. Here are the details:

We had reservations for dinner and went to the hostess to turn in our name as the car was being parked by the valet. We gathered at the hostess desk and waited... and waited. Other people came and went, but the original hostess would not look at us. Finally I said something and she asked "if we've been helped!" We finally were seated upstairs. What a great surprise when we saw that the place was 1/4 full (thinking our waiting downstairs was due to full house)

Waitress was attentive enough and both our wives ordered the french onion soup. When it came, no spoons. As a matter of fact, no silverware for any of us. We had to flag her down and get soup spoons.

The soup was SOOO salty, both ladies exclaimed at the same time. They could not eat it. I tasted it and agreed it was over salted. We flagged the waitress and she said she'd get the chef to make it less salty. Our wives thought perhaps the problem were the croutons (which both of them wondered why croutons instead of the typical sliced french bread). The replacement soups were brought and somehow was slightly less salty, so they managed to finish, but still too salty tasting.

Three main meals came, but my buddy's $57 steak did not. His came about 3 minutes later, which is a no-no when bringing out meals, everything should be at the same time. Guess what? No steak knife, so he had to ask for that.

Very disappointed in the white wine selection. It's a winery, so I was assuming there would be choices, perhaps even some of your own. Turns out, there was only 1 white wine to choose from (and apple wine). With fish and chicken on the menu, that was confusing as to the lack of selection.

The steak was grocery store quality with no flavor and large chunks of fat to remove.

With the small crowd and having the soup sent back, one would assume a manager would circulate and ask if everything is well. No manager visit.

Towards the end of the meal, both ladies' stomachs were upset and both had to use the restroom. (this continued into the night for my wife) Most likely from the overly salted soup.

Funny enough (not), the group that sat down next to us ordered onion soup and we heard the lady exclaim that "it tastes like they poured a box of salt into it." Oh, the guy had to flag down someone to get a soup spoon. Sound familiar?

On the way downstairs at the first landing there is a room. The door was open with a table full of silverware and other things and employees talking somewhere back in the room. Very distracting and unprofessional. That door should be closed.

We knew going in that the prices were high, but that should buy us exceptional service, quality food and a hospitable staff. We received the opposite and still payed the high price.

This is a top down problem, it...

It’s always hard to write these kinds of reviews but hopefully the owners/staff can use to make improvements. Was recommended by our AirBnB for a nice dinner with my husband while traveling through GA for my birthday. On a positive note the hostess was very kind and courteous, and the restaurant itself was beautiful and cozy. We arrived 10 minutes early for our 7:30pm reservation and were told to wait at the bar until they were ready. We each ordered a glass of wine from a very friendly and professional bartender, and paid for that round at the bar. Unfortunately, post seating things did not go well. We were seated outdoors, as requested, but at a table nowhere near where we could see the “stunning views” of which they boast. Our table for two was two small tables positioned together and there was at least a 1-inch difference in the two, which made it quite awkward and unstable. It took a long while for our waiter to arrive, long enough to consider asking the hostess if we had an assigned server when he finally arrived at the table. He seemed friendly but became increasingly “missing in action” over the course of the next 90 minutes. We were told they were “out” of our first choice of appetizer, and we settled on a second. When it arrived, it was missing a primary ingredient, which couldn’t be addressed because our server was nowhere to be found. While waiting another 30 minutes, a gnat issue presented itself, and at one point there was no less than a dozen gnats either on or in my wine glass all at once. We politely and understandingly requested to be moved inside, which the hostess accommodated right away. Unfortunately, our server was MIA from this location as well. We had no drinks or food (and no server) for another 30 minutes. Our server then eventually took our order and brought another glass of wine we requested, one of which he said he would comped because of the “gnat problem”. Fast forward yet another 25 minutes and no explanation, no apology, and still no food. Despite the horrible experience, we left cash for the small amount of food and wine we received, purely out of respect. As we were walking away, 90 minutes past our reserved seating, our server tried to stop us and said, “they’re plating your food right now”, which was, frankly, too late and we didn’t trust that it was actually true. We kindly said, “thanks anyway, but we’re just going to go”. We left with no meal and an incredibly disappointing experience. We left with two other couples that arrived around the same time we did, but they had both eaten and paid for appetizers and an entire meal during the same amount of time that we just sat waiting. Just terrible. Sadly, we cannot recommend this restaurant in good faith. Our experience ruined an entire evening of a short stay in GA. I would recommend relying on another location if you want to be sure to have a good experience. We will...

I don't even know where to start with this review...

My partner drove us an hour out of the way on our trip to G.A. to surprise me with going here because he thought I would like it. Such a sweet gesture, but ruined very quickly by the staff, food, and service.

First off, the environment is gorgeous. There's no denying that it is a beautiful location. The wine was also delicious and the white I got was one of the best that I'd had. Everything else was really bad. We had a reservation for 6pm and were seated promptly, which was nice. Things quickly went downhill. Our server, while nice and all, seemed annoyed that we were there like we were inconveniencing him, and only once came to refill our drinks the entire time, leaving our glasses empty 90% of our visit.

Next, we waited almost an hour for our food, which was extremely disappointing when it finally arrived. I ordered the salmon and my partner ordered the lobster pasta, both of which were almost inedible. As a chef, salmon should never be mushy to the point of having rubbery skin. The skin was so rubbery and slimy that I had to scrape it off and put it on the side. The salmon itself was mushy and barely pink (which makes me think it was frozen and reheated), and the orzo and veggies it came with were bland and underseasoned. The sauce it came with left much to be desired, and the odd crunchy straws on top were off-putting. My partner's lobster in his pasta was rubbery and chewy, and tasted like it was tinned. The pasta was thick and floury, with an odd fishy taste. Everything needed a generous amount of salt.

We also witnessed a family of six or seven leave after being there almost as much time as we were, because they hadn't even gotten menus to order with and only had water and napkins on their table. As they were walking out, a waitress stopped them to try to get them to stay, but they left anyway - and I don't blame them. They were a lot more polite than I would have been after waiting over an hour to not even get menus at their table. Another couple beside us waited hours to get their food and were also visibly upset.

Overall, for the outrageous price, it was an awful culinary experience. For $139 + tip, I could have gone to McDonalds and been happier with my food. The service was poor and sloppy. You are paying for the view here, and that's it. But we couldn't even enjoy the view because a drone hovered above our table the majority of the time taking photos of guests. It was annoying and a bit ridiculous. I don't know how they can allow third-party photographers to do something like that, because of liability reasons. It gets 2 stars because of the wine and the photo ops the property provided, but I will not come back here because of the poor service and how they just didn't seem to care about...