Michaelangelo's Big Sky — Restaurant in Montana

The Good: Michaelangelo has an elegant decor with a glass enclosed wine tower that can pass as a modern sculpture. The food was plated artfully. The Bad: Our selection was the Calamari appetizer (good but a bit too salty), two minestrone vegetable soups (too salty), the Salmon (too dry), and the Roasted portobello mushroom (very good). Bargain price of $91. The Ugly: Customer service was atrocious. Our maitre d seated us with a cool politeness and not one smile. Honestly, not even one smile. Our waitress was quite amicable, but in a cool and disingenuous manner. I seriously thought she was performing a scene that she had not memorized well. The worst moment came when she was explaining to us the dinner specials. She read them as written, but placed no effort to translate to us the culinary Latin. Her manner was almost disparaging. I do know that I had a “what is that?” kind of look. Another party (we dressed similarly) sat behind our booth some 15 minutes later. With our proximity, we heard her explain clearly all the specifics that she failed to reveal to us (without the party asking). Furthermore, her demeanor was much more genuine and friendly. Seeing this alternative face, I felt like she was polite to us on the exterior but thinking internally “you folks do not belong here.” Oh yes, and she forgot our bread.

Is it possible that I misinterpreted these interactions? Absolutely. A lot of this is subjective. The objective facts, however, are these: 1) food that was tastefully presented but too salty and overpriced 2) no smiles from the Maitre d, and 3) acutely deficient job performance by failing to explain to guests menu choices while treating other guests differently.

Bon appetit, but...

I want to give this a five, but they were two days away from closing for the off season, which lead to a few too many unhappy moments. We started off strong, with a good server and timely attention. Even the first dish we ordered was quite tasty. But then we had to wait for bread (it was fresh and cooking but it seed like they were not prepared for the amount of people they had arrive which shouldn't happen at this nice of a restaurant). Then...our server disappeared, and got busy as they like many others were understaffed. This meant we waited almost 20 minutes from the time we were done with all of our early food to even get to order an entree at which point we were told the entree we wanted had sold out with the last order. We ordered something different, and it took almost another 20 minutes to get our meal...which had one entree not cooked correctly. The other entree (the pork loin) was such a bad cut of meat that most of the piece was left on the plate as fat and a small piece of bone. I truly believe they normally do better, and they did make it right by not charging for that specific entree without us asking for that. Again, I believe that during normal peak seasons this place has the ability to be a 5 star restaurant but we did...

Great spot for a large groups who want impeccable service and atmosphere. They easily accommodated our group of 8 and our server, Heather, did an amazing job. She made thoughtful suggestions (asking what we normally get, what we were thinking and helped us make the perfect choice for us) and was always there when we needed her. My nephew has a food allergy and she was great about checking the items he was considering. I had the Bison Ravioli (one of her recommendations) and it was delicious!! My MIL and some others were here before and had the Lemon Piccata Chicken - it wasn’t on the menu but Heather asked the chef on their behalf and he made it for them. (I got a taste and it was so good.) Hubby had the filet (along with a couple others) and they were prepared perfectly and tasted great! Nephew tried the bison steak and shared a bite with his aunt…my first taste of bison steak - it was tender and tasty. He loved it! We also enjoyed a nice bottle of wine from their HUGE selection and of course we all had dessert: crème brûlée, chocolate mousse, tiramisu and salted caramel gelato…all were yummy!! Great atmosphere. Great food. Great service. Perfect end to our...