Address: 299 Adelaide Street West
Type of Meal: Dinner
Amongst all the construction and scaffolding along Adelaide,
Montecito’s window filled building is an oasis of calm. With its two stories
and a covered patio there’s plenty to observe. Even the faux “windows” on the
back wall kept us entertained. Each showcases a video display with footage of
views from co-owner Ivan Reitman’s home in Montecito, California. Every
movement is subtle and you don’t fully realize it’s a video until a bird flies
by or it switches to the traffic scene.
The Californian theme continues on their menu, which has
plenty of meat, vegetables and Italian creations. And Italian seems to be what
they do well as the meatballs ($19) were fantastic! The dish was so nicely
balanced – the meatballs fairly dense but still tender and the polenta, tomato
sauce and parmesan complementing each other. Serving them with creamy and
buttery polenta was such a great idea; I loved slathering it and the smooth tomato
sauce onto the meatball.
The prosciutto, peaches and mozzarella salad ($14) is a nice
lighter dish for the summer time. It’s simple but allows the eater to focus on
quality ingredients – paper thin cured prosciutto, sweet peaches and soft fresh
mozzarella. Don’t be afraid to get a bit of everything in each bite. It’s when
all the tastes and textures work together; especially if you like the sweet and
salty elements.
I rarely order roasted chicken ($24) at a restaurant. But,
when its owner Chef Jonathan Waxman’s signature dish it’s hard to resist. What
makes it so special? Well, for one it’s unbelievably juicy! My knife glided
through it as easily as cutting through scallop (of course it helps that the chicken
was deboned). But, the tenderness comes at a price – the middle of the chicken
breast was ever so slightly pink. By no means was it raw, but being a little
squeamish about under-cooked poultry, I decided not to chance it. Luckily, the
portion was huge – you receive half a chicken – so leaving a bit behind didn’t
matter.
The chicken’s skin was crispy and the salsa verde flavourful
but not overpowering. Served with a frisee salad it’s good for mixing into the salsa
verde oils and chicken juices that leak onto the plate. If you haven’t had the
jw chicken before, it’s well worth a try.
My friend allowed me to try an ample piece of his Muscovy
duck confit ($28), which would have been what I’d normally order. Also very
tender, flavourful and having an extremely crispy skin, it was a good duck
confit. I would have preferred less duck fat left under the skin as it was a
little glutenous for my taste.
To end, we did not order the baked Alaska, which is served
with a big Stay Puft marshmallow figurine (a homage to Ivan Reitman’s Ghostbuster
films). Instead, we opted for a chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich ($10)
which arrived quickly without the fanfare (although our friendly waiter did
offer to bring us the doll anyways if we wanted).
The cookies were chewy and soft. Sandwiched in between was pistachio
ice cream which became overpowered by the chocolate syrup so ended up tasting
more like almond. But, it was still delicious and I liked that Montecito makes
the sandwich ahead of time and refreezes it so it doesn’t melt too quickly.
All in all, Montecito is a welcomed addition to Adelaide.
Prices are reasonable, the dishes delicious and portions a good size. They have
plenty of different sized tables and areas to accommodate larger groups. It
already proved itself to be a popular destination during TIFF. I sense that as the holidays start arriving,
it will be popular with the corporate crowd as well.
Overall mark - 7.5 out of 10
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Gastro World's Grading System
- Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
- 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
- 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
- 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
- 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
- 10 - absolute perfection!
