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Studio at The Montage Laguna Beach Wows Critic With Its $1,200 Bottle of Chardonnay

Go To The Hotel's Web Site Where: 30801 South Coast Highway [map], Laguna Beach, CA, United States, 92651
September 17, 2009 at 3:38 PM | by | Comments (0)

Now that Chef Craig Strong has taken over the kitchen at Studio, the restaurant at Laguna Beach’s Montage Resort, L.A. Times head restaurant critic, S. Irene Virbila, decided it was time to venture down the coast for a meal there, and the usually hard-to-please reviewer was positively raving about the food by the end of her dinner(s).

No other restaurant in Southern California has this mesmerizing view, and this happy combination of setting, great food, polished service and deep wine list makes Studio at Montage one of the region’s true destination restaurants.”

Not to mention the possibility of a tasting menu of six courses for guests who just can’t choose from those profuse offerings. Virbila was also wowed by the extraordinary, and extraordinarily “deep” as she puts it, wine list, which includes a Chardonnay for $1,200. (No, you read that right, $1,200!)

The high-caliber cuisine shouldn’t be surprising given Stone’s pedigree. He comes to the Montage after eight years at the Dining Room at the Langham Huntington in Pasadena (His succesor? Michael Voltaggio of "Top Chef".) Before that he also worked at Ritz-Carlton properties in Atlanta and Barcelona. Clearly he is at ease in a hotel setting, though before he knows it, most people might be coming to the Montage just for the food...

That said, if you want to make a meal at Studio part of a longer stay at the resort, rates at the Montage Laguna Beach start at $395 a night.

[Photo: LA Times]

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