MONTALTO PIAZZA

33 Shoreham Rd, Red Hill South - ph: (03) 5989 8412

The sun finally decided to come out again after another week of rainy weather in Melbourne! And what better way to enjoy it than going for a long drive around the peninsula and stopping somewhere nice on the way for lunch?

Montalto comprises a vineyard, olive grove, cellar door, fine dining restaurant and piazza, the latter serving a small, casual menu of local produce.

Most of the tables at the piazza are outdoors and offer amazing views of the vineyards and their huge vegetable garden.

The atmosphere here is very casual, with ordering and paying at the bar. The menu is pretty small and mainly comprised of pizzas.

We ordered:

Carrot and ginger soup with tahini mayonnaise ($14)

At first, I thought the idea of mayo on soup what a bit strange... but it ended up being no more than a drizzle of tahini on top. I loved the soup. There was only a subtle hint of ginger and the carrot puree had a rich, creamy texture. I loved how the soup was served very, very hot.

The rest of the table shared a few pizzas.

Pumpkin, semi dried tomato, feta pine nuts and garden herbs pizza ($17)

Lamb, potato, bacon and minted yoghurt pizza ($18)

Salami, bocconcini and rocket pizza ($18)

I had a bite of each and to be quite honest, did not love any. I thought the pizza bases were bland and the toppings were a bit dry (apart from the lamb and bacon pizza covered in yoghurt - that was a weird combination. They were not bad, but certainly not great either.

My favourite was probably the salami an bocconcini pizza. The spicy salami added a good quick to it.

I probably say I'd come back to eat at Montalto even though this was not a memorable meal. The venue is nice, the atmosphere relaxed, the food fresh and prices were very reasonable.