Studio At Montage Laguna Beach

Everything was perfect: the setting, our wait staff, the food. We will be back.

The service is truly wonderful! It starts the moment you get out of your car. Always such a treat, and we come here frequently. We went this time for Valentines Day. It was a prix fixe menu which was fine since we have come Christmas Eve and it was the best meal ever! This one, not so much.. The selections just didn’t have the expected special flair we’d come to enjoy here. I didn’t appreciate not having the option to not have the wine pairing with the meal. For one thing, one of my guests does not drink wine... secondly, the wines presented, mostly the red blend that came with the beef was just bad. There should have been an option on this. Actually, it should have been noted by our server that we had many glasses of woine on the table that were untouched. It was disappointing.

Great food, disappointing service (at this price point). We were frequent visitors with the previous chef, our first time with the new chef, and the food was wonderful. Flavorful, fresh , new, nicely presented. Wonderful vegetarian choices, delicious seafood. Sadly, the service has really tumbled. What was once seamless is now clunky. We sat 15 minutes before someone asked us about our dinner preferences. Another 10 before the wine choice. Another 5 before cocktails. The sommelier was great wonderful recommendations. But then the cocktails and wine served at the same time? We had to ask for bread service, now 30 minutes after being seated. We had to ask for our empty cocktail glasses to be removed from he table. We had to pour our own wine. No one came by to ask if we were enjoying our food. Unrelated to us, the service prep are had three major glassware crashes incredibly loud. All of this is absolutely not a problem for a $100 dinner we spent $500 (for two), so yes, we expected more.

Exceptional service in a beautiful setting. They had a visiting chef unbeknownst to us when reservations were made. It was Italian cuisine which was good but not great, and the wine pairings were again good but not great. I look forward to another visit when their usual chef is in house and wines can be selected from their excellent wine list.

We had an amazing time from start to finish at Studio celebrating our anniversary and birthday, from a service standpoint the best that I can remember! Upon sitting down, I needed to use my phone light to read the menu and someone came by to give me a high tech lamp that had multiple options for lighting. We had three servers and when being served all our food arrived at the exact same time. The presentation and taste of the entrees were superb, it could not have been any better! I also asked for a window seat which we did have right in the corner of the restaurant, so everything seemed spacious and open. The servers were very pleasant, not overbearing and a bit humorous at times so it didn't feel stuffy or too rigid. In fact, the servers seemed to be quietly there at the exact time we needed them. We will definitely come back again! I highly recommend the Studio and is now our most favorite restaurant for fine dining. This goes down as one for the ages!