COMO Le Montrachet

This is the second time we have stayed here since the opening. We cannot commend the restaurant staff highly enough, Andre, Thoma and Estelle plus everyone else made our stay a delight the warmth they generate was superb, excellent service is one thing but the warmth and personal touch to go with it are skills that you only get from the right people. The rooms are what you would expect for a Como property and now the pool is finished that will add an extra dimension, unfortunately just after we left.

On this occasion, we ate in the restaurant rather than stayed in the hotel unlike previous years where we'd do both. The hotel has been renovated and is now owned by an Asian group that has brought a particularly non-Burgundian vibe to the place. Prices are also 2X year on year, so the hotel has become priced for rich tourists, no doubt explained by the clientele in Como's other (non-European) hotels. Although the Montrachet hotel building has been renovated, the terrace and gardens are as yet unchanged. We've been visiting Montrachet for several years as the village is magical. The hotel has been a special destination for generations of wine lovers and the former lobby was rather charming in the way it featured local wines and their history. Post renovation, that is all gone and what is left is a distinctly corporate feel. The restaurant's redesign is particularly noteworthy. It now looks like an expensive designer was engaged to remodel it but failed to capture anything of the feel of the village or indeed the region. You could be forgiven for thinking, if you had your eyes closed entering the hotel, that you were eating in a New York expense-account restaurant. The décor is grey and the high ceilings have had randomly sized bright white balloons installed as lighting. The restaurant is devoid of any warmth or taste, and in our opinion has ruined the hotel. The food was okay, but the pricing has now become extreme. There was nothing interesting about the menu, and given the importance of the wines you would be drinking, it felt like the food clashed with them. The best part of our visit this time was opening a bottle of Puligny from the unchanged wine list sitting on the unchanged terrace in the unchanged gardens. I have to say with great sadness that we will likely never return, except for pre-dinner drinks. We weren't alone in thinking this and we found former customers of Montrachet at the restaurant across the square which had an exciting menu, and were staying at a charming hotel around the corner. Como, I'm sorry but you have blown it.