Alex P.
Yelp
As the main restaurant at the Montage, this is not a restaurant that's yet on the map of Big Sky, but certainly starting to get there. It has a pleasant design with tall ceilings and cozy seating.
When it comes to Breakfast experiences, on busy days, Cortina offers a buffet for guests priced at $58 and an enhanced A-La-Carte menu on the days when buffet is not available due to limited guest capacity. The Turkey eggs Benedict is prepared in a very classic fashion and was executed well. Avocado toast has some wonderful bread that is clearly freshly baked and tastes spectacular. Potatoes are very well done. The huevos rancheros was not executed particularly well, with the dish being very heavily dominated by the sauce, throwing the balance a bit off. Despite that, it was tasty, but almost impossible to finish the volume of sauce relative to other ingredients.
When it comes to the buffet, selections are fairly basic for the price that it costs and frankly, I would not recommend that option. Aside from the usual bacon and potatoes, the buffet does have croissants and an omelette station, so basics are covered at a five star hotel level, but that's about it. It is far from buffets at some of the other resorts of this caliber and cost just as much. A La Carte is much better both value and quality wise. Dinner was also very well executed, from the filet mignon to the bison tartare and trout.
One of the best things here are the staff, like Katie and Manish, who went above and beyond. With that said, on one of the days where the hotel was at higher occupancy, the team really struggled to cover the tables and was majorly understaffed. Thus, I fear how they will be able to handle the load in the rapidly approaching ski season.
Lastly, I have to highlight the platters and pottery. Clean presentation on all dishes, with some being served in gorgeous Staub dishes, with even the coffee being poured into Jono Pandolfi pottery. Such details really do make a difference. Cortina is an excellent spot for being fairly new.
Aside from suggestions above, it would be nice to see some additional selections to highlight the terroir of Montana, such as a better steak selection, bison and elk. Perhaps some mountain berries and plants consumed by indigenous populations. While it is an Italian restaurant, it's identity is already fairly confused: very little of it is actually Italian and my humble opinion is that an upscale Italian restaurant is not what most of the guests would want coming to Montana anyways. Italian spots are a dime a dozen in big cities where most of the guests arrive from, so not only does it mean the standard has to be higher, but experiencing a high end variant of Montana dining and ingredients would be much more interesting to me personally.