I have been scheduling tastings to prepare for our daughter's wedding in McCloud next year. Monaghan's came highly recommended, had amazing photos of their food, and seemed very flexible. Several months earlier, we scheduled a tasting for 6 (bridal couple & both in-laws) for this past weekend, and were really looking forward to being wow'd. Unfortunately, the only wow was how disappointed all 6 of us felt with the entire tasting.
We were scheduled at a small, chic bar in downtown Redding, FOMO. The bar was closed, and the prep team working there seemed unaware that we were even coming. After a few minutes of trying to convince them to let us in, bartender Abraham emerged to say Julia would greet us in a few minutes and was prepping the meal in the back. Awkward, but ok. at least we got inside and it appeared we'd get on with it. Julia appeared a few minutes later to greet us, a bit rushed, explained what we would be tasting (by previous agreement), and started presenting the small plates for each of us a few minutes later.
We tasted a salad with fresh berries and a balsamic dressing-nice, and a bacon wrapped date stuffed with goat cheese for an appetizer-a bit much for a single bite; for the main courses, a few slices of rare tri-tip with chimichurri, rice pilaf, broccolini and marinated chicken. All of these were fine. Unfortunately, we were told that the tri-tip would be smoked, but they couldn't make it in the small quantity for our tasting (so not really what we'd have at the wedding). There were lots of other options available from their online menu, but obviously, we could only taste a few things. We had also been notified that there would be a tasting fee, but when it arrived after departing, the $260 charge seemed a little exorbitant.
Overall, all the food was definitely edible, but not excellent, we had no idea what the tri-tip would even taste like the day of the wedding, we could not determine whether the catering manager was really representative of the organizational skills of this chef & the rest of his team, and overall, whether Monaghan's could be counted on to deliver a top tier meal in the chaos of a wedding day at a remote location.
Lest you think we were too lofty in our expectations, we had previously tasted the food from a competing Redding chef, where we were WOW'D by their organization, options and top-tier food WITHOUT a tasting fee. Perhaps Chef Daniel can deliver the beautiful food shown in his online presence a little closer to home, but we did not experience it during our tasting, and would not risk it in our once-in-a-lifetime event. read more
