A meal at Alloro, London

***this restaurant has since closed down***

A few months ago myself, @Gi_nav and @Linguinadc met over an Italian dinner at Tinello. Last night we repeated our girlie night out with yet another Italian meal, this time at Dover Street eaterie Alloro.

I confess I was not familiar with the place and even thought it might have been only recently opened. I was totally wrong, Alloro is an established venture and part of the AtoZ group.

Reading the menu on the website, I was quite keen to try it.

Panzanella

The service was friendly, swift and mainly, Italian, which adds to the authenticity. The wine list not very extensive and not very strong on central / southern Italian wines. Prices are a little on the steep end, with the cheapest bottle around £26. We chose a very good Falanghina Villa Matilde from Campania (£35).

I had Panzanella as a starter – I wanted to try another version after the one I had at Spag Wednesdays by Douglas Santi a couple of weeks ago left me perplexed. Alloro’s version was nicely presented, with good clear hints of the vegetables used, from crunchy carrots to tomatoes and was gently paired to a salmon tartare. A light dish which I thourougly enjoyed, which still left me wondering what a ‘real’ panzanella is like.
@Gi_Nav liked her Linguine with Scampi and we all agreed @Linguinadc’s Agnolotti with Ragu’ were a winner.

Fish Soup

Our second course saw the girls both enjoy a Fish soup – I admit it looked nothing like what I used to eat in my youth, but they loved the flavours of the pan fried fish matched by the broth.
I loved my Tagliolini with squid ink – this dish usually comes drenched in olive oil, but Alloro’s version was not – it was yet again a very light and fulfilling dish with delicate flavours, enriched by fresh tomatoes and squid pieces.

We decided to stop there – we had some petit fours and paid our bill – the prices are higher than those quoted on the website (take note, webmaster!) so it felt a little too expensive (£55 each) but we had a great night with pretty good food.