Alloro is an Italian restaurant situated on Dover Street, though if you rely on food blogs to help choose your culinary outings, you may well be oblivious to the place. Despite having opened in 2000, on Urbanspoon Alloro shows only two blog posts and even that was the same meal as the bloggers were eating together. Other than that, it has been generally ignored by the food blogs and that's a shame for three reasons.
First, the chef Daniele Camera is a native of Torino and is the real deal Italian chef, so this is genuine Italian food. Second, Alloro is part of the London Fine Dining Group that also houses Michelin starred Italian Zafferano amongst others which is more widely loved by bloggers (13 reviews, almost all glowing) so there's depth. Third, it's great value for money priced at £35 for three courses at our lunch sitting. At Locanda Locatelli, main courses are priced around the £30 mark each while at L'Anima, running up a bill of £100 a head is also easily done.
While bloggers might not be visiting the restaurant, plenty of others are and of a Wednesday lunchtime, the place was pretty much full with a lively buzz.
For our antipasti, we chose the Veal fillet carpaccio, and Poached egg with creamed broccoli and crispy bacon. Both plates arrived at the table looking good and both tasted excellent. The balance on the egg and creamed broccoli dish was well judged, the crispy bacon fantastically well flavoured, sweet and fatty, while providing some firmer texture also. A good start.
With white truffle now in season, Alloro has a seasonal truffle menu also though by all accounts, truffles this year are somewhat scarcer due to the long hot summer in Italy and that's pushed up the price up quite sharply. Truffle supplements are therefore running at £40-45. We took only one dish from the truffle menu, Taglierini with white truffles, together with Agnolotti filled with roast pork and veal. Pasta is made fresh each day on site and is faultless. Most importantly here though, the white truffle is divine. Indeed, an foodie source suggests to us that Alloro gets amongst the best truffles available in London due to his Italian connections. We can believe it. And while the supplement is quite pricey, the shaving is on the generous side.
First, the chef Daniele Camera is a native of Torino and is the real deal Italian chef, so this is genuine Italian food. Second, Alloro is part of the London Fine Dining Group that also houses Michelin starred Italian Zafferano amongst others which is more widely loved by bloggers (13 reviews, almost all glowing) so there's depth. Third, it's great value for money priced at £35 for three courses at our lunch sitting. At Locanda Locatelli, main courses are priced around the £30 mark each while at L'Anima, running up a bill of £100 a head is also easily done.
While bloggers might not be visiting the restaurant, plenty of others are and of a Wednesday lunchtime, the place was pretty much full with a lively buzz.
For our antipasti, we chose the Veal fillet carpaccio, and Poached egg with creamed broccoli and crispy bacon. Both plates arrived at the table looking good and both tasted excellent. The balance on the egg and creamed broccoli dish was well judged, the crispy bacon fantastically well flavoured, sweet and fatty, while providing some firmer texture also. A good start.
With white truffle now in season, Alloro has a seasonal truffle menu also though by all accounts, truffles this year are somewhat scarcer due to the long hot summer in Italy and that's pushed up the price up quite sharply. Truffle supplements are therefore running at £40-45. We took only one dish from the truffle menu, Taglierini with white truffles, together with Agnolotti filled with roast pork and veal. Pasta is made fresh each day on site and is faultless. Most importantly here though, the white truffle is divine. Indeed, an foodie source suggests to us that Alloro gets amongst the best truffles available in London due to his Italian connections. We can believe it. And while the supplement is quite pricey, the shaving is on the generous side.
Veal fillet carpaccio
Poached egg with creamed broccoli and crispy bacon
as above... the money shot
shaving the truffle
Taglierini with white truffles
Agnolotti filled with roast pork and veal
For the mains, we chose Pan fried fillet of cod with lentils, and Slow cooked pork belly with apple puree, pickled onion and baby spinach. The pork fillet was good but the edge of crackling hadn't fully crisped up. The cod was a touch overcooked so on the mains they fared less well than the previous two courses.
Pan fried fillet of cod with lentils
Slow cooked pork belly with apple puree, pickled onion and baby spinach
Sadly we didn't manage dessert today. Overall though, with Alloro, we were very impressed and would have no hesitation returning. We would certainly choose Alloro over Locanda Locatteli or L'anima though we think its sister restaurant Zafferano has the edge over it. But for quality authentic Italian comfort food on the edge of Mayfair that wont bust the bank, Alloro is an excellent choice.
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Related links
Alloro website
Zafferano CriticalCouple review
Locanda Locatelli CriticalCouple review
L'Anima CriticalCouple review
Semplice CriticalCouple review
Return to homepage
Related links
Alloro website
Zafferano CriticalCouple review
Locanda Locatelli CriticalCouple review
L'Anima CriticalCouple review
Semplice CriticalCouple review
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