.ch3rieberry*.: Alo Restaurant *.

❤ A very successful #petersurprise event I must say ;) ❤

P took me to Alo Restaurant! Very very close to a Michelin star experience!
Food critics say that this restaurant is inching in to be the first Michelin star restaurant in Toronto :D

PB told me the reservations he booked was two months in advance.. so book early!
Mega props to him for holding in the urge to tell me what and where he booked for my random surprise. And here I thought we were just watching a movie.. LOL

We had an excellent experience dining at Alo Restaurant.

The atmosphere is modern - "Nouveau French". I liked how spacious the restaurant was. The tables weren't packed together so there is more privacy during our dining session. We were seated near the windows so we got great sunlight for my food pictures :D

Service was absolutely amazing - we were attended in good intervals.
The servers knew the menu by heart!
They also changed the utensils for every dish that we had.

I was actually laughing out loud, literally, when I went through the food pictures that I took at Alo... the plates were so shiny and clean that you can see P's face reflected on it LOLL and each plate that caught his face is like "Are you done yet :*(!", "Can we eat yet :*(!" hahaha awww. I'll point out which ones it was below hahaha

DRINKS:
[to start off]

* cocktail bouteille pour deux

* reds

TASTING MENU

* AMUSE-BOUCHE (cheese puffs & mini foie gras cakes) (4/5)

This dish was a set of cheese puffs and foie gras cakes on a cute plating display. This was a great start to our tasting menu! The cheese puffs were still warm and the foie gras paste was perfection.

* VENETIAN CAVIAR, POTATO (5/5)
[Note: PB's face LOL]

The foamy and creamy potato purée was a great pairing with the caviar (Peter's fave).

The potato taste was very light and contrasted the caviar's flavour very well. A light dish to start off.

* STRIPED BASS, CUCUMBER, HONEYDEW MELON, RICE (5/5)

This was one of my favourite dishes of the night. The striped bass was served as a sashimi, it was fresh, sweet and delicious.

Each of the sides were marinated differently. A cute and unique display.

* PAIN AU LAIT (4/5)

My boyfriend loved this! This was sourdough bread with salt sprinkled on the top.

We were generous with the butter that came with it, as the server advised.. It was soo good haha

* ANTEBELLUM GRITS, DUNGENESS CRAB, CORN, NORI (5/5)

Loved this! There was a strong taste of nori (seaweed) and sweet corn. The crab meats were in big chunks. The portion may look small, but it fills you up quickly.

* QUEBEC FOIE GRAS, SUNCHOKES, HIMROD GRAPES, VER JUS (4/5)

The foie gras chunks were delicious. I do like the sauce, but I don't love it haha.
I felt like it overtook the foie gras a bit.. but yummy nonetheless.

* NOVA SCOTIA LOBSTER, CHESTNUT, SALSIFY, BRUSSEL SPROUTS (5/5)

[Note: this picture made me laugh so hard hahaha..
PB's face: are you done yeeeet, can we eeeattt yeettt :( LOL]

I'd revisit Alo Restaurant for this dish alone. This was deeeelicious!! The lobster was poached to perfection. The sides were fresh and its flavours were distinct from the lobster itself.

* PACIFIC HALIBUT, CHERRY TOMATOES, SAMPHIRE, SHELLFISH EMULSION (3/5)

Compared to the lobster, this was definitely not as good. The halibut was fresh but was a bit dry.
We felt like we needed to dip the fish in its sauce in order to enjoy this dish more.

* RACK OF PORK, PEACHES, PEPPERS, PISTACHIO (4/5)

We usually eat these rack of pork at Chinese restaurant so we were curious to see how Alo would cook them. It was great! The pork meat was juicy and went pleasantly well with the peaches and pistachio. Big points goes out to the pistachios!

* BEEF RIBEYE, MATSUTAKE MUSHROOMS, SPINACH, BERNAISE (4/5)

We felt like the vegetables that paired the ribeye overtook the main itself! The mushrooms and spinach were so good - all marinated with different sauces. The ribeye itself was good, but did not wow us as much as the sides.

* AMUSE-BOUCHE (popcorn ice cream with popcorn bits) (5/5)

I was sold the moment our server told us the amuse-bouche was popcorn ice cream!! It was light and had a great texture. Yummy yummy.

* HONEY CRISP APPLE, PUFF PASTRY, CALVADOS (5/5)

Loveeed this! It combines both the sourness and sweetness of apples in one dessert.
The crispy cookie also stood out to us in this dessert.

* LAST OF THE SEASON BERRIES, ALMOND, FENNEL (4/5)

A colourful and cute display. A variety of mixed berries were part of this dessert. I'm not a big fan of raspberries but it was still pretty good :)

* DARK CHOCOLATE, MINT (5/5)

This was aaamazing! Note that I don't even like mint ice cream haha! The dark chocolate was a bit bitter. They've included milk chocolate in the mix, along with the mint chocolate, which balanced the flavours well.

To end off your tasting menu experience for the night, they give you an envelope with the list of the dishes and wine pairings. I thought this was a cute personal touch :)

Yes! We were 100% piggies for the night!