Alo

In March, when we were in Toronto, we had enjoyed a delicious meal at Aloette on Spadina.  Its approachable menu with well-crafted eats made us curious about their bigger and older sibling upstairs.  Alo, which is headed by Executive Chef Patrick Kriss, dishes up modern French fare that is globally-inspired.  So this time around, we made resos.  The dining room is simple, yet elegant, leaving the emphasis on the intricate dishes.  Service is focused while at the same time, not intrusive.  Even before we got to the food, the whole outfit exuded Michelin-Star quality.

Now, we do need to get to the food and they offer a blind tasting menu for $225.00 per person.  Reservations are a must as I was barely able to get one where we dined at 8:45pm. We started with a trio of canapés including the Spot Prawn Tartare topped with prawn shell mayo, Thai lime and pomelo.  This was a bright little bite with sweet spot prawn that was amped further by the briny mayo.  Hits of acidity was provided by the lime and pops of sweetness from the pomelo.  Great what to whet our appetites!

The next was the A5 Waygu Tart with masutake shoyu while topped with Osetra caviar and purple shiso.  Loved the textural contrast of the crispy shell with the buttery wagyu (surprisingly not chewy despite the uncooked fat).  The use of shoyu was percise as the beef flavour still came through and was complemented by its umaminess.  Of course the caviar added pops of salty brininess while the purple shiso provided earthiness.  The last bite was a Foie Gras Parfait done with apples 3 different ways.  First method was the puree with apple calvados, second was the apple gastrique done with brandy and last was a disk of granny smith with an upper leaf cress.  This was a study of contrasting textures with the crispy exterior giving way to a creamy and rich silkiness inside.  There was a certain sweetness complimented by butteriness and only slight liver taste.

Our next set of dishes consisted of a Bluefin Tuna Tasting with all 3 cuts including Akami, Chutoro and Otoro.  With the leaner Akami, we found it wrapped around cucumber and radish sitting on yuzu relish and black vinaigrette.  Due to the lack of fat in the akami, the impactful vinaigrette did the heavy lifting in terms of earthiness, tang and umami.  Loved the crunch from the veggies.  The Chutoro sat on a piece of crispy nori, tapioca and miso barley.  Since Chutoro is buttery and sweet by itself, it didn't need much to be good.  Hence, the simplicity of the compliments allowed the fish to shine.  Only a bit of sweet and tangy notes came through as well as some earthiness.

Being the fattiest cut, the Otoro was wrapped around uni with some hot sauce and a marigold leaf on top.  Since it was so fatty, it melted in my mouth and had the taste of the sea combined with the sweetness of the fish.  With Hokkaido uni in the middle, it doubled-down on the brightness of the sea as well as the intense inherent sweetness.  Loved how they dialed down on the compliments to this dish as the otoro could totally stand on its own.

Sporting a lovely shade of orange red, the piece of Kinmedai was hard-seared skin side with the scales.  Inside, it was medium-rare and served with a champagne sauce and foam on top.  Some snow pea leaves dressed in wasabi, salt and wasabi oil finished off the dish.  Loved the crispy skin but the scales were a bit hard to eat.  The champagne foam was buttery and bright while the salt level of the dish was precise.  The fish itself was buttery soft.

Staying with the seafood theme, we had the Dungeness Crab with poached egg yolk, pureed buttered spinach, black truffle, smoked butter and shaved cured quail's egg yolk.  It was finished off with a scrambled egg emulsion.  As much as there was a lot of components in this dish, the delicate crab was not lost amongst them.  Fluffy, slightly briny and sweet, the crab was at the forefront while the silkiness of the egg provided texture.  Only a background bit of truffle and smokiness came through.

My favourite dish of the night had to be the Nova Scotia Lobster with shiitake mushrooms, 3 different types of seaweed, dashi broth and finished off with the Koshihikari rice.  The sliced lobster was barely cooked through.  Hence, it didn't even have a chance to become rubbery.  In fact, it was buttery soft with the unmistakable essence of lobster.  There was a lot of umaminess due to the mushrooms, seaweed and dashi where flavours were bordering on salty.  We also found a bit of nutty smokiness.

Moving away from seafood, we had the Hudson Valley Duck with morels stuffed with duck mousse, grilled white asparagus, ramps and basil ramp pistou finished with mustard cream.  Cooked to medium, the duck was tender while maintaining a pleasant meatiness.  Once again, we found umaminess with earthy notes and brightness from the herbs.  The morels were at their woodsy best with a springy texture.  Inside, the duck mousse was a bit meaty and totally duck-forward.

For our second meat course, we had 2 different versions since I'm the only one that wanted lamb.  So for mine, I had the New Zealand Lamb with an Ontario lamb roulade with pistachios.  The lamb sat atop a salsa verde consisting of cilantro, tarragon and parsley.  It was finished off with a lamb jus seasoned with the salsa verde.  Accompanying this was asparagus, fava beans, goat's milk yogurt and citrus jelly.  As you can see, the lamb was perfectly medium-rare and succulent.  Perfect seasoning on the meat.  The roulade was nutty and had a beautiful muted gaminess.  Due to the heaviness of the meat, the salsa verde was exactly what it needed to brighten things up.  

The other dish was the A5 Wagyu Ribeye and Rib Cap.  This came with grilled maitake mushroom, pan-seared ginger, beef jus seasoned with wasabi.  On the side, we found pickled mustard seed, freshly grated wasabi and hot Japanese mustard.  Yah, this A5 was legit as it melted in our mouths.  Lots of beefiness and we could adjust the sharpness of the dish with the mustard and wasabi.  The rib cap was a bit meatier, but due to the fat, it was so flavourful and beefy. Both dishes came with bread and cultured butter from Normandy.  The bread was light and airy, yet with some structure.  However, the star of the show was the creamy and totally beefy-tasting butter.

From these heavy dishes, we moved onto dessert with the Loquat & Matcha.  We found some creamy matcha ice cream that was balanced in terms of bitterness and sweetness.  The tang and stone fruit vibes from the loquat compote was a nice compliment.  More brightness was thanks to the Meyer lemon as well as the sparkling sake and elderflower foam.  Next, we had the Rhubarb prepared 6 different ways with a Greek yogurt parfait   So this was less of a sweet dessert, which was fine by me.  Lots of tang and acidity from all the elements.  I couldn't even keep track of all the forms of rhubarb, but some did stand out.  One was the vanilla rhubarb salsa and the rhubarb pieces poached in simple syrup.  Aromatic with tangy sweetness and some crunch. Finally, some ginger and lime gelée afforded some contrast to the predominantly rhubarb forward dish.

Finally, we were served Petite Fours including a Canelé, Macaron, Chocolate Bonbon, Peanut Butter Cup and a Pavlova.  It wasn't as if we were hungry anymore, but we couldn't pass these up.  The canelé was textbook with a crispy smoky caramel crust and a tender custardy centre.  With a delicate, but crisp shell, the mini-macaron was soft and chewy.  It was floral due to the orange blossom and apricots.  Filled with a coffee ganache filling and tiramisu flavoured, the bonbon was sweet and aromatic.  We also had a peanut butter cup filled with spicy mango and passionfruit curd.  These were so up my alley with tangy sweetness with a kick as well as a crunch from the peanut brittle.  On top, we found a vanilla chocolate cremeaux.  Lastly, we had a coconut pavlova with coconut cream that was sweet and tropical-tasting.  Some shishito added another flavour element to the dish but it was subtle.  Wow, I have to say this tasting menu at Alo exceeded my expectations.  For the #3 restaurant on Canada's Best 100 Restaurants, it certainly did not disappoint.  Not only was the food expertly prepared and utterly delicious, there was a lot of it and we went away happy and full.

The Good:
- Precision in execution
- Professional service that is not pretentious
- More than enough food

The Bad:
- It is pretty dark and if you don't have the right table, you won't be able to see your food clearly