Restaurant Review: Alloro, Dover Street, London

Alloro is an unassuming yet high quality operation, based a small stone’s throw away from London’s luxurious Bond Street shopping district. My father and I were due to dine with our cousin from Italy and his colleagues who had flown over to attend an exhibition. After experiencing the bustling London atmosphere from as early as 6am, all they wanted at the end of a long day was some tasty food and wine at an Italian restaurant. At Alloro, they found what they were looking for.

Being part of the London Fine Dining group which houses such London staples as Zafferano, Memories of China and Edera, it really shouldn’t have come as any surprise to find the fare served up at Alloro to be of an equally high standard. The welcome was warm, communication excellent in either English or Italian (most of the staff are native Italians) and the food of the highest order.

The pricing structure at Alloro is very similar to its sister restaurants, in that there is a certain fee for two courses from the Ala Carte menu and a certain price for three and four. In Alloro’s case, two courses will set you back a not entirely unreasonable £30. This rises in £5 increments depending on the number of courses you wish to have. There are also supplementary costs associated with certain dishes, namely the crab and avocado salad and the spaghetti with lobster. But when you’re sitting at the table, this all seems rather immaterial when the food tastes as good as it does.

One criticism that has often been levelled at Alloro is the formal nature of its interior design and general lack of razzmatazz. While it is difficult not to concede that the interior perhaps doesn’t excite in the way that some other restaurants do, part of Alloro’s charm is its professionalism and smart and clean presentation. When you see whiter than white table cloths with a basket of crusty bread waiting on top with beautiful olive oil, that’s the joy of food.

For my starter I indulged in the pan fried duck egg on asparagus with parmesan shavings and roasted tomatoes. The egg was perfectly cooked and that sensation of sliding the knife over it to make the yolk ooze out onto the wonderful asparagus is one of life’s great delights. The combination of the parmesan with all the other ingredients gave the dish a richness and subtlety that was truly worth waiting for. For my main I gave in to temptation and chose the lobster spaghetti with tomato, chilli and garlic. Fresh white lobster meat with wonderful al-dente pasta and a sublime sauce with parsley is just one of my all-time favourites. I loved every mouthful. After a glance around the table I could see our Italian friends devouring beautiful strips of pink beef on crushed new potatoes. I was assured that this dish, the gnocchi and my father’s seared tuna with tomato and rocket salad were all bursting with fresh flavour. The empty plates said it all.

Only one of us ordered desert but that too was gone in an instant; the torta di mele (apple cake) with ice cream was presented as beautifully on the plate as any of the dishes that preceded it. I will certainly be ordering desert next time.

The wine list is comprehensive and houses some truly excellent treats from Italy’s vineyards, but these are all a little more expensive than they should be when contrasted with other restaurant prices. Another gripe would be that the food certainly took its time to come out of the kitchen, but in the grand scheme of things when the dishes taste as good as they do at Alloro, I was happy to wait.

While Alloro isn’t cheap by any means, what is served up justifies the outlay. This is classic Italian food presented in a modern restaurant style. Accomplished dishes that could be photographed and put on show are the order of the day here, while these dishes stay true to their commitment to flavour above all. Alloro is a quiet and reserved dining affair, but in truth deserves to be shouted about from the rooftops.

Dinner Prices (Lunch is marginally cheaper)
Two Courses for £30
Three Courses for £35
Four Courses for £40
Wines range from £30 to £990
Compulsory Service Charge at 12.5%

Nearest Tube – Green Park on the Victoria and Picadilly Lines

The Future of Paid Content

With The Evening Standard now becoming a free newspaper, perhaps it is a good time to discuss paid content and where it is heading. The Standard is a newspaper filled with professional content and will continue to be so despite the lack of sales revenue. The paper’s parent company hopes that by offering the paper free of charge, the cheaper more tabloid style London Paper and London Lite will fade away into obscurity. Once the Standard effectively has a monopoly on London weeknight newspaper distribution, advertising revenues will rise and the paper can become self-sufficient without the need for traditional retail revenues.

Many industry observers are skeptical about the experiment and are concerned that advertising revenue alone will not be enough to pay for the costs associated with quality newspaper production. Other newspaper groups are not quite taking the same plunge yet, and Rupert Murdoch has made clear on several occasions his intention to charge for online content. But is this a workable scenario?

The Internet has changed the way we consume media forever. The music industry has already found out the harsh truth that people can find their products for free. And there is a suitable parallel to draw between the record industry and the publishing industry. The newspaper publisher, The Times, Guardian etc and the record company like BMI, are the means of distribution. What the internet has ensured is that eventually, the means of media distribution will become completely obsolete; that is to say that artists will be able to sell their music and merchandise themselves rather than having to have a record company distribute it for them. This is purely because of the lack of demand for the physical product and the rise in demand for the internet based file.

The same can be said for newspapers and books. The writer or journalist can offer their work online via their own sites or other online retailers as e-books for download to an E-reader (assuming these take off which is by no means a given as I’ll discuss in another post). By bypassing the traditional middlemen, the artist or writer or creator of content no longer has to sell the rights to their work and no longer requires a distributor; this maximizes their revenue in a way that the publishing and record industries would rather not think about.

This doesn’t necessarily mean entire industries of people will no longer be in work. What it means is that their roles within those industries will change. Musicians and writers will no longer need distributors but they will need promoters and advertisers to maximize their chances of success.

Some journalists have suggested that paid journalism results in better quality content than blog content and free web based journalism. This may well be true in a lot of cases but there is some wonderful journalism out there that doesn’t belong to a national newspaper or paid content site. There is a lesson to be learned from The Evening Standard. That paper has just become free as it could no longer compete with the tabloid free evening papers. If national newspapers go the same way, expect readers to turn elsewhere or even worse for the newspapers, popular journalists will become aware of their worth and will offer their work independently for money.

James Murdoch has categorically stated that The Times will not be following any business model of ‘micro payments’ or payment for specific articles. It is the whole paper or nothing. This will probably go some way to ensuring that the newspaper will not be drawn into a catastrophic scenario in which the money of customers is directed towards single articles to the detriment of the rest of the paper. The task he will have on his hands is to present a reasonable pricing model that will be profitable for the company. A 24hour site usage payment has been mooted but a subscription option will surely follow.

Interesting times are afoot for the publishing and press industries. The Times is willing to expose itself and be the first to take the plunge into fee-paying waters. But whether or not it will succeed and pave the way for other national newspapers to follow suit with their online content remains to be seen.

Restaurant Review: Archipelago, London

Let’s face it, one of the best parts of eating out as a group is being able to try everyone else’s food. It is ‘no strings attached’ eating; you can have a taste of something attractive and move on if the dish doesn’t satisfy. The very nature of eating as a group invites this sharing and consequently improves the dining experience. At no restaurant is this truer than at Archipelago in Whitfield Street, London.

The initial hook of Archipelago is the idea that this is a place with a menu showcasing ingredients that many will not have ever tasted before. Here you can comfortably have a crocodile and plum sauce starter, follow it with zebra and juniper berries and finish with a chocolate covered scorpion. To most Londoners, the menu would appear utterly outrageous, and this is ultimately the point. But this is food that gets people talking – it simply isn’t possible to have a dull time at Archipelago, even if some of the dishes are gimmicks rather than gastronomical achievements.

The restaurant itself seems hidden away but once you walk through the door, you’re transported to another world. The décor is simply stunning; the walls are covered in vibrant colours and world artifacts from all four corners of the globe, the menu arrives rolled up as a scroll and the place has an aura of fun and imagination that is lacking at many London establishments these days.

As a group of six, we decided to order four starters and share them, lessening any risk that someone might not like a dish or two and be stuck with it. These starters included ostrich, caramelized wild duck breast that was tender and juicy, rabbit with mole spread (I know), and stir fried frogs legs with vegetables. My Tilapia main course was slightly overcooked and had a charred aftertaste but it was mostly ok and the other mains were all exceptional.

I suppose the real triumph of this place is that you end up trying things you never thought you’d be brave enough to try. Even the most squeamish and conservative of diners ends up eating some strange piece of meat here. Unless of course you’re a vegetarian, in which case you are still catered for at Archipelago.

The drinks can also be a little bit different too. The post-meal ‘visit from the doctor’ appears to be a popular choice amongst the restaurant’s patrons. This is described as a ‘medicine chest of 12 digestive potions that will set you off homewards with a spring in your step.’ Examples of these concoctions include Shnapps with 24 carat gold flakes and vodka and vanilla. The beers are very good indeed but the wine list is far from comprehensive and perhaps lacks the razzmatazz that characterizes the rest of the menu.

As aforementioned, some dishes are gimmicks but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing in context. Eating cheaply isn’t really an option here; £6.50 for a rather tiny scorpion covered in chocolate is a purchase you may well look back on and grimace, but I suppose you’re paying for the insanity of it all. Sometimes we all need a little craziness. Here, you’ll probably enjoy every minute of it.

GRADE: B+

Prices

Starters range from £7 to £10.50
Mains range from £13.50 to £19.50
Desserts range from £6 to £8
Compulsory Service Charge at 12.5%
Cancelled bookings with less than 24 hours notice results in a £25 charge per head.


Nearest Tube – Warren Street on the Victoria Line