Aloette is one of my favourite restaurants in all of Toronto right now. I have been to Alo (located upstairs, owned by the same chef Patrick Kriss) and while I enjoyed the tasting menu there, the experience was a bit too intimate and the service a bit too attentive for me! In my opinion, Aloette offers equally delicious food and equally stellar service in a much more relaxed environment.
They don't take reservations so it's first come, first serve for everyone. I came with my fiance on a Wednesday night around 6PM and we were lucky to get two seats at the bar right away. The place quickly filled up within the next 15-20 minutes! We got a gin and tonic and one of the cocktails, the balsam spritz. They give everyone cheesy bread with whipped yeast butter on the house to start. This was soo good! Definitely top 2 best breads I've ever had. For food, we shared the charred chorizo, burgundy snails, and the aloette burger. The chorizo and snails were such unique and flavourful dishes - I would suggest giving both of these a try. The burger was a bit more generic (although it did come with fried cheese) but it was still tasty. It came with a very generous portion of fries which tasted okay - we usually don't leave any fries behind but we were so full that we couldn't finish the whole plate even between the two of us.
Highly, highly recommend. I can't wait to try the other items on their menu.