I have yet to successfully get reservations at Alo, so I thought why not try out the sister restaurant Aloette? Aloette doesn't take reservations, it's first come first serve - meaning you probably want to plan your visit to avoid peak hours where you might have to wait a long time. After chatting with a fellow yelp friend who went on a Saturday at 5pm, and got seated after a half hour wait, I decided to also come for early dinner on a Friday evening. My friend and I got to Aloette at 5:15pm on a Friday and got seated right away. The restaurant was around 70% filled when we got there and it seemed like you can get a table pretty quickly up until 6ish on a Friday. We got seated by the bar which was surprisingly comfortable. Never once did I have to adjust myself on the bar stools or felt like I was falling off (some bar chairs are really high and uncomfortable).
We ordered the Beet Salad, Atlantic Cod and Beef Short Ribs. I am normally not a beets person but omg this beet salad was delicious! There were a lot of flavours and textures in the salad. I like the texture of the yellow beets they used over the more popular red beets; the malt crumbs and quinoa added crunchiness to the salad. And since the beets were slightly sour due to the vinegar-y dressing they used, the sweetness from the pomegranate balanced it. The Atlantic Cod dish is a Japanese influenced dish with miso butter and shiitake mushrooms. I love the flavour of this dish as well and it's just different from what you would normally expect when restaurants do a Japanese spin on their food. This is also my friend's favourite dish of the three. Last but not least the short ribs were really tender and juicy and you won't be disappointed, but flavour wise because I do eat a lot of Asian food, the short ribs reminds me of the Chinese beef briskets I can get readily at a lot of Chinese restaurants so I would probably opt for something else next time! I should also mention the portions are pretty decent as you can see from the pictures. We were full and did not have room for dessert. Service was excellent throughout the meal.
Overall I am happy I finally got to try Aloette with no wait, and the style and flavour of this restaurant is just my kind of food. Can't wait to come back!