Alto
11 East 53rd Street (between Madison and 5th Avenue)

As a big fan of Italian food (and not nouveau Italian food), I wondered how good this place will be. As a sister restaurant of L'Impero -- a place I thought was good but not spectacular -- I went into this place with some caution. I like creativity, but not over-creativity that loses the flavour of the ingredients. Was I right or wrong about Alto this evening?

The place has the usual, trendy appearance of many eateries in Manhattan. The walls were glass compartments with hundreds of "bottles of wine" which was a strange mix of old and modern. It didn't do much for me, too many strange reflections all around. But it was pleasant -- and the place sure is popular.

I chose the chanterelle and lumache ravioli (for those of you not familiar with Italian, lumache is just escargots). It was nice, but it really diminished the taste of the lumache. It was supposed to be the star flavour here, but it was drowned out. Even the chanterelle mushrooms felt a bit hidden. If anything, it didn't taste too different from pelmeni I can get at a cheap Russian eatery... Nice, but not excellent -- I had expected more from the description.

My girlfriend had a simple salad and the striped bass for dinner. For main course I chose the porchetta -- the slice of suckling pig. It was okay, but rather bland. The caramelised cabbage was nothing special; if it was set on sauerkraut it would have been better. This was a pretty bland dish here, and it sure didn't impress me.

We shared a dessert, which was very rich and chocolat-y. I'm usually not a dessert person, but it was quite good. Sad, as it was the best part of the meal.

Alto falls into the trap of a place that is popular for reasons other than its food -- the reputation and decor does most of it. The menu helps, but it comes short on delivery. If you want to use fancy ingredients like lumache and porchetta, please accentuate their flavours -- not hide it. That's why we go to places with good menus and not places with the typical boilerplate Italian menus. And this horrible use of foams (same at wd~50; see my earlier review) is annoying -- it does little to accentuate the taste, the texture of it is annoying, and it is another one of these culinary trends that is annoying and unnecessary. It shows me the chef is more interested in flash and trend rather than the flavour of the chief ingredients.

Alto is not a bad place, but again, my old saying, there are so many excellent places in New York, why settle for something that's just good?

Food: B-
Atmosphere: B
For Lone Diners: B+ (*)