Alluma provides excellent Mediterranean cuisine at modest prices in the southeastern corner of Belleville, near Café de l’Usine, Deux, La Datcha, Astier, Vantre, and Amâlia, among others. My report on lunch there is here.
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@onzieme - your timing is excellent and we thank you for your excellent review as always. We just arrived back in Paris and have booked Alluma tonight and will report back.
Looks very nice and for the price seems amazing.
As expected, our meal at Alluma last night was excellent. Lori (my much better half) and I each had a starter, main, and split a dessert along with an excellent bottle of Chablis.
Since we both chose seafood for the main, Chablis seemed a good choice since I was not familiar with the other offerings from Greece and Turkey. While my experience with Burgundian wines is limited to a few producers as well, the Daniel-Etienne Defaix Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons seemed a good option. I was so excited to try this wine, a new producer for me, so am embarassed to admit I did not notice the vintage was 2012, which was a good vintage for Chablis and the wine was excellent! This was a richer (described by some as more generous) expression than what I expected, but with excellent acid to balance and wonderful minerality. It was a great pairing for the meal last night.
For the starter, I chose the fried zucchini blossoms on a bed of tzatziki and topped with shaved, pickled zucchini and cilantro. These were the lightest examples I have ever had of fried zuchinni blossoms and so enjoyable. The tzatziki, and shaved, picked zuchinni and cilantro were an excellent combination of flavors with the blossoms, but the crispness of the blossoms faded quickly when placed between these elements, so I wonder if it would make sense to seperate them on the plate, but this is just a minor wonder and not a complaint at all.
L started with the marinated sardines, with beefsteak tomatoes and salad. The sardines were so fresh, briny, and played well with the other items on the plate, just wonderful. L loves sardines and was pleased with how pure these were with no hint of fishiness at all.
For the main, L chose the grilled fish and I the grilled octopus, both of which were delightful. Both dishes were cooked to perfection, with an excellent balance of char throughout but not overpowering the dish. The fish had a wonderfully crispy skin and was just lucious, sitting on a bed of tomato and chickpea pureé and topped with a salad similar to the sardines, but with a different profile.
I was enamored with the combination of the octopus and the smoked eggplant pureee and caponata, just marvelous!
For dessert we split the rice cooked in milk, with orange flower water and ice cream. Apologies for the picture, L could not wait to have a bite. We were surprised and delighted by the use of black rice, which still retained a wonderful crunch despite the liquid elements. We were also delighted with the delicate touch displayed with orange flower water, which added another layer of complexity but was not overdone at all. The plums added another dimension and ice cream was also so light and did not over power the dish at all.
In closing this was a meal of layered complexity, balance, and wonderful porportion, at an excellent value, served in a beautiful space. The total cost was €182, euros, of which the wine and my expresso acounted for €82, so an excellent value as well.
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