Alo was offering another one of their takeout dinners for Easter. We decided to order it as it is unlikely we’ll be dining indoors there anytime soon. We have done takeout dinners from them a number of times during the pandemic and they have always been excellent, if less adventurous than what you get dining at the restaurant.
We started with the Velouria bottled cocktail - forgot to write down what was in it, although there were definitely smokey mezcal notes along with lots of fruit and citrus. Lovely.
First course was hamachi sashimi - rhubarb (little curls and a pink cream), citrus (orange coloured sauce), lemon balm, baby celery?, lots of radish, little dollops of thick white cream. Fresh, light, with the sourness of the rhubarb complementing the fish beautifully.
Next up was a cream burrata, with pine nuts, treviso, wild honey, orange segments, frisee. A pleasant switch to sweet after the tang of the first course.
The next course we heated for 10 minutes in the oven as per instructions. It featured lightly grilled asparagus, maitake mushroom, crispy shallots redolent of pork, brown butter and purple gently pickled shallots. Getting richer now, but nicely balanced.
Richer still with the potato gnocchi, with gruyere, aged cheddar, rapini, bread crumbs, tiny hot red pepper. Like high end comfort food or a luxe mac and cheese.
Our final savoury course was meltingly tender rack of lamb with double smoked bacon, English peas, Taggiasche olive, and fried sage. Nice to have lamb that actually tastes like lamb and the accompanying jus was decadent.
Helping to lap up the jus were the usual pain au lait with Beurre d’Isigny. These are fabulous and we could easily eat many more.
Dessert was a hazelnut Paris Brest - with pastry that was light, crumbled slightly, and great hazelnut cream.
All in all, a delicious dinner at home, pleasing to both the eye and palate. Not hugely adventurous, but lots of layers of flavour and textures.
