Alto last night. Superb dinner. Excellent service. Definitely feels like a real arrival to the area; girlfriend’s parents are long-time Valley residents, and they couldn’t stop celebrating how great it was that such an establishment had opened in Studio City/Sherman Oaks.
Space & Parking: Right on Ventura Blvd, pulling into the adjacent alley for valet was a bit challenging (but expected on Ventura but is $10, cashless. If you prefer, seems like you can still snag street parking)
Two-room interior with an outside patio. The reception area leads to a bar and seated lounge with brass-colored two-tops and big leather couches for walk-ins or even drinks-and-small-bites only. If you’ve got a reservation, as we did, you are greeted with a shot of vermouth, either an albarino or tennat.
just struck me that it was ICED! What a move
Second dining room was dark, moody. Upon making the reservation two weeks ago, I was only availed the option for outdoor dining. You are right on the sidewalk, and so both pedestrian and automotive traffic, but noise levels were not a struggle for us. Music was not overly loud from the outdoor speaker.
We waited about 15 minutes for our table to be ready, and here was our order:
Cirollo (That’s SHI-ro-sho in Argentinian/Uruguayan pronunciation)
Burnt Avocado Salad
OG Empanada (x2)
Pork “Txuleta”
Cordero Patagonico
Potato
Humita
(Menu is still identical to @doublestuffedpierogi’s inaugural post)
Dessert: Chocolate bomb thing with sabayon; dulce de leche souffle w/ DDL ice cream
Drinks:
More of that vermouth (an extra helping! – here’s a pic of the white vermouth)
Malbec (forgot to get a picture of this one!)
(Me: Negroni Blanco).
Attentive, smooth, and friendly service (thanks, Cassandra!). Staff prefers table’s whole order is taken at once, and then is coursed out. Between seating and water we placed our orders, and it quickly got delicious:
Cirollo, herb butter (chives, something minty, finished with another savory oil). The cracker-sized bread came away in laminated sheets; texture something like a brioche or a Japanese milk bread. Top and bottom layers are crispy. Compelling butter and bread. There are about three of these options (e.g., chimichurri butter) on the menu. It’s worth it to get two.
Burnt Avocado Salad. Let’s enclose that in quotation marks – the avocado is torched, lending a subtle but deep earthiness to an otherwise pretty straightforward green salad. The most compelling part is the preserved lemon rind. We’d wished for at least two more snap peas and less frissee.
OG Empanada. Beef is imported from Argentina; as explained by our server, its cut is not available domestically. Yeah. This empanada is a huge win. We were recommended one per guest, but we had a big order, so the four of us split two. But upon next visit, I would absolutely get my own. Salsa was roasted and an excellent second-bite topping. The beef filling was exactly as you’d like it – saucy, stewy, perfectly tender.
Didn’t get pictures of the tableware, but cutlery was all custom. Appropriate for the restaurant’s culinary heritage, the knives were weighty and stood out from the forks and spoons.
Bit of a lull between the first and second courses; we all got to use the restroom.
Our four orders for the second course – two mains, two sides – came out at the same time.
Pork “Txuleta” that’s roasted in kombu. Nothing more than salt to accentuate that open-fire flavor (and the kombu). Very soft, very delicious. Love the confidence in this dish. I certainly went at it with the ribs.
That’s a lamb saddle that’s been aged in beeswax for 14 days, and then roasted on rosemary. Just salt. House usually cooks it to medium; ours was just so. Wow! So! Good!
Humita – sweet corn stew, garlic chili oil, and a big ass provolone crisp. This was my personal favorite of the night. Corn was obviously roasted on the open fire in the back, and that smoked sweetness rolled and oozed through the stew.
Potato three ways – crisped, foamed, “rescoldo.” Very tasty, but had some tough competition against the rest of the order. It’s probably tied with the burnt avocado salad for us. Not disappointing, but a little underwhelming.
Portion-wise, our order was spot-on for our party of 4 to feel very satisfied, but wanting to tuck into desserts.
We got recc’d the chocolate with sabayon and a crazy crisp. (Forgot to photograph the menu.) Rich! Behind it, you see…
An eager hand waiting (im)patiently for me to finish the picture of this dulce de leche ice cream that tops a dulce de leche souffle. The souffle had textbook rise and the texture you’d want. I think the identically-flavored ice cream was too much. We wished for something different to counterpoint the souffle with a different profile, as well as something to cut through the richness of our dessert course.
Definitely should have gotten the cherry affogato.
Probably favorite meal since my last visit to Firstborn during Dine LA. For anyone for whom the SFV is a trek, Alto proves a worthy journey with technically excellent, confident, and compelling food. Obviously, there’s no where to hide with a sauce- and side-free protein: It’s all in the prep and the cook, and Alto delivered it over and more.
Had a nice chat with the GM as we were finishing up. You can also reserve in advance a fireside prix fixe of kind:
She told us that the asado ancho is more like 4-6. Or the turbot? Whichever it is, would be a great occasion for a celebratory dinner event.
NB: I did wish that we could have sat inside, even though our outdoor service was very smooth and without incident. However, I was informed upon confirmation that there was absolutely no room for moving our outdoor table inside. But I saw a lot of empty tables about 30 minutes into our dinner. I can’t guess the reasons for why, so maybe wiser heads can enlighten me on the rationales for this choice.
Get thee to Alto! We’ll be back for sure!
their futomaki!