Took my new husband to Alma for his golden birthday/celebrate our wedding, expecting perfection based on all of the reviews! Maybe my bar was set a little too high. I would give it 3.75 stars, but Yelp only allows whole numbers.
I knew parking would be a struggle before we went there, so we drove around for a while before parking and walking a few blocks to the restaurant. That was fine - it was beautiful outside.
We walked in and were seated right away - I had reservations, which I recommend. We were seated and given glasses of water and then waited maybe 5 minutes for our menus to arrive. Our waitress explained the menu to us, we opted to not get a drink as we were going to do the wine pairings with our food (which I also recommend). First course for me was Smoked Rabbit Salad, which was NOMS. For Husband, it was Coppa Salami & Summer Beans, which I did not try, but he said it was quite good. I don't remember what our wines were for the first course, but they were TOP NOTCH.
Second course was Garlic Scape Naan for me, Grilled Bread for Him. This dish was SO GOOD, but about halfway through, something went horribly, horribly wrong. I bit into something that HAD to have been a pepper. I like spicy things. I did NOT like this. Not one bit. This thing - whatever it was - was so hot, i was crying. Not watery eyes. Full on crying. The waitress came back to check on our food, and I asked her if there was something spicy in the dish. She mentioned the curry and the garlic, but this was MOST DEFINITELY not those things. Then she commented that another patron had the SAME comment about that same dish that night, and that it must have been a mistake. I asked for a glass of milk to help with my burning mouth, which she obliged. That dish was excellent, although the little pepper episode put a damper on the rest of the meal and my taste buds, so take the rest of the review with a grain of salt. Husband said his second dish was good, but he was concerned for me and my red, puffy eyes.
Third course was Grilled Pork Tenderloin and Husband had Halibut en Papillote. I really enjoyed the pork itself, but not so much the other things on the plate (again, taste buds severely injured). Husband liked his dish, but really the vegetables - the fish was just plain fish - not much flavor to them, but the vegetables really made the dish (or so he said).
And lastly, because it was his birthday, I let Him get some dessert. Dark Chocolate Mousse. Delicious. They brought it out with a little candle on the plate (which I recommend all businesses do). At this point my stomach was getting all crampy, so I didn't have any, but Husband is REALLY into chocolate, so he thought it was scrumptious.
All in all:
Food was good (not EXCELLENT, but good)
Service: sub-par, but maybe that was just the night. I know that other people have had really attentive waitstaff, but we were left sitting by ourselves with no food or wine in between courses for a while.
Price: The wine was TOTALLY WORTH IT. The food, not so much.
Bottom line: This is a good place for a romantic date or a special occasion if you have a lot of money to drop.
Then again, I'm used to eating at Applebee's. read more