Good food and ambience at Alo Alo

Wining & Dining
It was the first time I’d been to the new Alo Alo since they relocated from the Alliance Française premises in town. They are now at the back of the Arundel Shopping Centre in a rather charming building with a small garden to the side. On the day I visited it was raining, so unfortunately we couldn’t sit outside, but it looked like it would be a great place to eat during better weather.

It was the first time I’d been to the new Alo Alo since they relocated from the Alliance Française premises in town. They are now at the back of the Arundel Shopping Centre in a rather charming building with a small garden to the side. On the day I visited it was raining, so unfortunately we couldn’t sit outside, but it looked like it would be a great place to eat during better weather.

By Le connoisseur

Although we’d phoned to book beforehand, there was some confusion at the front desk — the lady manning (or should that be womanning?) the desk couldn’t find our name on the list until I pointed it out to her. She then offered us a choice of either a table where the roof was leaking or another table at the back, all the while carrying on another separate conversation with one of the wait staff and unable to crack even the smallest smile. We certainly did not feel very welcome. To add to the confusion the waiter then showed us to the wrong table and no sooner were we seated then we had to move to another table.

However, despite the unfortunate start things did improve. Our drinks order was taken quickly and we had the opportunity to look around and experience the ambience. The old Alo Alo always felt to me more like a bistro or a café whereas the new venue feels far more “grown-up”, more serious and solid somehow. The décor is subdued but elegant and sophisticated, without being intimidating, and it has a definite European flavour to it.

On Sundays there’s a choice of either the set menu or the normal à la carte menu. The set menu is really good value, two courses for US$16, and looked appealing. They offer a couple of starters, including the rather intriguing tomato and garlic tarts, and the main courses included bream, roast pork or a lentil and vegetable loaf. However, in the interests of our review doing full justice to what Alo Alo can offer diners, we opted for the à la carte menu.

The selection of starter courses is fairly extensive but not overly surprising or bold. There are all the usual standards such as chicken livers, crumbed mushrooms, halloumi, a rather 70s sounding prawn cocktail and of course the ubiquitous soup of the day. I had the mushrooms and my partner the mozzarella and tomato salad, similar to a “caprese” salad. Both were tasty and well-presented although not exactly overflowing with the “wow factor”.

The selection of main courses is good, including beef, chicken, fish and lamb, as well as a few interesting sounding vegetarian options. My partner ordered the pasta with meatballs which was served with a fantastic tomatoey sauce and lashings of parmesan. It was presented, rather intriguingly, with a gem squash half, with a cheesy vegetable filling. After agonising over a choice of different curries, I finally decided on the prawn curry. It was served with a papadum, rice and a couple of sambals. It was excellent; tasty and pleasantly spicy without being too hot — just right.

Although we were totally satisfied, we couldn’t resist trying a portion of cheese cake to share. We could have chosen from ice-cream with chocolate sauce or chocolate mousse or crème caramel — all fairly conservative, common options — but judging from our dessert and looking across at the table next to us, all perfectly executed and beautifully presented. The service was generally good, apart from our non greeting, and it would have been better if the senior management had passed by to ask if we were happy with our food, but in their defence it was quite a busy day.  A pleasant enough experience but with just a tiny bit of attention to detail it could have been truly outstanding.

Impressive wine list

We had a look at the wine list which is impressive and very reasonably priced — good local white wines start from around US$9 and there’s an extensive selection of imported wines, mostly South African, ranging all the way up to the US$50 range for those very special occasions. It’s one of the best wine lists I’ve seen recently, guaranteed to have something for every taste and price range. If you prefer to bring your own there’s a reasonable corkage charge. We decided on the Delheim Pinotage Rose at a very reasonable US$15. It was light enough for a lunch time wine but still had enough body not to be overpowered by the food.

Deluxe Family Restaurant 4 Plates Expect to spend US$30 to US$50 per head Arundel Village, behind the shopping complex, Quorn Ave, Mount Pleasant, Harare.