Alder, located in the Ace Hotel, is somewhat of a newer restaurant of 1 - 2 years, but has developed quite a strong reputation in Toronto in this short period of time. If you've heard of or tried Alo, Alloette, or Alo Bar, you should be familiar with this cuisine as they are all part of the same family of restaurants. Unfortunately, we haven't had the pleasure of going to the other Alo family restaurants, but they are definitely on our list.
Highly recommend you make a reservation at least 2-3 weeks in advance to ensure you get the time and date you want. We found that Alder was very reasonably priced compared to a lot of the other high-end restaurants we see around Toronto. We never got the opportunity to try out all their signature drinks, but from the looks of other drinks ordered, they looked quite good and we're excited to go back and try them.
East Coast Oysters ($26)
Smoked Cocktail Sauce, horseradish, lemon
These oysters were on the smaller side, but they were very fresh and paired very well with their smoked cocktail sauce which, from the taste of it, seemed to have been made in-house and was also full of flavor. It paired very well with the lemon and horseradish to make each oyster pop.
⭐Beef Carpaccio ($24)⭐
Grilled chive, aioli, pickled mustard seed
Wow. There was a loss of words when we tried this dish. As both of us are carpaccio lovers, we were excited about this dish the most but didn't expect what we got. It was the best carpaccio that we've ever had. Everything about this dish is the definition of perfection in the culinary world. It wasn't expensive, a decent size portion, and it was so good we ended up ordering 2. We wanted more but thought ordering 3-4 would be too excessive.
This is 1000% recommended to go and try. We'll definitely be back, if not for a full meal then just to get the carpaccio again.
"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world" - J.R.R. Tolkien
Scallop Crudo ($22)
Mint, apple, jalapeño, radish
The scallop was very fresh and quite flavorful also, but it came at the same time as the beef carpaccio which may have overshadowed this dish.
It was still a very strong dish in itself, and we recommend trying this for yourself if you get the chance to make your own opinion but don't eat it at the same time as the carpaccio or you may end up overshadowing it as well.
Ricotta Ravioli ($36)
Grana padano, delicata squash, charred pepitas
The waitress informed us prior to ordering this dish that it was small, and came with 7-9 pieces which was true, but it was still quite filling after eating all the sides.
I know I say this a lot, but this is also another highly recommended dish.
Every ravioli was stuffed with the perfect amount of ricotta and paired very well with the squash and charred pepitas. Everything was cooked to perfection as expected.
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