Alma Restaurant — Restaurant in Gauteng

Very few restaurants have wowed me in my lifetime like Alma did.

Service: Impeccably dressed hosts, with a deep knowledge of the menu, incredible people skills, and attention to detail. A dropped fork was replaced with a new one on the table within seconds of it hitting the floor and we were never rushed to order.

Ambience: The dark moody lighting combined with the contrasts of metals, chunky paint and smooth slated walls exudes class, and from the second that you step into Alma you feel transported to another world. Even the hosts aprons matched the brick oven in the kitchen and the paint on the walls. One can clearly see the vision and it has been well executed.

Food: it goes without saying that the meal was incredible. The bread that we were given before ordering was absolutely awesome. We ordered the Wagyu Katsu Sando, chicken wings and a butternut risotto to start and shared the dishes amongst us. The Wagyu katsu was well balanced, the richness of the wagyu paired well with the savory crunchy bread, and the tang of the katsu sauce rounded the dish out perfectly. The chicken wings were sweet and spicy, in a decent portion and the coriander yogurt balanced the spiciness well. The butternut risotto was just phenomenal, creamy and thick.

For mains we ordered a variety of steak dishes, I personally ordered the ribeye with a beef jus. It arrived a perfect medium rare, it was well seasoned, decently marbled and had little to no sinue. The beef jus was light enough to keep the taste of the beef as the star of the show, but flavorful enough to compliment it perfectly, adding an extra layer of depth. The chips were well seasoned and crispy, and the vegetables were cooked to perfection, not to soft that it turns to mush and not too hard that it crunches.

For desert I ordered the mousse, which balanced sweet berries with dark chocolate and rounded off the meal perfectly.

I will absolutely be back soon, and can't praise Tyler and the team enough for what they have created in Alma, it really is something special and I wish them nothing but success...

What a different yet absolutely stunning experience from the welcome Valentino was happy, and jovial with some jokes.

From being seated to leaving the experience was world class with great service from the staff.

Now let’s get to the main part the Food.

WOW! That’s all o can say the aubergine starter was absolutely, mind blowingly different and full of flavor cooked to absolute perfection (saying this as someone who doesn’t eat much veggies on its own, this was great and I’d highly recommend it) The meatballs (oval on a stick) in my opinion were bland and over cooked if you had just it on its own, but to the saving grace it came with the most amazing reduction and sauce which made up for the dry and bland actual “meat oval on a stick”

For mains we had the lamb chops which were great, juicy, tender, crispy fat and not pungent (not lamby lamb if that makes sense) again served with the most amazing sauces which tie all the flavors together so well.

We also had the Rib eye which came with a too die for truffle sauce (there was none left) the steak was cooked to a perfect medium served on a bed sauce with some mushrooms and glazed onions which were spectacular

10 out 10 for Alma well done, looking forward to exploring the menu and all the flavour’s on offer, because it’s an experience...

We went to Alma as part of restaurant week. We were there to celebrate our anniversary. Unfortunately, things went awry from the get-go.

When we arrived, we were told they did not have our booking. They had a handwritten list, and my wife and I were not on it. Finally, they checked the restaurant week online bookings, and found us. Luckily, or perhaps unlucky, they had a table available.

We had booked the 3 course restaurant week special. The waitress was very nice, and the starters were pretty good. However, we waited one hour for mains, which were nothing to write home about.

The worst thing though was the conduct of the manager. He was banging on the kitchen service counter and yelling loudly at the staff. We could hear not just the tone, but often precisely what he was shouting about. It really soured the evening, and we even moved tables to get further from him.

Astoundingly, and to add a cherry on top, late that night we received an email from the restaruantweek website, complaining that Alma had informed it that we had "no showed" our booking. As we say in...