Allora — Restaurant in Charleston

As longtime fans of Southbound, we’ve been waiting a long time for Allora to open. And being that we live so close by, we wanted to love it, we really did. Unfortunately, it didn’t quite live up to the hype and anticipation.

The Good: The ambiance and decor were wonderful. The restaurant was well-appointed and somewhat reminiscent of the Amalfi coast. It was a bit noisy, but with every table in the restaurant taken on Day 5, what can you expect. The vibe was intimate, but not quite claustrophobic. The bar itself was beautiful and I’d love to get a drink there. The dining area felt quite comfortable, warm and welcoming, and really made for an excellent place to catch-up with friends over a meal. Our server was well-informed, exceedingly friendly, and very responsive.

The little gelato/coffee window is a wonderful concept and the neighborhood is appreciative believe me. We thought the espresso and dark chocolate gelato were very solid.

The Bad: Unfortunately, and this really stinks to have to say, the food wasn’t good.

Our order of calamari was a bit rubbery, lacking in flavor and a bit weirdly, didn’t come with any kind of sauce (tomato, aioli, nothing). The mozzarella di buffala was probably the lone bright spot. It paired quite well with the sweetness of the jam and the bite of the arugula that accompanied it. The bone marrow was fine, if dull.

The carbonara was completely indistinguishable from a fast-casual Italian chain rendition. The mafalda was oddly, very salty and had a fish bone in it (which would be totally fine if it wasn’t a ragu?). The snapper was regrettably overcooked and bland.

The prices…well the prices are too high. It’s the same with Southbound and Honeysuckle. The difference with those sister restaurants is the food delivers, so you don’t really think about the value prop. Unfortunately, here you have to.

Verdict: The vibes are great, the social media coordinator is slaving away, concept is great, food just needs work.

Update: Emailed Andrew 10 days ago, as requested by the owner, no response. Seems like...

Went for my birthday on Friday night, had a 9:15pm reservation thinking we would miss the rush but still waited ~10 minutes to be sat (no big deal). Waiter Alessandro immediately wanted to take our drink order, without giving us any time to settle in + look at the menu. Limoncello spritz was unbearable (tasted like chemicals) & espresso martini was so small; we ended up ordering a bottle of wine (which was very fairly priced at $44). Calamari and tender greens for appetizers which were good, but nothing extraordinary. We all ordered pasta dishes for dinner & despite getting four different sauces, all tasted very similar, lacking depth of flavor, with no salt shakers on the table, only a pepper mill. Not to mention our server brought three pastas out and told them to start eating so it “doesn’t get cold” despite my pasta not being on the table yet. He told me the kitchen was slightly backed up and mine would be arriving a few minutes later (ended up being about 10 minutes). THEN, he has the audacity to bus our table as 3 of us had finished, but the 4th still had 50% of her bowl of pasta. He took it off the table and she had to request the bowl back from his hands as she was still eating. He then comes back immediately with dessert menus (while she was still eating, which completely turned us off). Other cons of this restaurant include only having 2 single bathrooms (had to wait in line both times I tried to go), a very narrow entry way/bar space/nowhere to wait for your table & an overall disjointed experience. The tables on both sides of us were told to leave their phone number and to text the waiter any time they wanted a reservation in the future, meanwhile the same invitation was not extended to us. Was given a small shot of limoncello in celebration of my birthday, which, again, tasted like chemicals. Always glad to try new restaurants in support of local businesses in Charleston, but I will not be back to this one considering there are many other Italian competitors in the area that blow Allora out...

We waited over an hour for our table despite having a reservation, Twice we were told they were waiting for a table to pay their bill and it should be five minutes. We sat outside and ordered drinks while we waited. It took 10 minutes for the waitress to come out to take our drink order, another 15 for the drinks to arrive. My aperol spritz was cloyingly sweet. We approached the host twice and the waitress once, to remind them we had been waiting for our reserved table inside. Two times we were told they were waiting for a table to pay their bill and should be five more minutes. All the while other parties with reservations were being sat. Ultimately we waited well over an hour. When we were finally sat, the host gave no apologies for the long wait. We told the waitress what happened after we sat down, she graciously offered us an apology and brought the wild arugula salad which lovely of her.

The restaurant is beautifully decorated but very loud and the tables are quite close together.

We ordered two pasta dishes. Half of the Lamichi pasta in the Carbonara was uncooked and leathery. It seemed like the pasta might have been made fresh, and then air dried but they tried to cook it in the sauce instead of boiling it first to save some time. My ricotta gnocchi was very chewy and tough, not light and fluffy as it should be. Some bites were also undercooked and I could taste the flour. The servings are very small.

Overall, this was a great disappointment. Although the restaurant is beautiful, Instagram worthy, and our server was wonderful, the front of house and kitchen left a lot to be desired. I'm surprised they are run by the same owners as Southbound. What a...