Alleia — Restaurant in Chattanooga

Some details before I begin:

Reservation placed on March 21st for a table on April 2nd. The items ordered were the Rhode Island calamari, Angel Hair with Gulf Shrimp, New York Strip, Asparagus Risotto, my girlfriend had a white wine and I had a coffee stout. We also ordered two pizzas to go one that was essentially meat lovers, and another was mushroom. Our bill came to a total of 162 dollars with tip. I am a culinary school graduate and currently work as a chef.

SERVICE

My first issue was with our table. Despite placing my reservations well in advance, me and my date were sat in the darkest part of the restaurant near the kitchen doors and away from any of the nicer tables pictured on their website. It wasn’t lost on me either that we were the only people of color there, and that the preferable tables were closer to the windows. That’s all I want to say about that, but to anyone of color reading this review, I want you to know that this place has a noticeable lack of diversity from both the clientele and the front of house.

I can’t really say much about our server. All the steps were there including the two minute check up which I’m usually a stickler for. No light banter, no attempt to up sell, and no wine recommendations that I usually associate with this kind of establishment. She did her job and that was pretty much it.

FOOD

Serving Calamari without a condiment is a curious choice, and the appetizer was well cooked, but the seasoning was either weak or non-present. Our table was so dark that I had to turn on my flashlight to check the temperature of my steak. It was cooked and seasoned adequately. The potatoes and the cabbage were decent but bland compliment. My girlfriend’s entree however, had a couple of shrimp that hadn’t been properly deveined, and pasta that wasn’t al dente in a couple of spots. I also ordered an asparagus risotto and found it to be absolutely bland. The two pizzas were fine, but none of the ingredients stood out, and the sauce and dough were pretty standard. The food isn’t expensive by any means, but for the equivalent price, we were expecting much better quality.

CONCLUSION

This was a disappointing. Nothing on the menu or the overall experience justifies spending any serious money here. We don’t have any plans...

The decor and vibe of this restaurant is beautiful. I enjoy dimly lit restaurants, blessed with lots of candles for ambience, and funky artwork in an old-world looking setting, so that you have the clash of the modern and the traditional. This was a gorgeous restaurant. It checked all of the boxes for me.

Let’s talk about the cocktails and the food.

The cocktails were top notch. I also appreciate a restaurant that has well-balanced cocktails and lots of interesting options. (Aside: Is Falurnum in everything now? It’s the new aperol) I love a lot of wonderful red wines by the glass, especially with an Italian restaurant, because those big, beautiful reds can stand up to some of the pasta and meat dishes. The cocktails were excellent and the wine list was really very good.

The food: mostly everything we enjoyed. They had a bit of a different take on a beef carpaccio than I would have liked. Normally, there’s a little bit of shaved Parm on top, and this seemed to be a lot more shaved Parm, than I am accustomed to. Would rather be all about the beef. The Parm overwhelmed it.

My husband had a ravioli, and it seemed as if all the filling had leaked out. They were literally empty. He opened a few. Nothing…But there was a lot of filling on the plate, so perhaps some leakage happened.

The stand out was my pasta amatriciana. If a restaurant looks authentic and they don’t have an amatriciana on the menu, I will often ask if the kitchen can make one. I love them. It’s just so classic and simple. A traditional one has guanciale, which is pork jowl, but if you have a good bacon, or pancetta, like this restaurant did, it’s still an exquisite dish. This was a very good interpretation of amatriciana and again, great bacon.

We wanted to try the pizzas, but did not have the opportunity, and so we ordered two pizzas to go, so we could enjoy them later back at the Airbnb. Both of the pizzas we ordered were very good. They made a wonderful late night snack!

Our server was attentive, and again the wine list was excellent. So overall, I would say this is a great experience. I’m deducting one star, because of the ravioli, but it is certainly a restaurant we...

We showed up on time for our reservation, but the restaurant had just opened so we still had to wait about 5 to 10 minutes for a table to be seated. We sat in the enclosed porch area where the temperature was just perfect.

Once we were seated, our server promptly came over, took our drink orders and provided menus. We went with the Tennessee Mountain Road and the sangria. The Tennessee drink was similar to an old-fashioned and alcohol forward. The sangria was not overly sweet, but very fruity and tasty.

We shared all dishes as our waitress's told us the portions were generous. We went with a grilled romaine, which had very thinly sliced pieces of apple, a generous helping of bra duro cheese, which was a hard but slightly nutty cheese and complemented perfectly with small chunks of salty guanciale(pork) pieces. The toppings were tossed in with the grilled romaine and a light vinaigrette type dressing. None of the flavors were bold or overpowering. Everything was very subtle, but all ingredients were complementary to each other.

We also shared an order of bruschetta, which was a crispy, thinly sliced piece of sourdough bread topped with a whipped ricotta and covered with a truffle honey with a light sprinkling of herbs. I could’ve eaten this as a meal alone. The whipped ricotta was so sweet and delicious and paired really well with the truffle honey.

Our main tray was the penne Bolognese, which was penne covered in a light tomato sauce, which had really good flavor and had a sprinkling of shredded cheese on top. The penne was made in house and it was cooked to the right consistency. The tomato sauce, like the salad, had subtle flavors, but it was seasoned just right. No overly garlic or onion flavor that overpowered the dish.

Our server was very attentive, the dishes were all fantastic, the prices were reasonable for a restaurant of this caliber. The noise level was one where you could easily have a...