Alora Coastal Mediterranean — Restaurant in San Francisco

I dined here during the second week of opening and thought that they were off to a strong start. Located on the Embarcadero waterfront, the modern, well-designed space features a stunning bar, elegant finishes, and a patio with a view of the bay. It was quite rainy when I visited, and the patio was fully enclosed and heated so diners were comfortably shielded.

For the mezze, I enjoyed the fluffy pita with muhammara (savory sweet red pepper) and eggplant dips. If you are feeling fancy, you can splurge on the salt cod buñelos, which were elevated with jamón ibérico and hackleback caviar. I also liked the broiled Kusshi oysters with bright lemon-prosecco sabayon and pancetta bits.

For mains, the tender oven roasted confit octopus was great with tangy tzatziki and cauliflower escabeche. I thought the steak shish kebab on a bed of maitake mushroom, brussels sprouts, and hummus was delicious, but I’m not convinced that the cut (hanger steak) or portion was worth the $70 price tag.

The escarole-ricotta filled ravioli was the last to come out, and the timing was off but worth the wait. The al dente pasta was lovely with the butter sunchoke puree and contrasting pecans and black trumpet garnish.

I couldn’t resist ordering all three of the desserts - basque cheesecake, winter citrus pavlova, and chocolate cake for two. The chocolate cake was a generous portion and pure decadence with cardamon heavy baharat spice, accompanied by cream cheese ice cream. The pavlova was my favorite - lighter, tangy from the citrus and kiwi, and paired with refreshing ginger ice cream. The basque cheesecake was a bit sweet and dense for my liking, especially compared to the original in San Sebastián, but that didn't stop me from enjoying it.

The drinks menu features cocktails with dreamy names and diverse ingredients. I enjoyed a bourbon cocktail, the “Ruby and the Phoenix”, which was similar to a smoky old-fashioned. Note that the cocktails are pre-mixed.

I thought the service was not bad for being so new. There were a few courses where the server forgot to introduce the dish, and the timing was noticeably slow on the last savory course. But overall, I thought the staff was warm, enthusiastic, and I quite enjoyed my...

wow exceptionally bad experience at Alora. we were sitting at the bar waiting for a table to open up and ordered drinks. I didn’t bring my ID with me because I left my purse in my car but I had a picture of my ID on my phone (haven’t been carded forever). Bartender said he cannot sell drinks to me without physical ID, fine. I got water instead. Then we moved to the table to sit down and transferred everything from the bar to the table. Now waitress came over to take order and we ordered drinks again. She didn’t check ID at all, and we were ok ordering all the drinks. After we got our drinks, we did our toast and first sip. As soon as I put down my drink, a man walked over introducing himself as the GM of the restaurant and claimed that I cannot drink the alcohol because I didn’t have a physical ID. It’s against California law……

There are a few things wrong with this situation. 1) waitress didn’t ask for ID at all and already sold drinks to me, what do you mean I cannot drink the drink that’s just been delivered to me? Your waitress did not ask for ID before selling me the drinks, do you want me to report that? 2) did the bartender watch me sip my first drink and reported to GM? How did he know the waitress did not check ID? How did he know the drinks are not for my friends (we are a group of 3)? Am I being monitored? 3) we saw the bartender kept starring at us afterwards and we actually found a FLY drawning in the drinks that we ordered later on. Is this intentional??? I have attached a picture here. After we called out the bugs in the drink, the waitress said nothing, no apologies, no deduction on the bill, just took our cards for the bill silently. The fact that this $100+ per person restaurant goes out of its way to police the customers and ruin the customer’s experience is at a different level and just beyond ways I could fathom. WORST EXPERIENCE EVER IN A RESTAURANT IN MY LIFE. It caused discomfort for the rest of my night.

If you’re reading the reviews, please do yourself a favor and never come to this restaurant. They’re already struggling as a business to stay alive and the quality and service can only go worse. That’s probably why they’re taking out...

So I want to give this place a fair chance. My girlfriend and I were out on a walk and saw this place had just opened up.

So we decided to give it a shot and grab dinner! To make reading this easier, let’s map Alora to the following axes: Vibe, Quality of Food, Service, Value for Money

Vibe: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of 5; the decor looks great and the water view is gorgeous. Whoever decorated the interior did a stellar job. However, there is no restroom, and you have to use a shared public restroom which comes with all the pleasantries that a typical San Francisco public toilet comes with. Not great.

Quality of food: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of 5; We ordered the eggplant, dolmas, mushroom kebab and octopus. For drinks we had ordered a Pisco Sour and the Alora Punch.

The eggplant was great, albeit a little too oily.

The dolmas tasted too chewy, overcooked and too salty.

The mushroom kebab had a solid base, however the seasoning was uneven and the flavors did not complement each other. It felt off and like each ingredient was battling for prominence without contributing to a greater, unique palette.

The octopus and assorted potatoes tasted like they were fire-grilled on the outside and were undercooked on the inside. Overall, pretty disappointing.

Additionally, my girlfriend ordered a pisco sour and the egg whites were not added initially, and when called out we had to point out to the server (who was pretty cool) that it was missing. Even after getting the corrected drink served it still tasted bland and poorly executed.

Service ⭐️⭐️⭐️ out of 5; the servers are nice and friendly and did try and help us with the sub-par pisco. However, we were never asked how our food tasted, and the mains took around 30-40 minutes to come out. A heads up would’ve been useful.

Value for money: ⭐️⭐️ out of 5. Our total ended up being around $150. For the amount paid we feel like this is not worth the visit. San Francisco, especially this area, has a high bar for food quality that Alora unfortunately does not meet. We are willing to give it another try 6 months from now. If you’re considering this place, I’d be hesitant and would explore other...