ALFA bar & dining room

We have allowed Alfa to settle in and begin creating an identity, so finally went last night to experience the new restaurant. If you are looking for another L'Adour or something akin to Saratoga, then you are going in with the wrong mindset.

We were pleasantly surprised with the menu as we had been hearing that it was a "contemporary American restaurant" with eclectic sandwiches. But that may have been during the early days. One of the appetizers we had was the "faux escargot." Wait staff explained to us that it is very difficult to obtain snails, so they are using portobello mushrooms instead. Very ingenious and an excellent replacement.

Our three dinners consisted of the sweetbread skewers, a spicy chicken sandwich and pork chops, accompanied by an excellent Bordeaux wine. The food was well presented, well prepared and the tastes were excellent. The shared poached pear dessert with grappa was an excellent ending to the meal.

Wait staff allowed us to enjoy our meal without the usual, irritating American habit of interrupting us every five minutes to ask if everything is okay. We prefer to order, eat and when need be, call wait staff to the table for whatever we need. Alfa wait staff fit into our mold of how it should be done. We had a party and not a dinner.

Finally, we love the new bright look of the restaurant and can't wait to see what is done in the fireplace dining room come fall (this is a favorite place to be seated on a cool winter day).

Our rating would have been a 4.5 if we were able to do so. We are looking forward to experiencing the evolution of Alfa as it grows into a staple in the area of the city that is truly lacking good restaurants.

We had a very pleasant experience here. It is not L'adour but it's still good! Everyone with whom we interacted was really pleasant. Our food was delicious...french fries were sooo good - just as I remember them being at L'adour. I know another person reviewed them as being soggy, but ours were perfect. Maybe they needed time to work out some kinks? Anyway, we will be back. The only negative is the decour. Brown paint and that ceiling is bad, no matter if you hang some fake candles from it. I hope they plan to change that once things take off, which I have no doubt they will.

My partner and I came to ALFA forewarned that it was not going to be SON OF L'ADOUR, but having given them enough time to get past their new house difficulties, we ventured out.
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I was briefly dismayed by my first impression, but the walk up to the main door takes you past a long set of windows that are only partially blocked by taped up window-paper. It looks desolate and abandoned from that walk up... but IGNORE that, and go to the front door and get a seat.
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The staff was welcoming and graceful, and the service never slowed or lagged behind what I wanted.
The 'wine list' was full of more choices than I could make in a year of visits, and certainly appeared to contain something for every taste. YUM.
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For appetizers, my partner had the Soup Flight, four small bowls of soup, and I had the cheese board. Both were delightful, and I have included pictures.
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Partner had the scallops and I had the halibut, both of which were succulent fish dishes with good sauces (with some French food influences.)

The desserts looked grand on paper, but we had no room left... and so resolved to return some other time.