Allegra

Star in the making

Welsh lamb, sweet pepper romesco, pickled walnut & black olive caramel

Located on the 7th floor of The Strafford Hotel, Allegra is a brand new fine-dining restaurant headed up by Patrick Powell, the former head chef of the much-celebrated Chiltern Firehouse, which was flooded by celebrities, foodies and star chasers. Allegra itself has a large menu, catering for breakfast, lunch, dinner as well as bar snacks, which is a massive demand to the kitchen team. For dinner, the menu format is fairly in line with most modern British restaurant. It offers an a la carte menu which also contains pre-starter snacks and side dishes. To fully sample what chef Patrick Powell is really capable of, I ordered 11 dishes from the a la carte menu and shared everything with my dining partners.

Pistachio choux, liver parfait, preserved kumquat

Smoked eel pithivier, parsley & garlic

Hand-picked crab tart, gooseberry, lovage, brown butter hollandaise

Confit chicken wing, parmesan dumplings, Scottish girolles & sorrel

Roasted scallop, beef broth, cep, thyme

Roast suckling pig, parsnip, quince, maple

The smoked eel pithivier was perfectly executed. The pastry work was done in such a fine manner, light and buttery. I was a fan of the smokiness and oiliness of the eel, all well balanced by the sharpness of the garlic. I was really looking forward to the main of roast suckling pig, but it was a letdown. The skin was not as crispy as it could be, and I found the maple was too sweet which overpowered everything on the plate. However, the whole roasted cep stuffed chicken was wonderful. The meat was really moist and absorbed all the lovely mild flavours of the cep and black garlic. It was roasted chicken at its highest order.

Whole roast cep-stuffed chicken...

...with leek hearts, hazelnut vinaigrette & black garlic

Baked custard, hazelnut, grapefruit

Whopped coffee, chocolate, milk, plum

Honey cake, blackberries, pastry ice cream

Confit apple mille-feuille, vanilla, salted caramel

Without a doubt, Allegra is the real deal. From the 11 dishes from the menu that I have tasted, apart from the pork dish, I would rate all the dishes sitting within the 1 Michelin star level. The kitchen clearly has bags of talents, and I like how they have leveraged the key ingredient of each dish and maximum the flavours. The cooking had no super creative or shocking factor, just really high quality, and really refined at the same time, which is amazing for a kitchen that is only 1 month old. On my day of the visit, the restaurant was pretty empty with less than 10 tables of diners, as Strafford is not a known place for high-end dining, let alone one within a posh hotel. I would highly recommend it for any foodies based around East London, as the food is just as good as many other fine dining restaurants in the West End.

Food 4/5


Average cost without drinks and services:
£50

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, 20 International Way, London E20 1FD

https://www.allegra-restaurant.com/