RESTAURANT REVIEW: Alora
A peculiar thing happened last November when the inaugural Texas Michelin Guide was announced... one of the Bibs Gourmand (not sure how this should be pluralized, so I'm going to treat it like coups d'état) was given to Nikki Tran of Kau Ba, a plucky little Vietnamese gastropub in Houston. There was just one problem: the restaurant had actually closed a few weeks before the ceremony. They quickly rescinded the honor, and just a few days later, it was announced that Alora would be taking over the same Montrose space. The new concept was a Peruvian-Vietnamese fusion (in the vein of Nikkei), something that I must admit I'd never tried before. A friend visiting from out of town was the perfect excuse to go see how it compared to the previous tenant, which had been one of my favorite Vietnamese restaurants in the city.
If you ever visited Kau Ba, then you'll recognize the look of Alora... because the interior has literally not changed at all. Fairly casual and pub-like in atmosphere, the walls, ceiling, and banquettes are all awash in a shade of dark green I'd best describe as Pantone 19-6050 TCX. They even seemingly inherited the adorable little ceramic patterned bowls in which some of the cocktails are served. A television over the bar plays looped videos of food preparation, for some reason. There's a healthy-sized patio as well (we're ALMOST there guys, just three more weeks of summer left).
Service was cheerful and informative, though with the occasional blip in pacing. We opted for family-style ordering, selecting a handful of dishes from both the starters and mains to try to fully appreciate both the Asian and Latin American aspects of the menu. One of the highlights was the Duck Crispy Spring Rolls, jumbo-sized cylinders stuffed with confit duck, cilantro rice, and salsa criolla (sort of like a Peruvian pico de gallo), and fried to absolute perfection. These monster egg rolls were reminiscent of the much smaller but similarly-misnomered Boudin Spring Rolls at Winnie's, and equally as delicious. Plus the huancaina sauce (a cheesy aji amarillo condiment) for dipping was a great creamy complement.
Less successful was the Green Papaya Salad, with the eponymous fruit, cucumber, carrots, cured beef, peanuts, thai chili, crispy garlic, and a nước mắm bath. While the veggies were nicely julienned, the fish sauce was not nearly prevalent enough to give this dish the punch it needs. It should be funky and pungent and spicy, and instead it was just kind of bland. Unfortunately when you have the Platonic ideal of a papaya salad just a few miles away at Street To Kitchen, the standards are set pretty high. However, the few slices of meat on the plate were tremendous.
You can't spell "Houston Peruvian-Vietnamese cuisine" without Ceviche, and Alora's version was absolutely gorgeous. Red snapper, Cuzco corn, cancha (toasted corn nuts), red onion, sweet potato, leche de Tigre, and fish sauce came together in a vibrant mosaic of greens, oranges, yellows, and purples to create one of the prettiest dishes I've seen in awhile. And the flavors were on point as well, with lots of neat textural components and contrasts to liven up the fish. There's an option to "make it spicy" via the addition of a lovely orange hot sauce, which we ordered on the side due to a certain party member's unfortunate intolerance to heat. However, this was a blessing in disguise, because there was more than enough to use for later dishes as well.
Moving on to the entrees, the Shaking Lomo Saltado was a no-brainer combination of two classic dishes, one from each of the two cultures. Marinated cubes of beef tenderloin were wok-seared bo luc lac-style, and then added to the traditional lomo saltado accompaniments: red onion, sliced tomato, fried huayro potato wedges, and a pyramid of garlic rice. The steak was wonderfully tender, and the salty, earthy potato wedges packed a ton of flavor. It was as if the shaking beef at Hughie's and the lomo saltado at Andes Cafe had a baby, and I am totally here for it.
However, I must say I was definitively not here for the next dish, which was one of the biggest misfires I've experience in some time. Anticuchos are legendary grilled marinated meat skewers, originating as Andean street food, and classically made with beef heart. That protein was a choice here, but we opted for the octopus instead, served with aji panca, huancaina sauce, taro chips, choclo (another name for the large-kerneled Peruvian or Cuzco corn), and a purple mash. The accoutrements were all satisfactory (are taro chips ever bad?), but the cephalopod was miserably undercooked. This may be because my piece was approximately the size of a Febreze can. After pausing for a moment to think about August Alsina, I cut into the tentacle, which required a worrisome amount of effort. And once it entered my mouth, things got even worse. Rubbery would be an understatement: this was so chewy it was borderline inedible, and I couldn't manage more than a bite or two. Clearly the collagen hadn't broken down nearly enough... let's just hope anisakiasis isn't in my future. Some of the smaller-caliber pieces were slightly more palatable, but overall this was a major technical error.
Let's not end on a sour note, though. The Ají de Gallina was better: chicken stewed in a yellow pepper sauce with crispy rice chips, fried potatoes, and walnuts. A tad mushy perhaps, but the flavors were nice, with the aji amarillo giving some subtle heat, and a variety of textures via the crackers and nuts. There was also a solid Chaufa fried rice side dish, borrowed from Chifa cuisine (Chinese-Peruvian fusion), with plenty of scallions, bits of egg, and small morsels of red pepper.
Cocktails were interesting as well: in addition to the pisco sour variation ("The Ponces") served in the aforementioned mini-pho bowls, there was a cheeky "Pho-Quila", with pho aroma-infused Corazon Reposado, lime juice, and ginger syrup. Basically a Mexican mule, but with some more savory undertones reminiscent of everyone's favorite noodle soup (unless you are one of those psychos who think that ramen is better).
On balance there's a lot to like here, but it's hard to overlook some of the misses. If you're interested in trying this unique blend of cuisines, some selective ordering can still result in an excellent meal. And there are some other things on the menu that I'd like to try one day (drunken mussels, pork belly banh mi, Peruviet pork chop, etc..), though I'm not sure I'll be returning in the immediate future. Alas, I still mourn the loss of Kau Ba.
NEXT UP: Despite having such a robust food scene, James Beard Award winners are pretty rare in Houston. So I'll even drive all the way to Spring to check out the newest one.