Rob Roy Cameron’s live-fire restaurant in Kingly Court is a love letter to the Basque region – and Britain’s small producers
Image by Eleonora Boscarelli
Rob Roy Cameron
If you’re into food, there is nothing greater than going to a restaurant and being served by a knowledgeable waiter who could talk you through every grain in every dish, if you asked them to. And that’s what happens to me at Alta, the new fire-cooking restaurant in Kingly Court.
Yes, it’s technically a Spanish restaurant, but everything comes from small-scale, British producers and farmers; each ingredient has a story that, combined, creates an epic tale of a journey through the Basque country and Britain, buoyed along by an excellent selection of low-intervention wines – many of them on tap. I was sold before I even arrived. Here’s why you should be, too.
The background
There’s really one name to know at Alta: Rob Roy Cameron. He’s the head chef and visionary behind the restaurant who, after spending a decade living and working in Spain, has come back to Carnaby Street to open his first live-fire restaurant, backed by MAD restaurant group. Alta takes its name from the Alta Navarra peninsula, which stretches from Pamplona to Donostia at the very top of Spain. The restaurants in this region are very much about informal sharing plates and fire-blistered dishes from the grill – you get plenty of both at Alta.
The space
Yes, it’s in the ever-crowded Kingly Court, but Alta feels like a sanctuary away from it. When I visit with a friend, Christmas lights twinkle in the courtyard outside, while inside everything is warm and sleek. It’s the largest restaurant in the courtyard, occupying two full floors, but the ground floor is where you want to be: the huge wood-fired open kitchen hisses and erupts like a forge.
The rest of the interiors are soothingly earthy. The crumbling back wall feels like an ancient asador in Spain, not a new restaurant Soho – even the napkins feel pleasingly rustic, and are embossed with the monogram A.
Image by Camille Kenny Ryder
Sardine empanada
The food
We start with txistora (pronounced “chistora”): six neat little sausages sitting in a 25-year aged sherry vinegar sauce. Made from three cuts of pork, they are so soft a whisper would break them apart, lifted by a dash of sour-sweet vinegar. Or, in my friend’s less poetic terms: ‘bloody lovely’.
Next comes the squid. ‘I can guarantee you’ve never had squid like this before,’ says our waiter, which obviously means we need to order it. Each tentacle has been frozen, shaved and then sizzled on the fire to create squiggly, spaghetti-like strands, bathed in tomato sauce and topped with silky lardons. Another essential is the sardine empanada, etched with scales and finished with the fish’s head and tail sticking out – Mount Street lobster pie-style.
Then, a discovery: iron age pork, the result of breeding a boar with a pig. The huge slab of sliced meat we’re served is salty and intensely smoky – more of a bacon flavour than your classic roast pork. We have leeks on the side, flame-kissed and soft, and a potato patty capped with herby butter.
Dessert is a chocolate mousse, filled with olive oil and sourdough ice-cream and topped with a sourdough crisp and meringue. It’s like a s’more, if s’mores were Spanish and took a gap year to learn about fermentation.
The drinks
A word on wine: everything is made by small producers, with a few kegged wines on tap (including a ‘dangerously smashable’ gamay). Ask for a pairing and you’ll get creative pours you wouldn’t think to order. Case in point: we end our evening with Serbian vermouth – not a sentence I ever expected to write.
Image by Helen Cathcart
Alta's wine list is mostly low-intervention wines by small producers
The bill
About £200 for two, including a cocktail each and a bottle of wine to share.
The verdict
Alta is probably one of the best restaurants I’ve tried all year. Its cooking is both thoughtful and thrilling; the environment warm and friendly. It is that rare type of restaurant where you find yourself booking another table while still on your starter – or find yourself planning to do your Christmas shopping on Carnaby Street so you have an excuse to pop by for some txistora and a glass of gamay (guilty). Yes, I’d brave Soho at Christmas for Alta – and if that doesn’t say it all, nothing will.
Ground Floor, Kingly Ct, Carnaby, London W1B 5PW; alta-restaurant.com
(1)
Txistora | Image by Camille Kenny Ryder
(2)
Leeks with walnut | Image by Camille Kenny Ryder
(3)
Chocolate, bread and olive oil | Image by Camille Kenny Ryder
(4)
Sardine empanada | Image by Camille Kenny Ryder
(1)
Txistora | Image by Camille Kenny Ryder
(2)
Leeks with walnut | Image by Camille Kenny Ryder
(3)
Chocolate, bread and olive oil | Image by Camille Kenny Ryder
