Alto Pizzeria - Upper Kirby - Italian/Pizza **Now Closed- Go Figure**

Menu Selections:  calamari appetizer, gorgonzola and white cheese pizza, sour dough donuts with nutella





Upon arriving at this place, my expectations were rather high since I had already eaten at the phenomenal sister restaurant downstairs.  It wasn’t necessarily a complete disappointment, but those expectations certainly weren’t met.  The lively, “pretty people” crowd filled almost every table so there was a good buzz to the atmosphere, however, the architectural design of the place didn’t absorb sound so it was really loud.  It resulted in our waiter not hearing our order of the calamari appetizer, causing it to be brought out at the same time as our pizza since we had to ask about it later.  Further stressing this point, the conversation with my friend consisted of “huh” almost after every sentence.  Outside of this, the set up had a classy/homey feel and the floor to ceiling windows made for the best décor.  The waiter must’ve had a lot of nervous energy that night, because he wasn’t patient enough to stay for a few seconds when we were 99.9% ready to order.  Our 100% decision was the calamari as the opener, the Gorgonzola/White Cheese/Dried Mission Figs/Arugula Pizza as the headliner, and the sourdough donuts for the after party.  The calamari had a thin coat of batter, which I prefer, however it was somewhat dry.  The green sauce that was served definitely picked up the slack though.  The unusual toppings of the pizza intrigued my taste buds surprisingly well.  The saltiness of the bacon triggered the taste buds on one area of my tongue and the subtle sweetness of the fig took care of another area-resulting in a party in my mouth. The sparse arugula added to the presentation and made you feel as if you were eating somewhat healthy.  The cheese and the crust seemed to serve just as a means to put all the toppings on, however, and was pretty bland.  Absolutely lacking something, although I just couldn’t put my finger on it….maybe more oil/butter/flavor/anything.  The “after party” wasn’t much of a party either.  The nutella saved the doughnuts themselves, which were dry and almost stale, in my opinion.  Perhaps this is because I’m spoiled by Café Dumonde in New Orleans, but whatever the reason, I wouldn’t order them again.

Will I be back? 
If I just want to have some drinks before heading out.  I did notice they had a reverse happy hour that would be fun to try.