Alt

Alt is not your average pasta bar. Here, co-owner Mino Han (who used to own and run Bar Audrey) creates future-classic Italian food using time-honoured methods.

That could mean bright-green pappardelle – which is made with seaweed – topped with thin slithers of buttery abalone. Or a silky risotto flavoured with blue cheese and daikon. Or a hiramasa kingfish with fermented kumquat. There are also Italian mainstays like cacio e pepe made with thick, hand-rolled pici; carbonara with salty guanciale; and a spanner-crab fettuccine, topped with the shell. Han makes everything in-house, from the pasta itself to brioche, stock, vinegar, preserves and more.

He also helped with the fit-out, overhauling the former Cafe Lafayette site with Rooftop Architecture & Design, It’s all moody and low-lit, with an open kitchen, olive-green banquettes and exposed brick. Eclectic artworks include a black-and-white photo of fishermen holding giant soy-sauce bottles, and a painting of a woman wearing a bandit mask.