FINE dining restaurant Allium has reopened with a revamped experience and service after a six-month winter break

Head chef Tim Tonkin invited family, friends and community leaders to a special preview of the new service on Thursday, June 8, where he featured several dishes to sample.

This included: a salad of heritage tomatoes with melon, mint, goat’s curd and olives; chalk stream trout with apple, radish and coriander; barbecue beef short ribs with glazed carrots and Roscoff onion; and desserts of citrus curd, chocolate marquise with raspberries and pistachio, and maple roasted pineapple with coconut sorbet.

A large part of the change of service is about doing more to embrace the social aspect of the Allium experience.

Dishes are served with two servings on one large plate and diners help themselves family style, moving their share onto their smaller plate.

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Salisbury mayor Atiqul Hoque said: “The food is wonderful. I like the menu, and I think Tim pitched it at a very good time. Salisbury’s going through a lot of exciting things at the moment, so it’s really good.”

Tim’s aunt Caroline Lanyon said: “I thought especially the dehydrated tomatoes were fantastically tasty.”

Liz Coombs of Artisan Wine & Spirit Co on Winchester Street said: “The small plates system [Tim] has going- it’s what Salisbury needs.”

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Tim said he had thought of introducing the new way of service for years. The new method of operation allows a more relaxed atmosphere and gives him a chance to interact more with customers.

He said: “A lot of it is an idea I’ve had bouncing around in my head for several years now—even before we opened up the restaurant—just as a more social, casual way of dining, and it seems, given what everyone’s been through the last three years with covid, not being able to socialise properly and all the restrictions surrounding that, it seemed like a good opportunity to try to introduce a more social way of dining- try and remove some of the formality and structure a little bit.”

After the launch with special guests, Friday, June 9 was the first day of Allium reopening to the public.

It will be open for dinner from 6pm to 11pm Wednesday through Saturday, and lunch from 12pm to 2pm Thursday through Saturday.