Angelina

Italian & Japanese Fusion

56 Dalston Ln, London E8 3AH

£££

Angelina is Dalston’s destination restaurant, owned rather oddly by ex-footballer Joshua Owens-Baigler, and Amar Takhar – who are both Dalston locals and childhood friends. With a choice between a 5 course or 10 course tasting menu, you’re either here for a celebration, or because you really, really like food. The head chef Usman Heydenis (formerly at Ottolenghi) is said to marry Japanese and Italian cuisines in perfect harmony, and whilst I was originally a little sceptical about the pairing of these two, I was also very willing to be proven wrong…

Angelina has been on my list of restaurants to try for a while as it is on the cheaper side for a tasting menu (£59 for 10 courses, or £34 for a 4 course). We finally made time to go there to celebrate our 6 year anniversary and to say I was excited would be understatement. The location is convenient for travel (literally a 3 minute walk from the overground station, with a bus stop right outside), but less convenient for ambience. We booked Angelina almost a month in advance, and even by that time all of the restaurant spaces had gone for a reasonable time that evening. After so many lovely alfresco dining experiences, we decided to go for the outdoor terrace – in my mind this was going to be out back, not out front on the main road. Although they have made a conscious effort to disguise the constant barrage of buses and police cars driving past, you are still pretty painfully aware of your surroundings. The tables are teeny tiny (which is fine for small plates), but due to the lack of space you are crammed next to each other, rather than opposite. Fine – when you’re looking out to the ocean on holiday, or into a cosy and well lit restaurant like Kudu. Not so fine when you’re looking straight to a large plant which is aiming to nullify the not so sweet soundtrack of a main road in Dalston on a Friday night.

I decided to try and forget about the setting and focus on the food, as after all, that’s what we were here for. After being shown to our table we ordered two cocktails: mine, a minty aperoly limey concoction which was fresh and sharp, though not that strong; Tom’s a traditional espresso martini, which, in all honesty, we’ve had much better of. The food took a while to get going, but once it did it started VERY well. We were greeted first with some bread topped with rich olive oil and punchy chopped olives, a soft-shell crab encased in a brioche-like bun, a gnocco fritto, filled with creamy ricotta and topped with salty caviar, and a stracciatella beetroot combo on top of a sweet potato crisp. My God, this was good. The soft-shell crab was crispy but tender, sweet crab meat complimented further by the soft, light bread it sat within. The olive bread was simple but sublime – as the oil dripped onto my plate after each bite, I quickly mopped it up with a finger before anyone saw. The Stracciatella was always going to be heavenly (the inside of a burrata, yes please!), but the creaminess combined with the crunch and freshness of the beetroot was another level of lovely. The gnocco fritto reminded me of a much thicker version of an Indian puri – again the cream and the crunch was a hit, balanced with the salt of the caviar. What a treat all round!

Next up, we received the Chestnut & Jerusalem Artichoke Chawanmushi – a kind of savoury, Japanese custard. This was the most unusual dish of the evening, the typical umami flavours replaced with a very overpowering truffle. I love truffle, so this wasn’t an issue for me, but I do think it could have done with a little less to allow the other flavours some room. The next course was a 25 minute wait and consisted of a collection of raw fish typical of both cuisines in their own right – if in Japan, call it Sashimi, if in Italy, call it Crudo. First, a halibut drenched in a truffle soy dressing – more truffle, which was weirdly balanced but somehow worked with the soy. A Hamachi was served alongside in a sweet plum and ponzu sauce – a nice balance to the salty and rich halibut. Finally, a deconstructed maki roll with Tuna and Lardo (raw pork fat typically used for flavour in Italian cuisine). Again, somewhat unexpectedly, these flavours worked – the salty fat balancing the subtle tuna.

Then, the trouble began. After arriving at 8pm, we didn’t get our next course until 21:51 – almost a full hours wait. Tables around us who were on the 4 course menu were leaving in drips and drabs, which we hoped would speed ours along a bit (it didn’t). After a few little starters and literally 3 tiny pieces of fish each, it’s safe to say I was absolutely starving. Yes, it was busy, but it was by no means full, and at 10pm on a few small bites it was danger zone for hanger. We decided to order a bottle of red to keep the hunger at bay – and went for the cheapest as we figured since whole wine list is Italian they wouldn’t get away with selling any old shit. It was a Corvina Verona (£28) which was actually really, really lovely – so lovely that I googled it to see if we can order some and realised you can get it cost price online for £3 a bottle… Didn’t take away the fact that this was a really nice bottle of wine, but slightly soured the £28 we had paid.

FINALLY, the tempura arrived, which again, was bloody delicious. It was almost annoying how good it was – I wanted to be angry at the wait, have something to complain about, then they come along and give me something deep fried and delicious to shut me up. When we were finished they took away everything on the table, as they had been doing since the start - side plates included along with cutlery. I mean, I get it – there are different flavours rolling around, but it can’t help but feel so gratuitous, so wasteful, to have to wash over 50 plates and 10 sets of knives and forks per couple dining. I was almost going to tell them not to bother, but then I thought better of it as this was the type of place where you just accept the fact that ‘chef knows best’.

Chef might know best, but he was definitely having some trouble in the kitchen tonight, as there was another 50-minute wait for us before we received a single piece of ravioli. The couple sitting next to us didn’t even get theirs – having a replacement of spaghetti from the 4-course menu instead. The waiter explained that someone had dropped the tray of prepared ravioli in the kitchen and they were having a bit of a stressful time getting back on track. These guys were happy to accept the replacement dish – I would have been too as it looked way more filling and I was bloody starving still. Our ravioli, begrudgingly, was pretty good– a full egg yolk encased in an al dente pasta casing, topped with mushrooms, hazelnut and wakame. Again the truffle creeped in to this dish, and whilst it wasn’t enough to overpower it, I was starting to get a little uninspired by it’s presence. I was, however, very impressed by the craft it took to keep that yolk just right, and started to imagine the chaos unfolding in the kitchen and the death sentence of whatever poor soul dropped that tray.

Onto the next dish, and, you guessed it… another very, very long wait. It was 22:30 by the time we got to our ‘main course’ – a good 2 and a half hours after we had arrived. By this point I was getting to be over it, in all honesty. We should have complained, but instead we joked to the waiter asking if they were hunting the quail. He laughed, then shook his head and apologised “it shouldn’t be like this” he said. Wait or no wait, this course was much less impressive than what had come before – the quail was cooked well and had a nice marinade on it which tasted similar to Teriyaki, but I didn’t enjoy the side of mascarpone and the pickles felt like a silly little afterthought rather than anything complimentary. The venison which followed was equally as drab– served as kofte like-kebabs with a egg yolk to dip into – I’m not sure where the origins are for this one but it didn’t feel Italian or Japanese to me. Lastly, we finished with the Pannacotta at 23:25 (almost 4 hours after arrival time…), which could have been a little more springy and looked a little limp by the time it got to us. The pairing of this was orange and mango, although Tom’s mango sorbet was missing when it had arrived, so they had to take it back. “Sorry, it’s been a long night” the waitress said… No shit Sherlock, you and me both.

If you can’t tell by now, the overall experience at Angelina was a really disappointing one. Not disappointing because of the quality of the food, but rather disappointing because the service and time it took to have the meal far overshadowed any glimmer of hope these plates could provide. I thought I’d be more forgiving, but 4 hours is by far the longest I’ve ever spent in a restaurant. There were a couple of sorry's thrown around here and there when we questioned timings, but nothing in terms of an explanation or anything to sweeten the deal a little. When the bill came, I was honestly expecting at least our cocktails to have been knocked off, but nope - £180 came through full throttle. The waitress who took our payment didn’t give anything in terms of a “how was your meal?”, leaving us no real opening for any honest feedback. Yes, I shouldn’t have been such a meek Brit and I should have just complained anyhow, but by that point I was honestly so exhausted (and hungry) that I just wanted to get in an Uber back home with some fried chicken. Whatsmore, we wrote in the booking notes that it was our Anniversary – and whilst I usually hate it when things are publicy declared in a restaurant full of strangers, a little added extra with desert or something special never goes amiss if you’ve made a point of telling them.

Tom wasn’t surprised that we didn’t get any offer to put things right, claiming that London restaurants make you feel like you’re lucky to be there, rather than properly looked after. Whilst I would usually staunchly defend the London food scene, on this occasion I had to agree. For a bill of almost £200, a wait of almost 4 hours, and nothing in the way of acknowledgement or decent apology, Angelina is unfortunately one of those places that gives the London service industry a bad name.

OVERALL RATING: ***

http://www.angelina.london/