Angelina restaurant review: Bridging the geographical gap between cuisines
Fusion food has had a bad rep, but will the mixing of Japanese and Italian food surpass the calamities of it's Eighties predecessors? Emma Henderson takes a closer look
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Your support makes all the difference.Some cuisines are naturally a combination of a whole magnitude of worldly dishes and ingredients pulled together from various countries, which come under that ugly term "fusion". Look to Filipino food, albeit the country is made up of some 7,000 islands, but it’s food is influenced by Spain, America, China and India though both colonisation and migration.
While Pacific Rim food again encompasses food from island nations, and isn't clearly pinpointed as being just one thing as lines easily become blurred.
But don’t, whatever you do, think we’re talking about Tex-Mex, or other 70s and 80s fusion calamities. Thankfully, things have moved on from that.
When I read this restaurant, Angelina is fusing Japanese and Italian – two countries that sit on the other side of the world – I wonder how that might work, and most of all, think why. But then I remember, one of my favourite local restaurants, Bistro Mirey, mixes French and Japanese together, and it works: one of the owners is from France and the other Japan. It makes perfect sense. It’s fun, delicately done and, of course, interesting.
Angelina’s website explains itself as “serving a surreal exploration of Japanese and Italian cuisines”. This is less clear. Until, that is, I find out behind Angelina is Joshua Owens-Baigler, who trained at River Cafe (ok, that accounts for the Italian) and then in the kitchen it’s Daniele Celforo from… Rome. Oh, so two Italian connections.
Inside its Japanese decor with hanging lanterns and tiny glasses with oversized waxy green leaves. It’s very 2019. You’d see it on an Instagram account near you very soon, if phones and photos were allowed
But, ah, it’s in Dalston. That explains a little more. Dalston has morphed itself into the achingly cool and experimental restaurant epicentre of the capital. And the nail of the coffin, as it turns out according to Joshua, is that Japanese people love Italian food, and vice versa. There we have it, each nation loves the other's food.
Inside Angelina its Japanese decor, designed by Baigler’s mother. It’s sophisticated, grown up and looks like it's straight out of an interior design magazine with hanging lanterns, muted tones, huge potted plants, and tiny glass pots with oversized waxy leaves hanging out of them. It’s very 2019. You’d see it on an Instagram account near you very soon, if phones and photos were allowed, that is.
The menu has been hacked down from eight, wait for it, sharing plates (what else) to five. (All things considered, it’s actually a great way to eat and you leave feeling far less sluggish). It seems with the eight plates, no one got that “lighter feeling”. Our waiter tells us it also takes a long time. I second that.
It’s also a pretty good way to run a restaurant, none of this hideously long menu thing that takes half the night to read, needing god knows how many ingredients and taking up precious space in the back. Instead it’s measured out, preciseness – a leaf out of the Japanese book, perhaps. Also, if you’re indecisive, it’s easy. Not so if you’re picky.
The five dishes are distinctively mysterious on paper, and after it’s explained to us we know what we’re getting. First it’s a trio of some lightly tempura turnip top leaves, dinky crispy pork croquettes with a deliciously rich and sticky thicker Japanese version of Worcestershire sauce and some shallow fried baby artichokes.
Then comes this fish. A trio of raw seafood plates: a delicate and delicious simple sea bream ceviche, tiny raw chunks of tuna with orange and ginger and the star of the show, red prawns drenched in an almost velvety oil topped with white rice powder that gives it the tiniest crunch. There’s only four, and it’s hard to share these, admittedly.
Next is the unagi risotto with burnt soy butter. It’s far better than it sounds if you’re a little put off by the presence of eel. Little tender pieces of the freshwater eel pack a flavoursome, rich punch which is only paired with the creamy risotto rice. Traditionally in Japan the eel is served with just sushi rice because of the intensity of its flavour, so the dish makes for an obvious partnership.
It’s followed by the onglet – oh here’s a little bit of France, too. (There was a vegetarian option menu – in case you’re wondering). It’s not something I’d order usually, so thanks to that set menu design, I get a real treat. The simplicity and minimal ingredients of the dish make it absolutely genius. Essentially it’s a handful of little flash cooked cutlets of extremely tender beef with a hefty chunk of radicchio leaves that’s been lightly braised and has taken on a beautifully sweet orange flavour. The beef melts like butter in your mouth, and I savour every part of this luxuriously rich meat with each bite.
We finish with the milk chocolate panna cotta with black sesame seeds. A light and small, but pleasingly sweet way to round off this feast.
After I ask where the Japanese influence comes from, Joshua explains that when you look a little closer, the two cuisines are not actually worlds apart – as they are geographically: both are very ingredient led and focus on very fresh and seasonal produce.
It's unfair to judge a book by its cover. Things aren’t always as random as they may first seem. Here, it’s a clever balance of the two – not so distance cuisines – sensitively modernised and pretty bloody excellent.
Five plates £38pp; £35pp for accompanying drinks pairing.
Food: ★★★★☆
Service: ★★★★★
Value: ★★★★☆
Angelina, 56 Dalston Lane, E8 3AH, angelina.london
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