The New Angel

How has this place only managed a 3 star average rating?
The food is excellent!
The service is excellent too!
And the only reason I’ve ‘downgraded’ it from 5 stars is the pricing. It’s a tad (read very) expensive and dining here will see your wallet shed pounds far more quickly than your stomach is gaining them.
But it’s still really good food.
Think romantic and cost.
Think ‘place I want to go to impress her because the staff are so nice it looks like I’m a regular and they know me even though I’ve never been there before’
But also think ‘cha-​ching’ as you imagine the sound of their till processing another £50 bottle of wine. Good wine, but again priced appropriately for the area.
But then you don’t compare these places to Nando’s and if you do, you’re in the wrong place!
If you appreciate quality food and service with a smile and don’t mind paying a premium for it, you’re in the right place.

The restaurant interior and atmosohere was nice. It does make it a place for a special occasion. But i did not walk out of the door feeling the food was «WOW» and would make me rush to return.
Each dish was nicely presented but my own main was disappointing. I ordered one of the fish dish and it tasted bitter. It was the bitter taste that you would find when the fish stomach had burst during cutting and cleaning process of the fish.
However, i did enjoy my dessert — a raspberry soufflé served with white chocolate mousse and raspberry sorbet. The raspberry sorbet was the best part of the dessert as it was served in a chocolate coated shell.

It was a fine experience but the atmosphere itself was very different to the usual fine dining, much more confined and closed in. A lot of staff was present which meant that service was attentive but we also felt we lack privacy. However putting that aside it was a lovely meal, a place I would associate being for locals being small and near a residential area.
Staff seemed a bit nervous but it was a soft launch but they were more than welcoming. Just needs a bit of charm which I can imagine will grow as the restaurant progresses forward. Do expect all the formal service, napkins placed over you for you and delicious fresh unlimited bread offerings of different varieties such as potato and seeded and butter at the right temperature to enjoy them with.
The only menus available were either a 2 or 3 course set menu costing £44/£54 or a 7 course tasting menu costing £75. It was not possible to order just one course so you can see prices are quite dear.
We decided to stick with the 2 course option which started with a surprise amuse-​bouche of mushroom velouté complemented with a parmesan tuile. It was incredibly light and foamy served at the perfect temperature to enjoy with the light crispy tuile. The savouriness of the cheese really went well with the fragrant mushroom veloute. A great start to the meal.
From the starter we chose the steak tartare which was one of the better ones I had where the seasoning did not overpower the more delicate flavours of the raw fresh beef. The meat was coarse nicely with a beautiful bounce and there was nice crunches coming from the onions and paired chicory.
However much more impressive was the salad of spring vegetables, whipped goats curd, crispy quail’s egg, hazelnuts and tarragon dressing. Each one of the ingredient did a favour to the dish. The hazelnuts and vegetables providing the crunches and lovely delicate flavours from crispy quail’s egg and whipped goat’s curd. It was faultless and a great light starter to the meal.
For my main I chose the Roasted rack of Devonshire lamb, sweetbreads, fricassee of peas, pancette and watercress gnocchi, tomato and thyme jus. It was beautifully cooked medium rare as standard and sliced like a hot knife into butter. The meat was sweet and succulent and made more so with the well seasoned jus. The sweetbread provided a richer taste whilst the other ingredients such as the gnocchi created a nice layered texture. It was nothing mind blowing in flavour but a simple dish made to it’s finest.
My boyfriend went for the pan-​fried fillets of john dory, Devonshire crab stuffed courgette flower, sorrel, Jersey Royal potatoes and shellfish cream. As flakey as the fish was I did wish the skin was more crispy. I very much enjoyed the courgette flower filled with fresh crab, very creative and had a interesting texture. The quality was even highlighted in the potatoes being fluffy and well cooked till soft. But it was the sauce that made the difference to this dish, flavouring the majority of things in it’s rich shellfish creaminess. However it they could have reduced the amount as it made the dish feel quite heavy afterwards.
Everything was finished nicely with complimentary petit fours which consisted of a rich creamy dark chocolate truffle, a fruity white chocolate bark with pistachio, cranberry and walnut and a madeleine cake that unfortunately was a bit too dense and dry. Still it was a nice finish and generous of them.
The New Angel definitely wins at being creative with ingredients, creating wonderful combination and as a end result creating aromatic flavours and great textures. Attention to detail is shown in all aspects of the dishes from the presentation to the seasoning. Sadly the lack of atmosphere brings it down a bit and the prices which is not everyday affordable. I still see it as a place for locals or to try once and not a place I would make travel arrangements for to return again. Overall I’m giving this restaurant a good 4 stars it deserves.

Well, it’s Friday. So of course myself, Jane G, Issy F and Theresa C met up for the start of a rather incredible night out. But first, Theresa C had reserved us a surprise dinner table at this place, with a well played 50% off the menu as the restaurant had recently opened. Could we say no to that? No we couldn’t (Ironically)!
Set in the elusive W2 area of London, this restaurant boasted a typically elegant and classy atmosphere, slightly prententious at first. I think that was a lack of atmosphere, some background music could have lightened the mood a bit. We arrived at 7pm, so naturally the restaurant got busier as the evening went on and the staff relaxed a bit more. I got that being watched whilst I ate impression at the start of the night.
Good service though, attentive staff offering champagne to start, kept the water glasses filled up and the side plates full with some rather delicious breads (the onion bread was a particular favourite).
3 courses for £27 screams a bargain (the normal £53 price tag would have put me off) so of course I dived in. Scallops with cauliflower and onion bhaji to start and they were perfectly cooked! Bouncy but not rubbery with a fresh basil vinaigrette to add some citrus lightness. Next on the menu was sea bass with an oyster beignet and champagne and caviar sauce. The sea bass was beautfiully soft (I would have liked a crispier skin) and the sauce was the modicum of indulgence — rich and velvety and powerfully flavoured. Delicious! Pudding was a little bit disappointing, crème brûlée is one of my family’s favourite puddings and this one fell a bit flat. Nice touches with the strawberry sorbet though to lighten everything.
Wine was the typical price for this kind of restaurant, starting at £25 — I don’t care that much for wine to pay top dollar so house white did us fine. But great company and a very sophisticated way to start the evening! I would go back, but at this point in time I would need the 50% off deal again

The New Angel in Notting Hill is an elegant yet relaxed upscale dining spot just around the corner from Westbourne Grove.
We opted for the 3 course menu and conveniently ordered nearly everything on the menu within our group of 5. I’ll run through the highlights of what I tasted, but in general I found the starters to have great potential but need a little tweak, the mains to be truly delicious, and the desserts inconsistent with some spectacular wins and equally epic fails.
For my starter, I went with The New Angel steak tartar on the premise that anything that’s going to be a signature item should be special. The tartar is made from a very tender filet which melts in your mouth and benefits from a light hand on the seasoning to enhance without overpowering the delicate flavor. Overall it was good but, for me, it needed a bit more of a spicy tangy kick that you usually get from the horseradish and tabasco.
The roasted scallops with curried cauliflower, pickled vegetables and onion bahji were another great idea with the heat from the cauliflower and tanginess of the veggies pairing well with the tender sweet scallops. All it was missing was a touch more salt to bring out the flavors of the scallop to more evenly compete with the other components on the plate.
My fillet of Dutch veal with ceps, sprouting broccoli, goats curd and truffle tortellini, and wild mushroom cream was superb. Although at first I was a bit put off by the relatively small size, it’s a rich dish that turns out to be fairly filling. The mains selected by my dining companions (everything except the risotto) were similarly impressive with the gamey squab pigeon enriched by the addition of foie gras and the fish dishes being perfectly cooked to provide tender flaky flesh.
The cheese board (£12.50 as an additional course) boasts around 15 hand-​picked cheeses mostly from France although with a few English blues. It takes a while to get through both the talk and the tasting but it’s worth a punt particularly for you cheeseaholics.
Desserts are a bit hit and miss. The raspberry three ways dessert (soufflé, white chocolate mousse, and chocolate covered sorbet) was the winner and I was also partial to my friend’s iced mango parfait with salted caramel popcorn and mango jelly and mousse. Then again, I’m a fan of nearly everything mango so slightly biased there.
This was a soft open so lapses in the service were easily forgiven but during our time with The New Angel these were fairly limited. In fact, I appreciated the wit of one of the waiters when pressed on the coffee served and also the sincerity of the assistant manager, Csaba, who discussed the motivations and ideas behind the restaurants and dishes with us.
At £54 for three courses, this puts it a bit higher than similar styled restaurants but still represents value for money depending on what you order. It’s not cheap but the quality of cooking is well above average and the atmosphere makes it perfect for impressing a date or to treat your parents.

Hmmm. The New Angel. I have such mixed feelings about this place. I ended up coming here last minute with Andrew M., Robyn J. and Peter S. due to Andrew having an extra space available on his soft launch opening. I do feel slightly bad giving this review due to it being a soft launch opening, and the point is to work out the kinks, but there were quite a few kinks, and given what the restaurant is going for, I felt like those kinks should be more worked out already.
We went with the a la carte menu. It’s £44 for two courses and £54 for three courses. They have cheese as well that you can get as dessert (for a supplement) or an extra course (as a slightly higher supplement). They also do a seven-​course tasting menu for £75. Since it was the soft launch, we did get to experience most of this for half price.
The good: The amuse bouche of a mushroom veloute was really tasty. It had a bit of truffle in it and the mushrooms were really flavorful. My main was pigeon and it was fantastic. The pigeon was really tasty, the sauce was delicious and I was really happy with it. There was a great selection of cheeses. I got to try the mille feulle dessert and the lemon and strawberry was quite nice. The bite I had of Andrew’s steak tartare starter was really tasty as well (even though he thought it needed a bit more horseradish). The coffee and petit fours were good too (even if they don’t have filter coffee, but at least they didn’t pretend to and make an Americano).
The not-​so-​good: My starter of scallops was cooked well, but ultimately lacked a lot in the flavor department. Maybe a bit of salt? I don’t really know, but I was kind of disappointed in it. My chocolate dessert was said to be a dark chocolate cake and I was expecting a luscious chocolate dessert, but it was kind of boring actually. The other desserts looked amazingly better, and once I tried the lemon and strawberry dessert I was severely disappointed. The service wasn’t the best. I ordered a glass of white wine with my starter, and I would have liked to get a glass of red with the pigeon, but they didn’t ask me if I wanted more wine until they served the course, so I figured it was probably too late to even bother. They wine prices of the ones I recognized were a bit steep (but I suppose that can be expected). The guy talking about the cheeses wasn’t too familiar with them so it was a bit tricky to guess what to get. He just gave us a selection (and the selection was great), but it was a bit disconcerting.
Overall I had a good time, and some of my food was spectacular. My experience at places like this is usually the tasting menu is the way to go, so maybe it would be better. I do know that for regular price, I think I would have been disappointed in the a la carte menu, but I am tempted to come back with my partner and go for the tasting menu (which seems like a good deal as tasting menus go). But given the food we had that night (and the price), I don’t really feel like I would go out of my way to recommend it to friends which I guess is ultimately what defines how good a restaurant is for me.