Angelina offers a tranquil dining experience with a unique Japanese-Italian Kaiseki menu, featuring 13 flavorful dishes, exceptional service, and a warm atmosphere perfect for special occasions.
Nestled just off the bustling A10 Stoke Newington road, Angelina is a restaurant that’s not to be missed. Thursday evening in Dalston can be particularly hectic but the minute we stepped into Angelina, I was struck by the sense of tranquillity and warmth. The soft and discreet interior design of grey hues, dimmed lights and white lily bouquets, makes for a perfect canvas for the colourful dishes created by the Head Chef Usman and team. The kitchen is the main feature of the restaurant, and like many in London these days, offers a counter dining experience (a top tier place at the restaurant if you ask me). For the aspiring cooks and foodies, watching chefs handling produce and preparing complicated dishes is an experience akin to watching a blockbuster at a cinema.
Flavour wise, Angelina mixes a Japanese tradition with an Italian heritage. Chef’s interpretation of the Kaiseki – a Japanese multi-course meal that traditionally took place before tea ceremonies in Kyoto – consisted of 13 dishes that were full of flavour and unexpected twists. The menu changes every five weeks to reflect seasonal ingredients and each course is a mix of sharing plates and wine pairing suggestions. Our meal lasted approximately three hours and left us feeling extremely satiable and happy.
Chef Usman and his talented team at Angelina have masterfully crafted a menu that beautifully marries Japanese tradition with Italian heritage. Each dish is a testament to their creativity and skill, delivering an unforgettable dining experience that tantalizes the palate and warms the heart.
About the main event: Kaiseki and my personal favourites:
We started off strong with the antipasti course: oysters dressed in lyche and red currant, followed by nori with microgreens and root vegetables. Both simply delightful. But our favourite from this course was certainly a farinata (Italian chickpea pancake) with wagyu and Sicilian prawn ragù and subtle hints of truffle. The flavours of meat and chickpea farinata were reminiscent of a trusty homemade meatloaf dinner and made us both very nostalgic about our respective Italian and Polish roots.
The chawanmushi which is a traditional egg custard dish in Japanese cuisine was a rabbit and chanterelle suspended in green chervil (French parsley) foam and was certainly an intriguing mix of flavours. The main event, however, was the wagyu beef with wasabi and citrus ponzu sauce that quite literally melted in our mouths. If you are an occasional meat eater like me, you will want to add this to your order.
The pane and crudo courses were served together and consisted of Angelina’s version of a caesar salad with crispy chicken skin that had us (again) reminiscing about childhood and rotisserie chicken. Next was the tuna tartare with cucumber, paprika and fried capers, which was extremely light and fresh. For pane, we were served a fluffy focaccia that – as we learned from our waitress – was made from a sourdough starter that the kitchen staff has been feeding for over 6 years! This focaccia dipped in a cheese that was made from equal parts of sheep, goat and cow dairy and plum jam was heavenly.
Pasta course was, unsurprisingly, my favourite. The buttery yellow pasta looked like a raviolo at first but was actually a pappardelle with ricotta, crunchy trombetta (a humble courgette) and biscotti covered in almond milk dashi (table sauce in Japanese). It was that kind of dish that makes you slow down and appreciate each bite in a worry it might finish soon and you’ll never get to experience the same food high as you did just now.
At this stage, we were surprised that another main dish (binchotan) was coming our way. It was a lovely Iberico pork that we learned was a special kind that can be cooked medium rare, which isn’t the norm for pork. But at this point I was ready for dolci (dessert).
The dolci consisted of 3 dishes: kaki (permission) & elderflower sorbet, black sesame caprese & matcha cakes, and last but certainly not least a sweetcorn panna cotta. It was the second creamed corn dish I’ve tasted this autumn in London (big up manteca’s corn ravioli) that left me blown away and made me wonder, is corn making a comeback? It was hands down one of the best desserts I’ve ever had.
We opted for the Kaiseki wine pairing which celebrated Italian indigenous grape varieties, artisan producers and lesser known fine wines from Piedmont to Sicily and perfectly complemented all of our dishes. The one that stood out to me the most was the natural wine from Umbria region. It was floral and orange peel on the nose and perfectly accompanied our pasta course.
Guests’ enjoyment and comfort was a priority to staff who were knowledgeable about produce, flavours and wine pairings and shared complicated names of some of the dishes with smiles on their faces, even when asked to repeat it more than once. The feeling of being looked after enveloped the whole experience, which for a restaurant of this calibre is not that common. Many, including myself, can feel slightly intimidated by fine dining, afraid of its fussiness, but that couldn’t be further from the truth at Angelina. After all, the restaurant’s philosophy is all about authenticity and pure enjoyment, and that really shines both through dishes and the atmosphere.
If you are looking for a restaurant for a special occasion like birthdays or anniversaries, Angelina is a clear winner. Thank you for an unforgettable dining experience!
