Tag Archives: Notting Hill

Reviews

Review of The New Angel Restaurant, Notting Hill

Where… ‘The Chef is as interesting as the Food’

The New Angel Restaurant, 39 Chepstow Place Notting Hill London W2 4TS

0207 221 7620

http://www.thenewangel-nh.co.uk

Food: 4 stars

Atmosphere: 4 stars

Service: 4.5 stars

Design: 4 stars

Value for money: 3.5 stars (for the lunch menus)

Overall: 4 stars

Theangelmillefeuillenottinghillyummymummy

(All photos in this post taken by NHYM Copyright 2014)

Notting Hill, The Foodie

Notting Hill is becoming a serious foodie destination with the 2* Michelin restaurant The Ledbury making it to the number 10 spot on the 50 Best Restaurants in the World List (http://www.theworlds50best.com/list/1-50-winners/the-ledbury). Not only that but Marianne’s, the runner up Masterchef Marianne Lumb’s new restaurant made it to the Number 1 spot as London’s Best Restaurant on Tripadvisor at one point in a few months (now in 9th spot: http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Restaurants-g186338-London_England.html), which I will be reviewing next month. And finally, Russell Norman, the ‘king of small plates’ is opening a Polpo on Notting Hill Gate any time now. The New Angel, which has quietly come on the scene a few weeks ago without our even knowing, is another serious contender. I am not a huge fan of the name (makes me think of a born-again-evangelical-preacher. The Chepstow Place or The Burton would have done just fine), and it is in a converted Victorian pub below the well-loved Assaggi, which has changed hands every few years, but coming from the infamous and very controversial celebrity chef John Burton Race (JBR), I was ready for some surprises.

The Chef: John Burton Race

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(JBR, his ex-mistress-now-wife, and Donna Air at The New Angel’s Opening Party)

I could write a whole article on JBR’s scandals, divorces, double-life-love-child-progeny, bankruptcy, resisting arrests and huge rows with fellow contestants on ‘Celebrity Get Me Out of Here,’ but this a restaurant review not a gossip column. It’s surprising his Memoirs haven’t been written or an HBO Biopic hasn’t been made of him yet. JBR has quite a professional and personal history behind him; a two time Michelin 2* Chef (L’Ortolan and The Landmark Hotel, via training at Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons), he became a TV personality in the reality shows ‘French Leave,’ ‘Return of The Chef’,’ and even ‘Celebrity Get Me Out Here’ amongst others (there has to be some attention-seeking and egotism for him to agree to do the latter show). He has also been slandered in the press as a scandalous ‘love-rat’ when he was found cheating on his wife with his mistress of 4 years and having a 2 year old child with her. His then wife, Kim, famously closed down the original ‘The New Angel’ restaurant while JBR was out cooking up tarantulas in the jungle. He only learned about this as he came out of his Kangaroo-escapade when he was evicted and the paps accosted him for a comment. It is difficult not to mention all of the above, but we are here for the food, I repeat. (http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/apr/27/recipes.foodanddrink).

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(Delicious Steak Tartare and divine Horseradish Sorbet – a must try)

The Restaurant

We arrived on Saturday evening at 8pm to find the restaurant pleasantly busy but nowhere near full. The staff, the Italian Maitre d’, the French waiter and Csaba, the assistant restaurant manager, were all attentive and smiling, enthusiastic to work for one of the Greats. The restaurant’s decor is warm with brown colours, gold leaf wallpaper and the owl sculptures in the back room are a hit with the girls. The music was an elevator jazz music until it stopped abruptly, a very minor negative of the evening. In the back wall there is a very small garden which is lit up at night and softens the atmosphere. The menu has familiar haute cuisine ingredients; fillets of John Dory, Scottish salmon, roasted rack of Devonshire lamb, quail’s eggs, and wasn’t trying too hard to be unique (unlike Heston and Nuno’s menus). Two courses for £44 and three  courses for £54 at dinner , and with a £20-something lunch menu (I think I must have been dreaming), it is actually rather good value-for-money.

The Food

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Now for the food. It is very easy to get distracted by JBR’s celebrity and notoriety that I wondered whether his culinary skills would be as sharp as his tongue. I chose the hand dived scallops with curried cauliflower and onion Bhaji as a starter and the poached line caught seabass with an oyster beignet in a Champagne and caviar sauce as a main (this dish was conceived with bedding a woman in mind; Champagne, oysters, and caviar? The ultimate aphrodisiac dish) , which were both very good although I didn’t love the baby fennels. My sister, whose birthday we were celebrating, and her husband had the foie gras starter (tasted right out of South West France), which was a perfectly chosen and terrined foie gras. Mr. C had the Steak Tartare started with Horseradish sorbet- Yum! My favourite starter of the night, I want to go back for another bite. He then had the Dutch Veal with Cepes and Truffle Tortellini as a main, which was my favourite main of the night. The strawberry millefeuille gariguette and the raspberry soufflé and white chocolate side were indulgent and the after-dessert petits fours of salted caramel truffles and white chocolate macaroons were just divine. All I can say is that all the dishes were perfectly executed, a pleasure to look at, and the tastes were very well balanced, not too overbearing, not too limp, showing a mastery that only comes from over 30 years of experience.

ThenewangelsaltedcaramelNHYM

The Verdict

This is modern European cuisine with French influence at its best, achieving what JBR sets out to do; ‘conjuring creative yet simple dishes from seasonal ingredients.’ It is meant to be a neighbourhood restaurant but has world class cooking and food, so this neighbourhood feel will unfortunately surely disappear in time. The restaurant feels like the Ledbury before it became famous when a young 28 year old Brett Graham set out to take over the culinary world, fresh, enthusiastic, and powerful, except that this a veteran chef with a colourful past of adultery, reality TV and a foul mouth who continues to prove himself in a class of his own. This is a Michelin starred restaurant in the making, so I suggest that you make a reservation now before it becomes another exclusive two-month-wait-list restaurant like The Ledbury and Marianne’s.
The New Angel on Urbanspoon

Top 10 New Restaurants in 2014 The Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/shopping-and-consumer-news/11270666/The-10-best-new-restaurants-in-London.html?frame=3127908

Top 100 Best Restaurants in the UK Opentable: www.opentable.co.uk/m/best-restaurants-in-united-kingdom/

xx

NHYM

http://www.nottinghillyummymummy.com @NHyummymummy

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Social Commentary

Social Commentary: ‘I want to be an -ein’

Prequel to the review of Blue Jasmine, directed by Woody Allen, one of the most famous Jews known for being a Jew.

Weinstein, Blankfein, Einstein, Lichtenstein, Stein. This could be the premise of a new child’s game to name all the great jews with names ending with ‘-ein.’ I think I should have been born Jewish. I am an anxious, neurotic, person who loves to talk and gossip. I would also love to be intellectually superior to all my peers. Oh and I have a penchant for larger than average noses, which I find very sexy. I am actually and sincerely nose-o-philic. Three friends I know, a superwoman Vietnamese banker, a super tall blond glamazonian Dutch Cameron Diaz lookalike and an African American Ivy League graduate have all converted to Judaism. These minorities all wanted to be born Jewish too. Who wouldn’t want to be the minority who rules America?

In America, they are the Kings of the Economy (Goldman, Sachs, & Blankfein), Kings of Hollywood (Weinstein et al.), Kings of Comedy (Seinfeld, Stiller, Sandler), Kings of New York therefore the world (Bloomberg), Kings of Literature (Philip Roth, Allen Ginsberg, Mordechai Richler, Gertrude Stein), Kings of Physics and Relativity (Albert Einstein), Kings really of almost everything. I could go on but there isn’t enough space in my blog to list them all. Jews are 100% more clever than you or me. ‘How did you come up with this number?’ I can hear my sneering, sarcastic brother grilling and mocking me as I mention this statistic, so I prepare my answer. ‘Easy. 20% of all Nobel Laureates are Jews, but Jews only consist of 0.2% of the world population, therefore making them 100% more intelligent than the average Patel, Jones, Mohammed, or Li Ming. You can check on Wikipedia, Einstein.’ I will smugly retort.

Jews have migrated to almost every corner of the world, overcoming all kinds of adversity, which is what makes their community stronger and more resilient than most. I envy their sense of solidarity and community, which is almost a form of secret society like the Skull and Bones at Yale. I believe there is also a ‘Jewdar’ that allows them to spot a Jew from 20 meters away. They all seem to know each other and Friday night’s Shabat is a ritual of bread-eating, hat-wearing, juice-drinking that unites them in a way that they can find themselves anywhere in the world with a place to go to for dinner on Friday night. Except maybe Kings Road and Majorca. Read on:

A North London Jew meets an American Jew and they start dating. They fall in love and are deciding where to live. The American Jew lives in Kings Road, whilst the North London Jew, well, lives in North London. The American tries to convince the North Londoner to move to Kings Road, she responds ‘Kings Road? There are no Jews on Kings Road! I don’t need a lot of Jews, but I need SOME Jews!’

Another couple is made up of a non-Jew and Jew. They are lucky enough to have enough money to choose to live anywhere in the world. The non-Jew is looking at Majorca. It’s sunny, not too expensive, they have good international schools and they can adopt a Mediterranean lifestyle of good food, sunshine and have a beautiful house overlooking the azure Mediterranean sea. When she mentions this to her husband, he asks her how many Jews live on the island. She quickly turns to google and finds that 200 Jews live on the island. She breathes a sigh of relief and runs to tell her husband. He replies ‘200?! That’s not even the size of a small Jewish wedding!’ That quickly shatters her dreams of late lunches, siestas, tapas and Rioja by their pool in Deia.

So, why this sudden interest in Jews, you may ask me. Well, I am a fan of Woody Allen. Not for screwing his wife’s adoptive daughter while she was lovingly cooking his Matzo balls in their Kosher kitchen, but for his great films. His latest, Blue Jasmine, has just won Cate Blanchett an Oscar in the Best Actress category and is considered instrumental in making his comeback as a master filmmaker. Jews are great entertainers, being some of the best actors, screenwriters, and comedians around. Judd Apatow made us pee in our pants (or poo in our wedding dress for some) with the likes of Bridesmaids, Knocked up and Superbad, Ben Stiller’s Zoolander is a classic, and Seinfeld is too brilliant for words. And they also have Nathalie Portman who is every man’s wet dream.

I find that Jews are great at making others laugh by using their own shortcomings and flaws as a topic of conversation. They are witty observers of humanity, which Woody Allen achieves so well in his movies by making us cry and laugh, often at his own and others’ downfalls. Add that to the list of why I want to be an ‘-ein’

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Reviews

‘To cut or not to cut, that is the question’

This weekend was the press launch of Kevin Pieterson’s new kids hair salon, Bella & Beau, on Ledbury Road. I booked an appointment when I saw the beautiful aquarium full of baby nemos and Ariel’s sebastians, angelfish and sea anemones and since M had never had a haircut, I thought it would be OK to splurge. There, one can choose from a red fire engine with bell, a retro plane or car to sit in during the haircut. You are given an Ipad with Peppa Pig or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse to keep your kid’s head still during the haircut. There is an Alice in Wonderland sized pink piano with a large mirror out of snow white. Why don’t they have these kinds of hair salons for grown ups? I would certainly go for £100 a haircut. I told my high priestess of a hairdresser about M’s appointment and she tsk tsk’d me saying that a hair salon is not a playground and haircuts should be an experience for children to feel grown up. I cowered in shame under my gown and muttered under my breath that this was really just a one off.

The haircut itself was lovely, the lady was very sweet with M and all went accordingly to plan for the whole 5 minutes the haircut lasted, since it didn’t even include shampooing. That would equate to £5 a minute and I started to feel very guilty about this excess until I saw my daughter’s delighted face as she rang the fire engine’s bell.

I still am not sure how I stand on expensive kids’ haircuts, even though it was a lovely mummy baby bonding time. Please share your thoughts!

Bella & Beau

56 Ledbury Road

W11 2AJ

02077276636

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