Anglo is one of those small restaurants which surprises one with their dedication to their craft: carefully-curated seasonal ingredients cooked to perfection. 2 years old and still very popular - one needs to book well ahead to procure a table in its 40-seat space.
The grey-walled dining space is almost Zen-like - spartan, austere.
Our dinner last Thu evening:
The bare description on their seasonal menu did not prepare us for Anglo’s take on Modern-British food - touches of molecular gastronomy on native British ingredients.
3 Appetisers
#1 Crab yoghurt + red pepper. It came out more like an icy sorbet with a spike of pepper blanketing cold crabmeat.
#2 Lamb kebab. These came out like little canapes of bread crisps topped with chewy lamb jerky. Prettily-presented, with subtle spicing.
#3 Salt cod & chive. The salt cod, rehydrated, was moist and flavoursome. It was served with a chive mousse which countered the saltiness of the cod.
Sourdough bread with fermented yeast butter and rapeseed oil dip.
English pea with black garlic & whey. The garlic and whey-inflected foam on sweet peas probably functions as the “soup” course, separating the appetisers from the “mains” to follow. This was actually my fave course up to this point in the tasting menu: the fresh peas simply burst with an incredible sweetness.
Mains
#1 Hampshire trout with tomato + courgette. Prettily-plated, this course looked bare & simple, but each ingredient on the plate was of exceptional quality - the trout was fine-textured and carefully cooked to perfection. The tomato and courgette has an unworldly depth of flavours, achieved perhaps through slow-cooking which caramelises the vegetables and draws out the sweetness of the vegetables.
#2 Goosnargh duck with beetroot + orange. This dish is a deconstructed, delicate take on duck a l’orange. Again, very well-executed, with the orange slivers taking the place of an orange sauce to complement the well-seasoned pink duck meat.
Cheese + onion on malt loaf. This dish is served pre-desert, and seemed like something Heston Blumenthal might have come up with using one of his medieval-made-modern recipes: a moist disc of malt loaf with a strong fermented flavour, topped with a confetti of strong cheese.
Desserts
Both desserts look pretty straightforward and rather “unexciting” on paper, but turned out to be very memorable:
#1 New season cherries + toasted almond - nothing in the world can beat perfectly-toasted crunchy almonds, paired with sweet-sour cherries, with the added richness of fresh cream.
#2 Summer berries + buttermilk.
Petit fours.
Address
Anglo
30 St Cross Street
London, EC1N 8UH
United Kingdom
Tel: +4420 7430 1503
Opening hours:
Monday 6pm-10pm
Tue-Sat 12noon-2.30pm, 6pm-10pm
Closed on Sun.
