Tag: dalston restaurants

N'Duja Lasagne (Tom's Pasta)

Toms Pasta – Hackney Downs, E8

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I took a trip to this restaurant on the recommendation of a friend who works there. She had absolutely rave reviews for the place and after a quick scroll of their insta I was hooked. Tom’s Pasta is unsurprisingly headed up by a chef named Tom, who mans the kitchen on his own churning out starters, mains and desserts for a packed restaurant. I was so impressed he kept up with all the orders on his own and that he never skimped on the quality. Again unsurprisingly, Tom’s Pasta at heart is a pasta restaurant, specialising in lasagne! In my experience you very rarely see a lasagne on a menu, so I was really excited to try these out. Tom started the business as a lasagne delivery service by bike (absolutely genius), and has moved into a restaurant space in Hackney Downs Studios, right next to Hackney Downs park. This is a really great space, part of the larger creative studios complex. Tom’s Pasta is in the downmarket building, which also houses All Good Beer who have a really great selection of beers & wines to have with your meal. There is also a cafe/bakery in this space open during the day, Brunswick East, which I haven’t tried. Anyway, back to Tom’s Pasta – and let’s talk food.

The menu changes almost daily, although there are some seemingly staple dishes including the pork & beef lasagne, n’duja lasagne and the genovese lasagne. To start, we ordered the whole starter menu – 2x burrata with sourdough, the bruschetta and the meat & cheese plate. All of this was fantastic. The burrata came very simply drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper and good quality sourdough. The meat & cheese plate came with more burrata, mortadella and some cured ham. The bruschetta was crisp, fresh and garlicky. What’s not to love?!

L: Burrata & sourdough, M: meat & cheese plate, R: bruschetta

For main I got the pork & beef lasagne and no word of a lie this was probably the best lasagne I’ve ever had. Maybe better than the one I make and that’s saying something because I really back myself. Firstly, it comes hidden under a mountain of cheese which is a great start. Secondly, the lasagne itself uses the most delicious, rich and deeply flavoured ragu – you can really tell the time and effort gone into it and it absolutely pays off. Thirdly, the bechamel is soooo thick and so creamy. Fourthly, pasta. Again an absolutely winning combination. My friends all got the n’duja which is very similar to the pork & beef but with added n’duja. They were kind enough to let me try a bite and that, too, was wonderful. No surprise really that combining one beautiful thing (that lasagne) with another (n’duja) makes another beautiful thing. We also got a 3 sides of the buttery garlic bread which was a new addition to the menu that day. Think a beautiful, thick slice of sourdough drenched in garlic butter and topped with cheese – as you can imagine, it was a great great thing.

L: Pork & beef lasagne, R: n’duja lasagne

We rounded off the meal with the lasagne of the dessert world – tiramisu. Yet again, Tom is giving me a run for my money as I think his tiramisu might be better than my own which, again, is saying something because I back myself hard. We got a huge slab in a bowl. First thing that struck me was how yellow the cream was, I assume owing to the use of some really good eggs. It was rich from the cream but light from the sponge, with the perfect amount of coffee flavour that wasn’t too overpowering. Another triumph.

L: Buttery garlic bread, R: tiramisu

If you can’t tell already, I’m such a huge fan of Tom’s Pasta. All the food was incredible, really up my street – Italian food done super well. I was also so impressed that Tom could do all this by himself in the kitchen, including serving a table of 18 plus the rest of the restaurant. The vibe in the place is great too, very relaxed and everyone who works there is super fun (I’m definitely biased as my mate works there, but she’s a lot of fun I promise). I really recommend a trip to this place, I’ll definitely be returning to try the other lasagnes, the aubergine parm and I’ve seen some tagliatelle knocking about on their insta too. Let me know in the comments how you find it if you take a trip!

Find them at 17 Amhurst Terrace, London E8 2BT

Sardines with focaccion (Angelina, Dalston)

Angelina – Dalston, E8

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Angelina is very often talked about as one of the best restaurants in Hackney, and I’m ashamed to say I spent over a year of my life living just down the road from Angelina and never went. But, over a year on from that flat and I finally took the trip to Angelina, and here I am giving you a review. I went with 2 foodies who you’ve all be introduced to before – my friend Ros and my cousin Bryony – check out their foodie instas linked. We opted for the 10 course tasting menu (made possible by a discount provided by my cousin) on a day we’re now trying, and not succeeding, to rename 10 course Tuesdays. Spoiler alert: it was delicious. Angelina is an Italian-Japanese fusion, which at first scared me a little as I’ve had so many sloppily done fusions, but this was nothing like the others. They blended these two very distinct cuisines absolutely perfectly, which made for such an exciting and sophisticated meal.

Sardines with focaccia and shiso koso (Angelina, Dalston)
Sardines with focaccia and shiso koso

I have to admit I’m still struggling to work out how these dishes formed 10 courses, as we got a lot more than 10 plates. I’m not complaining though! First up we got 3 dishes, which definitely included some of the top dishes of the night: focaccia, sardines & shiso kosho; Hokkaido milk bread, sweet potato & sesame; taleggio, tobiko & moromi. The sardines were one of our favourite of the night, you can’t go wrong with focaccia and a salty fish. The sweet potato dish was like a little katsu sando – really delicious. The taleggio was probably the first taste I got of how flawlessly they had combined Japanese and Italian flavours. It was a little wonton cracker covered in taleggio with fish roe and moromi – I was so impressed with how they balanced the strong cheesy flavour with a much lighter, Japanese flavour. It was perfectly balanced.

Taleggio, tobiko & moromi (Angelina, Dalston)
Hokkaido milk bread, sweet potato & sesame (Angelina, Dalston)
L: Taleggio, tobiko & moromi (photo credit @rosontour), R: Hokkaido milk bread, sweet potato & sesame

Next up was the chawanmushi, clam & bresaola. This was a polarising dish on our table. It is a steamed, set egg custard topped with clams and little bresaola chunks. I really enjoyed how silky it was and the bresaola added a lovely saltiness.

Chawanmushi with clams and bresaola (Angelina, Dalston)
Chawanmushi, clam & bresaola

After this we had our raw course, consisting of 4 dishes. My favourite of this set was the sea bream ceviche with ponzu and sea purslane. The fish was buttery soft. In this course we also got a radicchio salad with smoked burrata and pistachio – this was really amazing. I’d never had a smoked burrata before but it was such an interesting flavour – it was strong and smokey but really light and creamy at the same time. We also had oyster with pomegranate and shiso. I’m a huge oyster fan so loved this, it was very fresh tasting. Lastly we go the sea trout with crispy spinach crackers and caviar. This took the form of almost a tare tare that we spooned onto the crackers. Again delicious, although I found the crackers a little oily.

Sea bream ceviche with ponzu (Angelina, Dalston)
Radicchio and smoked burrata salad (Angelina, Dalston)
L: sea bream ceviche with ponzu and sea purslane, R: Radicchio salad with smoked burrata and pistachio

Next we had our fried courses consisting of monkfish skewers with pickles, and kalettes with tentsuyu. The monkfish was great – super meaty fish, perfectly cooked and crispy on the outside with some sharp pickles to cut through the rich fish. Kalette is a relative of the sprout, which I am known to hate, however I loved the kalettes (or at least I love kalettes cooked like this). They were tempura served with the tentsuyu which is a kind of salty sharp dipping sauce.

Monkfish skewers with pickles (Angelina, Dalston)
Kalettes with tentsuyu (Angelina, Dalston)
L: Monkfish skewers with pickles, R: Kalettes with tentsuyu

We moved onto our pasta course of fazzoletti, wild garlic and walnut which was absolutely incredible. I didn’t feel too much of the Japanese fusion here, but it was a really fantastic plate of pasta. So buttery and garlicky, with the crunch from the walnuts.

Fazoletti with wild garlic and walnut (Angelina, Dalston)
Fazoletti with wild garlic and walnut

For main we had short rib with celeriac and gremolata. The short rib was rich and meaty, which paired perfectly with the buttery celeriac puree and fresh gremolata. We found the short rib a little tough, but we went on the first night of the new menu so I imagine they were still ironing out a few kinks

Short rib with celeriac and gremolata (Angelina, Dalston)
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Lastly dessert, which I always think is the great test of a restaurant. Lots of restaurants put out amazing savoury dishes but really fall down at the dessert – I’m happy to confirm Angelina is not one of those restaurants. The dessert was listed on the menu as rhubarb, blood orange and nori. A very simple name but the dish was a little more complex: vanilla creme anglais, poached rhubarb, blood orange sorbet, caramelised nori and this delicious crumble type thing. The nori was the really striking thing about this dish – you can tell it’s nori, but it has a sweetness to it which went so well with the sharp fruit flavours. A perfectly balanced dish, yet again.

Creme anglais rhubarb blood orange and nori (Angelina, Dalston)
Creme anglais rhubarb blood orange and nori (photo credit @rosontour)

This meal was such an amazing experience for all of us. We had dishes and flavour combinations we’d never tried before but all of it worked so well. As dubious as I was about a successful Japanese/Italian fusion, I’ve really been converted. The dishes all worked so well, I’m so impressed by the inventiveness of the chefs. I really recommend this restaurant as a great special occasion place (or just to anyone looking to recreate 10 course Tuesday). The 10 course menu costs £59 at full price. They also offer a 5 course tasting menu too for £39!

Find them at 56 Dalston Ln, London E8 3AH.