On a balmy London evening, Hot Dinners were invited to try out the Pichounettes at West London's Angelus, the fine dining restaurant just a few minutes walk from Paddington station.
What on earth is a pichounette?
Essentially it's a bunch of small dishes combined to make one great big plate. The Chef at Angelus, Martin Nisbet, has pulled together two plates of sweet or savoury pichounette selections specifically designed for the bar at Angelus (although you can still order them in the main restaurant).
Each of the plates represents a taster of the types of food that can be served in the main restaurant - so it's an ideal way to get a representation of what Angelus has to offer. As it takes its cue from the menu, it can change regularly although if you have a particular favourite, you can ask the chef to include it.
It's one of the best ways we've seen for a London restaurant for show off its wares and we would love to see it embraced elsewhere, particularly in London's food festivals.
So what did you have?
We, of course, had to sample both savoury and sweet. On the night we dined we had the following as savoury:
- English Heritage tomato salad with broad beans
- Bayonne ham with charentais melon, basil and balsamic vinegar
- Uig Lodge smoked salmon with spiced crab
- Artichoke and beaufort cheese terrine with mustard pickled vegetables
- Puy lentils with fried quails egg
The standout dishes here were the lentils with soft fried quails egg and a surprisingly great tomato salad.
As for dessert - we had the following:
- Pineapple soufflé
- "Mara des Bois" strawberries with yoghurt mousse, elderflower jelly and srtawberry sorbet
- Dark chocolate and cherry tart
- Millefeuille of vanilla poached pear, ginger cream brulee with basil ice cream
Here, the pineapple soufflé and the poached pear were instant hits, with the basil ice-cream going well with everything on the plate (although, given the one-plate aspect, that was rather unavoidable as the ice cream melted). In general, we loved the idea of the sweet pichounettes particularly. There often aren't enough late night dessert options on a bar's menu, and we'd really like to see more of a dessert bar culture springing up in London.
And to go with this?
We had to try Angelus' new house champagne, which went particularly well with the wide variety of food on offer. The owner of Angelus Thierry Thomasin has had a long career as a Sommelier and has used his best contacts to source the Angelium champagne, a fruity blanc de noirs. As our sommelier told us - the pichounettes are always changing so the drink that matches best with them is champagne!
Closing thoughts?
While there's an inevitable fight over the pichounettes if you're sharing, it's an inventive way to present bar food and helps a prospective punter see what a restaurant's kitchen can achieve. It's definitely worked in our case - the area around Paddington isn't blessed with many fine restaurants, so we're certainly aiming to return.
Angelus - 4 Bathurst Street, London W2 2DS
Find out more about Angelus
