Review: Anglo, Holborn

Meh.

Shortest review ever! To be fair, there’s a bit of a clash of expectation vs reality here, as people have written lots of gushing and nice things about Anglo. So I was expecting special. What I got was a by-the-numbers 6 course tasting menu with some fairly clunky flavours and cooking in parts. Hence, meh.

It’s a small dining room tucked in a corner of the city and I imagine great for the higher end of business lunches. The decor is urban hipster. Wines by the glass were good. The initial snack of a slowly roasted artichoke half topped with lemon cream was absolutely divine, amazing earthy flavour and a sticky almost date-like chewiness. If I’d been given a dozen more of these we’d be having a very different review.

Pureed parsnip with nuggets of blue cheese and apple was a pleasant starter, with really good sweetly autumnal flavour in the parsnip. The fish course was a piece of halibut, nicely crispy on one side but overcooked to Dulux pure brilliant white within. The creamed leeks were… fine… and the smoked mussel sauce didn’t pack a lot of oomph.

By contrast, the smoked truffle mayo with the lamb was a very powerful. I’m not sure smoke and truffle really need to be made to do battle like that? Anyway, well cooked cannon of lamb but not particularly flavourful meat. The wild mushrooms definitely were wild varieties, so top marks there (pet hate: restaurants who claim wild mushrooms and it’s clearly cultivated oysters and chestnut).

The savoury of malt loaf, sticky shallots and a nicely yeasty rarebit was an excellent snack, a top notch bit of inspiration. I’m off home to buy some Soreen and a jar of caramelised onions.

First pud was a rather sturdy pannacotta with clementine and hazelnut. Both Christmas things but not brilliant in the same mouthful. And the pannacotta hadn’t anything very creamy about it. The main pudding was a dark and friendly chocolate mousse, slightly bitter chocolate crunchy bits (that’s a technical term) and a buttermilk ice cream. Lovely fresh and slightly sour taste to the ice cream but… well, I’m sure the freshness is there to “balance” the richness but I thought it fought with the richness instead. It’s chocolate. Just enjoy it.

At £50 for the menu before drinks, it’s hardly claiming to be the very top end. And if you’re not a massive foodie who eats out all the time then you’ll have a lovely meal here. But if you like to scour London for the best dining and your budget isn’t infinite, then you might find Anglo to be a wasted opportunity.