Angelina’s
Address: 55 Percy Place, Dublin 4 D04 XOC1
Telephone: 01 660 2262
Cuisine: Modern International
Website: https://angelinas.ie/Opens in new window
Cost: €€€
I kept my distance from Angelina’s when it was owned by the Press Up group. Press Up did decor made for Instagram stories, expensive cocktails and swings for that perfect selfie. The food was secondary – competent yes, but the restaurant equivalent of lift music.
It now belongs to something called Eclective – pure week-one of The Apprentice, a team name scrawled on a flip chart by the boys, which has Lord Sugar wondering aloud if anyone can spell as he delivers a double firing. The website dribbles on about “hospitality innovators” and “celebrating culture and people” – froth straight from a marketing intern after three oat-milk flat whites.
Behind the noise is Cheyne Capital, a London fund that last year took control in a debt-for-equity swap, hoovering up Angelina’s, Doolally, Mama Yo and a string of bars. My first brush with this group was Kaldero, proof, if any were needed, that Eclective – in true Apprentice-style – hadn’t a clue how to run restaurants. It was launched with a line-up of celebrity chefs – on the website but not in the kitchen – and a menu written for Instagram, not the discerning diner.
It bombed, of course. Since then Eclective has had to beat a retreat, bolting Richie Castillo into place full-time and letting him actually cook, which by all accounts has turned things around. And now Angelina’s is its second go at showing how it intends to take food seriously, with Daniel Hannigan – a chef of real ability from Orwell Road – installed as “executive” chef, which sounds like his new job might have a broader role than just this operation.
Hannigan puts his stamp firmly on the menu of seven starters and nine mains with some of his signature dishes – crab flatbread and grilled fish in a chicken sauce. The original Angelina’s pizza menu is still in place, the waft of truffle oil on the mushroom pizza invading my personal space.
We’re at a marble table on the terrace – the bit that sells Angelina’s – which runs along the Grand Canal with a view up to the bridge, the evening sun breaking across the water. The Vert Imperial Picpoul (€43) arrives with a punchy mark-up from a wine list that reads less like the work of a sommelier and more like an accountant enjoying economies of scale.
Our first starter, the crab flatbread (€18.50) is a hefty, charred slab, its surface lacquered with romesco. On top sit curls of marinated pepper with three heaped piles of crab from the northeast Atlantic. It’s substantial and is definitely something you would want to share.
Three scallops (€19), burnished from the barbecue, sit in dashi beurre blanc with tiny peas. A thin slice of Iberico ham lies across the dish, just enough salt and chew. There’s no spoon, so the flatbread is pressed into service, and soon there’s nothing left but the smear of green oil across the plate.
The halibut (€34), from waters between Scotland, the Faroes and Shetland, comes as a thick centre cut. It is golden on top, flaky but still moist and sits on a creamy celeriac purée with curls of courgette and chunks of charred celeriac. The chicken sauce is rich and buttery, split with a herb oil – lovage, perhaps – to keep it in check.
Chef Daniel Hannigan at work in Angelina’s 
Crab flatbread, romesco and marinated red pepper 
Roast halibut with chicken butter sauce and celeriac 
Angelina’s 
Interior at Angelina’s
The lobster garganelli (€36) sits in a bisque that avoids the usual trap of overextraction and muddiness. It’s butter-heavy, a touch sweet and could use a squeeze of acidity. The Irish lobster itself is nicely cooked and there’s enough of it cut into proper chunks to carry the pasta. Peas, samphire and chervil lift the dish with freshness.
Too full for Basque cheesecake and unwilling to order sticky toffee in August from an uninspired dessert list – no figleaf ice cream, no spark of creativity – we opt for the vanilla sundae (€10.50). The menu promises toffee sauce, brownie and raspberry, but it’s pretty pedestrian, scraping one scoop out of 10 on my sundae scale.
Hannigan’s input can be felt, with a change of menu and sauces that show a chef in charge. Some plates need polish, but the best are better than anything this address has seen before. The terrace is the ace card, one of Dublin’s loveliest places to eat, and the prices reflect it – edging into special-occasion territory. Yet it also works the other way: a neighbourhood stop for pizza and a glass of wine. For once, Angelina’s is a restaurant – but the spreadsheets still show in the imported fish, the battery chicken and the wine picked for margin, not pleasure.
Dinner for two with a bottle of wine was €160.85.
The verdict: Daniel Hannigan’s arrival brings proper cooking to this former Press Up restaurant.
Food provenance: Beef from McLoughlin’s Butchers and chicken (not free-range), crab from East Coast Seafoods, Co Down, fish from Nick’s Fish, vegetables from Keelings.
Vegetarian options: Burrata, sunchoke tostada, cauliflower cheese, grilled courgette, gnocchi and pizzas.
Wheelchair access: Fully accessible with an accessible toilet.
Music: Barely audible on the terrace.