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When I was a little girl, I used to watch Masterchef with my Daddyo on the TV, and I used to say to him that the food critics and judges are the luckiest people in the world as they get to eat food for a living. I still wholeheartedly agree with that statement and Grace Dent will forever be a queen in my eyes!
Now I have done big influencer events before where lots of us are invited to a restaurant to try out their new menu or perhaps attend their grand opening, but I have never been individually invited anywhere before until now... (Daddyo, I've made it!)
(not my photo, found on Google!)
The Angel Bar & Kitchen in Totnes, Devon, sent me a message asking if I wanted to come along and try some of their food! They explained that they are 3 local women who couldn’t find anywhere they wanted to go so they built it themselves. They said they have a wonderful chef who makes the most fantastic sharing plates which I also found rather intriguing. I hadn’t even looked at their menu at this point, but I knew I wanted to go and support these women.
After a lot of friendly chatting, we agreed on a date to visit, and my very lucky husband was going to accompany me and share their delicious food!
On the way there I started to get really nervous! I have been honest about food I’ve eaten before and that means me saying where I personally find failings in the menu, taste, pricing and ambience and I endeavour to continue my gentle honesty, but I really didn't want to find myself having to do that!
Well spoiler alert, I needn't have worried at all!! First of all, we had a 6:30 reservation on a Wednesday and the place was already alive and buzzing! An excellent start I thought! We were quite literally welcomed with open arms and taken to their very cosy ‘red dining area’. There were 3 ladies already there enjoying a few plates and cocktails and a larger table of 6 also with plenty of drinks and a few plates enjoying a birthday get together. The place had such a happy buzz about it, and we were very excited (and hungry) to try some food!
We started off with some cocktails ourselves, my husband had an Amaretto Sour and I opted for a non alcoholic Elderflower Fling. Both were delicious.
Now on to the food! Their menu changes weekly which we found rather exciting, and I’ll pop a photo below showing you their menu for that week and I hope you notice and appreciate how ‘red’ this room really was and how my food photos also will be looking a little red too! (That is by no means a critique unless, like me, you’re trying to get some really nice photos of your food!)
Our choices were as follows:
Flatbread, Olive Oil, Dukka - £5.15
Roasted Pepper Hummus - £5.95
Crispy Crushed New Potatoes, Marmite Aioli - £6.95
Piri Piri Prawns - £18.00
Char Roasted Aubergine, Tahini, Mint Yogurt, Pickled Sultanas - £13.90
Lavender Panna Cotta - £7.90
Now I had to check with the waitress that the hummus doesn’t already come with bread as we didn’t want to carb load and get too full to which she advised it does not so we ordered the flatbreads too so we could dunk into the hummus. I did at this point question to myself if £11 was a bit expensive for some hummus and flatbread but honestly, one mouthful of this absolute HEAVEN, the price wasn’teven a consideration! My husband and I looked at each other and declared that we were in for such a good night!
The dishes came out in the order they happened to be cooked/leave the kitchen and we were fine with that. The next mouthwatering dishes to arrive were the crispy potatoes and the aubergine (followed by a bowl of pickled sultanas as chef forgot to add them to the dish, this is important for later)
We first tucked into a potato each and honestly again we just looked at each other with happily nodding heads as we enjoyed the crispy, fluffy potatoes in the tangy marmite aioli. Our next mouthful was the aubergine. We took a mouthful, and it was delicious but definitely missing something... the pickled sultanas! We quickly added them on to the dish and went in for a second taste and I feel almost so pretentious saying this but what an accomplished dish this now was. It was perfect. My husband is the biggest carnivore known to man and I was fascinated watching him devour this in an almost ungentlemanly (sorry babe) way definitely eating bits from ‘my side’ of the plate but I totally understood the need to be selfish here, this was an excellent and faultless dish!
Next, we had the piri piri prawns. Big juicy prawns in a really rich and tangy sauce. Deveined which we appreciated and with their heads and tails on so I could suck out all the juices in the most unladylike fashion. Thank goodness for the provided hand washing bowl and the amazing napkins which seemed to be able to hold an outstanding amount of moisture and food debris and not show any sign of weakness!
At this point we really wanted to order some more flatbreads so we could mop up all the remaining juices and sauces left on our plates but at this point my pregnancy was making me feel like that would be a bad idea and my husband who wore jeans and a belt (amateur) was starting to look a little uncomfortable in this chair so we opted to share a dessert instead.
We are both quite well fed and non-fussy eaters but neither of us have ever eaten anything with lavender in it before so we opted with a lavender panna cotta and honestly it again was perfect. The best way to possibly end a meal. Light and fragrant and just enough for 2 people to enjoy at the end of a lovely meal together.
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In conclusion, you really need to visit here. Be brave and order something on the menu you aren't sure about (this was the aubergine for us) and enjoy every mouthful of what this wonderful restaurant has to offer!
p.s - I’ve added a screenshot of our conversation we had the following day as I thought it might give you a giggle!
And as promised, here is their Sunday Lunch Menu too! xx
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