Nottingdale cafe review

Charles Dickens once wrote that Notting Dale was “a plague spot, scarcely equalled for its insalubrity by any other in London”.
Jackie Annesley5 March 2012

Known as the Potteries and Piggeries, the mid-19th century saw it inhabited by Romany gypsies who crowded into this once boggy marsh. Today their ancestors reside nearby under the Westway and have become TV stars, leaving the dale to be invaded by the denizens of Planets Pop and Fashion.

Stella McCartney is rumoured to be the latest to move into this area around Latimer Road Tube station. But you won’t find any lost W11 tourists searching for the Travel Bookshop here.

Its culinary heart is the Nottingdale Café, basically the canteen for Talk Talk’s head office, where you’re more likely to spot photographer Mario Testino — his studio is directly opposite — or the Chrysalis Records crew, or Cath Kidston, whose office is around the corner, or the fashionistas from the adjacent Monsoon building.

So it’s a staff canteen, Jim, but not as we know it.

Head chef Harry Hensman, 33, emphasises locally sourced fresh ingredients. There are daily specials, fresh pizzas and a counter full of salads. Very River Café lite. The Gruyère cheese and mushroom pizza was both crisp and oozing (£7), the roasted fennel and tomato made perfect salad bedmates (£8 for a mixed plate), and our tempura plaice with “jenga” chips (£9) came with a pea purée so light I could have eaten a whole bowl.

But the best came last, a new season alphonso mango (£3) simply peeled, its marigold-coloured silky flesh artfully piled on a white plate like a decontructivist Frank Gehry building. Small and sweet and interesting, just like the Nottingdale. Mr Dickens would be amazed.

* Nottingdale 4/5

11 Evesham Street, W11. Open Mon-Fri 7am-6pm (020 7221 2223, nottingdale.com).

About £50 for three courses for two without wine.

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