Jolene Newington Green

Cozy atmosphere. Very friendly staff who take her time to explain the menu, and always come to check on us with big smile. Food was good, enjoyed the mushroom risotto and the pumpkin thingy (forgot the name sorry) which the pumpkin was richly marinated. However, the pastry is still the best. Got myself some when I left. The Apple crumble Danish was heavenly good even reheat it when I got home. The layers and rich of texture, is something I’d missed from time to time. The pear turnover was good too!

Some of the best Italian food I’ve had in London and in such a beautiful setting. We had such a hard time choosing dishes as the entire menu was excellent. Every pasta dish was fresh and flavoursome, and the chocolate ganache was the perfect end. Our waitress was incredibly friendly and helpful, returning the cider that my Dad wasn’t keen on, insisting she wanted him to enjoy his drink. The restaurant host also moved us from bar seating to table seating so I was more comfortable, even though I’d knowingly booked the bar. So impressed and wish I’d come sooner! Will definitely be back!

What a neighborhood gem! The food was fantastic! Every plate we ordered was unique and the chilled wine was paired finely! The staff is very attentive and friendly. The atmosphere of the restaurant is also great!

I don’t live anywhere near, but Jolene is worth the trip. The seasonal small plates are inventive and beautifully prepared, with fresh flavours and a relaxed, unpretentious atmosphere. Staff are warm and knowledgeable, making it feel like a neighbourhood gem you’re lucky to stumble upon.

+6

My friend brought me here when I visited England for the first time back in April and hands down had the best meal of my life here. It was 100% worth the money and I wish I could eat here every week. We had the sage butter ravioli which was an absolute treat I think about it all the time to this day. We also LOVED the salad and the butter lettuce was genuinely the best lettuce I have had in my life somehow. I loved it all!

Went for a Sunday lunch and we absolute had a good time. It was such a lovely vibe! We enjoyed the bread especially with the cheese dishes as our starter and liked the pastas too

My favorite laid back yet elegant atmosphere for dinner with special people. Seasonal small plates selection. Get the bread and butter to start with, the simplicity of the nuttines and chewiness combined with the creamy whipped butter just blew our minds. The duck ragu was another highlight. Negronis and wine selection (sometimes they collab with independent owners) are phenomenal. One of my favorite dinner places in London whenever I’m looking for a long, chilled night with good food and conversation.

+1

We had such a fantastic dinner here at Jolene. Marcelo and the kitchen team prepared wonderful meals for us and extended warm friendship and appreciation. Each dish was tastefully prepared, clean and not overdone or overworked. I really enjoyed my Tagletelli Ragu. Our wine selection,a very drinkable Sicilian vintage 2017 and dessert rounded out a perfect meal. I liked seeing our name written on the table top confirming our reservation. The atmosphere and open kitchen just added to a perfect dining experience. We will return on our next visit to London.

Great Coffee! Staff was super friendly and service was great! We loved the relaxing vibe inside. It is a bakery before 12 and both a restaurant and bakery after 12. Not sure if the fact that it was a Sunday, but most of their bakes are already gone by 12! Their menu changes everyday so you will always be surprised! They use flour within 18 hours of milling which helps retaining nutrients of the bakes. Such a sweet move. Will come back again!

One of my favorite restaurants in London. They have a rotating menu and everything they make is so fresh and flavor. I never have a bad experience coming. I do wish they sold their focaccia to-go because it’s life changing!!

such a lovely and romantic ambience at Jolene. From the moment you walk in you’re greeted with a warm environment and equally warm wait staff. The food speaks for itself, each dish full of flavour and complementing the next. If I remember correctly the menu changes daily, so if you go more than once you’ll be in for a treat. We had a range of share plates and even shared the mains - meaning we got to try more. Staff were super friendly and lovely, and even went out of their way to celebrate my birthday. Overall a heartwarming and lovely experience.

The staff is incredibly friendly, patiently explaining today's menu and recommending delightful dishes. The Foccacia is unbelievably soft and delicious, currently my favorite in London. The menu changes frequently, always surprising and leaving one eagerly anticipating the next visit. It's truly fortunate to have this restaurant in London.

The food is absolutely amazing, you can’t choose wrong. The staff was lovely, my only comment is that the bill is very expensive. Small plates are charged as if they were mains and they aren’t really big portions. We paid almost 80£ for 2 persona, with only sharing 3 plates and 1 dessert. Definitely a must try but not to have every weekend!

Loved the vibe and atmosphere of this restaurant! For lunch I got the pear & Gorgonzola salad which I didn’t expect to love but it was so good! The pairing of the pears, cheese, & sauce was heavenly. For my main I got the tagliatelle with pork and it was very tasty and not very filling, which I liked. The menu changes everyday so I’d love to come back and try their dinner menu.

Returned after two years to Jolene for a lovely valentines meal! Amazing ambience and atmosphere, speedy service and amazing food (would probably have the bread as part of my death row meal). Josh was an amazing server, and with a constantly changing menu, each time you go will be different from the last couldn’t recommend enough!

Staff was super friendly and service was great! We loved the relaxing vibe inside. It is a bakery before 12 and both a restaurant and bakery after 12. Not sure if the fact that it was a Sunday, but most of their bakes are already gone by 12! Their menu changes everyday so you will always be surprised! They use flour within 18 hours of milling which helps retaining nutrients of the bakes. We ordered focaccia and it was FRESH - soft, warm, chewy, lightly seasoned with seasalt. Would also recommend the mutton chops which were perfectly cooked and almonds were slight toasted served with the sweet and sour mint sauce! You can also order coffee/tea to go! Such a sweet move. Will come back again!

Get a cookie or pain Suisse, and a coffee to go and enjoy the Sun in Newington Green. There’s usually a small queue but it moves very fast.

Jolene has been on my to-do list since forever, and I finally managed to book and go today for lunch ! I’m so happy I crossed London to come over here. The food, the atmosphere, the service, everything was smooth, classy, cool. I had a very good meal, a competent, warm, and friendly waitress, ready to help, giving great advise, and answering all my questions about the wine and the food. Now, the food : I had boquerones, coppa, clams with orzo and datterini tomatoes, plus mezze maniche with nduja and mint. This was accompanied by 2 glasses of Vermentino and 1 glass of a Sicilian, skin contact rosato. I ended the meal with a Bakewell tart, homemade. All of it was delicious! I will definitely come back to sample the rest of the menu! Thank you guys, you were all amazing!

😍😍😍I had lunch at that exceptional place that I absolutely must share about. Everything was simply excellent. The meal started with a delicious goat curd accompanied by fresh peas, a combination of flavors that was both subtle and savory. Next, the tagliatelle with ragù, cooked to perfection – al dente – were an absolute delight. Every bite was pure pleasure. To top off this feast, I enjoyed a rich and smooth chocolate ganache, which perfectly concluded this memorable meal. The service was efficient and very friendly, adding to the pleasant atmosphere of the place. I highly recommend this bistro and I will definitely be returning soon.

Had a great time at Jolene! The food and drinks were delicious, and the service was amazing. I also really liked the idea of having the menu on a big board that changes regularly, it keeps things fresh and interesting. I had my dog with me and the staff were super nice and welcoming about it. Definitely recommend!

Small little gem. The parties are consistently amazing, as is the coffee. If you want a super high quality bakery - this is the spot. The atmosphere is great, and staff are always super lovely.

Very lovely restaurant. The atmosphere was perfect for an evening dinner, and love the fact that they change the menu everyday. The food was VERY tasty and we even asked for allergies and received a handmade version of the menu with what was allowed with that allergy. Good price/quality. Best trout I’ve ever had! Only downside was that the service was only 4/5⭐️ as they were confused about table numbers and kept coming with orders for other tables but everyone was very lovely.

+1

Gorgeous and cozy place. Lovely staff. Very attentive. Starters were amazing. We had the truffle scallop and peach/tomato salad. The salad was incredible. The mains were also very good but a bit forgettable. We had the pork saffron tagliatelle and the Dover sole. Dessert was incredible and well thought out. Both the berries diplomat and blood peach soft serve. Drinks menu was nice and had a gorgeous selection. The strawberry rhubarb mocktail was so good. Will definitely come again but probably only for a lot of small plates! Think the food would’ve been a five if we opted for all starters, considering skipping the mains!

A strong choice if you're looking for a buzzy venue for a chatty dinner. The food is inventive, stylish and light. The team is friendly and attentive. It will nevertheless be an expensive dinner - the food is so light that you have to order a lot to avoid going away hungry. It's also extremely loud due to the dense seating and hard surfaces.

Went here for a dinner date w my bf! The atmosphere was super cosy and candle lit which is my fave. We wanted a light dinner so we ordered a couple of small plates to share. We loved the risotto they had on the menu that evening. Best risotto I’ve had in a while. The only issue I’d say is the tables are quite cramped so not all our plates could fit onto it. Other than that loved Jolene. Also great spot for a girls night.

£8.5 for a sandwich and around £4 for a sausage roll. Flat white £3.9 each. Quite a large portion and tasty which sort of justified the price. (Still quite pricey but kind of reasonable if that's in London) Aubergine parmigiana (sandwich) perfectly matched the tomato source+cheese; Ham sandwich nicely paired with cheese, thin slides of gherkins and mustard mayo; The sausage roll has crispy layers, filling reasonably favoured. But in general kind of oily but guess this is due to the butter used for the layer. Note that there's only takeaway after 10:30am. Do expect there'll be a short queue but waiting time is less than 10min. In general, I will say yes I will come back if I'm around/ driving nearby.

Nice spot to have coffee and pastries. Haven't tried the lunchtime but it is probably good. The sausage roll is my favourite. This time our coffees weren't as good as the Jolene in Finsbury. They were almost half a cup :( I blame the weather. Definitely will give it a try if you haven't been.

Loved the ambience of the place. Went there for dinner, lovely spot for a date night. We ordered a few dishes including the focaccia bread, mushroom pasta, and my two favourites; a steak and anchovy dish and the broccoli labneh appetizer. The portions were good and the flavours were amazing but felt like the dishes were a hit or miss - some were delicious while others were not really worth the value for money. Staff were very helpful though and we told them about our dietary restrictions and they recommended delicious options!

Recently we tried this popular restaurant. We ordered bread n butter, cod, pasta, mocha and white wine. The pasta was little bit salty, others were amazing. The staff’s were very nice and friendly.

I guess we had high expectations for Jolene. The food was OK, location not in central London, service is so so making the whole experience very expensive considering the bill. Portions are large so 4 dishes should be good for 2 people. We ordered 6 based on suggestion which was a bit too much. There’s a wide variety of wines that you can choose from which are good but I would suggest cocktails.

- focaccia £3 - courgette fritti £8.50 - profiteroles £9 - pork ragu tagliatelle £15 - king prawn spaghetti £15 - ricotta gnocchi £15 to start, we got their famous focaccia and it absolutely lived up to the hype! for only £3, you get three big slices and it was genuinely some of the fluffiest bread ive ever had; it had a salty and olive oil flavour without being overly greasy. courgette fritti on its own does tend to be quite bland but when paired with the intense pepper flavour of their ‘good-good’ sauce, it was a winner! our fave pasta was the king prawn spaghetti bc of the fresh prawns and the nice kick of chilli. the other two were also nice but just didn’t wow us. we were told to share them but we found the portions were very small (esp at £15 each) as, between the 3 of us, we just about had 2 bites each. their coffee and chocolate profiteroles were the perfect end to our meal; it had richness from the coffee cream and chocolate ganache but the pastry itself was very light so, as a whole, it wasn’t too heavy. whilst the food was delicious, what won our hearts was the cosy yet sophisticated ambiance of the place! it really is a lovely escape from the fast-paced busy city. i would return bc their daily changing menu means there’s always something new but because (for me at least) it’s quite far out and a lil pricey, it’d have to be for an occasion :’)

Have been meaning to go for a while now. Could not get reservations forever but finally got some very last minute which I was excited about. Commuted 50 minutes. It was a £50 cancellation fee per person. A bit of a let down when it came to the restaurant. I enjoyed the atmosphere of the place. The food wasn’t the best ☹️We started off with only a couple of dishes to see how to go from there. The way the dishes are presented is odd. Apparently every meal ordered is a sharing meal, so they give you small plates depending on how many people you are and only present one dish at a time. We were a group of 4. Off the menu, there are 14 dishes. We were told that usually a group our size orders from 8-16 dishes (assuming you order two of some things) which was a bit overwhelming considering the price points of these dishes and the portions presented. ( Please keep in mind I am constantly reviewing restaurants of different price ranges and evaluating based on what I truly think is worth the cost. This is not a trait where I am being stingy lol) We ended up ordering two starters and three mains. They said we can order more once the food comes out. I guess that’s quite common. Bread and Butter was Great. The Aubergine was fine. Tiny portion considering its sharing. The best dish was the beef ragu but even then it was a bit too oily. I want to reiterate that these portions are very small. I understand that may be why you should order 8-16 dishes but that just seems greedy lol. The Gnocchi was served as flat squares. When asked about the shape, it’s apparently sometimes done that way? Not an issue but found a bit odd. And the sauce on the gnocchi was very bland. We also got the Cod but it was sat on top of green beans cooked in a sort of tomato sauce. Odd combination. The cod was VERY bland. I truly truly did want to like this restaurant but it was disappointing. It was also where I chose to take my cousin who came from abroad so I just had higher expectations. I think I will be back for the bakery opening times because I’ve heard great things.

+3

The establishment features a daily changing blackboard menu with sharing plates, with house-made pasta being a highlight. It seems like Jolene’s branding and concept might be a bit ambiguous — whether it’s aiming for a bistro-style experience or a more Italian-focused menu — as I found the pasta there not even close to impressive. Overall speaking, food was just fine. It’s also disappointing when service was mid, especially when a restaurant has a strong reputation. And the no-cakes-for-photos rule sounds unnecessarily strict, which can be frustrating for diners who want to capture their experience. 🍳Burrata & new season olive oil 🥔Fennel, potato, labneh, and cold ocean 🐖Fritelle and pork ragu ✉️Ricotta and spinach ravioli, sage and almonds 🦆Sedani rigati, duck and porcini 🍝Spaghetti, anchovy, puttanesca

+2

The food at the restauant might be great, but all I've had is a sausage roll and coffe, I might update this if I ever go back but that was honeslty the most underwhelming and tasteless sausage roll I've had in my entire life, both in taste and texture. It surprised me because it's something that many places manage to do well even if it's not their specialty, but this wasn't even close to good.

I want to love this as I live really closely nearby, but both times I’ve been it’s been just okay. Menu on the blackboard is a bit of a pain, especially as the light can make it hard to read, means you need to take a photo of the board to order from your table. I like the counter seating, and the wine selection, although, wines come in at a high price point, drinks are expensive in general. Both times I’ve been we’ve had to complain about the saltiness of pasta dishes. I love salt, but on two different occasions they’ve been honestly inedible. The most recent visit, this issue was resolved quickly and i was also gifted a slice of cheesecake for my birthday celebrations which was good touch. Like I said, want to love it, but 2/2 times have left me feeling a bit disappointed.

+2

Have heard tons of good reviews about this place and was excited to try their goods out! I ordered the regular croissant, ham and cheese croissant and the sausage roll. The ham/cheese was our favourite, as the cheese really elevated the taste. However, the overall pastry lacks a buttery fragrance and has quite a flat taste. The coffee is normal but the staff service is very good. Do keep in mind that cafe seating is limited and mostly outdoors.

We had coffee and pastries here coffee was good and their pastries where delicious one of the best I’ve had in London, fluffy light and not greasy at all. We had some cakes , cookies and bread for takeaway, cakes were really delicious, bread and cookies were average. The only reason I’m giving it 3 stars is because of the customer service. As I witnessed staff were very friendly and nice with other customers that wasn’t same for us maybe we don’t meet their criteria 🤔 and maybe that’s why they weren’t interested at all. When we tried to pick up few things for takeaway we were rushed which I really didn’t like specially for the food prices I expected better service. If it was for food only I will give it five stars. The lunch menu looks tempting but as the customer service was poor I don’t think I will go back to try it.

The place is beautiful and very well curated. The staff was super friendly as well. The food however lacked dimension and flavour. Was super disappointed with the risotto (only tasted like oregano) and gnocchi

Overrated. There’s no space for bakery but only for the restaurant. They don’t even allow you to sit at the bar for a coffee. Had a long black and pistachio chocolate cookie. Both underwhelming. The coffee was okay-ish, nothing special. The cookie felt like something from the supermarket, maybe a Tesco quality not a Waitrose. Sad.

I was really disappointed with this restaurant, especially given how long it had been on my list to try. After hearing so much hype and seeing how popular it is, I genuinely don’t understand the appeal. The lunch concept is small plates, which is absolutely fine in principle — but the portions were tiny and the ingredients were incredibly basic. We’re talking very simple, everyday ingredients presented nicely, but nothing that justified the price. Charging close to £20 for such small plates felt excessive and completely out of proportion to what was actually on the table. I don’t mind paying for quality or creativity, but this felt like style over substance. The lunch menu was also surprisingly small, so there wasn’t much choice. Instead of feeling carefully curated, it just felt limited. On top of that, the plates themselves weren’t particularly nice. The dishes also didn’t feel cohesive at all — the small plates seemed very random and didn’t complement each other. Rather than building into an enjoyable meal, it felt disjointed, and overall the food just didn’t taste that good. To be fair, the service was excellent. The staff were friendly, attentive, and professional throughout. However, good service alone can’t make up for feeling underwhelmed and overcharged. I also wasn’t keen on the fact that bank details were required to secure the booking. It made us feel like we had to stay regardless, which added to the frustration once we realised the meal wasn’t living up to expectations. Overall, it simply wasn’t worth the money and definitely not worth the hype. I left feeling disappointed and confused by its popularity. Sadly, I won’t be returning.

Maybe its just not for me, but I don't 'get' it. Are we all being conned into paying double the price for half the food and thinking its some cool trend? When did bad value and chalkboards become so desirable? If you are going to serve pasta, just be generous with it. It's pasta. Bread and butter is great, but it can not and should not ever cost 4.50 for a few slices. 11 quid for a slice of cheese and a poppadom is saying the quiet bit out loud. Service was outstanding, setting was beautiful.

very overpriced for odd combinations of food. we ordered all the recommendations from the staff and was very disappointed with everything. Left hungry and horrible taste palettes. The mushroom dish was essentially two spoonful of mushroom w four slices of spec for £16. The cured grey mullet that was highly recommended by the staff was a really weird combination, extremely fishy taste and the macha does not fair well with it at all. The only dish that didn’t disappoint is really the bread and butter. Overall not worth the visit. You can probably get a Michelin meal with the same amount of money for the horrible food here