Today I went with my partner to this restaurant located just under Guildhall.
After a short walk from Moorgate Underground along the beautiful Mason’s Avenue, a bustling little food/pub avenue in pre-corona workdays, now quiet on a cloudy Sunday evening.
The restaurant is located in a basement but that doesn’t affect the vibe of the place, it is dimly lit in the entrance using candles for a lovely ambience. My coat was taken from me upon entrance, setting the scene for a classy meal.
The actual restaurant is well lit, the space was clearly once a cellar or storage basement, with a relatively low roof and very expansive size. We were seated on a table for two, facing one another with a lit candle on the table.
The menu was fairly short which is usually a good sign for a higher end restaurant, this particular restaurant specialised in meats/BBQ but is regarded as one of the best places in London for a Sunday roast, which was the only reason we chose to eat here. My partner hadn’t ever tried Sunday roast and I intended to introduce her to one in the best way I could.
We ordered the only roast option on the menu, at £23 each, quite on the expensive side for a roast, especially given my experience living in the North of the UK. I would typically expect to spend £12-£16, but have no problem provided the price is justified.
It was unlike any roast that I have had before, an attempt at a fancier roast – in my opinion a successful one. I would like to discuss each component of the meal.
Pictured in the left you can see a roasted half of a shallot with peel still on, and a full head of garlic, with the top chopped off, also roasted. Typically I am not a fan of inedible food on a plate – I feel that it adds inconvenience to a meal and risk eating something inedible, with the requirement to have a part of the place as a sort of refuse area. However, in this case I think it worked for the dishes favour in the case of the garlic. Each clove was a sort of flavour explosion that could be extracted with a knife and eaten with a forkful of other things. The peel being on behaved as a sort of moderator to this intense flavour, and was aesthetically pleasing. For the shallot, it was a similar case but not quite as affective due to the milder flavor of the shallot. I personally peeled pieces of the shallot away and had them with a few bites to infuse the flavour of onion into a mouthful, overall pleasant.
Regarding the carrots and cabbage, the only vegetables on the plate. I personally prefer some more vegetables on my plate – I don’t know the etiquette around Sunday roasts, but I enjoy broccoli, swede, mashed potato, peas, and cauliflower cheese (does this count?) on a roast too. The cabbage was unremarkable, it was not bad, but it’s hard to make remarkable boiled cabbage. The carrots had a slight char to them which was tasty, and a surprising sweetness too. They were a good accompaniment to any other mouthful on the plate.
The roast potatoes were remarkable, with a great crisped exterior and a rich fluffy interior, it was clear they had been cooked in meat fats too, having been imbued with a delicious beefy aftertaste.
The Yorkshire pudding was similar to the cabbage – I think it is hard to make a remarkable Yorkshire pudding, but I have no complaints with it, it was a nice size with a satisfying crispy texture but soft interior. I personally enjoy mine slightly less well cooked but it was fine for me.
Finally, the beef was perfectly cooked for roast beef. It was identical to the picture with a lovely pink interior and a nice blackened crispy exterior, it had no cartilage, but did have a delicious fatty layer to it which had a strong tasty beef flavour to it. We were also given a steak knife to help cut it. Essential for meat such as this.
There were two accompaniments, one of which was a regular, rather mild horseradish. The other was a “bone meal gravy”, I didn’t find the gravy remarkable. I prefer a thicker, fatter gravy but this one was fairly thin, but still tasty.
Naturally the greatest part of a Sunday roast is the culmination of all the ingredients in the mouth (something I helped demonstrate to my non-native partner, with a big forkful of various foodstuffs!). This dish was exceptional in this regard, I found great joy in combining different elements to make a unique and delicious flavour in my mouth. I found that roast potato providing some density and crisp, alongside some sweetness from the carrot, rich garlic flavour from part of a roasted clove, meatiness from the beef, and some horseradish to top it off with a bit of spice was an exceptional taste explosion in the mouth. Every bite was a treat for this reason and I ultimately ended up finishing the entire dish with an extremely full belly.
Overall I would rate the experience as a strong recommendation – the service was great, the place had a lovely cosy vibe and felt quite upmarket despite being relatively affordable. The food ingredients were all great quality and it felt like a lot of love had gone into the meal, with good presentation and portion size.
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