Roast Restaurant (London)

This post should have been right after my Borough Market post but I was too excited about the picnic @ Greenwich post that I had it jump the queue! Anyhow, after my pre-lunch at Monmouth Coffee, we headed over to Roast Restaurant located right in the Borough Market. The decor / atmosphere was rather contemporary compared with the environment of the Borough Market. It was nice but a bit too fancy in a very humble marketplace in my opinion.



Everything was too ... clean. I mean the feeling of cleanness in such a market place resto was rather ... weird. By no means was it bad just not very fitting. The bread was fair, not very exciting but the butter was quite a pleasant surprise; very buttery in flavors, thumbs up!

C ordered the Griddled Scallops with pumpkin sauce if I recall correctly. Not only were the scallops huge in size, they were very fresh indeed! Six huge pieces as starters only can be treated as main for those on a diet I suppose? The pumpkin sauce was flavorful yet very refreshing in way that you would now want to leave any behind! 

Quite a simple dish I would say, the Corn Fed Duck Breast was fair. Strong game flavor but well balanced if you eat with the blackberries ad sour cream. 

Now, the Boar Sausage Scotch Egg was heaven, to me at least. Slightly peppery sausage with perfectly cooked egg (with yolk cooked just right!). The combination of both provided contrasting textures and flavors as well. Two thumbs up! 

Pretty and yummy! Enough said! The Potted Salt Beef (starters) was very simple yet makes you want more. From the look of it, I was expecting it to be quite strong in flavor, very intense type sensation but it turned out to be quite ... refreshing. The shredded beef was chewy yet I just wanted more! My brother took a few spoonfuls while I was trying to "steal" my mom's Boar Sausage Scotch Egg! 

My mom ordered the Whole Roast Suffolk Lamb as main. Very soft and tender but rather salty in my opinion. It was a special item for that day but for GBP 22, should have ordered something else! 

My dad is not a heavy meat eater so I picked Beer Battered Dorset Haddock with chips for him as main. Wow, quite large indeed but it was very good. The batter was not overly thick with the freshness and sweetness of the fish remained there. There was a hint of honey when I tasted a small piece which I think was a very nice touch (if that was honey I tasted).

My brother ordered the Roasted Free Range Goodbargh Chicken but I have no idea how it tasted because I was too busy with trying all the others that there were nothing left when I finished with the pictures and tastings of other items! Argh! I forgive him because it was the first or perhaps second meal that I had with him ever since I started blogging. Please remember next time my dear brother, you can always return while I need travel halfway around the globe! haha ... 

I have to admit that many Western ways of roasting or cooking pork with its skin are different from the Cantonese way of Roasted Suckling Pig. Instead of being dry and crisp, the Western approach would make the skin rather "chewy" and "gluey." Same applied to the Slow Roast Wicks Manor pork belly I ordered. Although my mom preferred the Cantonese way, I quite enjoyed the chewy yet gluey version as well. They are different cooking approaches which one should appreciate with an open mind. In addition to the wonderful chewy skin, the pork belly itself was rather dry and Bramley Apple sauce was overly sour for my likely! :( 

Likes: 

• Potted Salt Beef - just the right balance of flavors, made me want more! 
• Boar Sausage Scotch Egg - did I mention how I enjoyed it so much? Peppery yet "egg-y"?? Thumbs up! 

Dislikes:

• Slow Roast Wicks Manor pork belly - quite a heavy dish with dry meat and overly sour apple sauce. The sour flavor overtook the meat flavors. 

Avg Spending: Around GBP 30.00 per person



Roast Restaurant (London)
The Floral Hall,
Stoney Street,
London,
SE1 1TL
Tel: +44 0845 034 7300
http://www.roast-restaurant.com/


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