For the Love of...: ...Roast (London)

Overall - 8.5/10
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Food - 9/10
Service - 8/10
Ambiance 9/10

Whenever we find ourselves in a new city, the local open air markets are usually high on our priority list for places to visit. The flurry of activity, local delicacies and friendly faces are all a great way to get a sense of what a city has to offer. On our visit to Borough Market in London, as we were filling our stomachs with all sorts of food from fish and chips, to local cheeses to roasted pork sandwiches we found a small food stand affiliated with Roast. 

There we saw loads of mouth watering roasted cuts of meat including chickens, pork belly and scotch eggs. With such a mouth watering array of food, but our bellies already full; we vowed to return for lunch at the restaurant another day.

On our return we settled on the three course prix fixe lunch menu which was a great deal at £29. We started with scottish beef croquettes and a warm asparagus soup served along side potted shrimp on toast. The croquettes were light, crispy and fill of tender shredded beef while the soup tasted of the freshest asparagus likely straight from the market downstairs.

Our main courses included a house made pork sausage and a roasted chicken breast served with black pudding. The sausage was a touch on the dry side but full of the flavours of sage and fennel. The chicken remained tender and juicy under the crispy skin, which is not an easy feat and paired great with the blood sausage. 

Dessert perhaps was the best course however. Here we had our first and best experience with traditional sticky toffee pudding. The pudding was perfectly moist as evidenced by how easily our spoons glided through it, while the slightly salty toffee sauce was an excellent match. During our trip we sampled every sticky toffee pudding we came across and none matched what we had here, with the 'pudding' usually being too cake-like than is desirable. The creme brûlée although being quite good itself was no match for the sticky toffee perfection!

If ever you're in the area a visit to Roast is a must if even just for the sticky toffee pudding.