Roast restaurant at Borough Market – sensational

Roast restaurant serves beautifully presented British roasts and traditional dishes from carefully sourced ingredients, has an extensive wine and cocktail list, great views over Borough Market in one direction or St Paul’s in another, and knowledgeable serving staff.

It’s not cheap but you get what you pay for – a top quality experience.

You can keep costs down by ordering from the Market Menu (three courses from a set menu for £30, or £35 on Sundays) or even by getting a take-away sandwich from the Roast To Go stall situated just outside in Borough Market itself (a pork belly and crackling sandwich with Bramley apple sauce is £6.50).

I’d booked a late lunch table for 3.30pm yesterday to follow on from a visit to The View at The Shard. It was perfect timing – the restaurant was not only going into a post-lunch / pre-dinner lull (not dead by any means) but we got to watch the sun set: soft sundown lighting over St Paul’s in one direction and a fiery pink and orange sunset in another. And we watched the world go by (particularly a never ending long queue of people at the duck sandwich stall and then the stall holders packing up) in Borough Market below which was simply fascinating.

We picked a lovely, dry vinho verde (white wine, it’s not really green) from Portugal’s Douro region at £30. Selecting from the Market Menu, K had butternut squash soup with Ragstone goat’s cheese while I had baked sardines with pickled beetroot, crushed new potatoes, and blood orange for starters.

Butternut squash soup with Ragstones goat’s cheese

Baked sardines with crushed potato

For main course, K had medallions of pan-fried Cornish Coley with curly Kale and Bath pig chorizo and I had slow-roasted free-range pork belly with crackling, mashed potatoes and Bramley apple sauce (a note for next time: the speciality at Roast is, unsurprisingly, roasts. My pork was sensational and incredibly filling).

Pan-fried coley

Slow-roast pork with crackling

By this time the sun was going down.

Views from Roast: The Shard, sunset, St Paul’s, Borough Market

For pudding (called ‘pudding’ not dessert which is always a good thing) K had sticky date pudding with toffee sauce and Neal’s Yard creme fraiche while I had Bramley apple crumble with custard (a pure, simple apple crumble with not a pinch of spice – no cinnamon, nutmeg or cloves in sight – just tasty apple).

Sticky date pudding

Apple crumble and custard

We had a couple of sazeracs (@ £12 each) as a digestif while relaxing after dinner, and our total bill for two came to £130 (a snippet of the a la carte price). We also felt thoroughly spoilt to have been served by Yvette who answered every question we had about the menu, was generally knowledgeable, and was chatty and fun with it too. I look forward to going to Roast again (and again).

Roast to go – pork belly sandwiches @ £6.50

More Roast dishes

£30 market menu – grilled sardines, Cornish sole, buttermilk pudding

Sample market menu – August 2014

Restaurant info:
~ Lardbutty rating: 5 / 5
~ Type: British
~ Address: The Floral Hall, Stoney Street, London
~ Postcode: SE1 1TL
~ Nearest station: London Bridge
~ Images of Roast: photos of Roast food + restaurant
~ Menus: Roast menus
~ Website: Roast website
~ Location: Roast map