On Saturday night of our long weekend we had a reservation at Roast, recommended by a British friend. It was really a beautiful place, in the Borough Market on the other side of the Thames which is still considered the cool up and coming neighborhood. It served high fashion high end food that we loved. We started out with cocktails which was rather exciting as there is way too much beer around and much as I want to look like a native I refuse to drink it. I do love a cocktail. I had a Gibson served in an old fashioned coupe glass with an onion soaked Campari filled shot glass-the waiter put it down in front of me with no explanation and walked away. I called over a man in a suit, thinking he was the sommelier and could explain but alas he was the restaurant's manager and didn't know but brought me the bartender who created the drink. We became fast friends immediately! I could either sip alternately of each glass (which seemed like a lot of trouble to me) or I could pour the campari onions into the Gibson, which is exactly what I did-delish! For dinner I started with the smoked trout and moved on to the roast scallops. The smoked trout I get in the US smokes beautifully but looks kind of like "smoked whitefish" but the trout at Roast looked more like smoked salmon with a firmer smokier texture and flavor-different yes, unexpected, yes, but wonderful. My husband and friend had Scottish egg appetizer (my friend loved hers-very flavorful, good crunch and the pea shoots added a nice texture/flavor, but my husband took it all apart and didn't eat the poached egg. It's very rare that he is willing to try something and that he can find an appetizer he likes so I was proud of him for tasting this. They both had the
I had the roast chicken my friend with the lemon thyme and a side of roasted potatoes, my husband doesn't care about sauce so he let the waiter bring the bread sauce, which was a new thing for us but apparently very British. It tasted a bit like grits, which is exactly what our friend suggested it would taste like-needed some sea salt at the very least if you ask me. They both felt that the chicken had very good flavor and crunchy skin, moist flesh....the potatoes were really yummy, could have maybe used a bit more flavor in them, but the outsides were exceptionally crisp.For dessert she had the blood orange & grapefruit sorbet (which is called water ice in old British terms) for dessert--very flavorful & zippy along with the dessert wine the manager suggested.
Then, because Roast is also a whiskey bar I had whiskey with dessert.
I had already made friends with the restaurant manager and the bar tender, chatting about how to drink what the waiter put in front of me without explanation. The bartender continued to send over whiskey to taste! I finally settled on the Lagavulin (unfortunately, the waiter made a little mistake and brought be the Laphroaig, which I liked too but not as much, though it gave me the opportunity to find the Lagavulin when I got back home and though unbeknownst to me at that moment I would 11 days in the future) which smelled like chocolate and was incredibly delicious so I thought it would go well with the chocolate dessert the manager created for me and a different one for my husband. I had the deeply rich chocolate garnish from one of the menu options-the texture was that of a pots de creme, heavier than mousse. My husband had the garnish from some other dessert which was a vanilla ice cream filled with chocolate brownie pieces-both delicious for our palettes.
Over all a wonderful time was had by all!
Comments