Address: 97 Haverstock Hill NW3 4RL
Cost: £9.95 for a full roast
Rating: 4/5
At the point of ordering a pub roast, the diner has usually already resigned him- or herself to something cheap and substandard swimming in watered-down Bisto and is hoping only that the portions won’t be too stingy. And so, it’s always good to discover a pub that bucks against the stereotype and produces a meal generous enough and edible enough to make one wish they served desserts.
I usually take my occasional Sunday roasts at the Crown and Two Chairmen in Soho, but since happily discovering it during a wander up Haverstock Hill I have been installing myself at the Sir Richard Steele for drinks and knitting on Sunday afternoons. The atmosphere is friendly and relaxed; young trendies mix with families and Old Men. The music is usually rather good, too.
The pub usually serves Thai food, which is yummy, though the portions are more lunch-sized than dinner-worthy. For post-drinking hunger I’d advise nipping next door to Oliver’s chip shop or two doors down to the local Chinese takeaway.
My previous Sunday jaunt involved many pints and several portions of chunky chips. Yesterday, we decided to do it properly and order a roast.
The menu offers beef, chicken and nut, which disappointed one of my friends who was hoping for pork. I do wish pubs would stop trying to convince their customers that roast chicken is part of the tradition – any real food lover will insist on beef, pork or lamb, surely?
I ordered the nut roast, which was excellent – very moist with a variety of different nuts, plus puy lentils. The portions were generous, too and I definitely appreciated the homemade Yorkshire pudding, and decent gravy. The vegetables sat carefully on the delicate line between too crunchy and overcooked and there were plenty of them: carrots, parsnips, Brussels sprouts and savoy cabbage. Washed down with a pint of Rum Cask Cider, it was a very satisfactory meal, though not quite enough to turn my allegiance from Soho.
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