A conservatory dining room in the Virgin hotel on Curtain Road gives the Borough Market restaurant a second home, with its beef Wellington, a 42-day aged roast beef and a halal Sunday roast.
Roast slow-roasts its Suffolk pork belly until the crackling shatters, and for more than 20 years the only place to eat it was above Borough Market. In October the restaurant opened a second kitchen, inside Virgin Hotels London-Shoreditch on Curtain Road. It serves every meal of the day there, from a 07:00 breakfast to dinner.
From the Floral Hall to Curtain Road
Roast opened in 2005 in the Floral Hall at Borough Market, with tall windows over London’s oldest fruit and vegetable market and pineapple statues on the roof. Its founding idea was British food with a fine-dining experience for the everyday customer. The Shoreditch room keeps the same seasonal British produce, and Roast says it designed the space to feel as distinctive as the original.
Roast designed the room as a conservatory. A glazed roof sits behind white trellis, flowering climbers hang on white-painted brick, and brass lanterns light banquettes striped in green and cream. A chequerboard floor runs back to the bar, and the kitchen is open to the room.
Pork belly, Wellington and roast beef
The signature dishes made the move. The pork belly comes with mashed potatoes, Bramley apple sauce and gravy, and the beef Wellington with wild mushroom duxelles, truffled mash and a Madeira sauce. A 42-day aged roast beef is carved thick and served with Yorkshire pudding and horseradish.
The Scotch egg, the third dish Roast is known for, is made here with haggis and pork, a soft-boiled Cacklebean egg and house piccalilli. Maldon oysters come by the three, six or dozen. Diver-caught Scottish scallops sit on Jerusalem artichoke purée with black pudding and a cider reduction.
Free-range Suffolk chicken turns on a rotisserie and comes with a tomato and rosemary bread pudding. British steaks are served with a garlic and Guinness Marmite butter. The sides run from real roast potatoes and triple-cooked chips to pigs in blankets.
A halal Sunday roast and live music
Halal-certified dishes run through the menus, and the Sunday roast has a halal menu of its own. Vegetarian and gluten-free dishes are marked, and the produce comes from British suppliers, so the menus change with what they have.
Afternoon tea is served every day, and in the evening there is live music, which Roast describes as soulful sets and smooth standards. A private dining room comes with a waiter of its own. Upstairs, the hotel’s rooftop bar, Hidden Grooves, is a listening room inspired by vinyl and Virgin Records, with cocktails that reinterpret albums of the 1970s.
Breakfast daily 07:00 to 11:30; lunch and dinner daily 12:00 to 22:00; afternoon tea daily 12:00 to 17:30. Pork belly £30; beef Wellington £46; roast beef £38. A discretionary 15 per cent service charge is added.
Roast Shoreditch, Virgin Hotels London-Shoreditch, 45 Curtain Road, London EC2A 3PT.
Discover more at roast-restaurant.com