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Cue Point @ Orbit Beers, Walworth

Please note that this review is from February 7, 2023 and may be out of date...restaurants sometimes get better, get worse, employ a new chef or end up with new management.

And here I was, another Sunday, another mission. This time to Cue Point, a British Afghan pop-up, currently at Orbit Beers Taproom near Kennington.

And it really was a mission.

TFL advising no Metropolitan line all weekend.

Urgh. And then to top it off, when I arrived at the tube station to get the Piccadilly Line instead, they announced that the next service would arrive in 40-45 minutes. Erm…

Had I been solo-dining instead of going to meet a friend in south London who actually believes the deluded crap that Liz Truss wrote in that 4,000 word “blame the left-wing deep state that has been run by the government I was part of for many years” utterance, then you would probably be reading about a roast dinner in Harrow right now. Not that I know where I’d get one.

Gosh. 4,000 words. Well if you can read 4,000 words from Liz Truss lying trying to explain as to why it was everyone’s fault but hers that unfunded tax cuts and well-funded arrogance caused bond yields to jump, stock markets to fall, pension funds come close to collapse and our currency plummet, then you can read 1,000 words about undercooked roast potatoes and my travel issues. Just wait until the book comes out. Mine – not hers. I don’t do selfies.

Yep, it was time to finally have a roast dinner in somewhere where the left-wing orthodoxy would stop Liz Truss organising a piss-up…even in lockdown.

A brewery.

Did I mention that I do Dry February too?

Woman

I’m wary of having roast dinners in a brewery, especially considering the only other time I had a roast dinner in a brewery, it tasted like I was drowning in Salar de Uyuni.

Instagram post showing how sexy Cue Point's meat is.

However, I’ve had Cue Point’s meat before, and it is sexy as. I cannot quite remember what it was, but something went wrong with the order – maybe it turned up a day late and I complained to them like a lockdown twat – then they refunded me in full, which I really didn’t want, so I then felt guilty.

Possible that I donated some of it to an Afghan charity, but also possible that I am over-promoting my kind heart and maybe I never got around to it.

Oh yeah, the director of Cue Point, I think, was born in Kabul though raised in Hackney (if I’ve followed correctly), and if you haven’t had Afghan food before, then, well, you are missing out. Unless you don’t like sexy AF meat.

Oh yeah, it means halal meat – if you are too squeamish for halal methods (I’m sure that is the main concern of people who are anti-halal and definitely nothing to do with racism) then maybe I have a vegan café I can recommend to you. I actually I cannot recommend it, it wasn’t very good.

And finally, did I mention that I had to wait 45 minutes for a tube? I didn’t wait, as I spent £7.95 on a Uber to the only somewhat-delayed Central line instead.

Oh and very finally:

Brexit word cloud showing some leave voters calling it a "shambles" and "disaster".

Life

Ahhh the gift that keeps on giving, three poorer years later. I managed to commemorate it by pouring the juice away from a stew on Friday, allowing both a mango and an avocado to go off that I intended to eat on Saturday, then TFL decided to commemorate Brexit in style on Sunday.

I was hoping Cue Point wouldn’t described in the same way that a significant proportion of 2016 Leave voters are now describing Brexit – though an ability to make sexy AF meat doesn’t necessarily transfer to making crispy roast potatoes.

You may well have seen Cue Point around, they’ve done a few things like Pub In The Park, and I assume must have appeared at some festivals like Meatopia, though that is a guess. Currently they are serving at Orbit Beers in Walworth (a short walk through a not especially salubrious estate from Kennington station), which is situated under some railway arches.

Orbit Beers and Cue Point seem like a match made in heaven. Unless you are on Dry February. I’ve lost weight though.

The taproom at Orbit Beers had a few tables reserved – it seemed recently built – you’ll know the vibe if you have spent time in Walthamstow’s breweries, though this is much smaller.

It has a nice outdoor area for when the sun comes out – on the left as you walk in are the chefs, followed by the bar, followed in the corner by a few toilets. On the right side are some booths and some Technics for playing the (I approve), and in the middle some stools/barrels with cushions. It’s a nice set up.

Sunday roast menu from Cue Point, at Orbit Beers Taproom, Kennington
© Copyright – Roast Dinners In London 2023

On the menu was beef brisket and chicken, priced at £20 and £18 respectively – I’d pretty much made my mind up on the beef brisket from one glance, but also written on the bar was lamb.

Unusually for my recent adventures, we ordered some cauliflower cheese – my Brexit-voting accomplice wanted one each but I was happy enough to just have one between us. Oh and it has been implemented badly apparently. Nothing to do with the idea being fucking moronic in the first place. I’m on about Brexit, not cauliflower cheese FYI.

Freedom

Our buzzer went off maniacally around 15 minutes later, though they did bring the food over – perhaps because I was insisting on finishing my point before running over to collect.

Beef brisket roast dinner from Cue Point, at Orbit Beers Taproom, Kennington
© Copyright – Roast Dinners In London 2023

Clearly they like a chive – and I liked the charred carrots, though they could have done with a little seasoning or a little something.

Likewise the savoy cabbage was respectable yet lacked something – seasoning, butter, spices – you choose, but it smacked of ordinary.

The cauliflower cheese however:

Cauliflower cheese from Cue Point, at Orbit Beers Taproom, Kennington
© Copyright – Roast Dinners In London 2023

Yes it has a leaf in – but cauliflower leaves are perfectly edible. Try it. And unfortunately my Brexit-voting friend was right for a change – we should have ordered one each. For the sauce was so damn sexy, peeling away like cheese-strings, it made fantastic dipping sauce for the roast potatoes – and the cauliflower itself was cooked well, with a crunch. Oh and chives. Of course. This was an added side at £7 – not £1 as the font on the menu may suggest if you are sober.

Half of the plate was roast potato – one of those cut into three would count as sufficient roast potatoes at most places – however doing them so large does diminish the possibility of them being crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Allegedly cooked three times (in some venues I feel like this means three Sundays in a row), these were on the way to being good roast potatoes, though were a touch dry inside.

Beef brisket Sunday roast from Cue Point, at Orbit Beers Taproom, Kennington
© Copyright – Roast Dinners In London 2023

The Yorkshire pudding was small, though you could tell it had been cooked a while earlier – it was a little tired and tearable in texture. The red onion inside was a nice touch, though perhaps more for aesthetic reasoning.

As you can see, I struggled to angle a photograph with the light, but I think it just about shows off the beef brisket in deserved light. I wish I knew how they managed to get it to look so stunning, let alone thinking about the gorgeous smoked flavour of the meat. This was excellent meat – but I expected nothing less. My lamb-eating accomplice was very much in complimentary mood also.

Finally, the gravy. Well, it was fine – it felt like some effort had gone into it, but also it was rather thin and watery. Inoffensive, you could say, which is an improvement on some places.

Cue Point

I guess I’m not massively selling Cue Point’s roast dinner to you – nothing at all was less than ordinary, but there was quite a bit of ordinary. And if you spend enough time dribbling at their Instagram feed – you can see they know how to do perfect crispy roast potatoes and gorgeous-looking gravy.

So I’ve probably not experienced the best that they can do. Then again, it cannot be especially easy organising a roast dinner in a brewery – the bowl that our extra gravy came in spoke of the limitations:

Gravy bowl
© Copyright – Roast Dinners In London 2023

Not entirely sure how I made that photograph so bad, but hey, unique talent over here.

Anyway, the cauliflower cheese was so sexy that we ordered another one for dessert, and the beef brisket was glorious.

Everything else was, well, fine. There isn’t anything to complain about – but if everything was to the standard of the cauliflower cheese and the beef brisket, then this was be an outstanding roast dinner.

My accomplice scored it a 7.00 out of 10, and I’m scoring it a 7.12 out of 10.

Even if you aren’t bowled away by my review, as I wasn’t, you shouldn’t be disappointed here. Or maybe consider coming one evening for a few beers and Cue Point’s non-Sunday menu. At the very least you’ll love their meat – or maybe even love their ethos, as I do.

No London adventure next weekend as I just cannot take this TFL shit any more, so I am doing a 3.5 hour journey to Hull for a Sunday roast. Oh and to see the family.

Jeez that was actually 1,617 words. NOT MY FAULT. Joe Biden, remoaners and the Labour Party made me write it. 1,635 now. Well, 1,636. Actually 1,637. STOP. 1,638. Oh balls, numbers count as a word. 1,651. Fucking left-wing word count.

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Summary:

Cue Point @ Orbit Beers, Walworth

Station: Kennington

Tube Lines: Northern

Fare Zone: Zone 2

Price: £20.00

Rating: 7.12

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https://www.cue-point.co.uk/

Instagrim

Loved & Loathed

Loved: Sexy beef brisket, and the side of cauliflower cheese had a gorgeous sauce.

Loathed: Nothing was bad, but roasties needed to be a bit smaller, yorkie a tad tired.

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