Roast Dinners in London

This week’s review comes from the fairly newly re-opened, The Blue Stoops in Notting Hill.

But first, did you hear the news?

Yes, we’ve been given permission to talk about Brexit again – yay!

Rachel Reeves said, “There is no doubt that the impact of Brexit has been severe and long-lasting” – probably the first time she’s mentioned Brexit in public for 5 years, and suddenly it has had a severe impact. Well, I never.

Kier Starmer attacked those who sold the “Brexit lies”.

Even the Bank of England governor managed to express some doubt that Brexit is going to bring those sunlit uplands any time soon, by saying “Brexit is likely to continue to weigh on British economic growth over the coming years”.

Yeah, I’m still not over it.

Melinda Messenger

Anyway, so it’s good to finally be advised by our leaders that Brexit is bad. Which also probably means they are going to raise tax, but this is because Brexit is bad.

Well, that’s OK then.

And raising tax last year because Tories were bad also was OK. And next year’s tax rises will be because of…oooh The Sun, and I don’t mean the glowing ball in the sky because I’m sure after one glorious summer we are due three wet summers in a row.

What is Melinda Messenger up to nowadays?

Well, apparently she’s completed training in psychotherapy and mindfulness, and uses her experience to help others understand dreams and subconscious patterns.

Aha.

Keeley Hazell

Speaking of understanding my dreams and subconscious patterns, I’m still dreaming about having a really good roast dinner – I’ve not given a score in the 8’s out for nearly 5 months now, and The Blue Stoops is one of those pubs which had potential.

The first time I heard about them was in a Londonist article, about them bringing back a supposedly classic beer that nobody under 60 remembers called Double Diamond.

Pretty decent way to introduce your new pub to the London pub zeitgeist, though I tried a sip and confirm it is as bad as I expected, quoting from the quote that is quoted in the article I previously quoted, “vile, chemical muck brewed by accountants”.

I should add that two of my favourite friends are accountants. Though neither drinks beer…much.

The Blue Stoops has been open around a year, and is the first pub opened in London by Allsopp’s brewery in 90 years – The Blue Stoops was the name of a pub in Burton-Upon-Trent where Mr Allsopp first brewed beer in 1730.

It is quite a refined pub too, and fits well into the Notting Hill vibe – it has a kind of vintage warmth with seats in tan leather, dark wood panelling and a mixture of cream and blue tones on some walls too.

Linda Lusardi

It being in Notting Hill meant it wasn’t a cheap roast dinner.

Beef sirloin was priced at £33.00, chicken (apparently Hubbard chicken but no idea what that means) at £29.00 or porchetta at £28.00.

I went for the latter which might not surprise long-term readers too much.

Not the world’s best lighting for a photograph, and not the world’s largest plate of food either.

Starting with the carrot, which was really carroty, you’ll be pleased to know, soft, roasted and whole.

There was a small grouping of cavelo nero, wilted and a little chewy – I thought I detected some garlic, but none of my accomplices agreed so maybe that’s my imagination playing up like it’s just seen some Brexit benefits.

And that was the end of the vegetables. Just a carrot and some cavelo nero. OK…

Samantha Fox

The standard three roast potatoes all tasted good – I thought maybe they might have been cooked in goose fat or similar, but they were also a bit dry with no proper crispy sides.

Then we had a Yorkshire…muffin…sponge…brioche?

Because, the yorkie wasn’t just a traditional burnt dried-out lump of batter – The Blue Stoops did theirs as a sponge-style.

Perhaps this is how Yorkshire puddings were made in Burton in 1730, perhaps it was an accident, but quite possibly this is by design, and we all actually quite enjoyed it in a confused way.

The porchetta was good – the crackling was occasionally amazing but sometimes a little dried-out, the pork itself was tender and herby – though as a whole it was a little on the cold side, and you could tell it had been cooked a fair few hours earlier – not overly so, but notable when you’ve done 347 roast dinner reviews. Why? Why have I dedicated my life to this?

My accomplices were very complimentary on the beef, though I thought the porchetta better – though that’s my vendetta, never forgetta. Fine, I’ll stick to moaning about Brexit.

Finally the gravy. Which sadly was thin, watery nonsense, and quite possibly worse – vegetarian thin watery nonsense. It really was lacklustre gravy.

I would say “well it is Notting Hill”, but around the corner is The Mall Tavern who served glorious thick gravy a few years back.

The Blue Stoops

So an 8 out of 10 roast dinner seems as difficult to achieve as victory on Fort Boyard.

But it was a pretty good roast dinner nonetheless.

At a push, maybe the quantity was a little lacking, the gravy was way too watery and lacked flavour, the roasties could have been better. And the tables did feel a little crammed in – though on the flip side there was a healthy atmosphere inside.

The porchetta probably impressed the most, though the vegetables were good too. Oh and we had some really good wine, Côtes du Rhône – I won’t bother trying to describe it, but it really worked well with the roast dinner.

Plus the service was professional yet welcoming – and the cans of mango IPA were pretty decent. I guess also from Allsopp’s brewery – I’d never heard of them before.

Scores around the table were a 7.00 from the other porchetta fan, a 7.50 and a 7.80 from those eating the beef – and my score is going to be a 7.26 out of 10. We enjoyed our afternoon here quite a lot.

I’ll be back next week…no plan yet though maybe somewhere a bit cheaper!

Réfléchissez bien