The Larrik, Marylebone

One roast, is only the start…oh that’s not how I meant to start. Here’s a roast dinner review of The Larrik, just about in Marylebone.

Right, let’s try again.

One racist is only the start of it,
Vote Trump, and now your a part of it,
Now you’ve done it,
Trump’ll fix it for you,
And you, and you.

Aha.

Meme - Jim'll fix it, but with Trump's face
Meme yo

He’s a proven rapist, had a suspect friendship with Epstein, attempted to overturn an election, many people who previously worked with him claim he is a fascist, mocks disabled people, lies about everything (even the big beautiful wall only stretches 80 miles), is threatening global economic chaos with tariffs…oh what’s the point.

You know all this. American voters know all of this.

But I guess it’s easy for me in my ivory tower here in Croydon (with absolutely no fucking gold lifts…and two broken lifts out of three) to state why I think Donald Trump is unfit to be president of the most powerful country in the world

I don’t blink at paying £30.00 for a bang average roast dinner, but if, say, I had a food budget of say $50.00 a week and someone was promising (lying) to halve the price of eggs if I voted for them, I might be like “well, he’s only a bit fascist and I’ll get cheaper eggs/gas/whatever”.

Hell, I still drink at Brewdog.

Never plead guilty

Anyway, at least I’ll have more content to spice up the blog. Not exactly as if the toolmaker’s son is going to gift this blog with much controversy.

Time to move on…onto laughing at vandalised shit electric cars.

Cybertruck with "fuck elon" written on it
Via Reddit

Trump still hates electric cars, right?

Anyway, I really am moving on this time. Totally moving on. I don’t want to pollute my mind with billionaire’s bullshit any more, and besides, I got more important things to do – reviewing roast dinners.

This week the mission was to The Larrik, which is just about in Marylebone – a few minute’s walk from Edgware Road tube stations. A random number generator pick – it was on the to-do list because it’s in the same pub chain as The Selkirk, and in a useful central area of London.

Joining me on said adventure this week, along with my regular accomplice, was a friend who was announcing to me her pregnancy via a TfL “baby on board” badge – a surprise which caused me to kick over my chair, to the consternation of the table next to me. I trust they’ll get over it quicker than I got over Trump winning an election in a country that I don’t live in and never will. I am over it, honest.

Hello, possums

The Larrik is a fairly smart looking pub on the outside – I visited pre-pandemic and don’t remember it being so middle-class inside, it was certainly a pleasant space, teal grey painted walls, huge windows to let plenty of light in and some bits of sofa hung from the ceiling, though in an organised and symmetrical manner.

Outside The Larrik
© Copyright – Roast Dinners In London 2024

For the fourth week in a row, the beer choice was banal – I plumped for a Camden Pale, but more from necessity of having a hangover to dull rather than a desire for a beer. You can guarantee that as soon as Dry January comes around, everywhere I go will have excellent craft beer.

A glass of Malbec with my roast was punchy, and verging on a tad spicy – much more enjoyable than the beer.

I also got bored of waiting for someone to offer me a drink, and went to the bar – which was also running very slowly. I guess it was a Sunday, but I also guess that I may not have been the only one with a hangover. Another example, it took them a good 10-15 minutes to bring some water for the table – I also guess that maybe they were a little short-staffed, as well as a little slow.

Roast dinner menu at The Larrik
© Copyright – Roast Dinners In London 2024

Options on the menu were sirloin of beef at £27.00, half a chicken at £24.00, pork belly at £22.00 and a squash & mushroom wellington at £19.00. However, they also had a special – duck at £25.00.

Yep, for only the second time ever, I ordered the duck roast dinner. Gosh…something different, who’d have thought it?

To absolute zero surprise, the roast also took a while to arrive – it felt like closer to 30 minutes, but quite possibly my hangover was making time stretch.

Duck roast dinner
© Copyright – Roast Dinners In London 2024

Crikey!

Starting with the carrot, which was pretty ordinary – roasted, sliced vertically, and quite soft.

The parsnip, which you can’t see in this photograph was over-roasted and therefore a bit dry, though it did still have some flavour to it.

Out of the vegetables, the cabbage was by far the best – quite a fair mound of it, soft and really quite tasty. I didn’t detect any particular flavour other than cabbage and gravy, so it’s not like they’d done much other than steamed/boiled it, perhaps added some butter come to think of it – but it was banging cabbage nonetheless.

Next up – roast potatoes.

Duck Sunday Roast
© Copyright – Roast Dinners In London 2024

Well. You know that sometimes I write things like “the potatoes were potatoey in taste”, which sounds pretty dumb. But somehow these potatoes didn’t taste of potato.

These were varying shades of shite. Somehow The Larrik had managed to produce (or maybe just procure) the driest potatoes on earth – likely the equivalent of eating a pair of flip-flops that have been left in the Nevada desert for the past 35 years.

Yet the outer crisp to them wasn’t bad. If you scraped out the actual potato and just ate the outer edge, you might not be too offended.

Such Is Life

I didn’t mind the Yorkshire pudding – too large, for sure, but at least it was soft – if not especially tasting of anything.

Ducks used to be my favourite animal, until I found out that their sexual morals were a bit lacking for my woke tastes – but then again being a bit rapey seems to be a qualification to be president in 2024, so maybe ducks are still cute. And to think I’ve ruled myself out of being Prime Minister on the basis that I accidentally took an ecstacy pill in a nightclub, thinking it was paracetamol.

Cute ducklings
© Copyright – Roast Dinners In London 2024

Ahhhh how cute.

Cybertruck which has been graffiti'ed
Via Reddit

Ahhhh also how cute.

100% moved on. Anyway, the duck, it had clearly been cooked a while ago but also it was still quite fresh and juicy. The skin had some crisp to it, if aged crisp, the meat was tender and plump – yeah I thought they did well with this, but wish it had been cooked a little closer to the time of ordering, for that would have been superb.

For the other roasts on the table, I’m told that the beef was really tender, well seasoned but with too much fat (though I’m not sure I would have said “too much”). The vegan wellington was also apparently very nice, and had a nutty flavour to it.

Vegan mushroom and squash wellington roast dinner
© Copyright – Roast Dinners In London 2024

Finally, the gravy was pretty good. Quite a decent consistency, a little on the silky side with some meat stock going on too.

The Larrik

So a bit of a mixed bag at The Larrik.

There was definitely joy – I really enjoyed the cabbage, and was heartily pleased to get the chance to have duck – and they did a good job with it. Likewise we had decent gravy.

Everything else was average, except the potatoes which were a disgrace to the nation. My pregnant accomplice isn’t shy to tell a waiter what is wrong (and she’s British) – and told the waiter that the roast potatoes were dreadful.

More arrived, which were a mixed bag – though some were actually worse than what was on our plate including this grey specimen:

Grey roast potatoes at The Larrik
© Copyright – Roast Dinners In London 2024

Shameful. The appalling roast potatoes are affecting the scores of the roast more than they should – good roast potatoes then this would be in upper the 7’s.

As it was, the accomplice with the vegan wellington scored hers a 6.00, my regular accomplice a 7.05 – and I’m plumping for a 6.92 out of 10.

The Larrik – cursed by the potatoes.

I’ll be back next week – unless something has gone seriously wrong in the world, this coming Sunday will be one of the best roast dinners of the year.

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Summary:

The Larrik, Marylebone

Station: Edgware Road

Tube Lines: Circle, District

Fare Zone: Zone 1

Price: £25.00

Rating: 6.92

Get Booking

https://www.thelarrik.com/

Instagrim

Loved & Loathed

Loved: Pretty good gravy, tasty duck and excellent cabbage.

Loathed: Potatoes didn't taste of potato, were all dehydrated to fuck and some actually grey. WTF? Beer choice boring, parsnip a bit overdone, service slow sometimes.

2 responses to “The Larrik, Marylebone

  1. You should go to the Royal Oak, it’s just round the corner from the Larrick and significantly better roast. Apparently the head chef is ex-Dorchester…

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