The Victoria Inn, Peckham

And for the final roast dinner of the year to be mostly known for watery gravy, it was time to head to The Victoria Inn, Peckham.

But first, I’d like to declare Moron Of The Year.

Can you guess who won?

I feel like I should do this every year, and quite possibly I have done, but have forgotten about it. Let’s pretend this is not the inaugural Moron Of The Year award – previous winners would/could/should have been Boris Johnson, Piers Corbyn, Jeremy Corbyn, Nigel Farage, Donald Trump, Liz Truss, etc.

Have you guessed who is Lord Gravy’s Moron Of The Year for 2024?

Elon Musk dressed like a sissy, making a heart shape with his hands

Aha, Sissy SpaceX owner, President Musk.

Angie Watts

But how can I portray Elon Musk as a sissy? He’s a hard man and he’s going to war. And you cannot possibly comprehend.

Elon Musk defending immigration (for his companies)

Ohhhhhhhhh.

Billionaire who took control of the election and wants more immigrants (though only for the companies he owns), meet MAGA devotees who want deportations.

I have to say this was an excellent Christmas present to wake up to…MAGA and Musk going to war.

By the way, did you have a nice Christmas? On the off chance that you are reading this immediately after Christmas 2024.

Look what my mum bought for me:

A very fine gravy boat, with a gold and green rim

Is that Gravy Boat Of The Year, or what?

Debbie Hopkins

So The Victoria Inn was to be a solo dining effort for the final roast dinner of 2024, which suited me fine. My mood is similar to the weather (we are currently in what feels like the 87th day in a row of fog, for those reading in the future), detox quarter is approaching, my bank account is almost empty and the random number generator wanted me to go to Peckham.

I like Peckham. A lot. Even more when I saw these amazing art deco lampposts outside The Victoria Inn:

Beautiful art deco lampposts with The Victoria Inn behind it.

Peckham is what I’m hoping Croydon will become in due course, though there is probably more chance of Elon Musk, the free speech absolutionist (and Moron Of The Year 2024) practicing free speech when he doesn’t agree with it.

Have you got the popcorn ready?

A tweet from Laura Loomer calling out Elon Musk

Yeah I know who Laura Loomer is, and am well aware of her history of racist insults, to put it mildly.

But it’s just so fun to see MAGA vs Musk, still weeks away from the other man baby becoming president.

Eddie Royle

And to think I was worried I wouldn’t have much content to fill the blog up once Kier Starmer became Prime Minister.

Let’s get down to business. So The Victoria Inn itself was a pretty ordinary looking pub, with some occasional Peckham-related artwork on the walls.

Beer choice was marginally better than ordinary, and I opted for…hmmm…I don’t actually remember but it was a decent enough pale ale, and one most beer drinkers in London will have heard of. It was Gypsy Hill level of “craft” beer along with your more mainline lagers.

Roast dinner menu

Options on the menu were beef at £21.00, porchetta at £19.50, leg of lamb at £23.50 and turkey at £19.00. All roast dinners came with a Yorkshire pudding, except for vegan roasts – yet there are no vegan or vegetarian roast dinners listed.

In a hipster area of London. Mouth opened nearly as much as when Laura Loomer discovered Elon Musk doesn’t believe in free speech, except his own.

Laura Loomer complaining that Elon Musk has removed her blue tick

I know, but it’s just so beautiful to see morons hate on each other for what I hate about them.

I ended up choosing roast lamb – it was a toss up between lamb and porchetta, and the waiter made a positive noise about the lamb, so that sufficed. Oh and quite why anyone would choose turkey for a roast dinner just 4 days after Christmas Day is beyond me.

Laurie Bates

Lamb roast dinner though all you can see if the lamb and a yorkie.

Though maybe some people would question why I would want such a large plate of food 4 days after Christmas also. Not my fault there is so much food on this plate though!

It was easily one of the biggest roast dinners of the year, just when my mind is turning to salad and other lower calories foods, but hey. Maybe you need to see some of the veg also.

Lamb roast dinner with carrots, red cabbage, Hispi cabbage, kale and roast potatoes, oh and a yorkie and some gravy

There was a feast of vegetables – starting with the carrots which were weirdly cold, yet ultra soft to the point where I could have mashed them on my plate. Also with a maple flavouring – overall I liked them, but…cold.

The red cabbage was actually quite decent, mulled red cabbage according to the menu – and if I was the kind of person who preferred drinking mulled wine whilst freezing cold in a shit over-priced German market to drinking good beer in a warm pub, then I’d maybe understand if this was good mulled or bad mulled, but I can tell you it was quite fruity and had a very mild punch to it.

I cannot remember the last time that I had Hispi cabbage – it’s my favourite form. This was chunky, soft enough and rather smokey. Was quite delightful.

Peggy Mitchell

Yep, more veg and this time of the kale variety – I think a mixture of cavelo nero and normal kale, which was rather damp and probably could have had the water squeezed out more – but I enjoyed it, and it seemed to have a pepper influence though maybe that was just the gravy soaked into it.

And there was a tiny bit of puree, but I’ve no idea what it was. Sorry. Maybe go read Jay Rayner or someone if you want to know what food tastes like.

Close up of the roast potatoes

By this point I felt like I’d had a meal already. The roast potatoes (London standard amount of three) were alright. No crispy sides, a bit dry inside but relatively freshly cooked and tasted quite decent. This may sound quite poor, but I spent an hour discussing roast dinners with my regular accomplice in a really, truly, grotty dive bar in Hull at Christmas, and these come nowhere near the worst roast potato of 2024. Nowhere near the best, either.

We were back to cold food for the Yorkshire pudding, yet if you could get over that aspect then it was a really good yorkie – freshly made, properly soft in the middle, some crisp to the outside.

It is a bit disconcerting to get a mixture of cold food and lukewarm food on a plate…but I feel like I’ve been offended so much this year by whatever gash pubs/restaurants feel like serving that this just feels minor. I can think of one or two people I know that wouldn’t be able to get over something being cold on a roast dinner.

Lamb Sunday roast, with kale, hispi cabbage, yorkie and roasts, oh and gravy

I would have liked to have seen the lamb a little on the rare side, but otherwise it was hearty (pretty sure I describe lamb like this every time) and packed plenty of flavour, as you’d expect leg of lamb to do. 4 chunky slices too, which is rather on the generous side.

Finally, and for the final roast dinner of this year of watery gravy, I was served proper gravy. Woohoo! Let’s celebrate. A reasonably meat stock kinda gravy, I felt like I could taste some beefy influence in matters, there was some pepper involved and it had a proper consistency yet there was enough on the plate.

Good gravy to finish 2024. Well, I never. Thank you.

The Victoria Inn

I’m mostly pleased that the final roast dinner of 2024 was mostly good – though there is a little bit of me questioning the sanity of having spent approximately £2,500 this year on roast dinners, with diminishing joy at times and maybe if The Victoria Inn had been shit then I could throw a strop and sack off the blog. Except that I’ve already booked the first roast of 2025.

So, it was mostly a good roast dinner. Exceptions were for cold carrots and a cold yorkie, and roast potatoes that were a bit dry, though nowhere near the state of some this year.

Positives, well the yorkie was really soft and properly cooked, gravy was pretty thick, the Hispi cabbage was nicely smokey and there was a hell of a lot of food.

It deserves a fairly high score, though I cannot break into the 8’s without a proper crispy roast potato, so let’s go for a 7.79 out of 10. Service was good too, though I was pretty much the only person when I arrived – the woman who brought my roast seemed to have such a lovely, warm vibe.

Well, that’s 2024 over. If I can be arsed, I’ll write some awards in January/June or whenever I get around to it.

Overall in 2024, I’ve had 40 roast dinners in London, just 7 of them I would highly recommend, though 8 others I would also highly recommend…avoiding. The average price paid is just below £25.00 (a 10% increase on 2023) and my average score is around 6.95 – the joint second-worst year.

Oh well. Shall we laugh at MAGA vs Musk a bit more?

Elon Musk banging on about contemptible fools that are racists in the Republican party

And suddenly Elon Musk apparently hates racists, despite spending the last two years promoting their accounts on X, promoting the far-right AfD in Germany and allegedly discussing giving money to #FarageRiots. Yep, totally hates racists.

I’ll be back next week, apple juice in tow. SAD. And it’s a fucking mission to get to.

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Summary:

The Victoria Inn, Peckham

Station: Peckham Rye

Tube Lines: National Rail

Fare Zone: Zone 3

Price: £23.50

Rating: 7.79

Get Booking

https://www.victoriainnpeckham.com/

Instagrim

Loved & Loathed

Loved: The yorkie was really soft and properly cooked, gravy was pretty thick, the Hispi cabbage was nicely smokey and there was a hell of a lot of food.

Loathed: Cold carrots and a cold yorkie, and roast potatoes that were a bit dry, though nowhere near the state of some this year.

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