I went up to London from Chichester to meet up with an old friend for lunch. She used to live in the area and she suggested the recently opened North Road Restaurant. It is so easy when one goes to London to end up in some bad tourist trap, and as the restaurant is conveniently located close to Farringdon Tube and Thameslink station, I was game and not disappointed!

Arriving at the restaurant, we were received by the hostess taking our coats. We then ordered a glass of sparkling wine in the bar and had a look at the restaurant.
From the bar there is a window to the kitchen that features equipment that looks state of the art to my catering wise untrained eye. One of the people there proudly told that the fridges are very small since everything bought in fresh every day.

Anyway we got seated in the restaurant and I will describe it as contemporary and bright, yet it has a warm and welcoming feeling to it. We then got the menu from which we both chose the set lunch menu and wine list and soon after a couple of nice bread rolls arrived.

For starters I choose a lobster consommé made from “lobster, the whole lobster and nothing but the whole lobster”, I think, and it was deep flavoured, wholesome and divine tasting. Just what one needed on a cold November day! My friend chose braised ox cheeks and I heard nothing but praise from her.

From the menu I chose Beef rolled in burnt hay (Not a printing error!) but the restaurant could not get beef of satisfying quality so I was told it would be venison instead. Added bonus for me and it was just so tender and the hay complemented the meat unexpectedly well. The dish was served with differently prepared beetroots. Again very tasty, but a few new potatoes, some sort of potato dish or perhaps a mash of root vegetables would have balanced the dish better in my opinion.
The other side of the tables had Dorset Brill & stewed salsify to her absolute satisfaction. She actually told the waiter how perfectly cooked it was!

Talking about the… More