What’s this?
Roast’s seasonal menu of cocktails from the bar menu. There are 7 in total.
How Much Do They Cost?
Each cocktail costs £12. The snacks on the bar menu vary in price from £7.75 to £16.75
Where?
Roast Restaurant,
The Floral Hall,
Stoney Street,
London
SE1 1TL
When?
They’re available up until spring 2015, which is when the menu will change (‘yknow, seasonally).
More info
http://www.thebaratroast.com/
Menu: http://www.thebaratroast.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/bar-and-snacks-menu-web3.pdf
Whoops
OK, so we head down to try the ‘Deliciously British’ Roast and their December Market Tipples, but I can’t find them on the menu and/or get them mixed up with the seasonal tipples LIKE A BOSS. So instead we end up going for the Seasonal Tipples, which are as you can imagine… also seasonal.
As you can see I am often too enthusiastic for my own good whilst being simultaneously absentminded enough to not be entirely sure what it is that I am getting enthusiastic about until afterwards. But people seem to like that.
So yeah, we were sent to review these nice thingies and OH MY – one look at the mighty and international whisky selection behind the bar and I gotta say I would quite like to come back for a free reign. But this is perhaps another story not yet written.
Anyway I’ve brought my buddy, Paul, a healthy sorta guy who’s not really one for all the alcohol. But he signed up for seasonal cocktails, seasonal cocktails is what he’s gonna get, oh yes.
Oh, and oysters too (these are quite healthy)…
Relevant Fact: Paul is also a (very active) poet so his brief descriptions of various meals are suitably descriptive and excellent.
The Backstory (‘cos there’s gotta be a backstory)
It’s the run up to Christmas and there’s a bunch of blokes in suits and also blokes in ironic red woolly jumpers with Christmas motifs.
We’re seated by the window at an absolutely fkn tiny table for two. One of Roast’s selling points is its delightful views of the venerable Borough Market. Since we’re here in the evening, everything’s all sad and shut – however, it still looks pretty good with all the Christmas lights on and people congregating at the various bars on the other side of the market.
As is Roast’s custom, there is also a lone, guitar wielding singer by the bar, reading sheet music/lyrics from an iPad and singing a few numbers you may/may not be familiar with. This girl’s wearing a striped black and white jumper and at some point ends up playing Extreme’s More Than Words and Dido’s Thank You – plus a whole load of songs I just don’t recognise. She seems nice enough.
The staff are young and earnest, all of them with crisp suits and foreign accents. The clientele is, on the main part, also suited – with the volume of customers ebbing and flowing all throughout the night but kinda peaking at 9pm. At one point we’re sat next to four 40something women who seem to be catching up for Christmas.
I think some/all of them have the hots for Paul, he is a very beautiful man after all.
The Drinks
Roast’s Bar’s reason for being is put to the test…
Rose apertif – I have no idea what this is but I like it
Nose:Cloves and cinnamon – smells mulled and slightly chocolatey. There are crystals in the bottom of the glass
Taste: Creamy, slightly sweet takling the edge off of the sharpness of the bubbly. Floral, slightly citrussy, with a long finish on the chocolate flavours.
Paul drinks his far slower than I drink mine (lol) and we later discover that the flower that lives at the bottom of this tastes rather wonderful. It’s a bit like raisins but less concentrated..
Not sure if you’re actually meant to eat it or we’re just barbaric but would happily eat a bunch of these here flowers out of a bag as novelty crisps.
Caribbean Flower
June flower liqueur, Dictador 12 years old rum, vanilla syrup, fresh lime juice, fresh pineapple juice
Presentation looks a bit budget with the straws, but I think the flavour profile works for a more mainstream audience. The taste is sweet and heavy, which is too much for me (I much prefer the older style of drier, not sweet cocktails). You get the character of the rum without all the alcoholic burn. I don’t get the pineapple taste at all.
Blueberry Smile
Ortodoxy gin, fresh blueberries, pear juice, fresh grapefruit juice, green tea syrup
Paul gets this. I don’t try any so I have no idea what it tastes like.
Espresso Cup
Fresh espresso coffee, Dictador rum café, vanilla vodka, coffee liqueur, vanilla syrup
So I forgot that I didn’t like coffee cocktails (much as I like these things separately). As far as I understand it, this is quite a lot like an espresso martini. Reminds me quite a lot of ODing on Patron.
I think this is actual gold on the top but I am not sure. It has no taste and an ethereal texture that clings to the skin of your hands, but dissolves on your tongue, fast like lightning or enlightenment.
There’s a very strong coffee taste that combines with the sweetness of the vanilla flavours and the rum to make something that I can only describe as ultracoffee. Ultra is the Latin word for ‘beyond’ and anything that can hit you with caffeine, sugar and alcohol all at once is definitely beyond coffee. Too much for me but it goes down well with Paul!
Home Made Sexy Green
OK, so this is not on ‘tipples’ menu we decide that it’s worth a try, if only for the name.
Now, quoting Paul verbatim – “It tastes like a garden! Actually beautiful and quite refreshing”. I don’t get a try but you can take his word on it, cos he’s good at words.
Off menu custom coffee brandy(!!)
Coffee plus some kind of Hennessy Cognac
This is pretty great – Paul is suddenly struck with the urge for a brandy and coffee in the style that his grandma was so fond of. Turns out that Roast is happy to accommodate, letting him choose the brandy that works for him.
I try some – it’s basically an Irish coffee without the cream.
Compass Box – Hedonism
I notice that they have some of the most memorable whisky – Compass Box. I order some and then one of Roast’s sommeliers, Romans, appears. As you probably know, sommeliers are super clued up on wine, but it turns out that Romans is a fellow whisky nerd – and so we end up having a chat about Scottish stuff that has alcohol in it.
Turns out Romans has a blog about whisky too, which would probably make for fascinating reading if I were capable of reading Russian. Russian Romans – could be a plot arc in an alternative history sci fi…
Paul’s description of Hedonism is better than whatever description I wrote down – “It’s a vanilla cloud…a vanilla cloud that sets you on fire”.
The Food
Carlingford rock oysters
This wasn’t part of the plan but we end up with some of these. They say that oysters are an aphrodisiac but I think all good food is an aphrodisiac. AMIRITEEEEE?
The chutney that comes with this tastes so legit that we run out of it quite quickly. As ever, the oysters taste like you’re both eating and drinking the sea at the same time. Paul (re)invents the one slice oyster sandwich – though he seems to like it more this way than me.
Said bread absorbs both the chutney and the watery bits of the oyster. As with all oyster consumption experiences, you gotta watch out for the odd bit of shell!
Salad of Inverawe hot-smoked salmon and shaved Brussels sprouts with softboiled quail eggs, capers and chives
I order this. It is not as good as I hoped – the salmon is full of flavour but the quail eggs and shaved sprouts are quite tasteless – being redeemed somewhat by the capers and chives which are dotted about the place.
I can’t really say how it could have been improved as all the ingredients combined should work. Maybe you could convince the quail to lay more flavoursome eggs?
Seared Isle of Mull hand-dived scallops with whipped potato and garlic butter
Paul gets this. For what you pay it is indeed a hilariously small portion but these may well be the best scallops you ever eat.
There is also mashed potato hidden beneath the scallop shells, Paul only discovers this at the end. The scallops themselves are unbelievably tender and the garlic butter sauce they’re in is magnificent. Larger portion pls.
The Verdict
Roast is a bit like a microcosm of Borough Market. Great environment, fine views, high quality ingredients, and something of a hefty price premium based on well…being in Borough Market.
If someone works out how to get them to do a happy hour, do tell us…