London - October 21, 2005

Meat and Greet

Roast Restaurant Opens

Everyone loves a nice piece of meat.

Especially when it’s hot, juicy and deliciously tender.

Some of the best joints can now be found at Roast, the new restaurant from Iqbal Wahhab (that clever man behind The Cinnamon Club), which opens on Monday in Borough Market.

A shrine to the bastion of British culture that is Sunday lunch, Roast is also open for breakfast, lunch and dinner Monday to Saturday, and plans to turn the traditional meat and two veg on its head.

The cuts on the menu are sizzled on a spit in the open kitchen — pig, mutton, fowl and very sane beef. Foragers  have been specially appointed to supply seasonal delicacies from around the land. So why not sod the sprouts and try a little buttered rock samphire instead? There’s fish for those who abstain from the consumption of furry things and several waist-enhancing puddings for afters.

The space, a giant room with glass walls overlooking Borough Market and St. Paul’s Cathedral, is just as impressive. The building’s frontage is the original portico from Covent Garden market, bought by the people of Borough for a quid — proof you can still, on occasion, get something for almost nothing.

If only the same could be said for a nice piece of meat.

Roast, Floral Hall, Stoney Street, Borough Market, SE1 (020 7940 1300 or roast-restaurant.com).

  Breakfast, Classic British, Great View, Lunch Spot, Meatheads