I'm Back and a Sunday Roast at The Albion (Again)

After 10 weeks of travelling through 5 countries, spending countless hours couped up in a Toyota Innova on a daily basis. Inspecting around 200 hotels, doing more sight seeing than a Japanese tour group, and eating at more hotel restaurants than a Michelin Guide. My mad trip has finally come to an end. Phew. I'm kind of amazed I lasted the full distance. There were moments in Burma that suggested I wasn't going to make it. But somehow I rallied on and pushed on through to the bitter end.

My final day on this exotic trip consisted of eating steamed idili's inside the brand spanking new Terminal 3 at Delhi airport. A great south Indian breakfast dish, which came with all the trimmings. A coriander, coconut and a chilli chutneys, plus a lovely sambhar that struck all the notes for a goodbye meal to India at 6am. 

I resisted the temptation to eat bad burgers or subway sandwiches at Muscat airport, knowing full well the delicious food that was going to be put in front of me on Oman Air. I can not remember what I had, but it sure soaked up the 2 double rum and cokes I had beforehand. 
As I probably won't be eating any form of Indian food for at least a few days till I start work on Wednesday. I was in the need of something completely different from the last 10 weeks. Hey as it was Sunday, so why not do a roast. Now, where was the best roast we had eaten in the last year. 
For some reason, Islington was mighty quiet on this Sunday lunchtime. Maybe the media types had escaped town on this Bank Holiday weekend. Thankfully they had, as a reservation at the Albion was easy to come by. Phew.
Today was not the best day for eating outside, especially as it was not steaming hot, with humidity hitting 90%, so everyone was chowing inside. Another phew, as I was not sure I would have lasted the entire meal outside in the cold.
It was a no brainer as to what I was having. Rare Roast Beef with all the trimmings. Lina had the Belly of Pork. Now something has happened since my last visit earlier this year. The portion sizes have increased somewhat. Excellent news. I mean they were not small in the first place, but now they are more in keeping with my size of belly.

The roast beef was bloody juicy and rare, although slightly to thickly cut for my liking, but it ate very very well. The pork, of what I was allowed to eat was soft and tender. The trimmings were as I would expect form the winner of the Observer Best Sunday Roast Award 2009 were plentiful and great. It's been a long time since I'd eaten parsnip and I cherished every moment of it. 
All this was washed down with a lovely pint or two of Black Sheep bitter. Again something I had missed over the last 70 days. I am going to make up for this lack of bitter that is for sure. 
I really must visit the Albion more for Sunday lunch, as it ticks all the boxes on what I expect from a great lazy Sunday afternoon meal.

Sunday Roast @ The Albion

Having lived within a 5 minute walk of the Albion for over 6 months, we ate and drank there on more than a few occasions, but somehow the Sunday lunch there never came to pass. Either because we forgot to book, or we just turned up on the off chance that they would let us in. They never did. It’s always fully booked on a Sunday.

Our last attempt to eat there was a few weeks ago, again on a whim as we were wandering around trying to decide where to eat. We ended up at The Bull. Read below for how a disappointing lunch that was.

So this time we made sure we booked. They seem to have 2 sittings, one at 12pm and the other at 2.30pm. Noon was way too early, as who knows how bad these hangovers are these days. Seems to be an age thing, the older I get the worse they are. So a 2.30 reservation was made.

We arrived a tad early, so we grabbed a couple of beers and wandered outside to take in a bit of sunshine. It’s amazing how many Americans there were sitting outside. I actually felt like I was a foreigner here. Most of them were talking a lot of shit, but kids these days the world over normally do. Am I getting old?

We wandered through to the rear garden, as it was a sunny day, the inside dinning room was empty and everyone was being seated outside. Glorious sunny day it was. The garden was packed with lots of groups of friends. Thankfully no screaming babies here. They seemed to be frowned upon these days, well by me they are.

The menu at the Albion is short and sweet. More or less about 6 starters, 7 mains and with about 6 puddings. All sounded great. I would have preferred to have the lamb, but it was for 3 or 4 people. Shamefully my wife cannot eat for 2 anymore.

So glad I am not a veggie, as the option of a baked potato with creamed spring mushrooms was a tad not appetising. But who cares, I’m not and cannot see it happening.

We shared some Dorset crab on toast, which had one side full of white meat and the other side brown meat. It was juicy and with a squeeze of lemon made it perfectly acidic. It’s amazing just how different the white and brown meats are on a crab. Gorgeous. Boy I’ve missed simple pleasures like this.

The mains, I had to have the Rare Roast Beef and Yorkie. Lina went for the Slow Roasted Pork Belly. All these come with the trimmings as they say. Sautéed spring greens, Chanterelle carrots and roast potatoes. Now I’m not mad, no matter what Lina says, but a roast has to contain at least three good sized roasties. Here we had four. Excellent. They were crispy as well with great texture and taste, how a roast tattie should be.

My roast beef was rare and juicy, the great gravy was a little over powering it, but apart from that it was fantastic. I think they gave me the biggest yorkie ever created, as it took up half the plate. Love it. The only thing missing was the horseradish. I should have asked for some but as we were in a far corner it was a little difficult to catch someone’s eye. Hey ho.

Lina’s pork belly came rolled and was really meltingly tender. The apple sauce was tart and married well with the fattiness of the pork belly. Good sized portion again.

Unfortunately with the sun beating down on us, we gave the puddings a miss, and opted for two espressos to wake us up a bit. Lunchtime drinking in the sun always makes me sleepy.

I have to say that the Sunday roast here is as good as it gets. A couple of minor flaws but nothing to worry about. It’s nigh on perfect. They used good ingredients and cooked more or less to perfection. I loved it. This is going to be a hard act to follow.

The only thing missing was a few friends to share it with. Next time.