A Hidden Gem - Rotunda Bar and Restaurant, King's Cross
Sunday Beef Club at Rotunda, King’s Place - Restaurant Review
Price: ££
Food: 5/5
Style Points: 5/5
Value for Money: 5/5
Overall: 5/5
The Story
Located on the ground floor of the impressive King’s Place complex and overlooking Regent’s Canal, Rotunda is a beautifully designed bar and open-plan restaurant boasting incredible panoramic views of the canal.
The restaurant underwent a significant refurbishment in late 2018 with a fresh new look and new menus, yet it is seemingly overlooked due to being slightly further away from trendy Coal Drop’s Yard and the likes of Dishoom and Caravan.
Rotunda is unique in the fact that they have their own farm, the 288-acre Corneyside Farm in Matfen, Northumberland, which has stocks of 750 breeding sheep, 1300 lambs, 300 cattle and 20 pure-bred Texel-cross stock rams. This means the restaurant has a constant supply of Limousin X beef and Texel lamb.
The free-range meat is hung in the restaurant’s specially built hanging room where their very own butcher gets to work ensuring the best quality meat and most interesting cuts are available for the chef to put on the menu. Nothing is wasted, bones are kept for stock and fat for dripping and wrapping around meat.
The Food?
The restaurant recently launched their Sunday Beef Club, a mammoth Sunday roast set menu that I couldn’t wait to try. First up it was the chef’s choice of canapes and a glass of Champagne in the bar to get us in the mood for what was to come.
The Champagne was of course fabulous and the canapes were delicious. I especially loved the lamb empanadas and corn fritters which were both full of flavour and seasoned perfectly. A really nice relaxed way to ease into proceedings.
We were then escorted to our table by our friendly server who explained more about the menu and what was to come. He spoke with such real passion and knowledge of the menu and restaurant that it made us quite excited for each course. Starting with the ‘best of the sea’, a Seafood Sharing Platter of H.Forman & Son smoked salmon, dressed Cornish crab in shell, Atlantic prawns with a ‘Bloody’ marie rose served with St John sourdough bread and salted butter.
Everything was delicious and certainly lived up to the billing. The smoked salmon had a soft meaty texture and an intense sweet smokey flavour that just lit up my tastebuds.
The dressed cornish crab had oodles of flavour from the mayonnaise sauce but still kept the sweet tender taste of the crab which was a real joy to eat. The peeled Atlantic prawns with the rich marie rose was a perfect combination and suffice to say the platter was picked clean.
Next up, Roast Corneyside Farm sirloin with unlimited duck fat roast potatoes, seasonal vegetables, Yorkshire puddings, and gravy. The beef was exquisite. The dry-aging process means that moisture is drawn out of the meat and the connective tissue is broken down which leads to a more flavourful and tender meat. It literally melted in the mouth and was full of concentrated beefy flavour in each bite.
What’s more is the purple carrots, glazed parsnips and tenderstem broccoli were all cooked to perfection and in my mind now, are the ultimate accompaniments to steak. Alongside of course potato and the duck fat roasted potatoes were sublime. The Yorkshire puddings were also some of the best I have tasted and it was almost like they were deep-fried because they were unbelievably crunchy yet fluffy inside.
Alongside the food you have half a bottle of wine per person so my guest and I decided on a bottle of a lovely Rioja which went down just as well as the food!
After a fabulous 1st and 2nd act, we moved onto the 3rd and final act, dessert from the main menu each plus an espresso martini, Irish coffee or port. We both had our eyes set on the passion fruit, chocolate and honeycomb baked Alaska but sadly for us it had sold out and so had our second choice - hot chocolate pot, toasted marshmallow, salted peanuts. It was a shame but alas it wasn’t meant to be!
We settled on the white forest meringue roulade with white chocolate, tonka cream and spiked cherries. Whatever disappointment we had was soon a thing of the past as the dessert was fabulous. Not usually a fan of alcoholic fruit, the spiked cherries were surprisingly delicious and was perfect with white chocolate.
It was a really good dessert and, along with the espresso martinis, a great way to bring our fabulous meal to an end.
Price?
Available for tables of two or more the lunch includes canapés, a seafood sharing platter, Roast sirloin of beef with classic accompaniments, a choice of dessert from the menu
with drinks paired for each course. It is £65pp including drinks, or £45pp without. Rotunda’s regular brunch and à la carte menus are also available alongside the Sunday Beef Club.
Overall?
I had an amazing time sampling the Sunday Beef Club menu at Rotunda. Everything was cooked perfectly and the high quality ingredients really shone through each dish. The dry aged sirloin was of course the highlight but I found each course was harmonious in flavour and taste.
If I had to sum up Rotunda as a whole it would have be as a ‘hidden gem.’ This is a restaurant that is screaming to be talked about more amongst the restaurant crowd. The gorgeous decor with its brass fixtures and colourful hues of tan and sea green, its incredible location with panoramic views of the canal, and its high quality food which is an obvious source of passion for everyone involved, all combine together to create a fabulous dining experience that will live long in the memory.
Book your table at Rotunda Bar and Restaurant.
Address: Kings Place, 90 York Way, London N1 9AG
Phone number: 020 7014 2840
Closest tube station: King’s Cross
My meal was complimentary, all opinions are my own.
Her Favourite Food x
