Last Updated on November 11, 2024
A classic roast at an excellent price.
Who doesn’t love a good Sunday roast? I’m a huge fan of those lazy Sunday afternoon events with friends. Of course, a homecooked lunch is always good – but sometimes it’s nice to have lunch where no one has to co-ordinate roast potatoes, Yorkshire pud and roast meat – and where everyone can pick their own roast – be that vegetarian, pescatarian, chicken, beef, lamb or pork. The solution is obvious. Find a great relaxed restaurant where you can chill and just enjoy the food and conversation. Even though Bistro Bleu has only been open since the summer of 2023 we’ve already visited before and tried their a la carte menu. When we found out that they’d launched a Sunday lunch we just had to go back for more.
Sunday lunch at Bistro Bleu is an affordable luxury, with one course at £20, two for £25 or three for £30 but, as we discovered, there’s no compromise on quality. And, the warm dining room, with traditional styling, rich deep blue painted walls and comfortable seating, is exactly where you can easily chill for hours on end. That requires three courses and to be honest, we recommend arriving hungry. The main course roasts are very traditional. Large portions of meat, veg, Yorkshire pudding and appropriate trimmings. But you won’t want to skip starters or desserts which in our experience are all excellent.
I started with an excellent treacle-cured salmon with pickled carrot and little cubes of Granny Smith apple. A beautifully balanced plate, the portion was generous and the salmon itself soft, full flavoured and tender.
My companion opted for a silky smooth duck and chicken liver parfait with toasted baguette and pear and saffron compote. I had a mouthful and was impressed by full-flavoured parfait and the contrasting delicately sweet compote. It is a classic dish but one that can be an easy miss if the parfait isn’t carefully balanced and the accompanying sweet compote or chutney is overpowering. Needless to say, our plates were cleaned!
The slow roast pork belly was styled like a porchetta – a substantial slice of meat with crisp crackling served with a beautifully puffed up Yorkshire pudding, ample roast potatoes and a generous portion of maple roasted carrots and parsnips and buttered greens. Hiding in there was apple sauce, though my companion asked for extra – and there was lashings of rich gravy.
For me, the Scottish striploin beef with horseradish which came with all the same accompaniments. My only reservation is that the meat was rather well cooked for my personal taste, but I suspect that is a matter of chance. We saw other plates served with perfectly rare helpings of beef – and I know that for some people a roast should be well done. At the price point it’s forgivable – especially given the perfect delivery of all the accompanying vegetables and condiments.
For dessert, my dark chocolate brownie came with the promised bitter chocolate sauce, although I suspect I had a coconut ice cream rather than chocolate. The brownie was moist and almost but not quite sticky – that perfect consistency that we all aim for at home and seldom achieve.
My companion’s sticky toffee pudding was excellent, although she stole half my ice cream and ordered extra caramel sauce…
Bistro Bleu has a rather good dessert wine list and both of us indulged – for me a glass of Croft LBV and for my companion one of the Monbazillac. The perfect way to round off a lazy Sunday afternoon, we staggered out nearly three hours after we’d arrived – and not because the service was in any way slow!
Bistro Bleu uses the space above the Rugby Tavern, a traditional pub in Bloomsbury. Blink and you might miss it because the restaurant only has a small signage at the moment. But, it’s the kind of place I’d like as my own local – and the kind of place I can happily recommend to anyone in London looking for a well-priced Sunday lunch.
19 Great James St, London WC1N 3ES
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