After a heavy Saturday night (it is almost Christmas now after all!) the only thing to revive us was a big ol’ Sunday roast – luckily The Grafton delivered!
After winning the 2014 Great British Pub of the Year, The Grafton is now under new management and has had a full face lift. It offers the classic pub food along with a great selection of beer, wine and spirits. The pub is set over three floors, including the elusive outside, all-weather terrace so plenty of space to sit and relax (eat and drink) in the run up to Christmas and beyond.
Being so close to Camden Brewery it’s only fit that The Grafton has a selection of their beers, as well as the chance to sample new offerings before anyone else! Other local craft beers are also on tap and they have a great selection of cans and bottles. The day we visited we were in dire need of a Bloody Mary and we can happily say it was one of the best we’ve had in London – the perfect amount of spice and flavoursome tomato juice.
Food, and lots of it, was required to revive us so we started with chicken liver pate with pickles and sourdough and beetroot gnocchi with vegan rocket pesto. The pate was rich and creamy and came with two thick slices of bread, a pet peeve of ours is when you don’t get enough of the carbs (bread/crackers). The beetroot gnocchi was truly delicious and crucially, not stodgy which bad gnocchi can easily be.
For the roasts we stuck to the classic, half a corn fed chicken and roast rump of Angus beef. All roasts are served with vegetables, giant Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes and red wine gravy. We were tempted by the falafel roast (which is vegan) but in the end our body needed meat! Both the chicken and the beef were very well cooked, the beef was still medium rare and the chicken was perfectly moist. The Yorkshire pudding was big (great) and the roast potatoes were crispy, although some were better than others. There’s a choice of three gravies – meat, veggie and vegan so a good place to take any friends with different food requirements (we’ve all got ’em!).
The portions were big (I think our eyes were bigger than our bellies!) so we didn’t have room for dessert but we saw some good ones pass us by so we’ll be back another day to try! The Grafton also offers Bottomless Brunch on Sundays and they have various events and deals throughout the week e.g. burger and a beer for £10 on a Tuesday so it’s worth checking out their website for a full list!
