Gordon Ramsey's Savoy Grill - The Strand, London

On Sunday last, my group set out to find a traditional Sunday roast. We all agreed on Simpson’s in the Strand for the quintessential experience. We didn’t have reservations, but arrived at straight up noon upon opening with high hopes. The dining room was quite empty, but we were advised that the restaurant was fully booked for the day with guests arriving within the hour.

A fortunate turn of events as it happened. We stepped next door to the Savoy Hotel and were graciously received by the hostess at The Savoy Grill, now a Ramsey restaurant.

The Sunday roast in this attractive dining room was very good:

Notice the “big as your head” Yorkshire pudding, a tad darker than I prefer, but the roast was great and those potatoes back there, perfect.

4 Likes

Nice looking pudding, those are hard to do well. How was the flavor?

Also did they carve the roast from the joint, or did it arrive already carved?

Finally, how was the sauce on the roast?

I thought the pudding was a bit overdone, but I’m no expert. It was great dipped in the au jus though, which was also rich and tasty. They did have a carvery cart they were cutting from. However, ours came from the kitchen, I guess because one of our group wanted it “well done.” :person_frowning:

Agree it looks overdone and a bit dry. In my book a good Yorkshire pudding achieves a balance of a crispy top and a base that still has a moist pudding texture.

Traditionally they were cooked in a roasting tin, cut up and served - rather than individual ones. The edges would rise and crisp and the centre would stay moist…a nice light brown edge not dark brown/black.

Yeah that was my thought too, it should be kind of a golden brown as opposed to a straight brown.

But then sometimes you get surprised because it tastes ok even though it looks a little crispy, which is why I asked.

Those things are really difficult to do right, kinda like croissants. Under done puddings are inedible, but they go to burnt in no time flat. It’s a very short window of perfection, and you need to keep your eyes on it all the time.

And it is easier to to the big ones correctly, but then you can have problems with the edges.

1 Like

Its a little strange we find them tricky to do given it was such a working class staple made weekly by most home cooks.

However, I also fail to perfect them all the time. But hot beef dripping, batter in with the oil boiling, top shelf, oven up very high, and cooked when the meat has been taken out to rest (the same with the roasties). Usually does them well - I suspect sophistication is the enemy of success.

1 Like

Agreed.

Together with lower end of the market places serving them with any roast. Mum only served them with beef. But we’re Cestrians not Yorkshire folk, so what do we know?

By the by, it’s a year or so since I looked at the Savoy Grill website. I recall it not being on my “to try” list due to their archaic policy of requiring jackets. Good to see the dress code is now smart casual, with denim and trainers permitted. Another place joining the 21st century.

I’m guessing they were a little more careful and ovens were a little less high powered.

Any combination of fat and flour is tricky.

Totally the other side of London and more than a tad hipster but one of the best roasts (apart from my mum’s, obviously) in the city has been the Bacchus Roast residency. They have four now i think - Bethnal Green, Hackney Downs, London Fields and Hoxton. A search of Bacchus Sundays will display where and how to book.

Picture of the utterly perfect and literally the size of my head pudding below. They do a nut roast or chicken, lamb or pork - if you are a beast like we were you can get a version with all three meats.

They also do starters and main courses and I think it costs around £15-£20 but totally worth it.

1 Like

Or well practised as it was a weekly dish.

I do wonder if the definition of good has changed. The one ShekhaV pictures and classifies as “utterly perfect” looks a little dry in the middle with the “pudding” quality cooked out…maybe the base is less crisp.

In Yorkshire only had them with beef both at home and when part of school dinners (none with the roast pork or lamb).

Come to think of it the school cooks did pretty well with the “yorkies” managing to produce pretty good ones for 800 hungry North Riding boys.

Or the recipes a bit. All of the best ones I have had involve at least some suet or drippings from the roast. I notice none of the recipes I pull up on the net include this any longer.

A little bit of tasty beef fat is never wrong.

It’s the secret ingredient in McDonald’s fries. Or the equivalent of Manteca (lard) in Mexican food. It’s hard to make things delicious without tasty fat.

1 Like

Good point - good beef dripping is essential - also the only way to make real chippie chips

1 Like

Agree about the chips, Phil. Increasingly rare to find dripping fried ones these days in my part of the world. I wonder if it’s a combination of economics, perceived health issues and chippies wanting to sell to non meat eater.

Grieves me to say, Yorkshire sticks to tradition a lot more in this case.

Possibly - that one wasn’t done in beef but it was still very moist in the middle, with crispy sides which is why I described it thus. I was impressed because they had managed to erect the kitchen for this particular pop up in some garagey-looking warehouse over a two day period.

Haha, though, surely most places which offer a Sunday roast should be well practiced in pud? I don’t really like Yorkshire puds tbf but this one I enjoyed :slight_smile:

I suspect that most places which offer a Sunday roast are well practiced in getting out of the freezer the bag of frozen ones that they bought from the wholesaler.

BTW, today is Yorkshire Pudding Day in the States. It’s Thursday. :alien:

http://www.readingeagle.com/life/article/national-yorkshire-pudding-day-celebrates-the-savory-side-of-pudding

1 Like

Wow, that’s amazing. I didn’t even know that was a thing.

It’s February 5, 2017 in the UK next year. A Sunday, natch.

Spotted today in the New York Times:

Yorkshire Pudding recipe from the British-born chef April Bloomfield, who says it dates back to an era when an English pub might cook a hunk of meat by dangling it from a hook above a roaring fire.