So, Autumn has arrived with a bit of a splash! And, while the thought of cold dark mornings, cold dark evenings, and not being able to day-drink all weekend just because ‘it’s summer’, fills me with dread, the thought of cosy knitwear, log fires and red wine excites me. (It basically just means switching the Aperol Spritzes to large glasses of red wine, which is fine with me). So, I’m sitting here under a blanket on the sofa in front of a roaring fire with a glass of red wine, reminiscing on last week’s meal at The Royal Oak, and thinking Autumn might not be so bad after all!
The other exciting thing about Autumn is cosy pubs and warming comfort food, think Sunday roasts and sticky toffee pudding. So, it was perfect timing that The Royal Oak pub in Marylebone invited me for dinner just as summer fully gave up the ghost. The Royal Oak is in a Victorian Grade II listed building and has managed to retain that comforting neighbourhood pub feel despite being in central London. The food, however, is far superior to what you’d expect at your local pub, gastro or otherwise.
The menu contains elevated takes on pub classics, and to start us off we went for the Nduja Scotch egg with roasted garlic aioli. The scotch egg was delicious, crispy on the outside with a perfectly cooked soft egg in the middle and the Nduja giving the whole dish a spicy Italian kick. Served with sweet smoky roasted garlic aioli, this scotch egg will ruin all future scotch eggs for you, be warned. The other starter we ordered was Burrata (of course), heritage tomatoes, burnt onion, fennel pollen and tarragon, a very tasty dish but surprisingly my least favourite of the meal and slightly too peppery for my taste.
For our main course we were going to order two sirloin steaks, but when we were informed there was only one left (who would be the bigger person and choose something else), we decided to go for the Côte de Boeuf to share (go on then, twist my arm!) It was an impressive looking piece of meat cooked perfectly medium rare, served with deliciously thin and crispy onion rings, a delicious butter (I will not even pretend to know what was in it), and a rich, shiny, mouth-watering jus. The chips were golden, crispy, perfectly seasoned and scrumptious (truly).
N.B. No I do not make a habit of drinking white wine with my steak, but my boyfriend isn’t a red wine drinker (yet), so we asked for a wine recommendation from our fantastic and incredibly friendly waitress, Serena. She suggested ‘The Oddity’ Dry Furmint 2016 which turned out to be a great recommendation and was aromatic, crisp and clean…(almost) making up for not being a red wine while I ate my steak.
After eating my bodyweight in steak, we looked at the dessert menu, but having looked on Instagram before visiting I knew that no matter how full I was I had to order The Royal Oak sticky toffee pudding with chocolate, pecans and ice cream. Sticky toffee pudding is one of my favourite desserts, and one of the reasons I look forward to the colder months and this one did not disappoint. With the sole exception of my Mum’s sticky toffee pudding, which really can’t be beaten, (brb just off to collect my brownie points), it really was the best sticky toffee pudding I’ve eaten and was totally worth the fact that I had to undo my jeans.
I left The Royal Oak convinced I would never be hungry ever again, (fast forward to my stomach rumbling at 8am the next morning) and looking forward to the next few months of colder weather, cosy pubs and warming winter dishes.
