Roast

The former Portico of the Royal Opera House, stored in Wales but brought back into life when Borough Market was rejuvenated, is now home to Roast, the brainchild of Iqbal Wahhab, whose previous big project was the Cinnamon Club, the restaurant in St James where MP's, Trades Union leaders, professional lobbyists and curries all get mixed up together.

Head Cook Lawrence Keogh is one of the re-invented chefs that have not fled London to some dingy little pub in deep rurality, and is daily demonstrating that integrity and cooking can go hand in hand in the capital city. Menus change as fast as Home Secretaries, if not faster, but you can be sure that there is enough choice there for most of us. Amongst starters expect to find cullen skink with or without quail's eggs, home cooked jellied eels with malt vinegar, parsnip pancake with Sillfield Farm black pudding and fried egg, or grilled Cornish pilchards with watercress and lemon salad.

By now you will have begun to get the picture, and it is further emphasised with the main dishes that may include grilled ox heart with Worcestershire onions and watercress, roast Sproat and Harvey chicken with Sillfield bacon and bread sauce, honey and port roast ham with bubble 'n' squeak and Cumberland sauce or steak and ox kidney pudding cooked with Traquair house ale.

Roast potatoes are done in dripping, braised red cabbage and winter greens are well cooked, and even the roast pumpkin with orange tastes of, well, pumpkin and orange.

Drinks follow the same pattern of originality and surprise. Keep an eye open for Jammy Jim - Gosling's gold rum with rhubarb and ginger jam with apple and rhubarb juice, or 1749 Appleade - Appleton's white rum with organic cider, sugar and fresh lemon juice.

British wines appear in their list and English sparkling wine is on duty as the fizz by the glass.