OMG unlimited food and prosecco at my favourite restaurant for £30!! As soon as Ellie sent me the link to the Time Out offer I was on the website straight away purchasing tickets for the Han Setto brunch at Roka Aldwych. Soon a gang was assembled and date put in the diary; an intrepid team of food bloggers including Aftab, Lauren, May, Ellie and Emma ready to take on the challenge.
Some of us had met many times before, and some were meeting each other for the first time. Emma is my regular brunch buddy, Lauren is a fellow lover of fizz and Aftab and I could chat for hours over a coffee. I was meeting May for the second time after our recent brunch at Kopapa, and it was the first time I was meeting Ellie properly having only bumped into each other before. Those that didn’t know each other felt like they did after having a good stalk of each other’s blog, and if there was any awkwardness that would soon fade as our ‘lubrication’ began with a mango mimosa.
With it being a big group and a popular restaurant we hadn’t been able to get a table in the main area, but I actually loved having a table in the bar at the front of the restaurant. It was really cosy and we all agreed it allowed for better lighting conditions for us enthusiastic shutter bugs.
The set menu has a selection of ten starters designed to share and these are unlimited so you’re free to order more! We soon got started on this pretty, colourful tomato salad with shisho and hijiki dressing.
As well as this stunning selection of sashimi, my favourite being the tuna. The Han Setto offer also comes with unlimited wine and the waitress asked what type we’d prefer, a resounding chorus of ‘prosecco’ was the response!
I loved the dry finish on the fizz and they were certainly generous about keeping it topped up, as the multiple hangovers suffered the next day will attest to…
The sushi platter including salmon and avocado as well as crispy prawn and avocado maki rolls. The latter were the favourite of the day and we actually ordered another portion of these. We were slightly disappointed that the second round came with half the number of rolls…but to be fair we’re greedy food bloggers and this was probably a good thing…
I’ve mentioned before I don’t like sesame dressing, so I left this spinach salad for the others to enjoy.
But we all tucked in to the beef and ginger dumplings with gusto. As I mentioned, Roka is my favourite restaurant and the food at the Han Setto brunch was good but I didn’t feel that it was as excellent as it is when ordering from the à la carte menu BUT at £30 you can’t complain!!
Another starter was this potato and egg salad which I didn’t try as it didn’t appeal to me – it was the least favourite dish of the day and most of it remained on the table.
The final starter was the assorted vegetable and prawn tempura. I’m a huge fan of the tempura at Roka which is always so light, crisp and non-greasy plus the prawns were huge!
Next up were the mains, and you can choose one dish from the selection. But we basically ended up putting everything in the middle and sharing it, after carefully photographing everything of course.
Emma chose a beef sirloin with chilli and spring onion which was cooked perfectly rare and only lightly seared on the outside.
Aftab chose a selection of meat skewers including lamb, beef and chicken, I tried some of the beautifully tender chicken from the plate and it was perfectly cooked straight off the robata grill.
Vegetarian Ellie went for a super healthy selection of grilled vegetables with broccoli, asparagus, aubergine and sweet potato.
May’s glazed baby back ribs with cashew nuts, was a popular dish on the table.
My choice was sea bream with a miso glaze and red onion, while I enjoyed it I would say it was a *teeny* bit over cooked but it was just the right level of sweetness.
Lauren made the better choice of a salmon fillet with teriyaki sauce, but she let me eat at least half of it, she’s a good friend like that ;). The flesh of the fish flaked apart beautifully and the flavour was melt in the mouth. One thing I really appreciated was that the dishes were paced out really nicely, allowing us to enjoy a long Sunday brunch and we were able to keep the table for four hours. Of course, by now I was getting tipsy and my pictures were getting blurry…
Then the waitress bought out the piece de resistance; the Roka Dessert platter. Our spoons dove into the creme brulee, we munched away on the fruit and decapitated the chocolate Buddha to sample his deliciousness.
I have to say it was a really wonderful group of people to hang out with for the day at Roka Aldwych, and we had such a huge amount of fun eating the most delicious food and sipping on bubbles.
PS. Though we had the £30 Time Out voucher, the usual deal is great too. You can have the Han Setto Brunch for £55 with wine or £39 without.
Roka Aldwych
71 Aldwych
London
WC2B 4HN
020 7294 7636