Roast Dinners in London

Well it’s all been a bit average in 2026 so far so I decided to take a risk and go somewhere a bit different – Ekstedt in Westminster.

Ekstedt is a Swedish-influenced restaurant – if you translate Ekstedt into English, it means…Ekstedt.

Ekstedt seems to be the last name of the chef, sorry, multi award-winning Michelin starred chef, and this is his first restaurant outside of Stockholm – a city even cloudier than London, in my albeit limited experience.

And it being in London, it offers “the best Sunday Roast in London”. Of course it does. How many “best Sunday Roasts in London” have I been to and how many are the best?

Though it has a left-of-centre Swedish twist to it. Unlike this bastard:

BREAKING: Nigel Farage calls for an end to working from home and the focus on work-life balance "People aren't more productive working from home – it's a load of nonsense”Whatever you do JUST DON’T VOTE REFORM!

— Peter Stefanovic (@peterstefanovic.bsky.social) 2026-02-09T17:19:55.350Z

Yes I’m soooo much more productive when I’ve been stood up on delayed trains/tubes for 75-90 minutes in the morning, then spending time to find a half-decent office chair, whilst melting because the air conditioning isn’t working yet a-fucking-gain, with people all around me shouting ever louder on their Teams calls because they cannot hear people on their Teams calls because everyone else is shouting louder, and all I’m trying to do is explain to Co-Pilot what she needs to do for me today.

Isn’t it enough that he’s destroyed our right to live in 27 other countries, many of them significantly sunnier than ours? We do of course, have roast dinners to comfort us. Or not, in my case, too often.

I’m Just Jenny from The Yard

Also that bastard:

Yes the MP apparently representing the town of Clacton, not that any of his constituents have seen him there, the same person who was MEP and barely ever turned up to a debate or vote – wants people back in the office more.

Man of the people. Man of the people that don’t work any more, perhaps.

£12.00 I spent this week for one fucking slice of avocado toast, and one poached egg, whilst on my office day.

Speaking of being over-priced, shall we see what’s on the menu at Ekstedt?

On the menu was beef short rib – and there is no reason to look any further. Though you could also have leg of lamb, guinea fowl or a mysterious vegetarian option.

Yes you read salad. Salad on a roast dinner. I’m nearly over Brexit, you can get over this.

All sharing mains – and a main course was £35.00. Well…central London and all.

A Fistful of Embers at The Yard

It was one of those nicely presented roasts of which I’m going to make unpresentable by time I do some rearranging, so for the purpose of the tape, here’s how it was presented:

Notice the whacking great big chunk of short rib.

I should also mention that everything they cook at Ekstedt is done by open-fire cooking – so there is a smokiness generally pervading, but quite subtley.

Anyway…salad time:

Lettuce on a roast dinner works. DON’T EVEN THINK OF HITTING THE CLOSE BUTTON. Fresh crispy lettuce, with carrot shaving and some kind of dressing of which I have no idea was really nice and refreshing.

Dear chefs, don’t get too many ideas – salad on a roast dinner once every 10 years is fine.

Carrots were small and a little on the crunchy side of the spectrum.

Parsnips were much softer and a delight both in terms of texture and flavour – the sweet nuttiness really coming out well.

And the apple? Well, it was kind of caramelised – almost a toffee ish kind of sweetness.

Whoa We’re Going To The Yard

So we’ve also been colonised by Hasselback potatoes, which is a damn sight more preferable than being colonised by racist billionaire pricks.

Yeah, same billionaire prick that colonised Monaco instead of contributing tax towards the UK, but yeah let’s blame immigrants instead.

Though if you are a racist billionaire prick, I’d like to say sorry if you feel offended by this.

One of the potatos was pretty good in a not a roast potato but I guess it will suffice kind of way. The other two were significantly al dente – which feels like the downside of cooking everything over fire. They were really flavoursome though, so more of a texture and not being a roast potato problem, but of course roast potatoes are impossible without a deep fat fryer. Sorry, I mean without a microwave.

For the purposes of Americans without a sense of British sarcasm currently reading – I should clarify roast potatoes are impossible without an oven to roast them in.

The Yorkshire pudding was mercifully small, but also dry and crispy. Meh.

The beef was pretty sexy, but we couldn’t actually finish it between the two of us – this was far too much beef. And then they asked us if we wanted a dessert. Huh? It did feel like it was missing some level of seasoning perhaps, yet it was smoky without being overpoweringly so – kind of quite cleverly subtle

It won’t win sexiest meat of the year (well, I hope not, still early days) but it’s up there in quality – and exceptional in terms of quantity.

Finally I think the gravy was banging, but there was far too tiny a dribble for either of us to really tell. I’d suggest it was quite rich, and definitely tasted of cooking fats, etc from the beef. Exceptional in terms of the lack of quantity.

Ekstedt At The Yard

So a mixed and controversial roast dinner – a roast dinner looking like this will be about as popular as an Airbnb host on Threads, or a brown-skinned person on X.

The short rib is definitely the stand-out here, though props also for what was probably a really sexy gravy, if only there was enough to actually be able to detect it. And the salad, loved it.

Hasselback potatoes might have sufficed were they not al dente, and the Yorkshire pudding was dry. Oh and the plate was too small, and I guess I should mention the small gravy boat once again.

The restaurant itself is pretty cool/classy – the usual exposed brick with nice lighting, and a large kitchen on one side with the open flame, plus it’s inside the rather gorgeous Great Scotland Yard Hotel, which has a proper ChatGPT generated rhino chair in the foyer, and is only around £330 a night to stay in – a price that might make sense on my salary in 100 years’ time, though of course isn’t aimed at me.

Probably a bargain for your average racist billionaire that doesn’t pay tax. Though whatever you do, get back to the office and stop slacking off.

My accomplice scored it a 7.80, and I’m scoring it a 7.28 out of 10. Worth a try if you are brave enough for something different on a roast dinner (reading comments on Threads I guess not), though like many places I review, I suspect that the real excellence comes on non-Sundays – some of the dishes look stunning.

Next week’s plan is a re-review, though this time somewhere I think I got unlucky and has a lower score than it probably deserves. We shall see.

Have a good week, don’t forget to give more of your earnings to billionaires.