Roast Dinners in London

As if this blog wasn’t repetitive enough already, it was time to head back to Orbit Beers as they had a new pop-op in town, The Dragon Flame BBQ.

And after last week’s dire roast dinner, which was recommended by Time Out as their 11th best roast dinner in London, I was more relieved that The Dragon Flame BBQ was a recommendation via Londonist.

Until…

If only I had some chalk on me…

Besides, it was 4th in Time Out’s list. Not the best.

Also, I used to sit in the “best stand” at Hull City when I was a nipper, and rust used to fall down if the ball hit the roof, so the word “best” doesn’t mean too much to me…granted I have about 15 pages on this blog where the title starts “best…”.

Send Elon Musk Into Orbit

So I mentioned that I’d previously had a roast dinner at Orbit Beers when they had Cue Point there.

Fancy a game of guess what I was moaning about back then?

Wrong! Because he was on his way to jail back in February 2023, and there was no chance those loons over there were going to vote for an insurrectionist cult again.

Hmmm…

Even after ICE arrested his wife, this Trump supporter refuses to take down his MAGA flags and says he doesn’t regret voting for Trump:“Trump is not trying to do anything bad. He wants the best for the country.”

— Republicans Against Trumpism (@rpsagainsttrump.bsky.social) 2025-07-04T15:35:28.279Z

Well, it’s one way to stop your wife laying claim to half of your earnings if you divorce, I guess.

Anyway, I didn’t moan about Donald Trump back when I last went to Orbit Beers, but I did moan about the Metropolitan line. Thankfully I don’t need it any more – especially given it was suspended this weekend. Instead I had the joys of a hot Thameslink train, standing-room only. Ahhhh London I love thee.

Send Netanyahu Into Orbit

That was fun, wasn’t it? Shall we spin it again?

Yes?

Oh come on, I barely ever mentioned him.

I did moan about Brexit though.

Thankfully we don’t need the £40 billion a year, as we can just cut foreign aid and disability benefits instead, so that we also still don’t balance the books, but don’t balance the books in a way that will keep the bond market calm, because there are 100 Liz Truss’ awaiting their turn in the Labour Party too.

Oh yeah, I mentioned Liz Truss last time. How did she not even make it onto my wheel of crud?

Shall I spin again?

No? Fine. Yeah I’m definitely getting more desperate to fill these pages.

Send Putin Into Orbit. Permanently. Well…Send Them All Permanently.

Considering the small place, there was quite a choice of meats – oak-smoked half chicken at £21.50, oak-smoked beef brisket at £24.95, confit duck leg at £24.50, beef at £22.95, pork at £21.50 or a celeriac, spinach and mushroom wellington at £18.50.

There was a bit of me tempted by the chicken, had it not been a BBQ meats place, I may well have at least thought about the vegetarian wellington. But I only had eyes on the brisket.

The room itself was quite warm – were it a heatwave weekend then it might have been uncomfortable in there.

It did have gentle deeper house music playing, which suited my hangover – alas I’m not so fussed about the beers Orbit serve. A couple of accomplices advised that their Tzatziki Sour is a cult classic, but I wasn’t brave enough, and just needed ordinary IPA, of which they were happy to serve. Service itself, did feel welcoming and friendly.

It was also a little dark inside so this is about as good a photo as I managed, though given that Google e-mailed me the other day to advise that my phone will become a fire risk after 400 more charging sessions, I guess I’m getting a new phone with a better camera at some point soon.

So, starting with the carrots which had seemingly been roasted, and were decent, fresh – I didn’t detect any other flavour or seasoning.

Green beans were supplied too, a little chunkier than your average supermarket green bean, quite crunchy though nothing overly so.

And then there was braised red cabbage, which did have quite a lot of flavour and was very impactful too – Chinese Five Spice seemed to be the vibe.

Not quite I really want that on my roast dinner, but that is a me thing – at least two accomplices absolutely loved it.

Send Red Cabbage Into Orbit

The roast potatoes were…ok. 5 of them in total, though two of those were just one bite. They were edible, but also quite waxy and not miles away from being new potatoes – it is that time of year where it can be tricky to source good roasting potatoes, so maybe a little forgiveness could be in order. They were edible. Unless you are new to this blog (and somehow made it past the introductory shite), you will appreciate I’ve had worse. Last week, for example. These were…ok.

I quite liked the Yorkshire pudding, it was quite soft if a tiny little bit overdone on top. I feel like there was something else going on, maybe a hint of mustard but also I could easily be making that up – the flavour of both the gravy and red cabbage made it tricky to pick anything else out, as they were both quite over-powering.

Again I enjoyed the beef brisket but it wasn’t anything outstanding. I feel like the fat could have rendered more, plus there was a lack of crispy ends – I do feel like brisket should have a contrast of textures. Is that a “me” thing too?

But it was still a good piece of BBQ meat, there was some smokiness to it (not much, and overpowered by red cabbage and gravy), and plenty of it, even if I didn’t fall in love with it as I did with the BBQ beef brisket at The Larkshall in Chingford.

Finally, the gravy, of which plenty was supplied, thankfully as there was a £2.00 northerner tax. Yet again it was a “quite like” from me, it had a decent consistency, very much a red wine flavour though not on the yacky side, as red wine gravy/jus can often be, and did compliment the roast – though I did also find it a little over-powering, and possibly negated some flavour in the beef, for example.

The Dragon Flame BBQ at Orbit Beers

I don’t begrudge Time Out putting this in their best roast dinners in London list, as the list is a bit bullshitty anyway.

It wouldn’t make my list, but also I can see why someone might love this more than I did. And that happened around our table.

One accomplice had the duck, which was apparently very good, with nice skin and good level of fat, and scored his a 7.75 out of 10.

The rest of us had the beef brisket, my regular accomplice scored it a 7.60 – but two other accomplices scored it a 9.00 out of 10. It isn’t that often there is such a divergence in scoring around the table, but also I don’t think their scores are nonsense. The Dragon Flame BBQ roast dinner is one of those you might love more than I. Clearly both Time Out and Londonist did.

My score is a very respectable 7.05 out of 10.

No review next week as I’m helping someone write a book. No, seriously, I am, and alas it involves going back to somewhere I’ve previously reviewed…but also is a free roast dinner. And they know who I am. So all of this means no review.