Roast Dinners in London

Goodbye Dry January and your average roast dinners, hello Dry February and your probably average roast dinners. This week At The Red Setter in Clapham.

But at least nobody has made me go watch Melania.

There is a bit of me tempted to go just to laugh out loud really obnoxiously all the way through to annoy all the other people in the cinema…

Ah, there would be nobody to annoy.

But also, you’d need to pay me. I’d do it for a a lifetime’s supply of Blacklock cheesecake. Maybe.

I would say I feel sorry for her, but also she’s about to inherit a billion from Shitler’s presidency of grifting, so…

Ah well, maybe let’s feel sorry for the director of the movie – imagine having to make something like that. Gosh imagine what he must have done in a previous life…oh wait…sorry, this life…

Is anyone in or around this Trump administration not a sex pest? Is anyone connected with that administration not in the Epstein files?

The Nappy Shitter

Yes, of course – even the new chairman of the Federal Reserve is in the files:

Barely a few hours after President Donald Trump named him as the next nominee to chair the Federal Reserve, Kevin Warsh was revealed to be in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case files.

— Raw Story (@rawstory.com) 2026-01-30T23:15:22Z

So it didn’t take me too long to revert to Paedophiles And Rapists Controlling The World Derangement Syndrome, and I know I should really get over it as quickly as I’ve got over Brexit.

But what else are you here for? Roast dinner content? Yet another review of yet another average roast dinner with a burnt Yorkshire pudding? How many times can you read those words? How many times can I spend £25.00 or so on an average roast dinner?

Why am I totally fine with the amount of money I’ve spent eating average roast dinners to be able to write this blog approaching the amount of negative equity I have in this flat in the next “up and coming area of London”. When exactly is Croydon is up and coming?

A long time ago, Clapham was up and coming too. It went up, it came, and now it’s the proud location of The Roast Dinner Triangle Of Doom. A status Croydon could only dream of.

Yes that counts as a triangle.

The Tax Dodger

The Red Setter has been open for a couple of years – part of the Urban Pubs & Bars group, which score pretty averagely – with a score of 6.96 for the 6 of their pubs that I’ve visited, before this one.

Inside has a whacking great big fake blossom tree, as every pub needs. Insert eye-rolling smiley.

Beer choices were utterly bang average – which is a relief when one isn’t drinking, though not yet missing it too much.

One thing did slightly annoy me about The Red Setter, and that was our table was where a walkway should have been – we constantly had waiting staff/customer brushing past both sides of the table. Not the end of the world, but it was a bit odd trying to squeeze a table in there.

Options for the roast was chicken at £21.00, slow-cooked porchetta at £22.00, sirloin of beef at £26.00, or a beetroot and spinach wellington at £20.00. Or you could get a trio at £29.00…but I’m more likely to go vegan as my body simply doesn’t need all that meat, more is the pity. Why the fuck does my body prefer vegetables? Sigh.

I’d not had beef for a while, so that was my choice.

The Bed Wetter

Yes, I was actually hoping it would be cooked, but I guess they didn’t have enough time in the 5 minutes between placing the order and the food arriving.

I mean, at least pretend you’re cooking the roast.

So, what shall we start with? The carrots were quite nice, a tiny sprinkling of pepper on them, soft and roasted.

Likewise the swede and butternut squash cubic medley (nearly wrote pubic medley and now I cannot unthink it) – all soft, and a tad on the cold side.

The parsnip managed to be really flavoursome, yet chewy and quite cold.

And the cabbage was actually cooked this week, unlike last week’s roast dinner – soft, but really could have done with some seasoning, flavour – or a bit of butter or cream. Hell…just something.

The Pussy Getter

Two very different roast potatoes. One was utter crud, kind of grey inside, stale and very dry. The other was also dry inside – but the outer part was delectably crispy.

The Yorkshire pudding was crap. Sure, the bottom was edible but the top was soooo chewy, and had been under a heat lamp at some point that day. Assumedly the heat lamp was switched off recently as it was also served cold. On National Yorkshire Pudding Day too.

I would have preferred the beef to have been cooked, but also I would have preferred the Yorkshire pudding not to be cold, the vegetables to have some seasoning, my body to be totally happy having 6 pints of NEIPA every day, my employer to give me a pay rise matching inflation, Trump not to have been absolutely exonerated by the Epstein files which have now been released in their entirety and fully confirm that Donald Trump has never had any involvement with Jeffrey Epstein, never sexually assaulted one woman, and never touched any underage girls…

But we are where we are. The Roast Dinner Triangle Of Doom. And FFS – Biden had 4 years to ensure Trump was jailed.

Anyway, the beef was obviously too rare, and the butter knife provided to cut it was hospitality shoddiness. There was still some good flavour going on, it was a nicely-aged cut of beef, the fatty edges were quite glorious – it probably was the best part of the meal.

And the gravy? The “signature gravy” was clearly written in invisible pen, a very average and kind of salty gravy – and it definitely could have been thicker.

The Red Setter

Oh well, Roast Dinner Triangle Of Doom does what Roast Dinner Triangle Of Doom does.

If you’ve never had a roast dinner before, then I think you’d be happy enough – likewise if you’ve never been to Blacklock or any of the places in my top 50 roast dinners, then sure…also it’s good enough.

What did I like? Well the beef was flavoursome, and the outside of one roast potato was delectable. Yeah, that’s it.

So the Yorkshire pudding was crap, both roast potatoes were really dry inside, one was utter crud. Oh and the gravy was salty. Plus it was just 30 minutes from sitting down to paying the bill…like at least pretend that you are cooking the food rather than it just being a plating up factory.

My accomplices score for The Red Setter is a bang on 6.00 out of 10 – he had the chef’s roast, and enjoyed the chicken – wasn’t too enthusiastic about the more rubbery porchetta “crackling”, if I recall correctly.

I’m going for a 5.92 out of 10 – it’s not wholesale bad, but too much annoyed me. I’d like to say there are better roast dinners in the area, but you know, Triangle Of Doom and all that.

I’ll be back next week – and looking at the reviews of the place I booked such as “distinctly unimpressive roast” and “The Sunday roast well basically it was inedible” then maybe it’s going to be one of those. And it’s my Dad’s 75th birthday. I’ve disappointed him enough over the years…maybe I might change the booking. I need to change the booking, don’t I?

OK I’ve changed my booking for next Sunday. Might take him to see the Melania movie beforehand for his birthday present.