New London set menus, from a £17.50 tapas lunch in Mayfair to a Michelin starred roast in Fulham
Six set menus added to All Set, from £17.50 in Mayfair to a Michelin starred roast in Fulham
Six set menus have joined All Set in the last fortnight, and they run from a tapas lunch in Mayfair to a Michelin starred Sunday roast in Fulham. A Spanish dining room that has been on Down Street since 1994, a former bank off Exmouth Market where lunch is ordered once for the whole table, a French brasserie built around a jazz club in Kennington, six courses off the robata grill at Roka, the roast forty floors above Bishopsgate, and a Fulham pub that rewrites its Sunday menu every week.
Prices run from £17.50 to £79 across six areas, so this is a list to book from rather than read. Every price, day and window below was read off the venue's own menu on 30 September.
01 | El Pirata
Mayfair
Express Lunch: two tapas £17.50 or three £23.50, Tuesday to Friday, 12pm to 4pm.
El Pirata has been on Down Street since 1994, a few minutes from Green Park and Hyde Park Corner, and it is still independently run, with a wine list built over the same three decades. The Express Lunch is two or three tapas chosen from a list of thirteen, served with bread and alioli. Padrón peppers from Galicia, triple cooked patatas bravas, tortilla with caramelised onion and croquetas of Iberian ham sit on the list alongside gambas al pil-pil in olive oil, garlic and dried chilli, chorizo cooked in cider, fried aubergine with honey and blue cheese, and meatballs in tomato sauce over potato purée. A glass of beer, Sauvignon Blanc or Tempranillo can be added for £5, and churros con chocolate caliente for £7.50.
02 | Morchella
Clerkenwell
Set lunch: £25 per person, shared by the whole table, Tuesday to Friday, 12pm to 2.30pm.
Morchella occupies a former bank just off Exmouth Market, with a counter that looks into the kitchen, a terrace, and a wine bar that keeps its seats for walk-ins. Lunch is ordered once for everyone at the table rather than course by course. Focaccia and spanakopita arrive first with a white peach Greek salad, then pork belly ragù and a salad to share between you. The set changes regularly, so the plates move with what the kitchen has. A glass of sauvignon or of a Veneto merlot is poured alongside it for £7.50. It runs Tuesday to Friday only.
03 | Toulouse Lautrec
Kennington
Prix fixe: two courses £25 or three £29, every day, 12pm to 6.30pm.
A French brasserie and jazz club on Newington Butts, with a main restaurant, a terrace and a Piano Room where live music plays from Thursday to Saturday evenings. The prix fixe opens on goat cheese with crisp leaves, beetroot and toasted walnuts. A 200g bavette follows with red wine sauce and chips, alongside a salmon fillet with green beans, new potatoes and a lemon, caper and shallot dressing, or a mushroom cassoulet with a mixed leaf salad. The third course is the house crème brûlée. It is served every day from noon with last orders at 6.30pm, which covers a long lunch and an early dinner on the same menu, and it is not offered on special menu days.
04 | Roka
Canary Wharf
Classic Teishoku £39.50 or Premium £49.50, six courses, weekday lunch and dinner.
Roka's Teishoku menus are ordered for the whole table, down to the dish that comes off the grill. The Classic opens on white miso soup with spring onion, beef and sesame gyoza, a three piece sashimi selection, salmon, avocado and asparagus maki and tiger prawn tempura, then seabream with ryotei miso, baby chicken with lemon, miso and garlic soy, or baby back pork ribs with sansho and cashew nuts to share, with steamed rice. The Premium moves to crab, black cod and prawn dumplings and tuna tartare on a nori rice cracker, with black cod in yuzu miso, beef fillet with chilli, ginger and spring onion, or lamb cutlets with Korean spices off the robata. Seats at the counter look straight into the grill, with the towers of Canada Square behind it through the glass, and larger groups can eat outside on the Japanese garden terrace. Three London sites carry it: Canary Wharf and Mayfair Monday to Friday, Aldwych Tuesday to Friday. A vegetarian version of either menu is prepared on request.
05 | Duck & Waffle
City of London
Sunday roast: three courses £55, Sundays, 11.30am to 3.30pm.
Duck & Waffle serves around the clock from the 40th floor of Heron Tower on Bishopsgate, with the City laid out below, and on Sundays the kitchen turns to the roast. Corn ribs with black garlic and fermented chilli, a lobster roll with spicy Marie Rose sauce, or beef tartare on sourdough with a smoked confit egg yolk come first. Then rump of Essex beef, braised shoulder of market lamb with homemade mint sauce, or a mushroom and Camembert Wellington, each with buttered neeps, seasonal vegetables, Yorkshire pudding, duck fat roast potatoes and gravy. A Biscoff cheesecake or a sticky toffee waffle with butterscotch caramel and clotted cream closes it. Sides are a £9 supplement.
06 | The Harwood Arms
Fulham
Sunday menu: two courses £64 or three £79, Sundays, 12pm to 8.15pm.
The Harwood Arms is a Michelin starred pub on Walham Grove, in the back streets of Fulham seven minutes from Fulham Broadway, cooking British produce with a focus on game and wild food. Sunday is given over to roasts from noon until the evening, served for two to share. Slow cooked deer shoulder wrapped in bacon with horseradish cream, Cumbrian pork belly with lovage and fennel honey, Cornish cod, or Jersey beef sirloin with horseradish cream, which carries a £7.50 supplement per person. Each arrives with Yorkshire puddings, roast potatoes, greens, cauliflower cheese and celeriac. A chilled yellow tomato soup with sorbet and shellfish, a warm salad of Iberian ham with Jerusalem artichoke and almonds, or fallow deer pâté en croûte comes first, and sticky toffee pudding with malt, IPA and vanilla ice cream closes it. The menu is rewritten every week, so the plates change while the shape holds.
All six are on All Set with the full menu, the serving window and a direct booking link on each. El Pirata and Morchella run Tuesday to Friday, Roka takes the weekdays, and Duck & Waffle and the Harwood Arms are Sundays only. Toulouse Lautrec is the one that serves its set every day of the week.