St Paul’s might not be the first place in London you think of to visit for lunch or dinner, unless you work in the area or are visiting St Paul’s Cathedral. But it has everything you might want, the quick and easy bites, the trendy burger places and also the fancier restaurants on and around Bread Street.
Paula and I often pop to One New Change on the weekend, as it’s a great place to shop for avoiding the crowds, I swear on occasions we have had shops to ourselves. However one part of the centre that is always busy is Madison restaurant. We headed up (it’s on the sixth floor with the viewing platform) to sample their ‘Soul Sunday’ lunch menu.
Madison is a fairly large restaurant with nice interiors and as we are in the festive period they had baubles hanging from the ceilings with the lights which caught our eye. On one side is the restaurant area with tables and on the other near the windows with the view over London is the cosy bar sofas. There is also an outdoor area which is one of the best rooftop bars in London. For Soul Sunday’s they have a three-course menu which is £38 and comes with a half-bottle of house wine each. Paula is a white wine drinker and I am more of a red wine lover, so it was a perfect chance to try both. The wines were Italian, with the white being crisp, dry and great cold and the red was medium bodied but light and mixed well with the food, especially the main courses. For the mains there are plenty of sunday roasts to choose from and very exciting a sharing board for 2, 3 or 4 people with a little bit of each.
To start I had the Jerusalem artichoke soup which came with pickled quince and croutons and I’ll be honest I had never had artichoke soup before and was more intrigued to see how it tasted. I really enjoyed the mix of flavours, the rich creamy slightly nutty artichoke was nice and the pickled quince added an extra layer of taste mixed with the bite of the croutons. It was also the perfect way to warm me up from the freezing London temperatures.
Paula ordered the duck & fig terrine and as you might expect from a terrine it was packed full of flavour. The duck was in good-sized chunks which really worked well with the sweet taste of fig that went through the terrine. The honey mustard dressed celeriac remoulade that was on the side worked really well with the crunch of the rock salted toasted sourdough and was a great mixture of the softer duck and sweet fig terrine. All in all a good selection and starter picks from us.
For the main course we couldn’t resist ordering the sharing board. It was a mix of the three roasts on offer; half a roast chicken, roast pork belly & roast USDA sirloin beef. The sharing roasts are served on a large board with all the classic trimmings. The meats were lovely, I especially enjoyed the pork belly, it was soft and tender pork with the crispiest crackling, I can see many diners fighting over it. The beef was served just passed blushing pink and full of flavour and the half roast chicken definitely was not a small chicken, nicely seasoned skin and mix of breast and dark meat.
On the side were roast potatoes which were fluffy in the middle and crunchy on the outside, two large crispy Yorkshire puddings which soaked up the onion gravy and it also came with a portion of cauliflower cheese. The cauliflower was tender and had a rich creamy cheese topping that melted and mixed well throughout and then also a side of French beans. We definitely caught the eye of our neighbouring diners, who then both ordered the same thing.
Throughout our meal there was also a singer, hence the title ‘Soul Sunday’s’. Kristin Duo has worked with an impressive range of artists including Sting, Clean Bandit and Olly Murs. She sang some classics from the 70’s and 80’s to more modern R’n’B from the late 90’s and into today’s classics.
For dessert we chose opposites. I went for the Baked Normandy Camembert with brioche croutons and Paula ordered the sweet chocolate & praline fondant with vanilla ice cream. We were feeling pretty full by the time dessert came over but the Camembert was nicely melted and worked really well with the slices of toasted brioche bread. The chocolate fondant comes with a twenty-minute wait warning (you will need the breather between courses) and it was rich, oozing chocolate in the middle and the thick vanilla ice cream worked well to cut through the rich fondant. Paula definitely enjoyed it.
We finished our drinks, had a fresh mint tea and enjoyed the music while the three courses digested and the sun went down. The food was lovely and definitely great value with the Soul Sundays menu. I’d recommend as one of our best roasts in London and would happily go back and visit.
Madison is on the Rooftop of One New Change.
To book visit www.madisonlondon.net.