Roe

London opening of the year?

Cuttlefish fried toast, pork skin, sesame

The team behind Fallow has launched a brand new restaurant called Roe. Located in Canary Wharf and able to 500 covers thanks to its extremely large space, taking over the whole ground floor of an entire flat just off the Canary Wharf tube station. Given the location is not known as a dining hot spot. I found Roe is such a high-risk project, especially these days when more people work from home and some businesses decided to leave the area. Judging from the menu, the food has some Fallow elements but with the addition of flatbread and a few sharing dishes.

Mussels, octopus, bacon butter flatbread

Grilled octopus, spiced sausage, samphire

Turbot, roast chicken sauce, clams, sea vegetables

Turbot cooked on the bone with chicken and shellfish sauce was a total winner. The fish was grilled perfectly and very moist. The sauce had a soft sweet and fresh taste thanks to the clams and seaweed, just lovely. The house special deer meat platter was also solid, from loin to ribs to sausages, with a range of dips and a sweet beetroot puree, every cooked just right and finely seasoned with a wonderful charred aroma. I am not much of a dessert person but I think Roe's banana dessert was just top class, the parfit was reshaped into a banana form and the peanut element worked like magic, somehow everything just worked in perfect harmony together, from both textures and taste.

Roe mixed grill, flamed harissa haunch

Caramelised banana parfait, peanut, toasted vanilla

Tunworth cheesecake, earl grey, hazelnut

The second hit usually is not as good as the first one, but Roe is the real deal. The larger, slicker and comforting space, along with the interesting food concept cooked to a very refined level, means that I enjoyed Roe more than Fallow. This is not a super luxury fine dining offering, but as far as the price vs food offering, this is an outstanding restaurant. This well could be the London opening of the year, time will tell if it can keep going once the new launch hype has slowed down, so I do feel the real test would come in the second year. As a consumer, I would love to come back to try other dishes in the near future. 

Food 4/5


Average cost without drinks and services:
£60

5 Park Dr, London E14 9GG

https://roerestaurant.co.uk/