For the past 2 years I have subjected myself to copious amounts of studying, sacrificing all my weekends in studying for the Bar. This may sound as a very torturous journey but it was not that bad at all. Yes, at times it was stressful and hard, especially during the exams, but during that time I made some new good friends, entered and explored the traditional and peculiar world that is the English Bar, gained further knowledge and pushed myself out of my comfort zone multiple times. The visit to the Norfolk Arms was to catch up with those new friends, and to blog about it too!

As a group we met once a month for tutorials over a whole weekend and it was our little ritual, at the end of each weekend, to meet for a few drinks in pubs around Holborn. The course finished in June and our communication got restricted to social media as not all of us live in London. We did however think that it was time for another get together around Holborn, this time for a Sunday lunch, to reminisce about the good and tough times. By that point I had done a lot of prep-work for my blog and I had come across this pub during my research. I read mixed reviews about the Norfolk Arms but none of them said anything negative about the food, on the contrary all of them were very positive.

I arrived there on time but everyone else was running late so I enjoyed a pint of bitter on my own whilst perusing the menu and the interior of the pub, which seems to be original –  hard to comment what period as I am not an architectural historian.

The menu features the traditional Sunday roast, which is the reason I was there, and a number of other interesting dishes as you would expect from a gastropub, however, on the back of the menu there is huge list of tapas. I decided to go for tapas as a starter instead of the normal menu. By that point the others had arrived with exception to E who was stuck at a baby-shower, those American traditions are slowly infiltrating the country!!

I gave a chance for the others to peruse the menu before calling over the waiting staff to take our order, who I must note I did not find as bad as described in the reviews I read. That may be because I had a relaxing Sunday afternoon and did not want to stress myself or care about how long the waiting staff may take to attend our table. Either way I have no comments, positive or negative, about the waiting staff.

As the gathering was celebratory as well as a catch up, by that point most of us had been called to the Bar (this is sort of the completion of the studies – read here for more) we decided to toast the occasion with some prosecco.

I had spicy beef sausage with yogurt to start which was selected from the tapas menu.

The sausage was really nice, it had just enough heat, nothing too overpowering. I must admit looks was not the dish’s strongest point.

S and T had razor clams and chicken liver parfait respectively.

The chicken liver parfait was a rather generous portion and the clams looked delicious – although surprisingly they were served cold, which was not brought to our attention either by the menu or by the waiting staff. Both S and T were quite happy with their starters.

My main was roast beef, it was Sunday after all, which came with a huge Yorkshire pudding (yum!) but it was all stacked up in a clay pot similar to the one that they served my tapas.

This was rather impractical as it was quite difficult to eat. The beef was slightly on the dry side and could do with being a bit hotter, whilst the roast potatoes and veggies underneath the beef were piping hot. I also think that covering the roast potatoes with the beef makes them too soft.

S had the seabass with roast beetroot, parsnip, sweet potato, celeriac with a madeira reduction.

The dish looked very rustic but tasty and the feedback from S was that she rather enjoyed it.

T decided to order from the tapas menu this time around, she ordered the artichoke hearts and the beetroot with sherry, goat’s cheese and almond flakes.

Both plates looked ok, as with everything about this place there seems to be an intention to be rustic, which they did achieve. As for taste, I did not try either dish but T’s feedback was quite positive.

I finished my meal with cheese and a glass of port. It was a very generous portion of cheese (except for the oatcakes, all restaurants do it, I don’t know why but there is always more cheese than there are oatcakes but they were kind to give me some more when requested). The platter was quite nice but unfortunately they only provided one type of cheese, so a bit stuffed if you don’t like that particular cheese.

I certainly enjoyed my meal at Norfolk Arms and I would happily go back for another one but not necessarily in a rush. Personally I found some things a little bit confusing. For example, I understand why you will serve the tapas in the small clay pots but serving the Sunday roast in them does not make sense, it is just not practical to eat in. Also, why bother with the two menus, both of which seemed relatively long, it may be better to fuse the two and have a more concise menu. Lastly, the pub looked rather welcoming for drinkers only as it has a large portion of it dedicated to the bar area.

Norfolk Arms 

28 Leigh St, London WC1H 9EP

T: 020 7388 3937