Hotel Chocolat's cafe has a cocoa menu as well as sandwiches, wraps and other chocolate-based nibbles, such as Duck Confit with coriander, roast cocoa and cherries, and artisan bread
with cacao pesto, chocolate balsamic and cocoa nib butter.
Roast & Conch
Restaurant in Covent Garden
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All In London Review
An ambitious menu that just doesn’t work
The café has succumbed to the industrial aesthetic, but the menu has novel pairings - soups and sandwiches can be combined with a choice of cacao-based condiments, priced at £4.50. While there aren’t many options to choose from (two soups and four sourdough sandwiches: salmon and veg, hummus and sundried veg, chicken and tomato, and ham and Cheddar) surely the chocolate bacon ganache, cacao nib satay and light chocolate mustard will elevate these from basic sarnie to gourmet experience. Or will they?
We’re a little disappointed that these “artisan” sandwiches are not made to order, instead they’re pre-packed and displayed in a fridge, alongside the accompaniments which are packaged in plastic pots for you to spoon in yourself. Chicken and tomato with lettuce is serviceable, but no better than a run-of-the-mill supermarket sandwich. The cacao aioli, mayonnaise made with garlic and cacao, doesn’t taste of any of its key ingredients, instead it’s just a thick brown paste with a mildly oily flavour that adds little except moisture.
The Thai yellow chicken and vegetable soup is lightly spiced, but we’re unsure what the advertised dash of roast cacao pistou brings to the mix, other than promise.
What we do like is the Ruby port with dark chocolate; it’s rich, with the right balance of boozy kick and fragrant cacao.
Naturally there are chocolate mousses, brownies, tartlets and hot drinks too, as well as expensive chocolates in the shop upstairs, but the more ambitious offerings just don’t work.
Reviewed by Leila
Published on Oct 30, 2012
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