sunday roast at the black lion

my ex-flat mate recently moved to kilburn from arsenal. a rather warm but rainy afternoon found me wandering into her neighbourhood to join her and another friend of ours, s from helsinki who had come down to london for the weekend. j had chosen a local pub  'the black lion' to have sunday lunch. i know the black lion from my days of working in the area. it was a common after work drink pub and we had an office party there too. the pub is housed in a period building and it's ornate ceiling with its accents of gold and dark mahogany are grade ii listed. the dining hall is slightly off the bar area and is brighter than the drinking area. 

all three of us settled in and then had to decide whether we were going to have the chicken  or beef roast. after much deliberating about how beef roast is tricky because we prefer it medium rare we all ordered the same, that is the beef roast asking for it to be medium rare. we also decided that we weren't going to order wine but then landed up ordering a bottle of red. j, who is generally my guide for wine ordered it but we could have done without it as it really was quite vinegary. 

the beef roast came beautifully presented with all its regularly vegetable accompaniments - potatoes, broccoli, carrots and sugar snap peas, yorkshire pudding and gravy. sadly the beef was far from medium rare having been done more than well. the gravy however was flavoursome and the vegetables were remarkably well done. they weren't mushy. instead they had a little bite. the carrots in particular had a lovely buttery glaze and were just right. the yorkshire pudding wasn't much to write home about. i've had much better. 

would i go back for a the sunday roast? i don't think so. but i'd definitely go for a drink at the pub if only to admire the ceiling. 


274| kilburn high road| nw6