Back in December Michael & I adhered to tradition and spent a full Sunday shopping for Christmas presents in Selfridges.

We all know that such hard work requires fuel. Of the filling kind.

Thus we popped in to Crocker’s Folly for a proper British Sunday roast, plus some extras.

Crocker’s Folly is a beautiful restaurant housed in a Grade II listed former Victorian gin palace that has recently been renovated.

The historic architecture features 50 kinds of marble, Romanesque columns and carved mahogany.

The oversized central glass chandelier adds a sense of grandeur, and sits well amongst its surroundings, albeit not to my personal taste.

To celebrate the festive season and toast to the day of credit card bashing ahead (no point holding back now), we started with two glasses of champagne.

Crocker’s Folly offers a great value Sunday lunch with one course at £18, two courses at £25 and three courses at £30.

We helped ourselves to some fresh bread as we mulled over the menu.

In need of wine but wanting different colours, Michael ordered a glass of Los Romeros Merlot, Central Valley, Chile (£6.50), whilst I had the same in white; Los Romeros Sauvignon Blanc, Central Valley, Chile (£6.50).

In terms of food, Michael loves his cheese so went for the camembert fondue baked with honey & thyme served with caramelised pears and toasted bread.

Not one for me but he lapped it up.

I had the home cured beetroot salmon gravlax served with pickled golden beetroot & peppery rocket leaves.

The salmon was smooth & plentiful, although slightly over cured in my opinion as it was very acidic. The rocket did however help to balance this out.

For mains it obviously had to be roast meat with all the trimmings.

But what meat? With lamb, beef, chicken and pork on the menu, it was hard to choose. Each of the meat cuts are served with seasonal vegetables, traditional roasted Desiree potatoes, a Yorkshire pudding and rich gravy.

In the end, Michael chose classic roasted leg of lamb.

Whilst I had roasted pork loin.

I can’t say that it was a great roast as both of our meats were on the dry side, the potatoes were not at all crispy and the gravy was runny and far from ‘rich’.

Nonetheless, it was an adequate plate of food and the vegetables were well cooked.

Rather full and wanting to avoid feeling sluggish, we decided to share pudding. There was no contest. Chocolate fondant with popcorn ice-cream all the way.

There is always that moment of truth when you slice into a fondant and hope that a molten river of chocolate will seep out.

Which it did, happy days!

The fondant was pretty perfect and made up for the off-key parts of our mains.

Popcorn ice-cream was also a new one for us both and although I thought it sounded a bit gross on paper it turned out to be really tasty.

An all-round winner of a pud.

Service was excellent and the staff very welcoming & friendly.

I think Crocker’s Folly has the potential to be a great restaurant, but the dishes do need some fine-tuning if it is to amass the crowds the venue deserves.

6.5/10

I dined as a guest of Crocker’s Folly, but all opinions are my own.