Enjoy a dinner date of your own at the real First Dates restaurant, Paternoster Chop House.
Nowhere is better at setting up winning duos than the Paternoster Chop House. Which is exactly why they’ve paired roast dinners and red wine together; because they’re totally made for each other. That’s right, the Red Roasts are back with delicious meaty dinners and bottomless Bordeaux wine. Yes, free-flowing red reddddddd wine.
Choose from roasted pork loin, Norfolk horn leg of lamb or Aberdeen beef sirloin feat. all the trimmings, and, so long as you’re on a table with no more than six people, you can opt for bottle after bottle of red wine for just £15 per person. Now that’s what I call a date (that will end up with you both falling asleep at 4pm.)
[Related: 6 Banging Roast Dinners In London That’ll Make You Wish It Was Sunday Every Day]
The Chop House’s Red Roasts are available on Sundays from 12pm–3.30pm. FYI, Paternoster Chophouse will be closed for private filming (I wonder what that could be for… ?) between October 23–29 and November 2-5, before re-opening on the 6th.
If you fancy visiting some other day, you can expect a menu that, in its own words, ‘harks back to a time when meat was king, portions were hearty and provenance was everything.’ That means serious steaks, pork and lamb chops, along with seafood dishes like red mullet and Brixham crab on toast. (Conversely, vegetarians have but two options to choose from, a curry and ‘vegetable Wellington.’) There’s also a pie menu (where ‘squirrel and rabbit’ are among the options!) along with a weekend brunch offering. Sadly Fred won’t be there to soothe your nerves, as when he’s not filming First Dates, he’s actually maitre’d at a restaurant elsewhere in the city.
It’s not just quantity but quality in the beverage department: their drinks list runs to 18 pages with a well-annotated and helpfully-categorised wine list for the grape-curious. They also knock out a sharp cocktail to power you through any post-prandial fatigue – for many is the romantic date that has been foiled by a unsexy food coma.
The perfect spot, then, for a first date, or a hundredth. So, go on, visit the restaurant where the romance, heartbreak, and unbearable awkwardness takes place – it’s actually rather good. And here’s hoping you end up jumping in a taxi together!
Location: 1 Warwick Court, Paternoster Square, EC4M 7DX. Nearest station: St. Paul’s. See it on Google Maps.
Opening hours: seven days a week for lunch, midday – 3.30pm; Mon-Sat for dinner, 5.30pm – 10.30pm.
Price: £27.50 for a three-course set menu, no drinks; £40 (starting price) for a Sunday roast with unlimited red wine; about £90 to romp through the à la carte menu, with wine to share and a cocktail each.
More information: from their website.