Restaurant Review

NORD

100 Old Hall Street, L3 9QJ

By Will Carr | Sunday Roast | ££ |

Before we had even reached our seats, my partner and I found ourselves falling in love with NORD’s incredibly unique style. To our right, a DJ was spinning tracks at a huge circular bar. Nordic huts were dotted along the wall behind us and lights in the shape of doughnuts ran along the wall in front. With the orange and green colour scheme and the interesting curved hanging lamps, NORD seemed to be going for a ’60s retro-modern vibe – we half expected the cast of Mad Men to be sitting next to us.

Anticipating great things from the Sunday Roast menu (two courses, £29 each), my partner elected to try the Grilled Pork Loin and I the Roasted Chicken. Moments later our food arrived along with a small army of mouth-watering side dishes. I was charmed by the home-style arrangement of the roast potatoes, veg and red cabbage. I started small. A humble parsnip. Though roasted, the veg wasn’t overdone and the sweet taste infused with the nutty, butteriness brought me right back to Christmas. I don’t know which Norse god they’re in cahoots with but to make a parsnip the high point of a meal, to the point where I was still thinking about it days later, is some achievement!

The pork was delicious, tender and came with light and crispy crackling. With the tangy apple sauce, it was a match made in Valhalla. My chicken, beautifully cooked, was amazingly succulent, however, as a shameless glutton, I was slightly disappointed at the portion of a single thigh, especially after seeing the impressively-sized loin, but combined with the rest of the meal I certainly wasn’t leaving hungry.

The potatoes looked perfect, almost theoretical. Crispy and fluffy, my single complaint, and this is just personal taste, is that they lacked a great deal of flavour on their own. I’m used to butter, garlic and rosemary informing the flavour but with the excellent gravy, they were wonderful. For dessert, my partner chose Vanilla Creme Brûlée. It was smooth and creamy; the satisfying crumbly topping had an intense sweet aftertaste that hit like a speeding train made of sugar. I ordered the Banana Sticky Toffee with candied pecans and vanilla ice cream. There wasn’t a hint of banana, which didn’t bother me at all, and the pecans didn’t add much taste but rather acted as a pleasantly textured crouton in the ice cream and toffee soup it inevitably became. It was brilliant!

Aside from the very pretty hut-style wooden booths, the excellent pickled cabbage and the sense that they’re doing everything right, I couldn’t really see anything in the restaurant which could be considered Nordic fusion. We’re planning to go back and try the standard menu to see if we can experience something a bit more Scandinavian. But if Norway is anything like what we experienced at NORD then I’m booking my ticket tomorrow. Bra gjort!

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