Sunday lunch at The Devonshire, Soho

I cannot recall a new catering venture that has opened to such acclaim as The Devonshire. Situated at the extreme west end of Soho where theatreland meets Piccadilly, this is very much the brainchild of restaurateurs’ restaurateur Oisin Rogers, late of the Guinea Grill and Wandsworth’s The Ship.

To me it has felt like since it opened the rush to get in has been equalled by the rush of the critics to get out and write up their experience in as glowing terms as possible. Call me a cynic, but it couldn’t be that good, could it?

Getting a table for Sunday lunch therefore felt like a bit of coup akin to getting Taylor Swift to open your jumble sale, and I spent the week prior dreaming of how things would taste in gravy. I had visited prior to test the claims that they served the best pint of Guinness outside of Ireland, and whilst it is true I haven’t tried every bar outside of Ireland (though it of course remains an ambition,) it felt like the claim was built on solid foundations.

The dining room is on the first floor and is smaller than I expected and decorated in a rather minimalist fashion. The Sunday lunch menu is also minimalist, offering only choice of main course, roast rib of beef served with roast potatoes, carrots, leeks, peas, and gravy. This will set you back £27, which for such a lauded establishment feels like a bit of bargain.

There is a selection of four starters for those who wish to indulge with prices when I visited ranging from £7 for the pea and ham soup through to £16 for a crab salad. We didn’t partake looking to save ourselves for the main event. My companion oversaw the wine and having had previous experience plumped for the Primitivo at £38 from what is rather a concise wine list but with a nice range of varietals and prices. To me the wine had a nice slightly spicey medium bodied flavour, and whist I savoured it I took stock of our surroundings.

Our table was at the far end of the dining room, and from here you had an excellent view of the rib roasts roasting then resting. This had the effect of taking my anticipation to fever pitch, though that might have been the heat from the oven which I worried might start melting the cutlery.

The food when it arrived did not disappoint, with the beef being tender and full flavoured with the sides complementing beautifully. The gravy was rich, dark, and tasty to the point where someone like me who is not the biggest gravy fan was wishing that he’d taken some more.

The serving size was for me about the right size as it left room for pudding. Normally I would have gone for the bread-and-butter pudding rather than the sticky toffee that I choose, but for some reason it was calling to me that day. Well, this was one of the best sticky toffee puddings I’ve had, warm with cold cream creating a nice juxtaposition on my tongue, filling me with sugary satisfaction.

And then it was over, after all the expectation and waiting like so much enjoyable the experience passed in a flash. Was it the best Sunday lunch I’d ever had…hmmm well F.X Buckley in Dublin might still have the crown, but it’s a close-run thing. Would I go again, in a heartbeat, but it was time to leave and so stepping over Giles Coren and Fay Maschler, we did.

The Devonshire, 17 Denman St, London W1D 7HW

www.devonshiresoho.co.uk