The Roast Canteen

Rating: 2

We ate dinner here in May 2025.

Roast lamb with mint sauce, gravy, and veges
Fried chicken with gravy and veges

He’s been watching us come and go from Johnsonville. Waiting. Ready to pounce with entire buckets of dry chicken and bad mint sauce at his disposal. He knew he would have us eventually. Last week he thought he had us, The Roast Canteen was the first place we saw, after all. But in a surprise twist (reprisal?) there was not a single table free when we tried to eat there last week and we had to go elsewhere. We readied ourselves for the return to one of our less preferred dining modalities; the roast house.

All of the veg had clearly been sitting in the bain-marie for some time, but we do appreciate that it’s hard to avoid. We did observe the lamb being carved fresh. The pumpkin and the kumara were roasted to the point of edibility but not to the point of crispness. The pumpkin was also skin on, which could be contentious for some. The peas and carrot were boiled or steamed, but at least weren’t over-done. The potato was the best of the bunch and we suspect had been aquainted with the deep frier. The gravy, which they also sold separately in tubs for a price much more reasonable than supermarket packet liquid gravy (take note cost-conscious shoppers) was passable. We didn’t enjoy the mint sauce, but then we probably made a mistake asking for its application when neither of us actually like it. And speaking of asking for things, they didn’t ask if we wanted to dine in, and served us our meals in takeaway containers. Even once they learned we wanted to dine in they didn’t bother to transfer our meals to plates. Points off, although the staff were friendly and the place was clean, so some points back on.