Everyone gets a glass of Prosecco to get things going before you head over to the buffet
Remind us, what the Sunday Feast is again?
It's the epic, no holds barred eat and come again Sunday buffet at The Ned in the City.
Hold on, didn't you do a Test Drive of the Sunday Feast already this year?
Well, aren't you the observant one? Yes, we did, back in January. Back before - in the words of the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air - "the world got flipped turned upside down".
Since then, as restaurants gradually reopen and we get used to going out again, one of the things we had thought might have died a death with the onset of Covid was the hotel buffet. After all, how could you be allowed to carefully pile your plate high and maintain the current laws regarding hygiene and social distancing?
So, how do they?
The Ned's approach has been two-fold. First they've dramatically cut numbers - they can now sit 500 rather than 1000 over the course of the feast. Secondly, they've changed the way the buffet works. Here's how:
There are perspex screens in front of all the piles of food now. The selection remains the same, but the plate remains behind this screen while servers do your bidding in terms of what you want to put on it. Essentially this means a lot of pointing and gesturing (the servers' masks and the screens mean this is simpler than talking) and the plate travels along the section of the buffet coming out at the end for you to take back to your table.
Service with a (masked) smile.
Has anything else changed?
A few more things have changed. Now you get the bread delivered to your table - there's no grabbing the loaf and cutting a hunk off for yourself. The positions of the stations have changed too - the roast meats section has taken over where the dessert was on the ground floor, to allow more room for everyone to get around.
In addition, if you really don't fancy doing the moving around the buffet bit, you can now place your order with your waiter and they'll go and get what you'd like for you and bring it back to the table.
So what's on the menu?
In brief, the first section is seafood, then there are salads, after that it's over to the roast section for the main event and then on to desserts. Here's what we had:
First things first - the huge pile of lobster is still in situ - just more socially distanced than before,
You can still have as much lobster as you can eat - but when there are also devilled eggs, oysters and smoked salmon too you might want to pace yourself.
It's hard not to go a little crazy at the carvery station, and that Yorkshire pudding was particularly fabulous. If we're being honest - the two courses above nearly finished us off.
But there is always room fo dessert. They are lovely but, thankfully, most of them are pretty small which is a good thing given how much you've eaten at this stage.
Overall thoughts
Honestly, anything which makes us feel like the world's got a little more normal is a good thing in our books. So seeing the Ned's Sunday Feast back in action gave us a serious dose of the warm and fuzzies. If you are heartily sick of making your own Sunday roast, this will be a total treat for you.
More about The Ned's Sunday Feast
Where is it? 27 Poultry, London EC2R 8AJ
How to book: The Ned Sunday Feast s £60 for unlimited food and a glass of Prosecco. Add unlimited Champagne and it's £130. Book online
Find out more: Visit their website or follow them on Instagram @thenedlondon
Hot Dinners dined as guests of The Ned. Prices correct at time of publication.
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