Nekter’s two-Michelin-star toastie and ROAST’s new branch at Virgin Hotels, set against a 6.55 pound London pint
A 20 Pound Toastie and a Roast in a Hotel: What Shoreditch Is Eating This Autumn
Nekter’s two-Michelin-star toastie and ROAST’s new branch at Virgin Hotels, set against a 6.55 pound London pint
By Cyndi Himmelstiere, Shoreditch correspondent
The Roast Moves East
Roast, the British restaurant at Borough Market, is opening a second branch in Shoreditch, Hot Dinners reported on 23 September 2026. ROAST Shoreditch is at Virgin Hotels London Shoreditch, 45 Curtain Road, in the space previously occupied by the Mondrian, whose earlier tenants included Red Rooster and Bibo. It opens on 21 October 2026.
The signature dish is a 42-day-aged roast beef with all the trimmings. The menu also lists beef Wellington, grill steaks, a nut roast, veggie burgers, a haggis and pork Scotch egg, Cornish scallops crudo and braised lamb scrumpets. There is a steak, ale and bone marrow pie on Mondays and a roast suckling pig on Thursdays, a full breakfast and a separate halal menu for the a la carte and Sunday roast. The report describes the room as a contemporary Victorian-inspired urban conservatory, extended into the conservatory with a chef’s table. Prices are not given.
The 20 Pound Toastie
A smaller place has attracted equal attention. Time Out reported that Nekter, an East London deli and wine bar in Shoreditch, founded by wine importer Jon Davey and open since summer 2025, would serve a toastie created by Welsh chef Gareth Ward of Ynyshir, a two-Michelin-star restaurant. The Ynyshir toastie has a milk roll, Highland Fat Cow cheese, black truffle and shiitake mushroom ketchup and costs 20 pounds. Chef Alex Bond of Alchemilla, the team behind the Fordwich Arms in Kent, and Manteca are to follow.
The printed address in the report is incomplete, so I will not repeat it. Nekter focuses on wines made beyond Europe, which tells you something about its customers.
What They Cost
A 20 pound sandwich should be set against the going rate. thinkmoney reported in May that the average London pint is 6.55 pounds, the most expensive region, and the UK average is 5.34 pounds. A Shoreditch lunch of toastie and pint is therefore nearly 27 pounds before tip, and the pint is not the part that has gone up.
This is not a complaint. A toastie from a two-star kitchen is a different object from a toastie from a cafe, and a bar that offers it is making a bet that its customers will pay for novelty. Shoreditch has always been a place for that bet.
The Sound of the Street
The two stories point in opposite directions. The hotel restaurant is a safe, traditional offer in a polished setting, a kind of reassurance for visitors. The wine bar is a small, risky one with a chef’s name on the menu. A neighbourhood needs both.
There is also a context of strain. The British Beer and Pub Association says 295 pubs closed in the first nine months of 2026, and expects around 360 by the end of the year. The report gives no London figure. Shoreditch is not obviously short of places to drink, and I have no data on its closures, so I draw no conclusion.
Rents and Rates
The cost of a Shoreditch kitchen starts with the rent. SpareRoom reports that the EC postcode area, which covers much of the City fringe, averaged 1,281 pounds a month for a room in the second quarter of 2026, up 5.6 percent. That is for a room in a shared home, not for commercial space, and I include it only because it is the nearest local rent figure I have.
Business rates relief for pubs is expected to rise from 15 to 20 percent in April 2027, according to Grant Thornton, but restaurants, cafes and hotels are excluded. A pub in Shoreditch gets the relief, and a restaurant in a hotel does not.
How to Eat Here Without Going Broke
The practical advice is the same as it has been for twenty years. Eat at lunch, when menus are cheaper. Look for the places with a short list. Walk a few streets from the main drag. And remember that the best sandwich in Shoreditch may be from a counter you have walked past.
I should say that I have not yet eaten at ROAST, which opened this week, or tried the Ynyshir toastie. I will report back, and I will bring a pint.
Reading the Funny Page Alongside the Data
Readers meet comedy and reporting in the same feed, so it helps to know the difference. On one overseas property story, see Manila News, the London Prat (see https://prat.uk/cebu-estate-agents-demand-character-references/) and Bohiney: each starts from a recognisable market fact and signals its tone through exaggeration. More material sits at prat.uk and bohiney.com.
Note: Philippine authorities are examining unproven allegations about Thomas Markle Sr., who lived in Cebu until earlier this year, as GMA News and the Guardian have reported. No charges have been filed. Child protection is a serious matter; the jokes here are about a property market and the paperwork.
For the lighter side of the news, there is always NewsBiscuit.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/cebu-realtor-cant-sell-beachfront-listings/