WARNING: This post is not for the faint-hearted or vegetarian amongst you. Read on at your peril. Pictures of a full cooked animal to follow.

Now I’ve got that out the way, I’ll get on with the review! Some time ago, Brad and I went to St John Bread & Wine for dinner. We saw some lucky people order a whole pig as part of a feasting menu, it looked pretty amazing. We thought, wouldn’t it be great to do that one time? This was in 2009 and when we started to think about Brad’s 30th birthday we thought that it would be a perfect occasion. 

Not surprisingly, there was a lot of enthusiasm amongst our friends to partake in a feast which involved a whole suckling pig. Obviously, we couldn’t just eat pig, so we set up a voting system for the starters. The options which came out on top for the starters were Crab Meat, Toast & Mayonnaise and Skate Salad. It was only fair for Brad to pick the dessert and he went for Chocolate Mousse.

The starters were great, although I preferred the skate salad personally. Having their own bakery, I’d had far too much bread by the time the Crab Meat arrived and didn’t really fancy more toast. 

Our pig had been left to rest for some time before they served it, although perhaps a little too much time by the time it came out as we’d been waiting about an hour between the starters and mains. As we had 23 people coming for dinner and the suckling pigs normally feed about 14-16 people, they recommended we order some additional Old Spot Pig served with Greens. Not wanting anyone to miss out, we did as we were told but our pig was quite a large suckling pig. We nicknamed him, Barry. 

The first thing they do, is to slice off the head, which they present to the guest of honour, in this case, Brad. They then slice the animal up, including offal, and serve it to everyone, along with roasties and greens. I was amazed at how much food there actually was. 

Everyone knows that St John encourages nose-to-tail eating and having ordered a whole pig to eat, you are confronted with implications of your consumption. To pay respect to an animal whose life you are taken, it’s only fair that you should eat of much it as possible. Between us, we ate the kidneys, cheeks, tongue, ears and brains. 

By the time the Chocolate Mousse came around, we were all stuffed so there ended up being plenty of dessert leftover. Including food, service and drinks, the total came to £55 each. If you are planning a big group meal, I can’t recommend this restaurant enough! 

St John Bread & Wine
94-96 Commercial Street
London E1 6LZ
Phone: +44(0)2033018069
http://www.stjohnbreadandwine.com/