Sunday Best: the finest roast dinners in London
Stretching back as far as the 15th century, the British roast has become more than just a meal, it’s a ritual – a time to wind down and prepare yourself for the week ahead; an opportunity to share a table and hearty, comforting food.
Whether you’re a traditionalist or open to modern interpretations, there’s no shortage of places to go for Sunday lunch in the capital, which is why it can be a daunting task narrowing the list down come the weekend. Here, we’ve rounded up the best roast dinners in the most beautiful surroundings from each corner of the city to lend a helping hand.
NORTH
1. The Baring
This buzzy Islington gastropub, which opened in the autumn of 2022, sees a top restaurant team (Rob Tecwyn, former head chef of Dabbous, and Adam Symonds, previously general manager of N1’s much-lauded Bull & Last) take over what was formerly known as The Poet. The Sunday lunch menu confirms that this new kid on the block is worthy of the hype: the melt-in-the-mouth beef sirloin is served with a mountainous Yorkshire pudding, perfectly golden roast potatoes, and breadcrumb-laced buttery cabbage that’s so tasty you could quite easily eat a plate of it alone. There’s no vegetarian roast option, which might disappoint some, until they try the sensational ricotta gnudi with pumpkin buttermilk and chanterelles, that is.
2. Perilla
Perilla, based on leafy Newington Green, offers a fine-dining experience without the pretence. On Sundays, its own interesting alternative to a roast will win traditionalists over, thanks to a set menu of dishes to share for the whole table. It places an emphasis on comfort food – think gazpacho to start, BBQ-beef spare ribs with iced salad and roasted pink-fir potatoes to follow, and a salted caramel and peanut tart for dessert – but it changes regularly with the seasons. The informal dining room, with its raw plaster walls, muted abstract artwork and warm lighting, will have guests feeling instantly at ease.
3. The Pig and Butcher
An Islington institution, The Pig and Butcher is a country-style pub that was built in the mid-19th century on fields used by farmers to rest and feed their livestock before sending them to Smithfield’s meat market. Specialising in rare breeds such as Iron Age pigs and Hebridean lamb, the pub now sources its meat from the best farms across the UK, which is then butchered on site, so the menu can change daily, depending on what’s hanging in the fridge. On a Sunday, expect the likes of Aynhoe Estate fallow-deer shoulder with a herb crust, or Norfolk chicken crown with truffled brioche stuffing, with all the usual trimmings.
4. Smokehouse
The Smokehouse is a barbecue specialist with global influences – from Argentina to Korea – where everything is grilled over charcoal, or roasted and smoked using sustainably sourced English oak. Go for the crispy-beef noodle salad, ramen egg and togarashi starter to experience the Korean influence, and for the main, take your pick from a smoked whole chicken, Yorkshire lamb shoulder, or pork ribeye with smoked apple sauce. Wash it all down with your choice from the extensive beer list (10 on tap, 60 bottled) and make yourself cosy by the open fire.
SOUTH
5. The Camberwell Arms
This south-east London neighbourhood restaurant nestled inside a 19th-century pub was voted number-one best roast in London by The Guardian. Run by the same team behind Frank’s Cafe (a rooftop spot in Peckham where you’ll find south Londoners in the warmer months), The Camberwell Arms caters to traditionalists but in a not-so-obvious way – roast potatoes are seasoned with sage and lemon, and the spit-roast chicken is served with chicken-fat crème fraîche rather than gravy, for example. Here, the vegetarian options aren’t the afterthoughts: the yellow courgette, borlotti beans, farro and fresh-cheese dish is a bright and light alternative to a nut roast.
6. Canton Arms
This street-corner pub in Stockwell has the charm of an old-school boozer, but its intriguing menu says otherwise. Arrive hungry and order something from the starter list, which looks as exciting as the mains – think grilled Cornish mackerel, with apple and celeriac remoulade – and you can’t go wrong with a glass of the warming spiced orange rosé while you wait. If there’s four or more likeminded people in your party, opt for the seven-hour salt marsh lamb shoulder with potato and olive-oil gratin to share. Or for a lighter but just as soul-pleasing option, look to the South Coast seabass with braised fennel, roast new potatoes and aioli.
7. The Laundry
The Laundry, a bustling restaurant, cafe and wine shop in the heart of Brixton, was once an Edwardian laundry house, as you’ll see from the original ‘Sanitary Steam Laundry’ sign on the red-brick exterior. On a Sunday, the menu is short but certainly not lacking, with the choice of roast pork or lamb or a vegan pie, all served with all the traditional trimmings, plus the welcome addition of minted peas. The green quilted-leather booths, soft hanging lights and wall-to-wall wines ensure it’s the perfect place to hunker down for a Sunday afternoon into evening.
EAST
8. Café Cecilia
Dublin-born chef Max Rocha brings a taste of his homeland (think Guinness bread, and mussels steamed in cider with bacon) to his Hackney restaurant. It’s no wonder the restaurant draws in a fashionable crowd – his father, designer John Rocha, oversaw the interiors, and his sister, the founder of fashion label Simone Rocha, took care of the staff uniforms. Café Cecila doesn’t do roasts every week as the menu is ever-changing, but when it does, it’s usually chicken inspired by Max’s mother, Odette. “My mum influences the menu in every way. We talk daily and she’ll come in once a week to check on the food,” he told us when we visited. The result: the comfort of home cooking in an impeccably stylish setting.
9. Marksman
“We want people to feel comfortable and come away with a sense of being fed – and that you can have this sort of food daily. Good food, for me, is food that you want to eat every day,” says Jon Rotheram, one half of the duo behind Marksman, of its unapologetically pubbish fare. A Victorian boozer dating from 1865, the main bar retains elements of the traditional East End sort, while the upstairs dining room, designed by London-based Italian Martino Gamper, takes it up a notch with bold flashes of colour thanks to the abstractly patterned linoleum floor, upholstered panelled ceiling and multicoloured Ercol chairs. The three-course Sunday menu includes pigeon and Tamworth terrine with crab-apple jelly to start, roast mallard with bread sauce and liver toast for main, and plum Bakewell tart for pudding.
10. Royale
Royale serves almost exclusively rotisserie chicken, but it’s not just your average rotisserie chicken: inspired by the provençal cooking of Lulu Peyraud, the legendary matriarch of a wine-producing family in the Bandol region of southern France, the corn-fed Anjou chicken is rubbed with herbes de provence and spices, then roasted on a vintage Rotisol. The restaurant may be based in the east London Liquor Co., among canal-side warehouses, but as soon as you step inside, you’re transported to France by the monochrome tiled floor, chalkboard menu, bistro chairs and marble tables. Choose between a whole or half chicken on Sunday – it’ll arrive with new potatoes roasted in dripping, and you’re encouraged to take the bones home to make stock so that nothing is wasted.
11. Manteca
Not a roast dinner per se, but with all the same principles at heart, Sunday lunch at Manteca takes its cues from the family-run feasts owner Chris Leach encountered on his travels through Naples. “To me, restaurants are an emotional experience. They are a sum of parts: the food could be amazing, but if the atmosphere isn’t right, the restaurant won’t succeed. There needs to be harmony between the two,” Chris tells us. Here the meal begins with quick snacks of fried olives stuffed with Italian sausage, or salumi cured in the restaurant’s own hanging room, while the line-up of starters includes house-made ricotta and roasted grapes in breadcrumbs. The main event will bring everyone together – this could be a large traditional lasagne for the whole table, or slow-roast ewe leg to share.
WEST
12. The Cow
This beloved Notting Hill pub is renowned for its perfect-serve Guinness and A-list clientele (Tom Cruise and David Beckham have been known to sink a few pints here). The pub’s slogan is ‘eat heartily and give the house a good name’, which tells you everything you need to know about it. Housed in a heritage building from the 19th century, the ground-floor bar says traditional Irish saloon, while red-lino flooring and old Guinness adverts live alongside perfectly pressed tablecloths and original David Hockney and Patrick Caulfield artworks in the compact upstairs dining room. On a Sunday, as well as the usual à la carte menu, roast beef is always on the specials board.
13. The Elgin
There’s no messing around when it comes to Sundays at The Elgin – the double-egg Yorkshire puddings are giant, and the goose-fat roast potatoes are plump and crispy. Choose between a rump of beef with ox-cheek croquettes, lemon and herb half chicken, or a loin of pork with sage and onion stuffing. Meanwhile, the vegan option is a hearty Mediterranean vegetable wellington. A cornerstone of Ladbroke Grove, the main bar of this friendly pub is traditionally Victorian, while the large room next door feels more lavish, with crystal chandeliers and a grand piano. Live sports are shown here, too, so it’s perfect for those who don’t want to forgo the Sunday matches.
CENTRAL
14. The Quality Chop House
A 19th-century working man’s ‘eating house’ revamped as a modern British dining room and wine bar, The Quality Chop House is in a Grade-II listed building in Farringdon, with its own butcher’s next door, a guarantor of the – yes – quality of meat you will be served. The Sunday menu is a set lunch, which always includes a splendid selection of roasts – the grouse is a must if you’re given the opportunity. Despite an obvious focus on the meats, the vegetables are given no less thought: the confit potatoes have reached almost legendary status, and if you’re a cauliflower-cheese-on-the-side kind of person, you’ll be delighted with this one, which features parmesan and pumpkin seeds. “We’re about abundant, generous, hearty cooking. The atmosphere is convivial – and people leave feeling nourished,” chef Shaun Shearly says.
15. Blacklock
A Soho basement might not feel like the natural setting for a Sunday afternoon, but the roasts served at this restaurant and bar will ensure you forget this soon enough. Whole joints are roasted over open coals and English oak, and served with Yorkshire pudding, duck-fat roast potatoes, seasonal vegetables and an unsparing amount of gravy. If you’re feeling particularly hungry (and brave), the ‘All In’ for two or more to share offers bites followed by a heady mix of skinny beef, pork and lamb chops, piled high on charcoal-grilled flatbreads, plus a choice of side each. Blacklock’s ‘nothing wasted’ ethos means they use the whole animal to make something out of everything.
16. St John
“Restaurants can be full of distractions, but underneath it all should be… Well, pleasure is the noise of eating, the slurping of wine, not decoration,’ says St John founder Fergus Henderson, which sounds like just the right approach for your day of rest. (That said, we do think the minimalist interiors here are most pleasing). The Smithfield outpost doesn’t have a special Sunday menu, but it serves roast dishes daily – from roast bone marrow and parsley salad as a starter, to middle white, sour cabbage and prune for main, and roast squash and goat’s curd as a vegetarian option. The venison and trotter pie is a suitably comforting dish for a Sunday, too, and it doesn’t get more classically British than the dessert menu here – think bread and butter pudding, or an Eccles cake with Lancashire cheese.
17. The Coach
The Sunday roast menu changes weekly at this 18th-century bistro pub, tucked away on a narrow street in Clerkenwell. But you can expect speckles of French influences, with the likes of 48-day aged Hereford côte de bœuf, seven-hour braised Cotswold lamb shoulder, or whole Landais duck magret to share. The garden room, set just behind the pub, is an elegant light-filled dining room with floor-to-ceiling windows at the back, and french doors leading to a charming terrace – the perfect spot for sipping a Bloody Mary and keeping the Monday blues at bay.
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