Sunday Roast
Tucked just off the high street, the Chalk Freehouse feels a cut above the usual Sunday spot. Tom De Keyser (ex–Head Chef at The Hand & Flowers) is in the kitchen and the wider Tom Kerridge group is behind the Chelsea pub, so you’re getting Michelin-level know-how in a low-key setting. The roast might look a little pale on arrival – the only green is the garnish – but the flavour more than makes up for it. The Yorkshire puddings come stuffed, the cauliflower cheese is unapologetically rich, and it’s an impressive Sunday plate.
Level 32 of the Shard is a dramatic place to eat a roast and Oblix leans into it. As well as those widescreen London views, you get good-looking plate and your own pot of gravy so you can go full self-pour. The format is generous: four starters to share, a choice of rotisserie chicken or dry-aged beef, all the classic sides, and a dessert platter to finish. For a skyscraper Sunday lunch, it’s surprisingly solid value and an easy win for anyone wanting a roast with a bit of theatre.
An old-school pub done proper, The George nails that balance of heritage charm and modern polish. Upstairs in the dining room, things get serious come Sunday. Kick off with a perfectly seared scallop followed by a peach, ricotta and hazelnut salad that could be straight out of an Italian summer. The roasts hit classic territory; crisp-skinned chicken, blushing pink beef, gravy that means business, and all the trimmings where nothing feels like an afterthought. Finish with the trifle because it’s nostalgia gold in a glass, and quite possibly one of the best in London.
It’s surprising how few decent Sunday roasts there are in London, which means scoring a table can take weeks – or even months – of advance planning. Blacklock, we’re looking at you. So, we were pretty happy to hear that The Angel Inn in Highgate Village now has new ownership – Heath Ball, the same guy behind the award-winning Red Lion & Sun just up the road – and that it’s serving up Sunday roasts with a walk-in-only policy. WINNER. The Sunday Roast, of course! There are three options on the menu: a beef rib, mushroom and beetroot wellington or pork belly. All are huge, come with giant Yorkshire puds, extra gravy and all the trimmings. There’s a cracking drinks list. Start with a kimchi Bloody Mary (it’ll blast away your hangover), then move on to the really great wine selection. Owner Heath has curated a massive list with everything from funky fizz to more classic tipples (this is Highgate, after all).
Ixchel, the modern Mexican spot in Chelsea, is bringing some serious heat to the Sunday roast game. Chef Ximena and her team have crafted a feast that swaps out your usual Yorkshire puds for bold, punchy, robata-grilled flavours. Think half grilled chicken adobado or a slow-braised lamb shank, all piled high with crispy potatoes, roasted veg, molten queso fundido and servings of jalapeño cornbread that you’ll be dreaming about all week. Start with the rock shrimp tempura, light bites of battered shrimp served with a tasty burnt aubergine dip and avocado puree. The braised lamb shank barbacoa is the perfect mix of tradition and fusion – the meat is cooked low and slow and is fall-apart tender and packed with smoky flavour. If you’ve got room for more, we highly recommend Mexican mango dessert. It comes served with homemade chamoy, a gorgeous lime sorbet and sprinkle of tajin, ideal if you want to end on something sweet without it being heavy or overly sugary.
At his Covent Garden spot Henri, Jackson Boxer is doing Sunday lunch the French way with a duck feast. A bronzed roast duck crown (which is first presented to you surrounded by pretty spring blooms), is served sliced in a rich duck jus, alongside confit duck leg atop a warming cassoulet. A zesty and bitter endive salad is a great counterpoint to the fattiness of the meat. There are no roasties – this is a Parisian bistro after all – but instead, a giant bowl of crisp duck fat fries, with a pot of mushroom hollandaise to dip in. Pro tip: dump the rest of the fries on the plate the sliced duck is served on to soak up every drop of that jus. If that’s not indulgent enough for you, finish with a slice of Henri’s chocolate sabayon cake and yoghurt sorbet. If you’re looking for an alternative to a traditional English Sunday roast but want something just as comforting, head on down to Henri – just make sure you pre-book!
If you’re looking for a great value roast in the centre of town, head up to rooftop spot Kitty Hawk. The Sunday menu, where you can get two courses for £29 or three for £34, is centred around hearty roasts, including 28-day-aged Grassroots Farm rib of beef, Waveney Valley pork belly, free-range Yorkshire chicken and stuffing, and portobello mushroom & celeriac wellington, all served with duck fat roasties, cauliflower cheese, honey & thyme roasted root veg, greens, a giant Yorkie, and plenty of gravy. You can bookend your roast with the likes of Jersey rock oysters with shallot vinegar, lamb kofta with whipped feta, sticky toffee pudding and chocolate fondant, and if you wanna really indulge, you can add on bottomless Italian red wine for £30 per person. All that and you get epic views over Trafalgar Square too.
Part of the Cubitt House group of pubs, The Builders Arms in Chelsea is tucked away in the charming (and very expensive) residential backstreets of this well-heeled neighbourhood. The Sunday roast menu features either Cotswold chicken or Angus rump beef, both available in servings for one or two people. The portions are generous—think large oval plates piled high with huge Yorkshire puddings, crispy roast potatoes, steamed greens, roast carrots, parsnips, a hearty serving of meat, and a jug of rich, flavourful gravy. You can wash it down with Cubitt House’s own wines, including an excellent Chardonnay from their vineyard in Bordeaux and a house-label Tuscan Chianti. If you can manage dessert, the homemade Rolos and apple pie are well worth indulging in, even if it means risking a side stitch. The pub is dog-friendly, so expect to see plenty of pooches.
With lovely interiors, outdoor seating to soak up a spot of sun, and authentic Italian dishes, like burrata with charred pear and chicory and pumpkin, gorgonzola & sage arancini, The Italian Greyhound already ticks a lot of boxes. Now it’s got Sunday roasts nailed too with mains like grilled half chicken and porchetta with apple and rosemary. Everyone knows crispy potatoes are the most important bit and it’s got those covered too. The Marylebone restaurant also offers pizzas, pastas and other mains on Sunday alongside the roasts so it’s a good one to have in your back pocket if you’re looking to feed an indecisive group.
The Cavendish is a proper central London gem. The independent pub just off Marylebone High Street offers a seasonal gastropub menu and does a great Sunday roast. Ease into your meal by sharing some seasonal arancini and croquettes, followed by the juicy chicken roast or the vegetarian Wellington, both served with crispy roast potatoes, huge yorkies, and all the veggie trimmings. To finish off, it’s gotta be the chocolate and pear tart or the lava cake – or both if you don’t mind the food coma afterwards. The food is banging, the service is super friendly, so it feels like a place you can hunker down for a long lunch, and it’s also dog-friendly, with a special doggy dining menu for your furry friend.
Looking for a bit of luxury with your Sunday roast? Claridge’s Restaurant delivers it and then some. The menu offers a modern twist on the classics, with starters like ham hock terrine with pickles and brioche, French onion soup, and seabass & crab fishcake with tartare sauce. You’ve got plenty of options for the main event, including Norfolk black leg chicken with truffle stuffing, roasted rib of beef with horseradish purée and Yorkshire pud, porchetta with burnt apple purée, and celeriac & mushroom pithivier. Sides come for the table so you get plenty of roasties, glazed carrots, seasonal greens, cauliflower cheese and gravy too. And if you’ve still got room, indulge in a baked meringue tart or apple crumble with ice cream and custard, served family style. Given it’s the flagship restaurant of a five-star hotel, the service is exceptional – it’s the definition of hospitality – so prepare for a very special Sunday.
There’s lots of places to get chicken in London but none are as glamorous as Bébé Bob, the rotisserie chicken-focused spin-off restaurant from Bob Bob Ricard. The Golden Square spot is filled with Art Deco detailing, geometric patterned carpets, a circular bar with a gold granite top, and a red and blue colour scheme. You can’t visit a Bob Bob joint without a glass of champagne (there are no ‘press for champagne’ buttons here though, so you have to ask for it the old fashioned way), which is the perfect accompaniment to classic starters like caviar, egg mayonnaise with anchovy and prawn cocktail. Chicken is at the heart of the menu, with Vendée or Landes birds from France being the main choice you have to make, and it’s served tableside along with the most gorgeous chicken jus – not that you need it because this chicken is seriously juicy and tender. If you’re doing Sunday lunch, you can order up chicken fat roast potatoes, roast carrots and parsnips, sautéed kale, and an indulgent truffle cauliflower cheese on the side, and you won’t wanna miss out on the honey cake for pudding either.
Opened by the same family team behind wine bar and shop 56 West Smithfield, Farringdon restaurant Origin City is an expression of their love for British fine dining, Scottish produce and the Provençal way of life, with a menu that showcases pasture-to-plate and nose-to-tail dining. All of the meat used at Origin City, including many heritage breeds, comes from the owners’ organic farm in Argyll in Scotland and it’s butchered in house, so whether you go for the Texel lamb, Tamworth pork or Black Angus beef (or all three if you’re feeling particularly hungry/ambitious) for your roast, you can be sure it’s going to be top quality. All the roasts are served with Yorkshire pudding, beef-dripping potatoes, glazed heritage carrots, sprouts and cauliflower cheese, and there’s sticky toffee pudding on the dessert menu so you’ll want to leave room for that too. If you’re looking for somewhere to take your parents for Sunday lunch, Origin City is the spot.
The Culpeper is an East End boozer with a difference. The menu here, for the roast and otherwise, is heavily focused on sustainability and their produce is locally sourced from minimal intervention and regenerative farms. They even get some of the herbs used from their own rooftop garden – it doesn’t get much more local than that. Highlights from the Sunday menu include the burrata, wild nettle, pickled kohlrabi, nuts; broccoli hummus, crispy chickpeas, radish, croutons; bavette, horseradish cream with *that* Pommes Anna; and golden beetroot, mushroom, spinach & onion Wellington for the veggies. Our top tip, save room for dessert.
Islington isn’t lacking in great boozers but there’s always room for more, especially when they’re of the calibre of The Baring. Sustainability, seasonality and provenance are central to the operation here for both the drinks and the food and it’s a superb menu that goes beyond standard gastropub fare by effortlessly incorporating different cultural influences into the dishes. And that’s no different on Sundays, where popular starters from the a la carte menu are joined by roasts like Simmental beef bavette and Yorkshire pudding, Rhug Estate venison with creamed kale, charcoal grilled Vendée chicken with romesco sauce, and a grilled Normande beef rib for two, all served with roasties, hispi cabbage and gravy. And no, it wouldn’t be wrong to get an order of the pub’s epic chips on the side as well.
Sussex, one of the five London restaurants from the Gladwin Brothers, is bringing a bit of the family’s West Sussex farm to Soho with the ‘Sundays From The Farm’ menu. Filled with wild, foraged and locally grown produce, it’s Sunday lunch done countryside style. For the main event, you can choose between rolled leg of lamb, beef rib on the bone with horseradish caramel jus, Saxon chicken with bread sauce, pork rack with crackling, partridge with liver parfait, and beef wellington, each of which comes loaded with trimmings, including Yorkshire puds, roasties, seasonal veggies and plenty of gravy. Richard Gladwin has curated the Sussex wine list, so you can pair your roast with a juicy vino or banish any of those Sunday morning hangovers with a Sussex Bloody Mary.
Acme Fire Cult, the live fire kitchen from Andrew Clarke and Daniel Watkins, is putting its own spin on the classic Sunday roast. Expect grilled and smoked meats, as well as innovative veg-led plates, all designed to be shared feasting-style. Kick things off with a coffee (it’s Sunday morning after all) and by coffee, we of course mean the coffee kombucha (made using next-door neighbour Dusty Knuckle’s coffee grounds) and bourbon cocktail. Then, split some small plates like char siu beetroots, coal roast leeks and cauliflower ‘Aslam’s Butter’-style before diving into the main event: the grilled and smoked meats platter. Inspired by Dalston’s Turkish food culture, this is Acme’s answer to Blacklock’s ‘All In’, featuring a whole lotta meat on bread with delicious dips.
Elliot Cunningham has nailed live-fire cooking with Lagom, which is in residence at Hackney Church Brew Co, and now he’s applying his skills to the Sunday roast. As per the concept’s name, which translates to “just enough” in Swedish, the Sunday roast menu is short and sweet with the choice of smoked chicken, coal roasted beef rump, smoked pork belly and coal roasted celeriac. The meat, perfectly cooked and infused with smoke from the grill, is the real star here and the kitchen knows it because you get an absolute whopping portion – three thick slices of perfectly pink beef and a slab of pork belly, with a crispy crackling top, that’s almost half the plate’s circumference. They come with Lagom’s beloved crispy potatoes, cabbage, carrots, fluffy Yorkshire puddings and gravy, so all you need to add is a fresh pint from the brewery’s taps.
