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London’s best Sunday lunches

Traditional pub roast? Dim sum? Here's our guide to the capital's best Sunday lunch spreads

Sunday lunch in London by area

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Let the Time Out experts guide you through the best Sunday lunches in London – from traditional pub roasts to Chinese dim sum and modern French cooking. Time Out reviews anonymously and pays for all meals.

Think we've missed a great place to have Sunday lunch? Let us know in the comment box below.

Sunday lunch reviews by: Guy Dimond, Anne Faber, Euan Ferguson, Ruth Jarvis, Charmaine Mok, Jenni Muir, Sally Peck

The best Sunday lunches in central London

  • Book online

    The Delaunay

    55 Aldwych, WC2B 4BB (7499 8558)

    The Delaunay is the new sibling of The Wolseley, and shares many of its key traits – a strong sense of occasion, smooth service, grand room, retro European menu. There’s roast rib of beef with Yorkshire pudding served all day (for a hefty £18.50), but the extensive à la carte menu also lists brunch dishes (eggs every which way) alongside more unusual, and more interesting mittel-European dishes. The schnitzels are excellent, so are the German-style sausages. The menu evokes French salons, the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Weimar Republic, when grand cafés were the meeting place of Europe’s bourgeoisie – so perhaps it’s no accident that this is where many of London’s intellectuals now choose to lunch on a Sunday.
    Sunday lunch served 11am-11pm. Sunday lunch for two with drinks and service: around £60.
    Read The Delaunay review

  • Book online

    Hawksmoor Seven Dials

    11 Langley Street, WC2H 9JJ (7420 9390)

    Finding a decent Sunday roast in the centre of town used to be a difficult mission, wrought with the dangers of greying beef more suited to working the jaw than chewing the fat. Hawksmoor’s original branch in Spitalfields already did a brilliant roast, but the newer Seven Dials restaurant is now our choice for a Sunday treat, and is more central. There’s no choice of roast. Come if you adore beef, full of flavour and cooked to a rosy medium rare; they use rump of Longhorn here, which offers the right amount of beefiness and chew, and it comes charred on the outside and evenly pink throughout. It’s accompanied by a massive Yorkshire (to get an idea of size, hold two fists together), iron-rich greens and tender – not mushy – carrots, and we love the addition of half a roasted head of garlic and sweet roasted shallots.
    Sunday lunch served noon-4.30pm. Sunday lunch for two with drinks and service: around £60.
    Read Hawksmoor Seven Dials review

  • The Modern Pantry

    47 - 48 St John's Square, EC1V 4JJ (7553 9210)

    If Sunday roast’s too conventional for you, consider Modern Pantry. Chef Anna Hansen’s known for her creative approach to mixing up flavours and ingredients. Sirloin of beef might be crusted with chilli and curry leaf, served with a tomato relish; and that’s one of the more conventional choices. The vegetarian choices are always enticing, such as the roast butternut squash with a filling of feta, hijiki seaweed, miso, lentils, soy broth and a parmesan crisp. This style of cooking’s not for everyone, but if you fancy something different, you’ll certainly find it here. The dining room is large and bright, and in warm weather tables are placed in the cobbled square outside the front of this attractive Georgian building.
    Set lunch £20 (two courses), £25 (three courses). Sunday lunch for two with drinks and service: around £55.
    Read The Modern Pantry review

  • Old Red Cow

    71 Long Lane, EC1A 9EJ (7726 2595)

    A proper pub with a proper Sunday roast, if that’s what you’re after. Located near Smithfield meat market, the emphasis at the Old Red Cow is – quite fittingly – on meat. We had a couple of top-notch Sunday roasts on our visit, with free-range chicken and well-hung beef bought from just over the road. Large groups can dig into ‘family-style’ roasts – by carving the meat themselves at the table. The rest of the menu is solid British pub grub – ham hock terrine, beef burger, fish and chips – but with vegetarian options such as buckwheat and cider pancake. The Old Red Cow is also a proper beer-lover’s pub, with three hand pumps to keep the real ales flowing and a selection of 14 changing keg beers.
    Sunday lunch served noon-3pm. Sunday lunch for two with drinks and service: around £45.
    Read Old Red Cow review

  • Book online

    Yauatcha

    15 Broadwick Street, W1F 0DL (7494 8888)

    Bored of the usual Sunday roasts? Then break the tradition with a Chinese dim sum. This Sunday lunch tradition of Cantonese families is a way for Chinese chefs to show off their prowess, which they do by showcasing a variety of small, sharing plates of steamed, baked or fried nibbles. This stylish Soho restaurant is unusual in serving dim sum all day, not just at lunchtimes – and is justly renowned for both quality and creativity. The extensive menu features classic har gau (steamed chewy shrimp parcels), fluffy char siu buns (filled with roasted pork), and slithery cheung fun (cannelloni-like rice pasta tubes with various fillings), but also has more innovative dishes such as baked pastry puffs filled with venison or roasted duck, pumpkin and pine nut.
    Sunday lunch served noon-10.30pm. Sunday lunch for two with drinks and service: around £65.
    Read Yauatcha review

Also good for Sunday lunch in central London

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Comments

By Iwan - Apr 17 2012

Eat 17 in Walthamstow Village is amazing and it costs £12. If they are full then The Village Kitchen just up the road won't disappoint either.
The Cuckfield in Wanstead is not bad either, a lot of young families go there (which puts me off but if you have a little Hellion then I'd go here).

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By Polina - Apr 16 2012

Kings Arms on Tooley St (SE1) does an amazing roast, best gravy ever! Also The Gun in Canary Wharf and The Botanist in Sloane Sq - roast potatoes are awesome.

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By Elena - Apr 15 2012

George & Vulture in Old Street 63 Pitfield St does a really good sunday roast with Free Jazz every last Sunday

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By Steve - Mar 15 2012

Paradise Club in Kensal Green does amazing sunday roasts and if youve got a taste london card then you can get 50% off the price. Niiiiice

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By Sarah - Mar 8 2012

Carvosso's at 210 in Chiswick is a great place for Sunday lunch. The atmosphere is relaxed, the staff friendly, the meat is sourced from our farms in Sussex and Hampshire, just £16.50 for 2 courses and we have a cosy sitting room with open fire to relax with the sunday papers.

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By Anna - Mar 4 2012

How you can leave off Boundary is a mystery...the prix fixe menu is incredible value with the best roast lamb I've ever tasted. And the beef is superb too. A great, indulgent experience.

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By Steve - Feb 27 2012

Lamberts in Balham does the best value Sunday lunch in SW London by far!

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By Londongirl - Feb 26 2012

Palmers Restaurant in Bethnal Green does one of the best Sunday roasts I've ever had in London. It's about $10 for chicken, pork and beef. They end to run out in the evening to so need to get there early.

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By L O'Brien - Feb 24 2012

The Bull in Highgate is the best place to go to in the area. The takeover has been a real success - they've finally got it right. I live very close-by and it's really great to have something that works; I have left happy every time (which has been a lot)!

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By Julie hanif - Feb 24 2012

We recently dined at the Blue Elephant in Imperial Wharf with our 3 children to enjoy the Sunday buffet, we had a fantastic table looking out over lovely views! Food was divine and as my daughter has a severe egg allergy the staff knew exactly what she could eat, excellent choice and variation of food, attention to detail was perfect and staff very helpful and happy !service could not have been better. Fab place to go as a family, even free face painting after the children have eaten! free single parking outside! 2 min walk to restaurant, going to book my husbands birthday party there next month!!

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By gary - Feb 24 2012

eat less so others may eat more

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By Leon Clowes - Feb 23 2012

The Bear in Camberwell is hard to beat.

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By sue smith - Feb 23 2012

these may be truly wonderful pubs for Sunday lunch but they are also the most expensive!!
For a cheaper option try the Highbury Barn pub in Highbury - £11 for roast beef and yorkshires, absolutely delicious!
Sue

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