London's best Sunday lunches
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Time Out Restaurant editors. Photography Rob Greig and Ed Marshall
Updated: Tue Nov 24 2009
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Harwood Arms
corner of Walham Grove and Farm Lane, Fulham, SW6 1QP
Some diners have gently chided The Harwood Arms for its overtly countryfied take on a city gastropub, but the food confidently answers any doubters. It’s not cheap, but it is in Fulham, and the quality of the ingredients shine through in every dish. Recently, we’ve seen meaty treats such as pheasant breast with roasted pumpkin and pearl barley; chopped trotters and crispy ears on toast with piccallili; and rib of Berkshire beef with smoked bone marrow and field mushrooms making up the unusual trimmings. Game is a speciality: most of it is shot by the owner himself. An enclave of the Home Counties in Zone 2 it may be, but with food like this, we’re not complaining. This year, The Harwood Arms won the Best New Gastropub category in our Eating & Drinking Awards. Sunday lunch served 12.30-4pm. Sunday lunch for two with drinks and service: around £65. Read more
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Princess Victoria
217 Uxbridge Road, Shepherd's Bush, W12 9DH
The food and booze at this former Victorian gin palace consistently impress: a large horseshoe-shaped bar dispenses refreshing ales (including Timothy Taylor, Wychwood Hobgoblin and Harvey’s Best) while slap-up Sunday lunches can be enjoyed in the grandiose dining room. The menu does offer one token veggie option, but it sounds tempting – sautéed pumpkin gnocchi and roasted onion squash, wilted spinach, pumpkin seeds, sage and parmesan flakes. Meat-eaters win with traditional roasted rib of Angus beef with proper Yorkshire puds, horseradish and roast potatoes; roasted belly pork with crackling and Bramley apple sauce is a classic. Save room for puds, which include treacle sponge and crème caramel. Sunday lunch served noon-4.30pm. Sunday lunch for two with drinks and service: around £55. Read more
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Cadogan Arms
298 King's Road, Chelsea, SW3 5UG
A smooth operation from the Martin brothers, with a proper beer list as expected (real ales on draught include Adnam’s Broadside and London Pride). There’s no fiddling with the classic Sunday lunch, with roast sirloin or roast (free-range) Devonshire Bronze chicken among the traditional offerings (you could also branch out and have half a kilo of mussels steamed in Suffolk cider, or a butternut squash risotto with toasted pine nuts). Accompaniments are well in the old-school category: Yorkshire pudding, fresh horseradish, roast potatoes, seasonal vegetables and gravy for the former, and bread sauce, roast potatoes, seasonal vegetables and jus for the latter. Sunday lunch served noon-9pm. Meal for two with drinks and service: around £65. Read more
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Le Café Anglais
8 Porchester Gardens, Bayswater, W2 4DB
Chef Rowley Leigh’s glamorous Bayswater bistro features a menu notable for both quantity and quality. There’s hors d’ouevres, oysters, game, fish, meat and vegetarian choices. The signature starter of parmesan custard with anchovy toast is about as far from roast beef and Yorkshire pud as you can get, but this is a real special occasion sort of place for Sunday lunch. Sunday lunch served noon-3.30pm. Sunday lunch for two with drinks and service: around £65. Read more
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The Cow
89 Westbourne Park Road, Westbourne Grove, W2 5QH
Despite the name, seafood is the big draw at this gastropub and dining room. The compact menu offers simple dishes such as Irish oysters, prawns with garlic and chilli, and sole with mussels and parsley; Sundays bring roast pork with leeks and potatoes, or the time-honoured roast beef, veg and Yorkshire pud. Sunday lunch served noon-3pm. Sunday lunch for two with drinks and service: around £65. Set lunch: two courses £22; three courses £26. Read more
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The Crabtree Tavern
Rainville Rd, Hammersmith, W6 9HA
A thoroughly agreeable pub most recently remodelled over the summer – and everything falls nicely into place, from the excellent drinks list to the accomplished Sunday roast menu. There’s no mucking about with terse descriptions of the dishes: crisp Kilravock pork belly; Irish Hereford strip loin with Yorkshire pudding; whole, half or quarter corn-fed chicken. The biggest surprise, however, goes to the whole braised pig’s head to share, served with baby turnips, shallots and watercress (and the requisite roast potatoes, veg and gravy). Elbow benders will find inspiration in the comprehensive ale selection, with Doom Bar, Theakson Best, Spitfire and Deuchars IPA making appearances; there’s also Aspall cider and a few good lagers, too. Sunday lunch served noon-4pm. Sunday lunch for two with drinks and service: around £50. Read more
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Launceston Place
1A Launceston Place, Kensington, W8 5RL
Impeccable service and an almost obsessive attention to detail (in both front of house and the kitchen) means Launceston Place is a very smooth operation indeed. The rather elegant surroundings are well-suited for times when a noisy gastropub just won’t cut it. While mains skate around the traditional (Middle White pork with baby leeks and roast shallots, or roast longhorn beef with veg and gravy), there are indulgent starters, too. Crab risotto is dramatically presented with the empty shell of the crustacean used as a lid, while potted foie gras with Maldon sea salt is dense and creamy. Finish with the signature apple tart (£9 for two) or a selection of cheeses. Sunday lunch served noon-3pm. Set Sunday lunch: £26 for three courses. Read more
Reviews by Guy Dimond, Hattie Ellis, Euan Ferguson, Michael Hodges, Charmaine Mok, Jenni Muir, Susan Low.
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46 comments
The Stag on Fleet Road in Hampstead does an amazing Sunday roast, all ingredients are locally sourced, service is attentive without being too on your face and they have live acoustic sets from 7:30pm every Sunday. Do give it a go!
Any Toby Carvery for me £8 and you can keep going back for veg you will be stuffed to the brim for the price you cannot beat them I use the The Eagle in Snaresbrook. its great.
The Sunday Roast at Lost Society in Clapham was fantastic. Plus their bloody mary was one of the best I've tasted.
The Alma in Newington Green on 73 bus route does an amazing roast every Sunday. There is always a delicious veg roast aswell as the meat options, and usually fish and other stuff too. The atmosphere is so cosy and the staff are lovely.
Well worth the trip
me and my friend Nicola had so much fun at The Great Queen Street and oh how we laughed!!
Great food and great company, Thanks Nicola!!!!
Can't believe they didn't stop in at Luigis, Gipsy Hill, Dulwich for Sunday Lunch!
A general rule of thumb.
Avoid Sarf of the river(=its full of would be loonies who are really nerds) for eating out and ABOVE ALL avoid Yappie Neo Lib Gastro pubs=what are they? Basically you rip a trad boozer by the bollocks inside out and tranform it into some psys ida of Paris or some other place of the imagination.See my blog THE WORLD for pubs
to JRC
Dont woirry bout getting embarrassed in front of an Italian .I live in Milan and have a holiday home near Gallipoli in the Salento and believe me I've eaten some really crap meals in the land of Dante.Its more or less the norm unless you pay big bucks.When I bring Italians to my home in Arsenaland (alas) I take em up Wetherspoons-they love it!!! Especially the beef night.If you don't knw Italy apart from occasional visits well you don't know the food.
Best Sunday Lunch and value for money at Corelli's in Battersea Park Road (and not only on Sundays; the chef Enzo serves top Italian grub any time, any day of the week).
The tastiest Sunday Lunch I've had in ages is at the Britannia in Victoria Park, especially the sharing dishes of chicken for two or rib of beef for four and excellent value for money. fantastically, they serve from midday till 8pm, so it doesn't matter how late you got in the night before you can still get your roast on Sunday all accompanied by some great loungey DJ's till late.
The Anglesey Arms (west London) is a firm favourite for Sunday lunch. Comfortable. relaxed atmosphere and they are very child/family friendly.
Spitalfields & Shoreditch aren't the only places in East London. I think this article should have tried harder; they've barely left The City. East17 in E17 Walthamstow is great for instance. King Edward VII in Stratford E15 gastropub is good. Islington has loads of places too.
The address for the Carpenters Arms (as featured in the 'East" section of 'best Sunday lunches') is wrong. It is not in Hammersmith (west!). The correct address is 73 Cheshire Street, E2 6EG.
The Water Poet? Are you sure?? I had the worst Sunday Lunch there ever a few months back. It was like reheated school dinners.
Worst still, I was introducing an Italian friend to a traditional English Sunday lunch and all he got was confirmation that English food is stodge!
Thankfully, when he came back a few weeks later the Peasant on St John St came up trumps for us.
The Bull and Last in Kentish Town is by far the best for Sunday lunch or any day of the week......