London’s best Sunday lunches

You’d expect a trendy British chophouse to be clued up when it comes to Sunday roasts, and Blacklock really nails it – serving up the kind of nostalgic grub that your nan might produce for the family while ‘The Billy Cotton Band Show’ was on the radio. Of course, it’s brought the whole shebang up to date, adding a touch of theatre by slow-roasting whole joints over open coals (not the way nan would do it!) and providing a choice of three meats – usually beef, pork or lamb. All the trimmings are present and correct (the gravy is off the scale for flavour) and portions are strictly family-sized, right down to the cheesecake for afters. Blacklock’s outlets in Soho and the City offer a similar menu.

Tucked away in a quiet residential street north of Clapham Common, this charming, understated gastropub does a cracking roast dinner (around £17) within the cosy confines of its cute duck-egg blue bar and dining room. Choose from a slab of slow-roasted pork belly with homemade apple sauce and crackling, half a roast corn-fed chicken with bread sauce (also homemade) or the pièce de résistance: roast sirloin of beef with creamy horseradish and Yorkshire pud – plus all the usual veg trimmings, of course. Starters and desserts take inspiration from Italy and France, with occasional Brit intruders such as apple crumble. Proper real ales and gluggable wines are there to whet whistles and quench thirsts.

Big-hearted, meaty British dishes are given full rein at this sibling of The Camberwell Arms – especially on Sundays. You can drop by and get stuck into a plate of rare roast dexter beef with carrots, roasties and watercress, but why not go big, bring some mates and share the spoils from the showpiece saltmarsh lamb shoulder, cooked for seven hours and served with potato and olive oil gratin? It should feed up to five famished souls, but beware – it’s fall-off-the-bone stuff and it sells out quickly. After that, you might just have room for a helping of steamed stem ginger pudding with custard. The pub’s hugely popular and doesn’t take bookings, so be sure to get there early.

Sitting proud at the helm of Hackney’s Broadway Market, this sizeable boozer has been welcoming all sorts since 1729 – and it’s still a prime local asset. Take a Sunday stroll around the stalls before decamping to the Cat’s bar for one of its mighty roast lunches, served with ample veg, roasties and gravy (or summer style with new potatoes, vegetable salad and salsa verde). There are normally three meaty choices (aged beef sirloin, roast chicken and pork belly with apple sauce) plus two veggie options. If they have vegan sorbets and Hackney Gelato pots on the menu, make yourself popular by ordering plenty to share around. It is the weekend, after all.

If you want to do Sunday lunch in style, head upstairs to The Coach’s first-floor dining room where you can sample some fine victuals in elegant, laid-back surroundings. The kitchen is now home to Henry Harris – a celebrated chef who made his name with carefully rendered, bourgeois Gallic food, but also knows how to pull out all the stops when it comes to delivering a proper British Sunday roast. The big hits are the 48-day hereford beef sirloin, landais chicken, middlewhite pork belly and the seven-hour slow-cooked lamb shoulder, although you’ll also find mighty slabs of grilled beef to share. On the side, expect yorkshire pud, duck-fat roasties, carrots, greens and leek gratin. Plunder the rest of the menu for Anglo-French starters and puds.

Tom Conran’s Cow has been putting the ‘gastro’ in gastropub for more than 20 years, and his bovine-themed hybrid venue still delivers in spades. Despite the meaty moniker, seafood is the main attraction here (oysters and Guinness in the saloon bar is something of a local tradition), but the kitchen also comes up trumps with a proper sit-down roast served in the colourful upstairs dining room on Sundays. There’s no choice, but when the chefs can produce a beautifully cooked forerib of beef with Yorkshire pudding, roasties, carrots and horseradish cream, no one’s complaining. Rest assured, you’ll also be properly looked after in the drinks department too.

Famed for its rooftop garden/greenhouse/growing patch, this ice-cool east London gastropub with knobs on is also a diamond for Sunday roasts – although you’ll need to be an early bird to catch the pick of the meats. Expect lamb, chicken or pork, served in mind-boggling, stomach-challenging portions alongside made-to-order yorkies, fluffy roast potatoes, carrots glazed in the meat juices, and greens grown just a few floors up on the aforementioned rooftop. You can eat in the upstairs dining room (noon-6pm) or take pot luck in the airy ground-floor pub, whose bare bricks, eclectic vintage chairs and industrial lighting reference a hip New York loft.

A sedate distance from the jumble of loud music and fried chicken around Brixton station, this smart neighbourhood boozer is known for two things: its prodigious line-up of craft beers and its heavyweight all-day Sunday lunches. Ordering at the bar is easy: simply take your pick from half a roast chicken, roast rib-eye of beef, lamb shoulder, pork or a couple of veggie/vegan options, then grab a table and wait for the juicy slabs of meat, roast potatoes, veg, vast yorkshires and red-wine gravy to arrive. If you’re still hungry, then sweet temptation beckons in the shape of chocolate brownies, tarte au citron or sticky toffee pud with custard.

Famous as an iconic music venue and comedy club, this sprawling Balham boozer is now making some noise as a foodie destination following its relaunch. At the back is a proper pub dining room serving a proper all-day Sunday roast (till 9pm) with all the trimmings – and cocktails. Choose corn-fed chicken, grass-fed beef, pork belly with apple sauce or a vegan nut roast with roasties, veg and gravy, plus extra dishes of cauliflower cheese for sharing. If you fancy the full three courses, kick off with some British charcuterie or half a pint of skewered meats with miso mayo, before finishing with a few scoops of Jude’s ice cream or a nostalgic pud.

As popular with well-heeled locals as a flash sale on Range Rovers, the Sunday roast at this Young’s-owned Wimbledon stalwart is everything you’d want from a home-cooked lunch, but without the faff. Juicy, pink-middled 21-day aged striploin, dingley dell pork belly with apple sauce and crackling, or half a succulent lemon-and-thyme-marinated chicken come with all the trimmings: potatoes roasted in goose fat, herb-specked root veg, lashings of gravy, and a giant yorkshire pud. If you can’t make you mind up, opt for the Dog & Fox trio – a platter of all three meats, plus trimmings. Eat in the main bar (no table service here), the Scullery next to the open kitchen or in one of the quieter overspill areas.

Officially Fulham’s worst-kept secret, this terrific gastropub gets booked up weeks in advance – you could be looking at a month-long wait for a Sunday lunch table. However, patience brings its own rewards in the form of 45-day aged Hereford beef with roasties, Yorkshire pudding, cauliflower cheese croquettes, horseradish cream, roots, greens and bone-marrow gravy. Alternatively, you might stumble on roast rump of Tamworth pork or one of their famed game specials (Yorkshire grouse with wild mushrooms, cabbage and bacon, say). Go with an empty stomach and savour every Michelin-starred mouthful, from venison faggots with chestnut and prune to blackcurrant jam doughnuts with citrus cream. And if you want your Sunday lunch for supper, they can do that too.

Finding a decent Sunday roast in the centre of town used to be a mission fraught with the fear of greying beef. Now there’s a Hawksmoor in just about every corner of the capital, serving a slap-up lunch with all the trimmings for £22. And holy cow, the British-reared beef rump is delicious, full of flavour and cooked to a rosy medium-rare – first over charcoal, then in the oven. It’s paired with fluffy potatoes roasted in beef dripping, greens, carrots, garlic cloves and sweet roasted shallots, plus lashings of bone marrow and onion gravy. Truly a roast to boast about. Just remember the caveat: ‘We can’t guarantee roasts will be available after 5pm’.

Birthplace of Camden Town Brewery, this enterprising pub keeps the tables in its front bar reservation-free on Sundays. That’s the good news. The bad news is you really have to be there at noon to nab one if you haven’t booked in the separate dining room at the back. Roasts run from opening time until they’re gone, although the centrepiece rare-breed meats such as dry-aged hereford beef sirloin or tamworth pork belly sell out fast. Meanwhile, the stylish bar keeps pace with demand for Bloody Marys, sophisticated wines and the full range of Camden beers (including Hells Lager and Ink Stout). There’s often some live music to get your feet tapping, too.

Sunday at this crisp, clean-lined Crystal Palace institution is mainly about brunch, but Joanna’s does offer just one meaty roast – and it’s a good ’un. Most of the year, it consists of a high-quality hunk of 28-day aged sirloin with gravy, a Yorkshire pud, duck-fat roasties, seasonal veg and horseradish, all for £18. On really hot days, they might swap the beef for half a roast chicken (breast and leg), served with salad and fries. We suggest calling ahead if you’ve got your heart set on one or the other. If pud is required, there are cinnamon doughnuts, scoops of dulce de leche ice cream and even some dessert cocktails.

Superior Sunday lunches at user-friendly prices bring crowds of Kentish Town weekenders to this enduring popular watering hole. There’s sirloin of beef (cooked rare) and slow-roast pork loin with apple sauce (plus a couple of veggie/vegan offerings), or you can share one of the biggies – perhaps a whole chicken or picanha (a roast rump of beef big enough for four people), all served with yorkshire pudding, gravy and a harvest festival of essential veg. The menu kicks off with a selection of Med-influenced starters and snacks, but unless you’re feeling heroically hungry, sacrifice them in favour of the roasts, then fill up any extra available space with one of the excellent desserts. The fun continues right through to 9pm, supplies permitting.

An elegant rebranding of Chelsea’s famous old Cheyne Walk Brasserie, No. Fifty is a timeless, plush and inviting setting for Sunday lunch with a touch of class. Special roasts are served alongside the regular menu but stay with the traditional stuff and you’ll be treated to a choice of three options (cumbrian chicken breast, 35-day dry-aged beef sirloin or veggie roasted cauliflower) with yorkshire pud, glazed carrots, roasties and sausage stuffing. You can also ring the changes by ordering some beef-fat chips, garlicky grilled broccolini or a tomato and shallot salad. Bookend your roasts with a house-made Bloody Mary and a bowl of sticky toffee pud with vanilla ice cream. Fancy afternoon tea later on? This place does that too.  

Part of the Cubitt House group, this grand building in the posh part of Pimlico might look like a gastropub, but deep down it’s a smart restaurant in mufti. The Sunday roast is equally as impressive, whether you plump for a plate of iron age pork or fancy sharing an entire castlemead chicken, saltmarsh lamb shoulder or pheasant (in season), with all the traditional accoutrements, of course. Those who don’t want a roast can choose a pizza, pie, burger or something flashier from the full menu. Unless you hanker after the bustle of the ground-floor dining space, request a table in the upstairs room, where the refined vibe is spot-on for a lazy Sunday afternoon with drinks and chatter.

A bright gastropub on the outskirts of Angel, The Pig & Butcher is meticulous about meat, sourcing rare-breed lamb, pork, beef, chicken and specialist cuts with care, butchering the carcases on site and serving them up with gusto. For around £18, you get a bountiful portion of meat cooked perfectly – rare for lamb and beef – atop freshly steamed greens, crisp beef-dripping roasties and Yorkshire pudding. They don’t skimp on gravy, plus all orders come with a dish of silky creamed leeks. They also serve up mighty suckling pigs and braised beef with bone marrow for sharing. This is roasting as an art form.

Visit in a group of four if you can, because it’s all about sharing at this rejuvenated Stokey local. While you can order a solo plate of Welsh Black topside, served medium-rare with some handsome trimmings, the sight of the pub’s sharing roasts, presented on boastfully shiny silver platters will have you green with envy. Portions are beyond generous and all meats come with more spuds than it’s safe to consume. The 12-hour braised salt-marsh lamb neck or shoulder for two/three are the picks of the bunch, cooked long and slow until the flesh falls away from the bone. Amiable staff, bountiful supplies of gravy and the hum of local chatter really warm the cockles.

You can choose to eat your Sunday lunch in the elegant downstairs bar of this handsome gussied-up Shoreditch boozer or head up the spiral staircase to the chic surrounds of the first-floor restaurant. Both are packed with convivial throngs all day long. Little wonder, since the kitchen manages to tease out every last bit of flavour from each bite, be it a ten-hour slow-roast lamb shoulder, a well-aged ribeye roll or confit pork belly with sour apple. All are served with a big, tasty yorkshire pudding, plus roasties, seasonal veg (including kale) and chicken sauce (we’ll continue to call it gravy). For afters, treat yourself to a wedge of British cheese with quince ‘gel’.

Meat is put on a pedestal at this popular joint on an Islington backstreet, and it has the balance between pub and restaurant spot on. Sunday roasts have an edge here, particularly as the carefully sourced flesh is smoked in-house: texel lamb shoulder is a heavenly mound with beautiful burnt ends that fall apart when teased with a fork, although the gloucester old spot pork ribeye and rare-breed lincoln russet beef are equally tempting. Best of all, first-rate yorkshire puddings come as standard, so there’s no need to worry about dish envy. Tacos and other starters are top-notch too, while the double d tart with pistachio ice cream will have you begging for mercy. Strange global brews feature heavily on the beer list.

Occupying a perfectly proportioned Regency townhouse named after a celebrated Victorian master builder, The Thomas Cubitt is a venue of two halves: downstairs has a more casual gastropub vibe, whereas the muted grey first-floor dining room oozes elegance – just like its Belgravia clientele. On Sundays, a choice of sharing roasts is served alongside the regular menu – pick from the likes of beef sirloin, saltmarsh lamb, middlewhite pork, whole castlemead chicken or pheasant (in season), all served with nicely al dente veg, roasties and a fluffy yorkshire. High-ish prices can be justified by super-attentive service – staff place your napkin on your lap and proffer advice on the expansive wine list. For an extra kick, begin with a Bloody Mary and round off with a British pud.