London's best Sunday lunches

This buzzy Soho all-dayer has the smooth and swanky feel of a private members’ club, but the food of your favourite British auntie. On Sundays, there’s a ‘set roast’ menu (£25/£29 for 2/3 courses); choose from Hereford beef or Banham chicken (plus roasties, cauliflower cheese and seasonal veg), book-ending it with posh soup or salad (chilled heritage tomato soup; cured salmon; poached fennel with cauliflower and raisins) and hearty puds or a cheese plate.

Don’t miss: A gawp at the restaurant’s art collection. Funky works by the likes of Tracey Emin and Peter Blake give a modern edge to the timeless interiors.

Finding a decent Sunday roast in the centre of town used to be a mission fraught with the threat of greying beef. Now, there’s a Hawksmoor in each corner of the capital, serving a slap-up Sunday roast for £20. The beef is wonderful: full of flavour and cooked to a rosy medium-rare, first over charcoal and then in the oven. It’s accompanied by fluffy-centred potatoes roasted in duck fat, greens, carrots, squidgy cooked garlic cloves and sweet roasted shallots.

Don’t miss: Hawksmoor is home to the Ferrari of gravies: it’s rich and smooth with oodles of umami thanks to the addition of bone marrow.

If you like a tipple with your tatties, head to The Jugged Hare and wine-pair your roast like a pro. Hidden in the Barbican Centre’s shadows, this neat corner pub serves serious meats matched with perfect wines – all watched over by walls of taxidermy. Featuring Longhorn rump, Suffolk chicken or a whole suckling pig (to share), the roasts (starting at £18.50) come with heaps of trimmings that let the quality of the meat shine through. As for the huge, globe-spanning wine list, it may have you in a flutter. Ask sommeliers to pair for you and roast your Sunday away in style, darling.

Don’t miss: Popping into the Barbican Centre post-roast. It’s just across the road and perfect for an arty trip to round off your weekend. Tipsy or otherwise.

Go à la carte or select from a sumptuous Sunday lunch menu (two courses for £25, three for £30) at Angela Hartnett and Neil Borthwick’s laidback restaurant/pub venture. Traditional roast beef comes lean and particularly pink, with a healthy dollop of horseradish and a mini gravy jug on the side. Yorkshire puddings are solid, roast spuds even better, with a fatty, crunchy coating. Starters are light salads to save room for the star main course, but don’t skip on a dessert of lemon meringue pie – zesty and creamy with a chewy meringue top. Winding leather banquettes and low lighting make this a smart setting for Sunday lunch, but staff take the starch out with easy chat.

Don’t miss: Bring mum and dad for a family outing if you want to score serious kid points.

Given its location near Smithfield meat market, you’d expect the Sunday roasts here to be something special - and they are. Beef, pork, lamb and chicken are all given a lot of love in the kitchen, the lamb leg slow-roasted into submission, the pork belly enriched with apple, onion and chilli stuffing; all hover around the £15 mark, including giant Yorkies, roast tatties, vegetables and plenty of gravy. The pub’s traditional looks with modern accents update the ‘Sunday roast in your local pub’ experience.

Don’t miss: A pint from the huge selection of craft and keg beers – one of the largest in London.

It’s as oversubscribed as ever, but The Bull & Last’s well-worn oak tables are in unending demand for good reason: this fixture on the Sunday lunch scene is a god among gastropubs. Modish starters such as asparagus with parmesan custard give way to pimped-up Sunday roasts, whose accompaniments are just as enticing as the meat - think pork belly and crackling with sauerkraut, roasties, pears, purple sprouting broccoli and black pudding (£18). Irresistible puds such as the hot chocolate and peanut butter pudding with roasted rum-laced bananas ensure you won’t eat again for a week.

Don’t miss: Nearby Hampstead Heath, where you can walk off your mammoth meal.

The good news is this enterprising pub – birthplace of the Camden Town Brewery – keeps its front bar tables reservation-free on Sundays. The bad news is you really have to be there at noon to nab one if you haven’t booked in the rear dining area. Roasts run from 12pm until they’re gone and the rare-breed meats, such as Red Poll beef from a small Suffolk farm, sell out fast. Meanwhile, the stylish bar keeps pace with demand for bloody marys, sophisticated wines, and draught stout Camden Ink.

Don’t miss: Stick around until sundown for weekly live music.

This enduringly popular local serves superior Sunday lunches at user-friendly prices: think slow-roasted shoulder of Berkshire pork with apple sauce and that all-important crunchy crackling, or roast chicken breast with traditional sage and onion stuffing (plus weekly lamb and beef options, all with a Yorkshire pudding and other essential trimmings). There’s also a selection of the Med-influenced starters and snacks, but unless you’re feeling heroically hungry, sacrifice them in favour of the roasts, then fill up any extra stomach space with one of the excellent desserts.

Don’t miss: A table in the beautiful, light-filled conservatory or in the pub garden on warmer days.

This is roasting as an art form. A bright gastropub on the outskirts of Angel, The Pig and Butcher is meticulous about meat, sourcing rare-breed lamb, pork, beef, chicken and specialist cuts with care. For £16.95 you get a bountiful portion of meat cooked perfectly – rare for lamb and beef – atop freshly steamed greens, crisp roasties and a yorkshire pudding the size of the Hulk’s fist. They don’t skimp on gravy, and you’ll always get more if you ask, plus all roasts come with a dish of silky creamed leeks.

Don’t miss: Feeling like a caveman with a sharing roast, which arrives in its own large enamel tin with a big carving knife and all the trimmings.

London's original organic pub recently teamed up with Riverford, the well-known group of farms that deliver veg boxes, after their respective owners got married – so it's no surprise that the meat roasts here offer excellent-tasting veg on the side. The menu changes every day, and on Sundays roasts are only part of a more varied menu that leans heavily on seasonal veg: when we visited they offered delicious lamb and pork alongside some eye-grabbing dishes for non-meat-eaters (including roast courgette and aubergine). The pub itself has a laid-back, lived-in vibe. It's popular but it never feels too crowded.

Don't miss: Start your meal with a 'Live life on the veg’ platter – a plate of veggie goodness to prepare you for the meat to follow.

Animals are put on a pedestal at this popular joint on an Islington backstreet, which gets the balance between pub and restaurant just right. Roasts (at £16.50-£18) have an edge here, as all that carefully sourced meat is smoked in-house. The slow-smoked lamb shoulder is a heavenly mound of meat with beautiful burnt ends, which all falls apart when teased with a fork. Pork rib-eye is just as tempting, with a tart apple sauce on the side. The best news is that all roasts come with a first-rate Yorkshire pudding, so there’ll be no dish-envy here. Don’t eat for days ahead, as starters are also first-rate and the white-chocolate peanut cup will make you forget Reese’s in one bite. A three-course affair you’ll never want to end.

Don’t miss: Come early, bring a group and seek out the lamb knuckle for two or beef shin for five.

Purists, look away. Beagle isn’t the pub-with-fire sort of setting that the thought of a Sunday roast can conjure. But it comforts in other ways. From knowledgeable, smart service to the sight of large family gatherings, this restaurant’s warming charm is quite something – you’d barely know you were dining in a railway arch. Beagle focuses on roasting meat to exceptional standards – it practically sings on a plate of roast beef rump, served with crispy dripping potatoes (there can never be enough of these) and honeyed roast carrots. Roast chicken with rainbow chard is just as stylish a Sunday plate, or choose from seasonal game and fowl. Slow jazz tinkers and wine flows freely – you’re in for a happy Sunday.

Don’t miss: Keep an eye out for the specials chalked up on the board, since they move pretty quickly.

Sunday lunch at this bonzer boozer is a relaxed affair – at first. As the afternoon progresses, a couple of low-key locals yield to crowds of swag-carrying Brick Lane marketeers and the mood cranks up from low-key to lively. In keeping with the pub’s unpretentious ethos, the food here is more about satisfaction than aspiration. Sunday-specific options are two roasts (sirloin of beef or loin of pork, served with roasties and a Yorkshire pud), or you can order off the main menu. The cooking style is homely, with sweet-baked seasonal veg and red wine onion gravy liberally dispensed. Beef is quality topside correctly served medium; pork is tasty loin. Roasts come in two sizes: the smaller should be plenty, though note that there’s only one pudding on offer.

Don't miss: The bottled line-up includes impressive Belgian beers worth seeking out.

This East End boozer is in a prime location for wintery walks along Broadway Market. Half a roast chicken (£13.50) takes up a sizeable proportion of the plate, with its skin buttery, crispy and crusted with herbs. Roasted parsnips and carrots come coated in rosemary, with even more roots in the form of a sweet parsnip purée. Order cauliflower cheese on the side or save room for seasonal puds. When they’ve got deep-fried Oreos on the menu, don’t muck around: make yourself popular by ordering a couple of portions for the table. It’s the weekend, after all.

Don’t miss: Book a space upstairs, where seating is a little more comfortable and the overall vibe more relaxed.

You have to be an early bird to catch the best-selling beef roast (£16) from this ice-cool east-end gastropub, complete with made-to-order Yorkies, fluffy roast potatoes, carrots glazed in the meat juices, and greens grown just a few floors up on the roof garden. If you miss out, don’t despair: other meats on rotation include top-notch chicken, pork and lamb from name-droppable suppliers. Enjoy it either in the airy ground-floor pub, whose bare bricks, eclectic vintage chairs and industrial lighting reference a hip New York loft, or in the equally stylish turquoise- and mustard-accented first-floor dining room.

Don’t miss: A cocktail apéritif on the roof in summer.

If the Sunday press of people around Brick Lane and Spitalfields gets a bit much, you can always retreat to the cossetting interior and service of this branch of a modern French chain. Look at the 100ft-high vaulted ceiling for an inkling of the building’s former life as a parish hall – it’s now Grade II-listed. Service is just as smooth and lush, with staff persuasively suggesting drinks, offering another delve into the excellent bread basket, and pointing out the menu’s attractions such the Cornish plaice with white borlotti beans, lemon and cockles; or the tranche of calf’s liver with Madeira jus. There’s usually one ‘classic’ option – a roast rump of Cumbrian beef, say, served with a Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, glazed carrots and fine green beans.

Don't miss: French desserts par excellence.

If you like your Sunday lunches big and bold, this fashiony pub is bang on target. Try the flavoursome Hereford beef rump with a Yorkshire pudding so big it threatens to eat you first; succulent roast chicken with bread sauce; or slow-roasted shoulder of pork with crispy roasties – all a neat fit with the pub’s polished oak surrounds and green-leather banquettes, but just as tasty eaten in the strikingly modern first-floor dining room, too. Extra veggies ‘for the table’ include buttered Hispi cabbage and cauliflower cheese. Lucky table.

Don’t miss: A visit to Instagram heaven (aka Columbia Road Flower Market), with its beautiful blooms and boutiques.

Half of Clapton tips into this large friendly Victorian boozer on a Sunday afternoon. It’s the place to come if you like your roasts big and proper. Several meats are offered: we tried a handsome beast of chicken (£15) and the veggie option (£13.75); a caramelised-onion- and brie-stuffed mushroom that was genuinely satisfying and far from tokenistic. Everything comes with whopping great Yorkshire puds, tasty gravy and roasties. But the Windsor should come with a warning – it’s very easy to end up accidentally smashed. We started with cocktails (the bloody mary and a pear and cucumber cooler) and quickly graduated to the wine list.

Don’t miss: The cocktails – if you don’t mind your Sunday afternoon going awol.

The laid-back sibling to Adam Byatt’s Clapham flagship Trinity offers its signature roast chicken throughout the week, but it comes into its own on Sundays. Brought to the table with its legs in the air and surrounded by mouthwatering extras, including meaty pigs in blankets, game chips and bread sauce, it’s built to share in all its crisp-skinned, juicy glory. Size wise, it’s perfect – it’s certainly filling but it won’t slay your appetite as much as roasts with more traditional trimmings. Which leaves just enough room for a classic British trifle. 

Don’t miss: Start your meal with bar snacks from the brown-paper bar menu.

Tucked away in a quiet residential street north of Clapham Common, this charming, understated gastropub does a cracking roast dinner 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 (£17), half a roast chicken with house bread sauce (£17), roast leg of lamb with mint sauce (£17.50), or the pièce de résistance, roast sirloin of beef with creamy horseradish and a Yorkshire pud, £18.50). Starters and puds take inspiration from Italy and the French riviera.

Don’t miss: A special guest draught ale in the pub’s sun-trap beer garden before your meal.

The Camberwell Arms serves up a heightened reality of a Sunday roast, such as starters of pumpkin soup spiked with lime and coriander. For mains, there’s beef rump for two or rolled beef brisket, while spit roast chicken and roast Welsh lamb offer a slice of tradition. We sampled more traditional fare: whole spit-roast chicken (for two) served on an huge white platter, piled with roast potatoes and vinaigrette-drenched lettuce leaves (delicious). A pared-back, 1940s brasserie aesthetic – aubergine walls, salvaged furniture and stripped floorboards – suits the no-nonsense service.

Don't miss: A cracking cheese plate demands your full attention.

Sitting incongruously on a particularly bleak stretch of South Lambeth Road, Canton Arms is an excellent place to while away a Sunday afternoon. The kitchen serves up rustic, meaty dishes which are the essence of contemporary British food, though occasionally with an Italian or French flourish. Fish or meat terrines or warm seasonal salads are the perfect way to whet the palate. Go with a big appetite and share a succulent joint (seven-hour lamb shoulder, say), or opt for a lighter risotto or fish (the menu changes daily) and finish with a decadent chocolate pot with cream, or a satisfyingly tart crumble. Child, baby, and dog-friendly, Canton Arms is popular on weekends and is not the place for a speedy meal. Bookings not taken.

Don't miss: The pub serves a less-usual selection of real ales such as Skinner’s Betty Stogs or Timothy Taylor Golden Best, plus two daily-changing guest ales.

Forget claims about your lunch having been slow-roasted since the Mesozoic Era – the most florid that the menu descriptions of these roasts get is ‘lamb rump’ or ‘roast beef’. However, what arrives turns out to be worthy of a tad more praise. Think ‘Precision-perfect demonstration of an oven’. Or ‘Inevitable cause of weirdly orgasmic groaning noises’. The Yorkshire puds are so vast and fluffy that you could take a nap on them, the unbelievably juicy and thick hunks of lamb rump see moistness beautifully seeping from pink flesh and the roasties come with such a beautifully thick crust that they’d leave oil company execs wanting to drill through them. Talk about masters of understatement.

Don’t miss: The phenomenally juicy lamb rump.

As popular with well-heeled locals as a flash sale on Range Rovers, the Dog & Fox’s Sunday lunch is everything you’d want from a home-cooked meal, but without the faff. Juicy, pink-middled 21-day aged sirloin, Dingley Dell pork loin with apple sauce and crackling, or succulent lemon-and-thyme marinated half-chicken come with all the trimmings: potatoes roasted in goose fat, herb-specked root veg, lashings of gravy, and a giant Yorkshire pud. For the undecided, there’s even the roast version of a mixed grill – a platter of all three meats, plus trimmings.

Don’t miss: A stroll on nearby Wimbledon Common for a taste of the country in London.

A crisp, clean-lined Crystal Palace institution, Joanna’s only ever offers one roast, but they make sure it’s a goodie. Most of the year, this translates to them serving a high-quality hunk of 28-day aged rib of beef with gravy, a Yorkshire pud, duck fat roasties and seasonal veg, all for £17.50. On really hot days, they might swap the beef for half a roast chicken (breast and leg), served with salad and fries. Call ahead if you’ve got your heart set on one or the other.

Don’t miss: A browse around the chi-chi bookshops, art emporiums and vintage treasure troves on Crystal Palace Triangle.

This dashing pub-restaurant in the grounds of Greenwich’s Royal Naval College is now owned by Young’s. Rip-roaring roasts feature mile-high Yorkshire puddings, well-cooked potatoes, glazed carrots, mixed greens and gravy - choose from beef and horseradish (£18.50), chicken with creamy bread sauce (£15.50), or pork with crisp crackling (£16.50). The Old Brewery has long been in the good books of local families thanks to excellent ‘mini roasts’ with all the trimmings on the kids’ menu (from £7).

Don’t miss: Make like a tourist and spend an afternoon sightseeing. Stroll up to the Observatory or head downstream to the Cutty Sark.

There’s something wonderfully cosy and welcoming about Pedler. Maybe it’s the smiling staff who are always delighted to see you, or the mismatched crockery that looks like the stuff your nan would put on her table. Either way, it’s exactly the kind of atmosphere you want when diving into the small selection of roasts here, each of which has an unexpected twist – the whole Yorkshire grouse, for example, comes with its legs still coated in feathers and a generous dollop of whiskey porridge on the side. Throw in a drinks menu full of local craft beers and punchy cocktails, and you’ll struggle to think of a better place in Peckham to while away a Sunday afternoon.

Don’t miss: The unusual sides, such as grilled corn and grits, add a new dimension to roasted meats.

West London’s Cow is known for putting the ‘gastro’ in gastropub, and blazing an early trail for high-quality pub dining in London. These days, the menu is a mixture of Continental and British Isles styles, with a proper sit-down roast served in the upstairs dining room on Sundays. Said roast is a no-choice affair – but when the choice is usually a beautifully cooked forerib of beef with Yorkshire pudding, roasties, carrots and horseradish cream (£19), no one’s complaining.

Don’t miss: A seat by the roaring open fire. Or a round of oysters in season.

This riverside gastropub doesn’t just rely on its location for custom. On Sundays, the kitchen goes out of its way to keep up with demand for its roasts, with fresh joints cooked from scratch several times throughout service to ensure your cut is juicy regardless of when you order. Whether you opt for rump of beef (£15.75); lemon and thyme chicken (£14.50); or pork belly with apple sauce (£14.75); your plate will come piled high with roasties, Yorkshire pudding and seasonal veg, and doused in red-wine gravy.

Don’t miss: A spell in the appealing pub garden, with its prime views of the Thames.

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 aged belted Galloway beef sirloin with roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, field mushrooms and smoked bone marrow, or roast Yorkshire grouse with blackcurrant, wild mushrooms, cabbage and bacon. Go with an empty stomach and savour every Michelin-starred mouthful, from starters of whipped chicken liver with thyme ‘Hob Nobs’ to malted chocolate cake desserts.

Don’t miss: Something special from the 200-bin wine list (including a dozen by-the-glass pours).

Don’t be put off by the bare interiors of Hereford Road – Tom Pemberton's British cooking provides all the visual nourishment you'll need. Pemberton worked for the ground-breaking St John Bread & Wine, and the influence of Fergus Henderson is apparent. On Sundays, there’s always a roast – usually a forerib of beef with a Yorkshire pud, roast potatoes, roast parsnips and gravy, or roast Middle White pork with apple sauce and all the trimmings, with more adventurous options such as mutton and game when in season.

Don’t miss: Shareable dishes are just one of the kitchen’s fortés, and chime with the relaxed vibes of this posh local.

This gastropub fit for a queen never puts a foot wrong, and its trio of terrific Sunday roasts rams this point home. The menu runs from crisp-skinned chicken thigh with just-so bread sauce, through prime rib of beef cooked medium-rare, with a suitably regal Yorkie on the side, to juicy slow-roasted pork belly; all come with potatoes roasted in dripping, and colourful veg. The Princess’s serene interiors have a timely style, and service is slick and courteous.

Don’t miss: Browsing the ‘precious little left’ wine list – the foodie equivalent of the ‘last chance to buy’ rail in Topshop, but without the fashion misfires.