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 (£27/£30 for 2/3 courses); choose from Hereford beef or Banham chicken (plus roasties, cauliflower cheese and seasonal veg), bookending it with posh soup or salad (Jerusalem artichoke 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.

This airy gastropub (run by the folks behind The Culpeper  in Aldgate) is such a treat. A chirpy atmosphere and savvy staff play their part, but the food’s the irrefutable star. Panko-coated pig-head croquettes are a stonking starter, followed by two succulent inch-thick slices of medium-rare beef Wellington and a slab of sublimely tender belly pork. Both are served with creamy leek gratin and red cabbage, crunchy goose-fat roasties and a fluffy Yorkshire pud. Leave room for dessert. The old-school crumble will make you drool.

Don’t miss The bloody mary is spicy, strong and devilishly addictive.

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 each corner of the capital, serving a slap-up Sunday roast for £20. And holy cow, the beef 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 duck fat, greens, carrots, squidgy cooked garlic cloves and sweet roasted shallots. Truly a roast to boast about.

Don’t miss Hawksmoor is home to the Ferrari of gravies: enriched with bone marrow, it’s indulgently smooth with oodles of umami.

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 roast leg of Hardwick mutton (to share), the roasts (starting at £21) 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).

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 £17 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.

This grand building in the posh part of Pimlico looks like a gastropub, but deep down it’s a smart restaurant in mufti. The Sunday roast is equally impressive: choose from dry-aged beef sirloin, an entire Castlemead chicken to share (or, y’know, not) or Norfolk-bred lamb with mint sauce (with all the trimmings, of course). Unless you hanker after the bustle of the ground-floor dining space, request a table in the upstairs dining room, whose refined air is spot-on for a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Don’t miss: The feast-style roasts: given 48 hours’ notice, the kitchen can rustle up a huge joint for you and four friends to share.

Those who scoff at pitiful gravy portions will be pleased to hear that the Sunday roast at Temper comes with bottomless smoked gravy. Choose between Lincolnshire beef picanha (a Brazilian rump cut) and smoked shoulder of Welsh lamb, or order a sharing plate of juicy bone-out beef ribeye, sirloin or eye fillet. All orders come with chunky veg, a huge Yorkshire pudding and (the best bit) a side of gloriously moreish beef-fat potatoes topped with melted Ogleshield cheese. (Tip: sit at the open fire-pit kitchen and watch the chef blow-torching the cheese. Prepare to salivate.) Roast-averse? Its top Latin America-inspired tacos and meat-topped flatbreads are also available on Sundays.

Don't miss: The deep-pan Brazil-inspired brigadeiro cookie with ice cream — a sweet substitute for a traditional Sunday sticky toffee pudding with custard.

Downstairs, The Thomas Cubitt has a more casual gastropub vibe, whereas the muted grey first-floor dining room oozes elegance – just like its Belgravia clientele. Choose from dry-aged roast beef, Norfolk Horn lamb or pork (sorry, chicken fanciers) with nicely al dente veg, roasties and a fluffy Yorkshire (£19-£22). High-ish prices can be justified by super-attentive service – staff place your napkin on your lap for you and offer advice on the expansive wine list. But for a real kick, make a beeline for the bloody mary and end on one of the leftfield puds.

Don’t miss: The sumptuous carve-your-own roast with all the trimmings. Order 48 hours in advance for a group of four or five and feel smug about shirking the washing-up duties.

Oversubscribed as ever, The Bull & Last’s well-worn oak tables are in demand for good reason: this Sunday-lunch-scene fixture is the god of gastropubs. Non-trad starters like slow-cooked lamb ragu with pappardelle or English squash salad with burrata give way to pimped-up Sunday roasts, with accompaniments as enticing as the meat. Think pork belly and crackling with sauerkraut, roasties, greens and black pudding (£18.50). Indulge in the hot chocolate and peanut butter pud with roasted rum-laced bananas, and you won’t need to eat for a week.

Don’t miss You can walk off your mammoth meal on nearby Hampstead Heath.

The wipe-clean black vinyl tablecloths at Farang (shades of, erm, ‘Fifty Shades’) are there for a reason: this is roll-your-sleeves-up, sweat-on-the-floor food. On Sundays, chef Seb Holmes – ex Begging Bowl and Smoking Goat – serves a fixed-price Thai ‘feasting’ menu of small plates (crispy pork belly with pickled watermelon; wontons with burnt chilli dip) and larger ones (curried egg noodles with braised beef cheek; green curry featuring huge, head-on tiger prawns), plus rice, bread and pickles. Portions are vast: our meal for two could easily have stretched to four. If you’ve space, though, a couple of scoops of homemade pandan and banana ice cream rounds things off nicely.

Don't miss: The turmeric butter roti – it’s right up there with Roti King’s.

The splendid Sunday lunch menu at this modern British restaurant gets written on Saturday nights, and the next day Crouch End’s upmarket locals cram in for the mouthwatering rare-breed meats served with heritage ingredients homegrown on the owners’ Buckinghamshire farm. The likes of 35-day aged Red Sussex beef rib and slow-roasted Blackface lamb top the bill, with strong support from mile-high Yorkshire puds, double-fat potatoes and roasted bone marrow. There’s even a weekly vegetarian roast. The farmhouse-style tables, tin lightshades and chalkboard drinks menus reinforce the rustic vibe.

Don’t miss: A farm-inspired apéritif, like the heirloom sour or rhubarb and thyme daiquiri.

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 noon until they’re gone, and the rare-breed meats, such as Red Sussex beef or Old Spot pork belly, sell out fast. Meanwhile, the stylish bar keeps pace with demand for bloody marys, sophisticated wines, and draught Camden Ink stout.

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 the other essential trimmings). There’s also 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 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 light, airy pub is a wonderfully calm place to get your roast potato fix. Pick a table next to the open side doors on a sunny day or a sofa by the fire when winter has set in, but make sure to arrive early; even with two meat options and an unusually tempting nut roast (mushroom and stilton on our last visit) the roast dinners will be sold out well before the 4pm cut-off. Clearly word has got out about how damn fine they are – expertly cooked from the Yorkshire puddings right down to the gravy, with generous helpings of seasonal veg and even a side of cauliflower cheese. If you’re panicking about missing out, simply call ahead and pre-order from the friendly staff. They will totally get it.

Don't miss: The enticing selection of flavoured gins; they make a most refreshing pre-roast aperitif.

Ben Marks, head chef at Newington Green’s Perilla, cut his teeth at fancy-pants Danish eatery Noma. But although his Sunday offering features plenty of bells and whistles, it’s mercifully untweezered – and substantial enough that you won’t need to nip over to Green Lanes for a kebab on your way home. Warm seaweed bread with whipped brown butter could be a course in its own right, and braised short rib of beef comes with proper gravy, caramelised tropea onions and a crisp potato terrine. Vegetarians don’t draw the short straw either: pot-roast cauliflower with girolles makes for a smashing meatless main.

Don’t miss The bloody marys are divine – choose from vodka, gin or tequila with a dash of red wine.

This is roasting as an art form. 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. For around £18 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: Feel like a caveman with a sharing roast, which arrives in its own large enamel tin with a big carving knife and all the trimmings.

Visit in a group of four if you can, because it’s all about sharing at this neighbourhood pub. While you can order Longhorn beef served medium-rare and complete with a handsome Yorkshire pud (£15.50), you’d be feeling a bit gloomy if you spotted a nearby table with one of the pub’s sharing roasts, served on a boastfully shiny silver platter. Portions are beyond generous and all roasts come with more spuds than is safe to consume. Lamb neck for two or shoulder for three are the picks of the bunch, roasted slowly so meat falls away from the bone. Amiable staff, bountiful supplies of gravy and the hum of local chatter really warms the cockles. The only arguments you’ll be having here is over who has to do the carving.

Don’t miss: Come early for a relaxed pre-dinner pint – there are 20 different locally sourced beers on tap.

Meat is put on a pedestal at this popular joint
on an Islington backstreet, and the balance between pub and restaurant is spot on. Roasts have an edge here; the carefully sourced flesh is smoked in-house. Slow-smoked lamb shoulder is a heavenly mound with beautiful burnt ends, which fall apart when teased with a fork. The pork ribeye is just as tempting, with a tart apple sauce on the side. Best of all, roasts come with a first-rate Yorkshire pudding, so there’s no need to worry about dish envy. Starters are top-notch too, and the white-chocolate peanut cup will make you forget all about Reese’s in one bite.

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 spring greens. Jerked roast chicken with burnt carrots and chimichurri is just as stylish an alternative Sunday plate, or choose from seasonal game and fowl. Slow jazz tinkles 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 bonza 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 portion of the plate, with its skin buttery, crispy and humming with lemon and garlic. Roasted parsnips and carrots come coated in rosemary, with extra gourds in the form of butternut squash. 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 rotating roast – lamb, chicken or pork – 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: you could always plump for a bavette steak with pomme anna chips and horseradish. 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 cosseting 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 mullet with basil gnocchi ‘au pistou’, or the Vichyssoise soup with salt cod brandade and crème fraiche. 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 pub is bang on target. Try the Hereford beef rump with a Yorkshire pudding so big it threatens to eat you first, the succulent roast chicken with bread sauce, or go for roast Tamworth belly pork with burnt apple ketchup. The food suits the pub’s polished oak surrounds and green leather banquettes but tastes just as good in the strikingly modern first-floor dining room. Extra veg ‘for the table’ includes spring greens and leeks with Montgomery’s Cheddar and tarragon. Lucky table.

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

Sunday lunch is served in both the elegant downstairs bar and chic upstairs restaurant of this handsome pub; both are packed with a convivial crowd all day long. Little wonder, since the kitchen manages to tease out every last bit of flavour from each bite, be it whole, crisp-skinned roast chicken for two, roast belly pork with apple sauce, slow-cooked lamb’s leg or traditional roast beef. All are served with a big, tasty Yorkshire pudding, plus roasties, seasonal veg, roasted onions, carrots and jus (we’ll continue to call it gravy).

Don’t miss: Gut-busting desserts such as sticky toffee pud with caramel and vanilla ice cream.

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 breast of chicken (£15) and the veggie option (£13.75); a caramelised-onion-and goat’s-cheese-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 signature roast chicken at this laidback sibling to Adam Byatt’s Clapham flagship Trinity 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 juicy crisp-skinned 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), 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 takes the classic Sunday roast and moves it up a gear, with starters such as fish soup with rouille croute and comte sauce, or pig fat and scotch bonnet pepper on toast. For mains, there’s beef rump for two or rolled beef brisket. Whole spit-roast chicken and roast Welsh lamb offer a slice of tradition. We sampled the chicken for two, served on a huge white platter, piled with roast potatoes and vinaigrette-drenched lettuce leaves. Gorgeous. The pared-back, 1940s brasserie aesthetic – aubergine walls and salvaged furniture – goes well with the no-nonsense service.

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

Rustic, meaty dishes, the lifeblood of contemporary British food, are served at The Canton Arms – but with the odd Italian or French flourish. Oh là là. Pasta, shellfish or warm seasonal salads and soups 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 dish (the menu changes daily). Finish with a decadent chocolate pot with cream, or a satisfyingly tart crumble. Child and dog-friendly, The Canton is popular on weekends and not the place for a rushed meal. NB: bookings are 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.

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 in them, the unbelievably juicy and thick hunks of lamb rump see moistness richly seeping from pink flesh and the roasties come with such a beautifully thick crust that oil company execs would want 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 striploin, Dingley Dell pork belly 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 country life in London.

A crisp, clean-lined Crystal Palace institution, Joanna’s only ever offers one meaty roast, but it makes sure it’s a good ’un. Most of the year, this translates to it 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, it 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 chichi bookshops, art emporiums and vintage treasure troves of Crystal Palace Triangle.

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 The Cow is known for putting the ‘gastro’ in gastropub, and blazing the trail for high-quality pub dining in London. These days, the menu is a mix 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 only option is usually a beautifully cooked forerib of beef with Yorkshire pudding, roasties, carrots and horseradish cream, no one’s complaining.

Don’t miss Get a seat by the roaring open fire. Or a round of oysters when 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 (£17), Suffolk farm chicken with chipolatas (£15.50) or pork belly with apple sauce (£16) 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 Pick something special from the 200-bin wine list.

Don’t be put off by the stylishly spartan 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 fortes, and chime with the relaxed vibes of this posh local.