Hello forum,
We will be staying in London south of parliament in Westminster neighborhood. Looking for your best Sunday Roast restaurant in London. Rick Steves doesn't cover this in his book but we know it's an English tradition not worth missing.
Thanks
hey joseta20
my friends went to a pub sunday roat in cornwall and absoliutely loved it, too far away for you.
look at londonist.com in search type in best sunday pub roast
timeout.com london's best sunday lunches
you'll get a lot to chose from.
also check out stmartin-in-the-fields.org cafe in a crypt for lunch.
bring an empty stomach and happy eating
aloha
I can’t recommend a particular pub, but make sure you understand it’s a Sunday lunchtime thing, rather than evening dinner.
Sunday roast cooked at home IS a traditional thing, Sunday roast in a pub isn’t. As most pubs these days use preprepared frozen foods it really doesn’t match up to the home cooked version so may actually be an English tradition worth missing unless you can find a really good (and probably expensive) version. Pubs will advertise home cooked food but most of the time that just involves throwing some prepared food from Brakes or other food company in the deep fat frier or microwave. Veg is usually soggy and roast potatoes/Yorkshire puddings are weird. London locals on this forum can probably direct you to any good roasts/pub food that exists but will probably not be in tourist areas.
Pubs are traditionally drinking establishments not places to eat and maybe only offered a pie, ploughman’s or a pickled onion/egg in the past. Pubs started doing more food because the profit from alcohol dwindled due to lease conditions imposed by the breweries and a decline in people going out for a drink. Personally, I wouldn’t have Sunday lunch in most pubs (or much other food for that matter with a few exceptions) if it was something I wished to enjoy. Maybe I’m just a food snob!!
Joseta20 never mentioned pubs and I'm sure London has proper restaurants where you can get a decent roast dinner.
Isn't Simpson's still going? Or how about a Blacklock? The one in Soho is good.
PS It's true for the best Sunday dinner you need to go to Lancashire (lamb) or Yorkshire (beef), or points north. But that would be a long trip just for a meal and I'm sure even if a restaurant isn't wanted then London can also offer pubs with something much better than a Toby Carvery.
Also it's "dinner" not "lunch". Who ever heard of schools having "lunchladies" or people eating "Christmas lunch"? Lunch is sandwiches, not a proper meal.
I would agree that many Pubs serve mediocre food, but many others are full up restaurants in addition to a Pub. I usually try to hit a Sunday Roast when in London, several good ones I have been to are further out than where you are at, but my strategy to find one usually consists of perusing online searchs like "Best Sunday Roast in London" and then only looking at sites that are recent, and that are locally driven.
Doing that, consider:
https://www.timeout.com/london/food-and-drink/londons-best-sunday-lunches
Look at enough of them, you will see some mentioned multiple times, those are a decent bet.
As mentioned, it is an early afternoon or Lunch meal, many places treat it like we do with Brunch here in the US, just shifted a couple hours. While it is traditionally a home based meal, when I go I see lots of locals, mostly younger crowds, being London, I suppose they all can't get home to eat Mum's roast. The hardest part with a roast will be choosing a meat...beef? Lamb? Chicken?...if you luck out you might get a place that has the variety platter.
When we were in London last year we had a pretty good carver lunch at a pub in the Pimlico area where we were staying. I think it was called The Marquis of Westminster. It's one of the locals in the area - popular pub and restaurant - always busy when we were there. Don't have a clue how the meal compared to other places, but the meat, yorkshire pudding, etc were pretty good. As Canadians from English backgrounds, we know our yorkshire puddings, and were pretty happy with our meals. Lots of food, so you won't go hungry. https://www.themarquisofwestminster.com/the-pub
beef? Lamb? Chicken?
Roast Beef - yes - with roasties, Yorkshire Pud, Parsnips and plenty of gravy (Not Bisto) and horseradish
Roast Lamb - yes - with roasties, maybe a Yorkshire Pud, parsnips and a little gravy (Not Bisto) and mint sauce (not jelly)
Chicken? No. Roast Turkey - yes - with stuffing, cranberry sauce, roasties, and a Yorkshire Pub
Gammon - maybe
Vegan - from time to time - with veg but no Yorkshires, no roasties, but with parsnips
Nigel, your roast beef details exactly described our Christmas dinner, right down to the parsnips.
Remember that if you get roast beef it will not be American stylie - it will be rather pink. As long as it doesn't get up and walk off it will be fine.
I didn't say I'd have gammon on a roast, what I meant was just that it is often offered - at least in the East.
ah, well, you can never go wrong with a nice cauli-cheese. Especially after the grill has nicely browned the top.
My husband and I went to Hawksmoor Spitalfields about five years ago. We did it after visiting Denis Severs House. Friends from the area suggested it. They said the Sundial location was even better. Not sure how! I honestly thought it was a great value for what I got. If you’ve never been to that part of London I suggest both experiences. On another trip we visited Spencer House on a Sunday. We had an unremarkable Roast nearby at a pub. Can’t remember the name or location unfortunately.
Who ever heard of schools having "lunchladies"
I have. Every school I went to had "lunch ladies" serving the meal. Didn't matter if it was lunch, or breakfast, or dinner, or supper. It's just what they were called where I am from.
Yep, Mark, I also remember "lunch ladies." Of course, it today's world, it would be the generic "food service worker." But, I had forgotten the term from my childhood, but yep, it was lunch ladies.
And, Nick......come to Nashville where the "meat and three" is very common for lunch. Also available for dinner (in the evening).
And, for those who might ask: What is a meat and three?
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1&q=%22meat+and+three%22
Another vote for the Hawksmoor chain for Sunday lunch.
Most people don’t go out for a roast lunch on a Sunday, they prepare this at home or go out and eat pizza/pasta etc.
I am from Lancashire and I don’t understand Nick’s comments about Lancashire lamb, as you get beef more often than lamb. If you are in London, dinner is something that you eat in the evening, not in the middle of the day.
Who ever heard of schools having "lunchladies"
I have heard of lunch ladies. We grew up with lunch ladies in the school cafeteria -- hair nets and all. They were so sweet and kind!
Remember that if you get roast beef it will not be American stylie -
it will be rather pink. As long as it doesn't get up and walk off it
will be fine.
What is "American style"? Did you mean 'well done' (or as we call it, 'overcooked')? We love roast beef, prime rib, sirloin, etc nice & rare.
We had an awesome Sunday lunch in Covent Garden at The Palm Court Brasserie.
I remember my roast chicken was out of this world!!! My parents and husband loved their meals as well. I think my husband and father had the roast beef....
As far as I'm concerned "lunch" came from the US, when I was a lot lot younger (50's/60's) the 3 meals were breakfast, dinner (around noon) and tea, lunch didn't exist but this probably changed in the late 70's when we all became American.:-)
what a meal is called, and by whom, is regional and what colour a collar is
Yes, we had Dinner Ladies at school who used to serve us our lunch.
Sunday lunch is a lunch rather than dinner.
As a child my three meals were breakfast, lunch and dinner (sometimes referred to as tea).
It's all a bit confusing really.
Nigel, I'm not sure where you get the idea that American beef is not served pink, they like it just as pink as we do.
I can count on one hand the number of good roasts that I've had outside of home. One was in a restaurant on the Isle of Wight where a friend was hosting a birthday meal, there were around 20 of us so the meal was all cooked at the same time which would account for why the potatoes were so good. The crucial element of a good roast are the potatoes. Roast potatoes don't do well sitting around and are at their best straight out of the oven. Once they start lingering around they lose their crispness and fluffiness and begin to harden and become more unpalatable. Likewise with the meat, you cannot order a roast joint like you can with a steak so invariably a joint of meat will be served to a number of people at varying times so it cannot be served at the optimum degree of doneness like one cooked at home and finally, the only reason cauliflower cheese is so popular with pub and restaurant lunches is because it can be made ahead and shoved under the grill just before serving. All this is the reason I only have a Sunday roast at home.
