The Sunday roast is a plate of roasted joint, Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, seasonal greens and gravy, eaten in London pubs on Sunday lunch. The capital's defining set-piece since the nineteenth century.
The roast joint of meat on Sunday traces to medieval landowner kitchens and church-day eating. Industrial London pubs codified the modern format in the late 1800s: a single sitting, often midday to mid-afternoon, with one carved meat, Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, parsnips, carrots, greens and a gravy made from the pan. The Eagle on Farringdon Road, opened in 1991, is usually credited as the first London gastropub to take the dish seriously as a kitchen-led plate rather than school-dinner fare. The form spread through Anchor and Hope, The Camberwell Arms, Quality Chop House and the modern pub crawl that defines London Sundays today.
5 editor picks for Sunday roast in London, ranked by editorial score. All London signature dishes · Sunday roast across every city.
The Camberwell Arms ★ 4.6
peckham · 65 Camberwell Church Street, London SE5 8TR
Mike Davies's gastropub on Camberwell Church Street in south London, opened 2014, runs a daily-changing seasonal menu and a famous family-style Sunday roast.
Quality Chop House ★ 4.6
clerkenwell · 92-94 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3EA
The 1869 Farringdon Road working-class dining room in Clerkenwell London, restored under Will Lander since 2012, runs daily-changing British cooking in original Victorian booths.
Blacklock Soho ★ 4.6
soho · 24 Great Windmill Street, London W1D 7LG
Gordon Ker's basement chophouse on Great Windmill Street in Soho London, opened 2015, runs charcoal-grilled chops in a 1850s-era basement room, the cheap-and-loud Sunday roast destination.
The Eagle ★ 4.4
clerkenwell · 159 Farringdon Road, London EC1R 3AL
Britain's first gastropub on Farringdon Road in Clerkenwell London, opened 1991 by Mike Belben and David Eyre, still serves Mediterranean-leaning daily-changing food at the bar.
The Jugged Hare ★ 4.3
clerkenwell · 49 Chiswell Street, London EC1Y 4SA
The Jugged Hare on Chiswell Street in the City of London, opened 2012 by ETM Group, runs a game-led gastropub menu with hung-game cabinets in the dining room.