15 of the best places for a roast dinner in the UK

Yahoo

31-01-2025

This article was produced by National Geographic Traveller (UK)
In Britain, the Sunday roast is sacrosanct. Gathering together around a beautifully cooked joint of meat, with lashings of gravy, vegetables and billowing Yorkshire puddings, is, for many, the weekend's social highlight. And where better to do to this than the pub? Not only do you avoid the washing-up but, centuries after the French dubbed Brits les rosbifs, you get to enjoy the roast at its most modern. In recent decades, Britain's best pub chefs have, by focusing on seasonal ingredients, rare-breed meats and painstaking preparations of roast potatoes or root vegetables, brought a fresh glamour to this Sunday afternoon ritual.
Throw in good beer, well-chosen wines and compelling meat-free options, and you have a meal that — in stark contrast to sometimes sad, home-cooked attempts — is a true celebration of British food. Here's a selection of the best in the game: characterful pubs serving champion roasts.
Cheshire chef Gary Usher's North West restaurant group, Elite Bistros, serves contemporary dishes elevated by classical cooking skills. His first pub, a convivial village local in rural Cheshire, embodies that rigorous MO. Expect a classy, caramelised apple puree with your stuffed pork Sunday roast while, in its depth of flavour, the beef's glossy, red wine gravy speaks volubly of patient stock reduction. Roasts from £19.50.
Sustainability is a key tenet at this attractive Whitechapel pub-with-rooms. It supports growers using regenerative farming practices; principles the pub adheres to in its rooftop garden and at its small Deptford farm. Produce from both, found in everything from chutneys to fresh herbs, is woven through its menus. Served with reimagined trimmings, such as Yorkshire Pudding and swede mash, Sunday roasts might include Soanes chicken, beef with a helping of horseradish cream or a meat-free goat's cheese, squash and sweet potato wellington. Roasts from £22.
Sharpen appetites walking the shores of Strangford Lough, then head to this warm, clubbable gastropub. A former farmhouse, its polished wood interior retains several original features: flagstone floors, open fires, a central stove. Among various accompaniments, roasts of shorthorn beef or fresh market fish are served in a delicious, double-carbs bonus with both mashed and roast potatoes. Two courses, £32.
A boho hive of activity (pottery classes! live jazz!), the Mariner also serves a knock-out roast. Run by the Med restaurant team from neighbouring Brighton, the kitchen brings a cheffy élan to its roast chicken (brined for prime juiciness), or pork belly (dry-aged to create super-crispy, aerated crackling), or a meat-less smoked beetroot and mushroom wellington. Laine Brew Co. beers star at the bar (try its Sonar IPA), alongside ales from many of the best Sussex craft breweries. Roasts from £16.
A chef with German and Japanese roots, Nina Matsunaga's deft command of global influences has earned this stylish inn's restaurant a place on the 2024 Good Food Guide among the UK's 'Best Sunday Roasts'. But during the Sunday lunch service, it's Nina's partner James Ratcliffe, a local lad from farming stock, who shines in his sourcing of stand-out Hereford beef or Herdwick lamb from the farms surrounding Sedbergh, on Cumbria's Yorkshire Dales border. Roasts £21.50.
Cardiff schooled in seasonal, ingredient-led cookery at restaurants including London's St John, chef Tom Watts-Jones now runs three pubs (see also, Aberthin's Hare & Hounds and Bristol's Clifton), that share a similar ethos. At the Heathcock, feast on Torgelly Farm lamb or Welsh Black sirloin with duck-fat potatoes and fresh Glamorgan vegetables. In summer, Sunday barbecues are held in the large rear garden, serving barbecued meats with salads that utilise produce from the pub's kitchen garden. Roasts around £24.
A handsome slab of 1930s architecture, the Rutty is, today, a friendly city-centre enclave for Sheffield's arty, creative set, renowned for its quirky interior, jukebox edicts (see, the banned bands list) and terrific beer. Its Sunday specials include a changing roast and vegan option, such as falafels made from roasted veggies. On the meat-front, think braised beef shin and sliced rump with exemplary gravy and home-style Yorkshire puddings, cooked in trays before portioning. Roasts from £14.
Reopened in 2020 by two local friends, chef Mathew Reeder and Michael Singleton, this smart pub-with-rooms on Harpenden Common has fast gained a reputation for ambitious cooking. The Sunday roast menu may include sharing options, such as Aylesbury duck leg or lamb Scotch Egg, alongside plates of, say, 42-day aged beef sirloin, with duck-fat roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, salt-baked carrot and buttered cabbage. Two courses, £39.
Sharing is caring, they say. That may explain why this Peckham favourite brings a glow to London's heart. It's legendary for its (generally, two-person) sharing roasts of, for example, spit-roast chicken or lamb saddle with mint and pine nut sauce, served with roast potatoes and perhaps creamed cavolo nero. The elegantly stripped-back aesthetic (scrubbed tables, blackboard menus, hip art), a lovingly assembled wine list focused on smaller producers and bottled beers from benchmark London brewery, Kernel, seal this appealing deal. Sharing roasts from £50.
With its terraced garden, Tyne Valley views and colourful interior (check the chamber pots dangling from the bar ceiling), this historic drover's inn outside Hexham has much to recommend it, even before you get to its stellar food. The Rat enjoys national acclaim among in-the-know foodies, and it makes a big deal of Sunday roasts, offering four meats from local farms such as Nunwick or Dukesfield Hall. Two-courses £26.50.
Descending into Ryburn Valley from the M62 motorway, you quickly leave hectic modern Britain behind. All ancient beams, flagged floors and roaring fires, the 14th-century Bridge Inn is a particularly atmospheric refuge. Perfectly conditioned regional cask ales, including several Timothy Taylor beers, accompany generous, tasty chicken or beef roasts. Trimmings include beef-fat potatoes and (yes!) cauliflower cheese. Two courses, £21.50.
When exploring the Brecon Beacons or famously bookish Hay-on-Wye, don't miss the Griffin: one of the modern era's classic gastropubs. On Sundays, there are few better places to be than at a large, well-spaced table in the Aga Room, feasting on brown crab rarebit before a roast beef or, for the non-meat eaters, maple-glazed celeriac. The Griffin wine list is interesting, too, with up to 20 by the glass or carafe. Sunday lunch, two courses, £35.
Popular with walkers, day-trippers and discerning locals, this buzzy Peak District spot is both a proper pub, where regulars natter at the bar over pints from local Distant Hills Brewing, and a dining destination, thanks to chef Luke Payne. His Sunday menu might range from dishes such as overnight braised lamb shoulder with all the trimmings to sea bream chowder or a carrot and tender-stem tart for special Sunday appetites. Roasts from £20.
In the glorious views from its snazzy beer garden or the regional ingredients on your plate, this inn is woven into the rural splendour of the Scottish Borders. Roast beef is served weekly alongside seasonal, roast-adjacent dishes such as pork loin with Dauphinoise potatoes, orange butter & hazelnut roasted carrots and apple compote. Walk lunch off on the four-mile Blackadder Loop or by exploring this pretty conservation village. Roasts around £20.
Set in a verdant nook by the village church, its beer garden bordered by a stream, this 15th-century inn is idyllic. The bar area particularly is a historic gem, complete with log-fire hearth. In both food and drink (St Austell Brewery beers, local gins, meats from butcher, Philip Warren), St Kew showcases Cornwall's best produce. A typical Kew roast might include sirloin with Yorkshire pudding, garlic and thyme roasties, cauliflower cheese and greens. Roasts around £20.
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