A short list of the best roast dinners in London

Whether you’re after classic cosy pub vibes or something a little different, this list is worth bookmarking

The Colony offers 1920s New York vibes (The Colony)

There’s nothing quite like a roast dinner, and there’s no shortage of top spots in London to get your fill.

We’ve rounded up a short and ongoing list of some of our favourites, from classic pubs to 1920s New York vibes, open-fire cooking and French-inspired elegance. We’ve got places for both meat-lovers and veggies, places where the nibbly bits reign supreme, and places where the desserts are worth saving space for. Not to mention the cocktails.

As ever in London, booking ahead is key so plan in advance, and debate the faux pas of Yorkshire puddings with roast chicken later.

The Colony

Walking into The Colony genuinely feels like setting foot into another time; there’s an undeniably sophisticated, old-world glamour. The lack of windows and dim, flattering lighting means you can almost trick yourself into believing you’re in 1920s New York.

It’s no style over substance here, though. The roast dinners are as decadent and comforting as the surroundings, with plenty to get excited about: crispy spuds, succulent meat, generous helpings of gravy and a Yorkshire the size of most human heads, as well as fantastic starters, like the “CFC – Colony Fried Chicken”, and the faultless shrimp cocktail.

The staff also have an old-fashioned attentiveness, never imposing yet never letting your glass empty. The restaurant even has a build-your-own ice cream sundae menu where you tick boxes for flavours, toppings and sauces. I challenge anyone’s inner child to remain hidden.

8 Balderton St, Brown Hart Gardens, London W1K 6TF | www.colonygrillroom.com | 020 7499 9499

Acme Fire Cult

Sharing a courtyard with Dusty Knuckle bakery and 40FT brewery, Acme Fire Cult collaborate with both, using bread, leftover coffee for ferments, and even spare beer yeast to make their own marmite. They also put vegetables front and centre, giving greens just as much attention as meat, making their coal roast leeks (served cold with pistachio romesco) a smoky, creamy, must-try.

If you want to feel a bit like Henry VIII, opt for the grilled and smoked meat platter. It’s stacked high with chicken, pork, beef and sausage, and served with gorgeous pickly bits to cut through the fat. The beef and the pork were definite stand-outs and really highlighted the use of fiery outdoor cooking.

I went in promising myself I wouldn’t order the DK sourdough with 40FT marmite, but for some reason, any will power had left my body – I’m so glad I did as it was insanely good, dripping in butter and doused in parmesan, but it did make finishing the pile of meat more challenging, so learn from my mistakes.

My only faults were that the chicken was surprisingly bland and the bloody mary with house harissa was lacking in spice and overly citrussy.

Abbot St, London E8 3DP | www.acmefirecult.com | Book through Resy

The Parakeet

The Parakeet is the platonic ideal of a pub you conjure up in your head when dreaming of a Sunday roast. Formerly the Oxford Tavern, there’s plenty of wood panelling and stained glass; step through the velvet curtain towards the enticing smells and you enter a sublimely cosy dining room flickering with candles and saintly portraits looking down on you.

Brat alumni Ben Allen as head chef and sous chef Ed Jennings are running the show, so it’s no surprise that the roast is “based around fire cooking”. Both the lamb and the beef are cooked over charcoal and wood on their custom-made grill; opt for the lamb, it’s prepared sublimely and tastes incredible, whereas the beef was tasty but unfortunately a bit too chewy for my liking.

The swede puree was a gorgeous, creamy addition and the leek gratin a necessity – move over cauliflower cheese. It’s about the whole menu here though: oysters with clementine were a fresh and zingy start and the prawns with brown butter a messy but delightful treat; don’t be afraid to get stuck in and suck on that shell, it’s well worth it.

Thankfully our waiter saw us staring longingly at the swathes of butter remaining on the plate and produced some of their potato bread to sweep through it. If you’ve got room, try and stuff down a made-in-house sticky toffee pud, it’s rich, syrupy and soft as a pillow. Their bloody mary packs a punch too.

256 Kentish Town Rd, London NW5 2AA | theparakeetpub.com | 020 4599 6302

Sussex

It’s not just about Sunday roasts at the “local and wild concept” Sussex bar and restaurant (I’ll get to those and they’re bloody great), but all the delicious little nibbly bits at the start that are excruciatingly hard to choose from. Cod’s roe cornettos? Slow roasted pork crackling with homemade horseradish mayo? South Downs venison cigars? It’s almost cruel having so many exciting things in just the top third of the menu.

I settled on the mushroom marmite eclair, confit egg yolk and cornichon because it’s pretty much all my favourite things in one mystical package. A delightful choux pastry bursting with umami flavour that doesn’t even have marmite in – they get the taste from truffle and mushrooms. It’s borderline genius and I could have had 10.

Some caviar crispbreads are a perfect palette teaser and a pan-seared Shetland king scallop with kelsey chilli and garlic roe butter sauce couldn’t be cooked more beautifully.

But yes, the roasts. Rolled Dorset leg of lamb is incredibly tender and soft, while wild fallow deer (served with a blackberry jus) is served pink with a lovely flavoursome char on the outside. Really great roast potatoes that made me realise they don’t have to be all about crunch, and cauliflower cheese that was properly cheesy, ie my kind of side.

The puddings were really good but didn’t really hold a torch to the mains and starters; a Yorkshire pudding served with bone marrow is cool to look at but not something I really understood as necessary. But come for the roasts and you will not be disappointed. I’ll definitely be going back and trying their beef Wellington and handmade Sussex chorizo crispbread.

63-64 Frith Street, Soho, Greater, London W1D 3JW | www.sussex-restaurant.com | 020 3923 7770

65a

Nestled in the heart of Spitalfields, 65a is a classy affair. French inspiration is sprinkled throughout the menu, with classic dishes such as French onion soup, steak tartare and duck liver parfait.

The latter – it was a difficult choice – was sublimely smooth and rich, served with hunks of toasted sourdough which managed to be deliciously soft, rather than the all-too common tooth-cracking variety. The roast menu has three options, chicken, beef or a chateaubriand, but the beef Wellington special was described too beautifully by our waiter to be overlooked. And beautiful it was; buttery, bronzed puff pastry encasing perfectly pink meat, as well as a layer of truffly mushroom, drizzled with a flavour-packed gravy. It’s the perfect size so as to be satisfying, but still leaves enough room for the sides.

There’s a lot to respect about 65a’s sides, but a standout is their approach to potatoes. Every roast is served with buttery, smooth mash and crunchy roasties, but don’t be fooled into thinking this will do – go ahead and order the dauphinoise, which is more of a cheesy gratin (to my delight) and you will not be disappointed. Triple-potato roasts should become the norm.

There are both dessert cocktails and several puddings to choose from; the tiramisu martini is as magical as it sounds and the tarte tatin is faultless. For those arriving with sore-ish heads, the 65a bloody mary is the ideal hit of spice and hair of the dog, paired with Carlingford oysters on arrival. Consider the cobwebs well and truly blown away.

65a Brushfield St, London E1 6AA | www.65arestaurant.com | 020 7846 6548

Origin

Making a name for itself from day one, Origin City, which opened last summer in West Smithfield, has launched its new Sunday lunch menu. Remaining on-brand, the restaurant’s pasture-to-plate, nose-to-tail ethos shines throguh, with all of the meat coming from the family’s 600-acre farm in Argyll, Scotland – even the traditional heritage breeds Black Angus and Tamworth pork make appearances.

With a choice of three meats – slow roasted Black Angus with creamed horseradish, Tamworth pork with bramley apple sauce or Texel lamb with a classic aromatic mint sauce – sides include Yorkshire puddings, beef dripping potatoes, glazed heritage carrots, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower cheese and gravy.

The Tamworth pork was succulent and a lot more tender than roast pork dishes we’ve eaten elsewhere – and we’re always impressed to see a roast lamb on the menu (you snigger but it’s not always available). The potatoes were perfectly crispy, the creamy cauliflower cheese a worthy addition (again, it’s not always included as part of the classic trimmings) and we love seeing a gravy boat, rather than some small pathetic saucer.

Starters include a heartwarming Scottish mussel and clam chowder, with other mains dishes available to order, if you’re not feeling like taking on a full Sunday roast. Just make sure you leave room for dessert – both the vanilla crème brûlée and sticky toffee pudding will seal that food coma quite nicely.

Origin is also offering “The Mother of All Roasts” for guests dining in larger groups, where £32 per person will get you a selection of the three meats with all the trimmings, served family sharing style. Blacklock’s All In, watch out.

12 West Smithfield, London EC1A 9JR | www.origincity.co.uk | 020 4568 6240

Duck and Waffle

(Duck and Waffle)

While most of us have fond memories of enjoying Duck and Waffle’s eponymous dish at all hours, from bougie drunk food to gorgeous sunrise breakfasts, the restaurant also now offers a three-course roast lunch to enjoy every Sunday. If you’re not confined to tucking into a roast dinner at a cosy pub, why not elevate the weekly tradition, with sky-high, panoramic city views to accompany that succulent roast chicken?

With a variety on the menu, the starters include a delicious lobster roll with spicy Marie Rose sauce on a doughy brioche; corn ribs in an addictively tasty black garlic sauce and flavoursome beef tartare. Moving onto the mains, there is the choice of a classic roast chicken, succulent rib of beef with braised ox cheek and horseradish creme fraiche and a vegetarian mushroom and camembert Wellington. All served with spiced carrot purée, a fluffy Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes and lashings of gravy. While we are personally meat-eaters (meat-lovers, if you wish), it was the mushroom and camembert Wellington that came out on top. This is one of our favourite vegetarian roast offerings in the city and stands on its own feet in this menu selection here.

Also, it does not go unnoticed when a restaurant serves Yorkshire puddings with all roast meats – it is seriously frustrating when you just fancy a chicken but want your Yorkshire pud, too. You should definitely leave room for dessert, with options including the iconic sticky toffee waffle, drizzled in butterscotch caramel sauce and finished off with a dollop of clotted cream, but our winner had to be the moreish biscoff cheesecake. Coming in at £55 per person, it’s certainly not a cheap Sunday roast menu – but it was a satisfying one – and if you’re looking to dine with a view, then it’s definitely one to try.

110 Bishopsgate, London EC2N 4AY | duckandwaffle.com | 020 3640 7310