Sunday provides the perfect excuse to slow down and gather around the table with friends, family and loved ones for a long lunch.
Whilst the traditional roast still holds its place across London’s many pubs and restaurants, chefs are increasingly rethinking the classic dishes we all know and love by introducing global flavours, fire-led cooking and fresh ideas to sharing-style menus.
From French rotisserie feasts to Caribbean Sunday sessions, seafood-led alternatives and lighter menus perfect for warmer days, these are our favourite spots for a Sunday roast with a twist.Â
The Tamil Crown
Often credited as one of the first London spots to put a spin on the Sunday roast, The Tamil Crown – a popular Islington Indian pub, takes a confident East-meets-West approach, led by co-founder and executive chef Prince Durairaj. The principles of a Sunday lunch remain familiar, but the flavours shift. Dishes including masala sea bream and lamb shank sit alongside potato and peas masala, coconut stir-fried cabbage, mixed vegetable and mango pickle, with roast potatoes and gravy still very much on offer! It’s a combination that feels both comforting and unexpected, bringing spice and a twist that doesn’t lose the essence of the classic Sunday pub roast.
Ekstedt At the Yard
Tucked inside Great Scotland Yard Hotel, Ekstedt at The Yard, from Michelin-starred chef Niklas Ekstedt, offers up a delicious Scandinavian interpretation of Sunday lunch. Cooked over wood fire, the format is also designed for sharing, with mains including wood-oven braised beef short rib, fire-cooked leg of lamb or guinea fowl with herbs and citrus, alongside Nordic-influenced trimmings such as hasselback potatoes and roast apple with spices. Starters introduce Ekstedt’s signature fire-led style early on, with dishes like birch-fired cured trout or hay-smoked veal, whilst a salted baked celeriac offers a strong vegetarian alternative. Desserts are worth saving space for: Nordic sticky rye pudding or a pecan and treacle pie with whisky ice cream create a comforting end to lunch.Â
Nipotina
On South Audley Street, one of Mayfair’s standout dining stretches, Nipotina takes an Italian approach to Sunday lunch, designed around an impressive meat centrepiece. Led by Turin-born chef Somaia Hammad, the focus here is on quality ingredients and a classic, unfussy style of Italian cooking. At the heart of it is the Bistecca Fiorentina, a 1.2-kilogram grilled T-bone steak designed for sharing, served with a selection of sides including rosemary and garlic roast potatoes, kale with hazelnuts and confit tomato, and a rich cauliflower gratin. Menu additions include burrata, a classic ricotta tart and a strong Negroni offering. It’s a simple but very-moreish alternative to the traditional roast.Â
Cafe François
At Borough Market’s Café François, the chic all-day dining spot from the team behind Maison François, Sunday lunch takes on a distinctly French accent, with dishes from the restaurant’s rotisserie and a more convivial, sharing-led approach. The Sunday lunch menu centres on beautifully cooked meats, sirloin with horseradish cream, porchetta with apple sauce, or rotisserie chicken with bread sauce and Toulouse sausage stuffing, all served with the expected trimmings – crisp roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings, for example – but delivered with a subtle French touch. For the full experience, the ‘Le Grand Roast’ brings all three meats to the table, designed for sharing. Compliment it all with ors d’oeuvres like steak tartare and oeufs mimosa, and finish strong with a dessert trolley full of French indulgence.Â
Sucre
Sucre takes on Sunday lunch Argentinian-style, drawing on the cuisine’s asado tradition of open-fire cooking. The grill sits at the centre of the kitchen, shaping a seasonal menu focused on smoke and bold South American flavours. The offering here is three courses: a small plate, a larger dish and a dessert. Stand-out small plates include a chorizo selection with fennel where chilli sets the tone, before moving into dishes like monkfish with sikil pak and pickled lime, where the fire-led flavour is balanced with brightness. Ensure you save room for dessert: custard tarts and lemon sorbet deliver a lighter finish. There’s also a 90-minute free-flow wine pairing on offer, at the extremely reasonable (for London!) price of £20 per person.Â
Temper Soho
If your idea of a Sunday roast is really all about the meat, Temper Soho is worth checking out. Just around the corner from Sucre, this leans into more classic Sunday dishes, but everything is cooked over-flame rather than in a traditional oven, giving the British rare-breed meats a deep, smoky edge that sets it apart from your standard pub roast. There’s substance behind it too: beef is dry-aged in-house, gravy is cooked down over 16 hours, and Yorkshire puddings are made-to-order. You can keep it classic with a single cut spanning aged beef, smoked lamb shoulder and more, or opt for the ‘Three Beast Feast’, a sharing-style spread of multiple meats and all the trimmings.Â
Bob Bob Ricard
Also in Soho, Bob Bob Ricard is offering an exclusive Sunday roast, showcasing its signature flair. Here, the meal centres around a 750-gram Côte de Boeuf sharing platter, designed for Sunday indulgence. The beef is dry-aged for 60 days and served with trimmings that have all been elevated beyond the classic, like truffle cauliflower cheese, pomme cocotte potatoes and a rich truffle gravy — all executed with just the right amount of excess that the Soho venue is known for. As an aperitif, diners can try the world’s coldest martini, poured at -22°C from a frozen bottle, while there is a new signature cocktail list to work through, including the BBR Signature Rhubarb G&T, a revival of the restaurant’s first ever cocktail, built around a house-made rhubarb infusion.
Manzi's
For those seeking out an alternative to a meat feast, Manzi’s offers a more balanced take on Sunday lunch. True to the restaurant’s seafood roots, the menu leans lighter, with standout dishes including a monkfish Wellington with prawn mousse and sauce Américain, alongside a pumpkin raviolini with oyster mushroom and tarragon for a well-considered vegetarian option. Traditionalists aren’t forgotten either, with a classic sirloin roast still on offer for those after something more familiar. Desserts include chocolate fondant and tiramisu, all designed for sharing.
The Macbeth
The Macbeth offers a more relaxed, less traditional take on Sunday lunch. A classic East London pub that regularly crops up on locals’ lists, the venue has added a Portuguese spin to its Sunday offering. The standout is the roast chicken, served with rice, potatoes and a house-made piri-piri sauce that adds warmth and depth without overpowering. There are also generous fish pies for sharing and a seasonal vegetable gratin, mixing things up from usual Sunday offerings. The Macbeth used to be a live music venue – and music is still very much part of the fabric. If you’re dining later in the day or staying for evening drinks, expect a soundtrack of soul, funk and reggae courtesy of guest DJs.Â
DakaDaka
For something entirely different, DakaDaka, a recently opened modern Georgian restaurant and wine bar, brings the tradition of the Supra to Sunday lunch. A Supra is less a meal and more a feast; a flowing table of dishes arriving throughout the afternoon. The menu is packed with traditional Georgian sharing dishes like seasonal pkhali, cheese-filled breads and roast meats. Mains range from roast leg of lamb to chicken or pumpkin, with sides and salads designed to enhance the experience. Add the Georgian wine list and this is a Sunday experience unlike any other currently on offer in London.Â
2210 by Natty Can Cook
Since opening in autumn 2025, Herne Hill’s 2210 has picked up accolade after accolade for chef Nathaniel Mortley (aka Natty Can Cook) and his take on Caribbean cooking, blending Bajan, Jamaican and Guyanese influences with classic French technique. A big pull for London’s food crowd has been its ‘Sunday Service’, which has become one of the hottest Sunday lunch bookings to secure, and comes packed full of Caribbean flavours; jerk chicken, confit pork, oxtail and lamb rump sit alongside chimichurri roasties, Yorkshire puddings, jollof rice and plantain. If you’re dining as a group, the sharing platters are the dishes to order. ‘The Works’ and ‘The Lux’ arrive piled high with meats and sides, designed for the table to dig into.Â
Sarah Jackson is a dining contributor at Citizen Femme. A Londonophile, she has previously lived in Dubai and Copenhagen, building her career in international communications. When not discovering the capital’s hottest new restaurants and bars, she loves to jet off for a European city break, always with the next meal in mind.
Lead image: Sucre
We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site.
