Sunday Roast

chuckles

I thought I would start a discussion on where is the best place to get a Sunday roast around here. I was prompted to do this by my experience today in the Old Dairy. Haven't been in there to eat for a while and decided to try it today with my girlfriend. I ordered the lamb and she had the stuffed peppers. Both came with veg and yorkshire puddings. I was asked how I would like the meat, whether I would like it medium or well done. As it is supposed to be roast meat wondered how they could offer such a choice but I said I would prefer it medium but when it came it was as overcooked and grey as is possible and the vegetables where so bland it made you wonder how they had managed to achieve such a level of tastelessness. It all reminded me of bad school dinners but as I am British I ate it all up and said it was good when they asked. Best thing on the plate was the frozen yorkshire pudding. And it cost £13!

Can anyone recommend a better place to get a roast on a Sunday? I have tried the Noble and it is OK, certainly better than the Dairy, but it is not brilliant. I want somewhere with proper home-cooked roast with taste. I don't mind paying. Please advise

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andy

Just as an antidote to the general complaining, we just had a cracking sunday lunch at the Dairy. Excellent roasts, fantastic stew (with dumplings) nice service, very friendly.

David

I find the Dairy can vary sometimes but its generally good. That stew has become my staple in there now. Not that I go that often. I finally went to St John's the other day for food. I found myself thinking the inverse of most. As in I thought the staff were good and the food surly.

tosscat

It's funny because I had the stew in the Dairy and was not impressed, and the dumplings were leaden.

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krappyrubsnif

I do a wonderful Sunday roast. Very exclusive though.

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krappyrubsnif

Entry £13.50, wine extra

kreuzkav

Well, I've known at least two people who have run supper clubs from their flats. It requires a sizeable living room, a few tables and many chairs of course. Another friend does a christmas dinner every year for over 20 people in an average sized one bed flat with a meat and a vegetarian version. It's all rough and ready with plates on laps, but good fun. Good luck!

I often wonder how difficult it is to cook a Sunday roast in a bar/pub. I imagine it is quite labour intensive. I briefly worked as a cook in a cafe-bar but we didn't do Sunday roast but pasta, soup, stews-food that could be prepared earlier and easily re-heated when needed-or cold food like salads. I presume the greater effort to make a roast is why the dishes can be nearly twice as expensive as dishes like pasta.

And does anyone know a local bar/pub that does a good veggie roast?

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kreuzkav

I imagined there was a lot of pre-cooking involved but as I have never cooked Sunday roast in a pub/restaurant setting I was bit unsure about how much labour was needed. So basically £13 is a bit of a rip-off.

chuckles

@ andy - I can only think of two possible explanations for your comments about cracking Sunday lunch at the Dairy. One is that you were served a different and much better batch of vegetables to me and the alternative is that we have different standards when it comes to food.

I will refer to the thread mentioned by Misscara in my search for a decent Sunday roast in the area

WillM

Aside from the Noble, I've not found decent roast in SG, alas.

norton

The old Dairy can be rather hit and miss, it depends who the chef of the day is,get the wrong one and you get rubbish.

ADGS

I like the veggie roast at the WLM, but cannot comment on the meatier options.

kreuzkav

Thanks ADGS, I forgot about the WLM. Which rememinds me, I was walking with my mother a couple of years ago around the Holloway road area. She used to live there when she moved over from Ireland in the late 60s, so she was eager to have a walk around it on one of her infrequent visits over here. We were looking for a place to have some lunch and it was Sunday and we saw the Coronet (a Weatherspoons). When she lived here, it was a cinema and she was interested to see what it was like as a pub so we had lunch there. I had the veggie sunday roast and she had the meat version. It was something like £6 including a drink each and it was quite good.

andy

@chuckles - Perhaps both, perhaps neither. Opinions are like that.

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WillM

The Landseer on Landseer Road off Holloway, although a bit of a trek, is marvellous for food.

MHP

Can someone tell me what WLM stands for? I've been trying to work it out but my brain has gone dead!

andy

White Lion of Mortimer.

MHP

Of course! Thanks for that Andy.

Tallboy

What does MHP stand for?

Ali

The Noble is easily the best Sunday Roast around here if you can afford it.

theolddairy

We always appreciate your comments whether bad or good. I would like to reply to some of the points made above.

Firstly I feel it is important to say that I would not class the Dairy as the best roast in London or the cheapest but we generally serve a consistently good one.

When it comes to Sunday roast, everyone has their own opinion and taste as to what is important in the roast, and lets face no one ever makes one as good as your Mum does ! To see how people differ so much check out the comments on time outs link ! : http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/features/169/London-s_best_Sunday_lunches.html

London offers many good roasts but in my opinion, you have to pay to get the best. There are not many places that do cheap value for money roasts, if they do they are usually cheaper ingredients or are operators who use pre-made microwave meals which are batch made at a central unit and redistributed to the individual pubs where they are reheated and served hence why you can get a meal for a fiver !

Chuckles i can only offer my apologies to you for what sounds like an awful roast dinner. Perhaps you would be kind enough to return to us so that I can either refund you or offer you a replacement meal.

Misscara always great to hear from another professional who has experienced the fun of a professional kitchen. I myself have worked in several kitchens and have been in the catering industry for 25 years. I completely disagree with your comments on the batch cooking of roasts. Cooking and slicing meat the day before, drys out the meat and loses most of the flavour.

The key to getting a roast dinner right is to use the best & freshest ingredients. Rare breed and free range meats are generally the best quality but are also usually more expensive. Yorkshire puddings have to be made as your going along as they tend to dry out.

Personally in this area I love the Nobles roasts !

tosscat

[yawn](http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/features/169/London-s_best_Sunday_lunches.html)

ADGS

It's nice how the three Crouch Hill pubs seem to get along - props to each other's roasts, and last Saturday the guy who runs/ran the Noble was in the Stapleton.

Ian

I've seen the guy who runs the Dairy eating in the Noble as well - so he should be taken as his word on that comment.

Fin

I had a roast at the Old Diary at the weekend and found it a mixed bag. Meat very good, roast potatoes on the aneamic side and average at best, vegetables very poor- watery, insipid carrots & parsnips, mixture of under & overcooked greens.

Surely the meat is the hard, not to mention expensive, part to get right so disappointing and unnecessary that the potatoes and veggies let the whole thing down.

missfrancesca

I had the roast at N19 this weekend and was very impressed. It has got better since I last tried one (about 6 months ago) and for £9.50 was a bargain. They also have lovely home-made desserts. I couldn't move for the rest of the afternoon.