The Best Sunday Roasts In South West England Published 19 November 2024
The Good Food Guide’s inaugural Best Sunday Roast 2024 is a celebration of Britain’s favourite meal. Here are the very best Sunday roasts to be found in South West England. Drawn from over 18,000 reader nominations, our awarding-winning best Sunday roast winners in South West England can be found in Bristol, Bodmin, Tavistock, Lydford, Salisbury, South Pool and Little Somerford.
Smoky open-fire cooking in a cool, modernist diner
Readers love the ‘imaginative, beautifully presented food’, excellent service and ‘exceptional value for money’ on offer at this cool, independent sharing-plates diner, adding that it's a ‘welcome add… Read more
Readers love the ‘imaginative, beautifully presented food’, excellent service and ‘exceptional value for money’ on offer at this cool, independent sharing-plates diner, adding that it's a ‘welcome addition to Totterdown’. Once inside, the modernist decor – all shiny hard surfaces, high ceilings and spotless white walls – feels a world apart from the noise and traffic of the city. It's not too cool though. This is a neighbourhood joint where you're welcome to drop in for a snack and an early-evening cocktail, while Sunday means roasts for lunch – although these are given highly distinctive, ‘experimental’ treatment (think smoked short rib with wasabi mustard or Middle White pork belly with black garlic and miso).
Chef Jack Briggs-Horan's inventive and constantly changing menu is a head-spinning mash-up of eclectic global flavours and surprising textures. Dishes such as 'daikon piccata' with green beans, tomato/peanut sauce and green harissa may sound wacky but they (mostly) taste delicious. Care is taken to use local, seasonal ingredients and the kitchen boasts an open fire, where smoked and charred components add an extra dimension to dishes ranging from burrata with chicory, pickled blackcurrant and 'wonderful' smoked beetroot to larger plates of smoked goat with tandoori carrot, blood-orange pickle and black garlic.
Snacks and desserts also get the open-flame treatment – from charred olives to a whipped, burnt Basque cheesecake served with charred strawberries and Szechuan syrup. The short, keenly priced wine list is augmented by an enticing selection of unusual cocktails, local beers and ciders. Visit at lunchtime or early evening to take advantage of the good-value fixed-price menus.
Convivial village hostelry with strong Cornish overtones
The stone-built St Kew, dotted with hanging baskets, and with an expansive trestle-tabled garden full of mature trees behind, dates from the reign of Edward IV, and aims to cover as many of the requirements of a village pub as pos… Read more
The stone-built St Kew, dotted with hanging baskets, and with an expansive trestle-tabled garden full of mature trees behind, dates from the reign of Edward IV, and aims to cover as many of the requirements of a village pub as possible. There are four dining areas, all imbued with an infectious air of country-inn conviviality, and the kitchen also works to the principle of broad choice.
In between the chicken Caesar salad, beer-battered haddock and short-rib cheeseburgers with pickles and fries, there are some more speculative options for the adventurous: raw scallop with ponzu, brown crab emulsion and apple; beetroot gnocchi with courgettes, romesco and feta; pork chop with pea and bean fricassee, Cornish new potatoes and cider sauce, for example.
Desserts cover a lot of ground, from sticky toffee pudding with toffee sauce, ginger crumb and clotted cream to poached pineapple with coconut ice cream. There's usually some Cornish cheese too (perhaps Trelawny from Whalesborough Farm Foods in Marhamchurch), while Sunday roasts might bring apple-smoked sirloin and rare-breed pork belly with their time-honoured seasonal accompaniments – all cooked with consummate care and attention to detail. Local beers and ciders are the jewels in the crown of a drinks list that also takes in some well-chosen mainstream wines.
Adventurous food in a bustling town-centre pub with rooms
Let's all get over the fact that it isn't geographically Cornish, but resident on a town-centre street in the west of Devon. This is a lively venue that manages an impressive balancing act between pub and restaurant, the more so s… Read more
Let's all get over the fact that it isn't geographically Cornish, but resident on a town-centre street in the west of Devon. This is a lively venue that manages an impressive balancing act between pub and restaurant, the more so since the extensive refurbishment it underwent back in 2022.
While the menu format rests on broad choice, as before, there is a distinctly more adventurous air to the nibbles, which now embrace buttermilk king prawns with smoked paprika mayonnaise or teriyaki chicken wings. The main menu continues to offer a broad range of options, with a mixture of traditional pub fare and modern classics. Expect ham hock Scotch egg with blue cheese and beer-pickled onions to open the show, ahead of roast cod with brown shrimp vinaigrette in béarnaise or a distinctly elegant butter-roasted breast of guinea fowl, served with Jerusalem artichokes, pearl barley and hazelnuts in sherry gravy.
Fifteen minutes seems a small investment of time to be rewarded with a mango soufflé, served with the full regalia of pineapple compôte, coconut sorbet and clotted cream or you could get instant satisfaction from a Yorkshire strawberry trifle in season. Fans also dote over the traditional Sunday lunch, which offers the likes of roast sirloin with sublime brisket to best end of Saddleback pork alongside maple-glazed pork belly. A user-friendly wine list is arranged by style, and the glasses come in all three sizes.
Family-run inn with a decent line in locally sourced food
The smartly renovated, bright-white exterior ensures you won’t miss this 16th-century hostelry as you head along the Okehampton to Tavistock road. Jay and Tess Barker-Jones revamped the oak-beamed and slate-floored property … Read more
The smartly renovated, bright-white exterior ensures you won’t miss this 16th-century hostelry as you head along the Okehampton to Tavistock road. Jay and Tess Barker-Jones revamped the oak-beamed and slate-floored property back in 2019, creating a homely vibe with eclectic furniture and natural tones throughout the warren of dining rooms – as well as the three spacious, shabby-chic bedrooms. As you would expect from a family-run, dog-friendly inn, service is warm and friendly – yet surprisingly polished.
Chef/co-owner Jay works hand in glove with local suppliers to create a daily menu of tried-and-tested ideas and flavoursome, crowd-pleasing dishes. Starters include rich, creamy whipped goat's cheese dotted between heritage beetroot, gingerbread and hazelnuts, and a delicate, fresh hand-picked Brixham crab salad with avocado and citrus fruits, decorated with substantial Parmesan crisps and pea shoots for a shot of colour. Generous main courses could feature flavour-packed spring lamb loin and braised shoulder with broad beans, feta and wild garlic, while local 'red' venison loin is paired with an intense haunch ragoût, kale, celeriac and red wine – a glorious plateful on a cold, winter's night.
The theme of classic food pairings continues with desserts such as a pitch-perfect warm chocolate brownie with orange caramel and honeycomb, complemented beautifully by a salted-caramel ice cream. Sunday lunch is a terrific tonic after a brisk walk on Dartmoor, whether you fancy dry-aged beef sirloin, a slab of pork belly or the pub's exemplary nut roast. An extensive drinks selection covers everything from local ales to classic cocktails, while the small but varied (and mostly Old World) wine list is both affordable and accessible.
Readers were quick to alert us to the transformation of the former Black Horse and how good the food was. Now a stylish restaurant with rooms, an early look found us settled in the very pubby bar with a drink, the cosiness that on… Read more
Readers were quick to alert us to the transformation of the former Black Horse and how good the food was. Now a stylish restaurant with rooms, an early look found us settled in the very pubby bar with a drink, the cosiness that only a beamed ceiling, wingback chairs and an inglenook fireplace can induce willing us to settle in for the night. We could, of course, have stayed put and ordered from the full carte but then we would have missed the rather chic dining room.
Located in a newly built wood-clad extension, floor-to-ceiling windows look out onto a heated terrace and small garden. Exposed brick walls hung with modern art and two back-to-back brushed black leather banquettes lend the room a sophisticated metropolitan feel, while a picture window into the kitchen, framed by a display of fine wines and stemware, signals the pub’s serious gastronomic intent.
Jordan Taylor’s CV takes in Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and Moor Hall and that high-end pedigree is evident in a menu that celebrates produce from the estate and other local suppliers. Our meal produced a visually stunning terrine of estate game – layers of breast of pigeon, pheasant and partridge surrounded by a chicken mousse flavoured with dried apricot, fermented cep and tarragon – and tasted as good as it looked. And we enjoyed a generous loin of estate hare wrapped in cabbage, served with celeriac fondant, purée and remoulade, plus roasted hen of the woods and a copper pan of leg ragu on the side.
But among all the culinary fireworks, Taylor hasn’t forgotten that he is also cooking for a local community of regulars and offers a hearty Sunday roast (Great Durnford lamb, Springbottom Farm beef, served with crisp roast potatoes and roots, spiced creamed kale and fluffy Yorkshire pudding), as well as a list of pub classics including battered cod and chips, steaks from the nearby Springbottom Farm, and a very appetising looking burger. And we found service as friendly and enthusiastic as it is polished and professional.
Impressively refurbished village inn with high culinary aspirations
In 2021, new owners gave the Millbrook Inn a much-needed makeover, but thankfully the refit has been done with restrained taste and the place still retains its identity as a local pub in a pretty south Devon village. There's … Read more
In 2021, new owners gave the Millbrook Inn a much-needed makeover, but thankfully the refit has been done with restrained taste and the place still retains its identity as a local pub in a pretty south Devon village. There's a spruced up outdoor terrace with parasols, a pair of new holiday cottages across the road for tranquil getaways, and an extra dining space on the upper floor, where spindly old rafters and a paper globe lantern set the tone.
Better still, the menu is now buttressed with organically produced rare-breed meats from the family farmstead (Fowlescombe) and the cooking is now in the experienced hands of Tom Westerland (ex-Gilpin Hotel in Cumbria), who is nudging the Millbrook in the direction of destination dining. Look at the precision and quality in a starter of pickled and salted farm cucumber with miniature cucamelon, sheep's curd and mint, or the savoury indulgence of beef carpaccio adorned with truffled horseradish cream and crispy capers.
Dressed Salcombe crab is every bit as fresh and toothsome as is proper, although it could do with a little more of the gribiche and farm herbs that partner it, while the Manx Loaghton hogget (cut into thick chops) is sensational, its fatty fringe blistered, the interior rosy-pink, sauced with its own jus at the table and accompanied by surprisingly delicate charred spring onion and courgettes. The day's fish is done in the charcoal oven and presented with smoked potatoes and samphire in caper-strewn brown butter.
Afters might offer bitter chocolate tart with raspberry sorbet or buttermilk panna cotta with strawberries and elderflower, but the sticky toffee crowd isn't ignored. Fans also say that Tom Westerland's Sunday lunch is ‘absolute perfection’, with superb meat, copious quantities of veg and other traditional accompaniments. In the drinking stakes, South Devon beers and ciders are given a spotlight of their own, while the adventurous wine list reaches for the stars, with glasses starting at £6.80 for a light Lisboa red.
‘One of the best gravies of any pub we have tried,’ declares an admirably methodical reader: just one nugget of praise for the Sunday roasts at this edge-of-village pub. Most tables in the modernised two-room interior … Read more
‘One of the best gravies of any pub we have tried,’ declares an admirably methodical reader: just one nugget of praise for the Sunday roasts at this edge-of-village pub. Most tables in the modernised two-room interior are for diners, though local real ales and bar stools await drinkers. The main menu runs from ‘classic pub plates’ of burgers, fish and chips or Bramley apple crumble to a trio of beetroots with whipped feta, roasted chestnuts and pomegranate dressing and ‘special plates for any occasion’ (whole lemon sole meunière, for example). The staff and atmosphere also attract plaudits: ‘it’s like being wrapped in a big blanket’.
Our website uses cookies to analyse traffic and show you more of what you love. Please let us know you agree to all of our cookies.
To read more about how we use the cookies, see our terms and conditions.
Our website uses cookies to improve your experience and personalise content. Cookies are small files placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. They are widely used to improve your experience of a website, gather reporting information and show relevant advertising. You can allow all cookies or manage them for yourself. You can find out more on our cookies page any time.
Essential Cookies
These cookies are needed for essential functions such as signing in and making payments. They can’t be switched off.
Analytical Cookies
These cookies help us optimise our website based on data. Using these cookies we will know which web pages customers enjoy reading most and what products are most popular.
