Ahh, the good old Sunday lunch. Whatever your choice of meat or alternative, nothing beats that combination of crispy roast potatoes, Yorkshire pudding, veg and lashings of proper gravy.
Just like with our roundup of Oxford’s Best Takeout Curry, we threw this out to social media. Now we bring you our, and your, favourite spots for a Sunday Roast.
Our Sunday roast favourites
The Chester (in main image above), The White Hart in Wytham and Magdalen Arms top our list, with exceptionally good offerings. The Chester is particularly good as a general rule for vegetarians, but they don’t take bookings so you’ll need to queue or chance it for a table. The White Hart has parking onsite and the benefit of being a picture pretty old pub, and Maggie Arms caters brilliantly for big sharing dishes like roast leg of lamb (which is amazeballs).
The Fishes in Hinksey and The Bear & Ragged Staff in Cumnor are also excellent choices, both with parking and relatively large dining spaces – The Fishes boasts a rather large garden too, perfect for the sunnier days.
Red Lion Gloucester Green is a surprising choice, especially given that it’s a sister pub to The Trout, which is awful. The food here has been consistently good when we’ve visited, plus it’s centrally based with ample seating.
Beyond the ring road, but well worth a drive –
The Pointer in Brill, which I reviewed recently, serve up beautiful food in an equally beautiful setting. There isn’t a car park, but you can park on the street; plus they have a garden at the rear, and you can wander over to Brill Windmill for some fresh air and Kodak moments.
The Mole Inn in Toot Baldon is another ‘pretty as a picture’ pub, in lovely gardens, that offers a cosy setting and carpark as well as excellent food. The Thatch in Thame may be a bit further out, but the meaty main courses here will entirely earn your travel. Not cheap, with main courses reaching up to around the £26 mark, but worth it.
The Abingdon Arms in Beckley ends my list off nicely, with a great selection of food, all cooked perfectly, and a lovely little garden at the rear with the added bonus of a secret fairy door for kids to hunt for. The countryside pub also offers parking and that good old traditional pubby vibe, but at gastropub levels.
Reader recommendations
Well, this got A LOT of votes, so in order of most popular!
- THE WINNER BY A LONG WAY… The Chester – livford21, miss_n_l_browne, annna_kachna, whitneymary on Instagram, Dan Braddock, Barbara Lewisman-Murray, Danielle Rachel, Suzette Starmer, Merit Hill and Susie Jakobsson Thomas on Facebook, plus crowchingbadger and BrionyBowers on Twitter
- The Marsh Harrier – abfrobertson on Instagram, Rebecca Goddard on Facebook and bradleynick100 on Twitter
- Magdalen Arms – afrobertson and miss_n_l_browne on Instagram
- The Jolly Postboys – abfrobertson on Instagram, Victoria Parry on Facebook
- Red Lion Gloucester Green – devonkealy on Instagram and crouchingbadger on Twitter
- The Mole Inn, Toot Baldon – magicmealsinminutes on Instagram and Sarah Heather Holt on Facebook
- The Fishes – livford and klcutmore on Instagram
With one vote each –
- The Thatch – abfrobertson on Instagram
- The Fir Tree – especially for vegan, by anna_kachna on Instagram
- The Bat and Ball in Cuddesdon – devonkealy on Instagram
- Brewery Tab, Abingdon – nicolacook10 and BrionyBowers on Twitter
- The Pointer in Brill – hhollie on Instagram
- Jolly Boatman, Kidlington – sophiecl85 on Instagram
- Home Pub – whitneymary on Instagram
- Cherwell Boathouse – BarefootOxford in Instagram
- Killingworth Castle – amy_lou19 on Instagram
- The Perch – thebestvanilla on Instagram
- Silvie – a brand new Sunday Roast offering, as voted for by ginorjoe on Instagram
- The Flowing Well, Abingdon – Ruba Ashahari om Facebook
- The Isis Farmhouse – Sabine Hu-Ra on Facebook
- The Angel & Greyhound – Maddie Paler on Facebook
- Chequers, Weston on the Green – Debbie Jones on Facebook
- The Merry Miller – Nicky Bumpass on Facebook
- The Bear & Ragged Staff, Cumnor – Marie Devereaux on Facebook
- Seven Stars, Marsh Baldon – Laura Watkins on Facebook
- Chequers Inn, Berwick Salome – Donna Brown on Facebook
- Pint Shop, sadly now closed! – crouchingbadger on Twitter
- Boxing Hare, Swerford – seabassspeke on Twitter
- The White Hart, Old Headington – michaelstone13 on Twitter
Have you tried many of these? Tell us if you think we should add any other venues to this list, or better still, send us pictures, so we can judge for ourselves!
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