Forum Topic

Pub Sunday Lunches

I noticed there is a review for The North Star on the home page but I thought nevertheless I would ask if anyone can really recommend any pubs in the locality for a really good Sunday roast lunch consisting of actual real meat!  Or perhaps I should say, what I call real meat i.e. cut from a joint not slices of catering meat that I haven't eaten since my school dinner days a very long time ago!I am beginning to think that either I am extremely hard to please or everyone else is extremely easy to please and I'm really not sure which it is.Last Sunday, quite by accident, I found myself in the Fox in Green Lane, Hanwell, with my sister who talked me into ordering lunch.  (We did this once before well over a year ago and I had forgotten how poor I had thought it then).  Anyway, all the tables appeared to be reserved but we knew someone who was already there and so we shared their table.  They ordered beef we ordered lamb.  The people on the next table ordered chicken (pork was not an option) however between us we seemed to have covered all options.  All meals arrived and were school dinners - meat was some generic sliced catering meat with a very vague lamb flavour - veg was real and ok - cauliflower cheese (virtually minus cheese) decent roast pots and mash (which was unnecessary) carrots and ?  What appeared to be home made Yorkshires (burnt) and tasteless gravy of a muddy consistency all that for £9Perhaps it's just me because the place was certainly busy both inside and out so presumably they are doing something right but I'm blowed if I know what.The week before we had lunch in the Globe in Brentford where we had pork which though not great was at least cut from a joint and gravy was at least tasty.  However I did notice that the beef and chicken also appeared to be catering slices.  However they were only charging £5.95 and offering 20% off for pensioners or students.  Not great but definitely better than The Fox and obviously cheaper.Since the Nelson (also in Brentford) changed hands (they used to do a Sunday roast beef/pork/lamb/ half a chicken - all organic for £7.50) we are at a loss to find a decent Sunday lunch at a fair price.  Surely there must be a pub somewhere capable of using real meat and making gravy that tastes of something - anyone know where that is?

Bernie Paul ● 6187d10 Comments

I never ever eat a Sunday lunch out, let alone in a Pub that charges ridiculously low prices.  How can the quality of the meat be anything but 'school dinner standard' at the low prices they charge. Roast Beef, probably male dairy cattle, not a beef breed and certainly not properly hung.  Pork - from crates and imported? Chicken - battery?. Also if they start serving lunch at 1230, unless they have cooked two or three seperate joints of each, by 1330 the meat will have been hanging around and will either be overcooked or reheated - yuk! A roast dinner is one of the easiest dishes to cook, we still have some proper butchers left in the borough go and speak with them, buy your meat, go to the Farmers Market for some really fresh veg and pick up a copy of Deliah on the way home.  Anyone who can read should be able to cook!

Libby Kemp ● 6187d

Good point Libby, they are easy to cook but I have to say do take ages and then are gone in a matter of minutes.  Roast potatoes are all cooked in restaurants the deep fat fried way to ensure a a 'crisp' finish but not a patch on home cooked plus I do find in my experience the veg is over/under cooked.I have heard that the New Inn on South Ealing Road does a good Carvery on a Sunday but as I haven't been there myself I can't vouch for it.

Diane Gill ● 6187d

Hi,I strongly suggest you check out The New Inn, Ealing and also The Kings Arms, Ealing. I believe they are managed by the same people.Both offer a carvery with 5 different kind of meats for £9.45.  They are, in my opinion, fantastic value... always a good atmosphere, The Kings Arms has only just started offering this, so it is a lot quieter.  For the New Inn, strongly suggest you  book beforehand.Nope, I don't work for them - I just feel your pain.  My wife and I have visited a number of pubs in recent years looking for an ideal sunday lunch, these are the closest so far (they even offer cauliflower cheese!)

John Vickers ● 6186d

I love a Sunday roast, but my husband doesn't, so going out for one is a good compromise. The New Inn is great and it has so many people there on a Sunday the food always tastes / and is fresh.They always have 2 vegetarian dishes that look great on the carvery, turkey / beef / gammon / lamb every week and you can have a bit of everything, plus great veg - new / roast potatoes, cauli cheese, swede, carrot, broccoli, butternut squash, yorshire pudding etc.It is very family friendly,and always has a good mix of people - young couples, retired couples, groupds of friends, kids and in the nice weather, you can't beat sitting in their beer garden for lunch!I have become a bit of a fan over the years, so excuse me, but their normal and daily menu is great too - all freshly cooked, so it can take 25 mins to come, but worth it.The Red Lion and Rose & Crown on Sth Ealing Rd do reasonable Sunday roasts, but they can't beat the New Inn for me!

Melissa Smith ● 6180d

Actually tried to get into the New Inn last Sunday - its true it was quite late (didn't even know there was a garden and couldn't have got to it if I had) it was absolutely heaving - not necessarily with people eating but there were no available tables and the bar was about 4 deep there appeared to be something on the tv that everyone was watching.  We left.  Food on someone's plate didn't look bad but I'm not convinced that I would have enjoyed the atmosphere,  Can't have everything I suppose.  I shall have to keep looking.

Bernie Paul ● 6180d

You can't beat Sunday lunch in the Red Lion, meat carved off a joint, choice of beef, pork, chicken and lamb. Proper gravy to match made with the juices from the meat you have chosen. Beats the New Inn hands down!

Nadia Shaw ● 6180d

Bernie - they had 2 large groups there last week and we were one of them, causing much pandemonium as these things do (wandering friends, grumpy relatives!), and we were seated directly in the door to the garden - not even we could get out that way! So sorry, it isn't normally that crazy, so do give it another go some time!I've no idea what the TV thing was, I know they have one, but it is rarely on...I don't really like pubs with TVs/sport.

Melissa Smith ● 6180d

thanks for that- perhaps we will try again a bit earlier next time.  Do you know what time they stop serving food?

Bernie Paul ● 6179d

hi,I'm not sure, but it is until at least 3 I thinkM

Melissa Smith ● 6179d

The Red Lion is real food cooked really well. I found the New Inn a bit cheap catering style for me. The gravy tasted like it was artificial. Sunday lunch at Charlotte's Place is always going to be my favourite though.

Ash Parks ● 6179d