The Best Sunday Roasts In South East England
Published 19 November 2024

At the hub of a Sussex hilltop village, with a sunny terrace overlooking the local church, this reimagined 16th-century inn has all the nooks, crannies, inglenooks, oak beams and floral displays that you could wish for. Efficient, cheery staff keep things rolling along, bringing ‘pint milk bottles’ of water to each table as a matter of course. The place gets packed and everyone is here for the food – thanks to a confident kitchen that can deliver consistent crowd-pleasing dishes from a regular menu and a chalked-up specials board that included a tempting with a crab-topped crumpet with cucumber and almond cream.

Burgers, pies and battered fish keep the traditionalists happy, but there's room for invention too: a well-balanced goat’s cheese brûlée delivered on all fronts, with a fine lavosh cracker alongside, while cod fillet was perfectly pan-fried, with impressive accompaniments including a crayfish beurre noisette, silky-smooth celeriac purée, savoy cabbage and crispy Parmesan-crusted potatoes. Meaty choices range from Surrey ribeye steaks with peppercorn butter to haunch of local venison richly embellished with a braised shoulder tartlet, quince poached in mulled wine, potato terrine and a boozy sauce. And on Sundays, the prospect of three ultra-traditional roasts guarantees regular full houses.

The kitchen puts on a show when it comes to desserts: our deep-filled lemon tart had bags of citrus tang, with blackberry purée and blackberry sorbet on the side, while a dark chocolate terrine was lifted by a raspberry sorbet and maple-flavoured honeycomb. The well-considered wine collection offers oodles by the glass, including a range of Sussex sparklers.

The venerable Merry Harriers is to be found in the village of Hambledon (not the Hampshire one) near Godalming, a rural enclave set in a buffer of fields and woodland. It has been kitted out to suit the modern mood, with a soft green colour scheme and bentwood chairs at unclothed tables, plus candlelight in the evenings and fires in winter. A menu that exhaustively lists all the kitchen's and cellar's local suppliers inspires confidence, and the food is just what country-pub aficionados want to eat, with plenty of praise lavished on the Sunday lunch offer – a choice of ‘impeccably cooked’ roast platters, piled high and designed for two to share.

On the regular menu, lightly horseradished smoked mackerel pâté might compete with Trenchmore Farm beef tartare and plum ketchup, before mains take flight with some more adventurous ideas. Pork chop with sweetcorn, girolles and pickled walnuts delivered an impressive array of flavours when we visited, the superlative quality of the meat shining forth; a pheasant schnitzel with pickled red cabbage and pink firs was almost as good, although it needed a little more in the way of lubrication than an evanescent suggestion of beurre noisette. A fish option could be baked hake in bouillabaisse with saffron-scented fennel, while pumpkin and spelt risotto with hazelnuts, sage and chilli provides robust sustenance on the vegetable front. 

At the sticky end of things, everybody will feel spoilt by the likes of gingered-up sticky toffee pudding or a version of knickerbocker glory that finds room for chocolate mousse, candied orange and bits of homemade brownie. There's an impressive varietal spread on the carefully compiled wine list, ascending to the majesty of a mature classed-growth St-Émilion at a fraction of what you would pay in the not-too-distant capital.

On a rural stretch of road three miles from Rye, the Plough encapsulates many people’s idea of what a country pub should be like. A garden with ‘exceptional views’ beckons in fine weather and a convivial atmosphere prevails. Indeed, a complete lack of pretence is an undoubted plus, from the scuffed floorboards, plain tables and wood burners to an informal approach to eating – ‘delicious, seasonal and locally sourced,’ is how it appeared to one visitor.

The simple, good-value weekday lunch is well reported and is bolstered by a straightforward carte – a mix of pub classics (battered haddock and fries, Winchelsea lamb shoulder pie), and more complex combinations ranging from cured chalk stream trout pastrami with cornichons, cabbage and mustard crème fraîche to a ‘sensational’ main course of onion bhaji Scotch egg Madras with Bombay potatoes, mint yoghurt and greens.

Sunday roasts are reckoned to be ‘leaps and bounds better than anywhere else in the area’, with the Yorkshire puddings and cauliflower cheese (made with Sussex Charmer and Twineham Grange) singled out for special praise. To finish, the sticky toffee pudding has also impressed, as have the staff, whose warm welcome and good humour extends to small children and dogs. As for drinks, Harvey’s Sussex Best is on draught, while the compact wine list offers reasonably priced drinking from £27 a bottle. Accommodation is in 'the loft' – a self-contained flat above the pub.

After a lengthy closure, the Plough (formerly the Plowden Arms) was rescued from its lonely furrow in 2022 when the Canadian-born owner reopened this old village hostelry following an extensive refit. The new look – parquet flooring, sofas and upholstered chairs, modern artworks, posh toilets – marries well with the dark beams and low ceilings. Readers confirm that the decor is 'stunning', as is the recently landscaped garden, complete with a firepit for summer evenings.

The food (‘exciting but accessible’) also finds favour, with menus catering for most occasions – from gentrified fish and chips to a monthly ‘flight club’ where a five-course tasting menu is combined with wine pairings, cocktails and live music. The kindly priced, no-choice set lunch is a popular option, with villagers tucking into the likes of cauliflower velouté with hazelnut and apple gremolata, sea trout fillet with a cep and eel sauce, and desserts such as tonka-bean parfait. The concise seasonal carte kicks off with snacks including beetroot and horseradish arancini, though all but the ravenous might head straight for starters.

Our winter lunch opened with a cigar-shaped rissole of tasty pulled oxtail, coated in a crunchy crust topped with a modicum of celeriac rémoulade and lovage emulsion. And though Parmesan masked the fungal flavour in a main course of wild mushroom risotto, the creamy rice, garden peas and fresh thyme made a comforting retreat from bitter January – as did the log fire. To finish, ‘set cream’ was a satisfyingly wobbly panna cotta matched with orange compôte and an intense chocolate ice.

The kitchen also delivers when it comes to providing a stylishly traditional Sunday lunch (‘simple, not overstated, and exactly what we love,’ commented one fan), while service is polite, friendly and attentive. Drinks are a forte too, with well-chosen Old World wines (including fizz from a local vineyard) augmented by cocktails and Rebellion beers.  

The pub’s name references the Derby, which has been run for centuries up on Epsom Downs racecourse, so it's no surprise that the interior of this pleasingly spruced-up, 16th-century coaching house is stuffed with memorabilia – our dining booth featured a fascinating display of race day badges. An old-school bar at the front is regularly filled with families and their dogs, while the separate restaurant area is lit by a skylight that illuminates the dark wood surfaces and eclectic furniture.

Pub classics such as sausage rolls with Dorking sauce, homemade pies, rare-breed steaks (cooked ‘nicely pink’) are balanced by a roster of more ambitious dishes. A fistful of tapas-style small plates double as starters (Dingley Dell charcuterie, burrata and roast pumpkin with crispy buckwheat drizzled with hot honey), while mains hop around the globe – from comforting slow-cooked lamb shank with chive mash and roasted heritage carrots to five-spice duck breast with cherry gel or corn-fed chicken leg presented as a confit alongside girolles, broad beans and fino sherry sauce.

On Sundays, the chef brings it all back home with a trio of traditional roasts served generously with ‘epic Yorkshires’ and plenty of trimmings – the cauliflower cheese is an outright winner. Desserts keep it homely too, with the likes of apple and blackberry crumble or sticky toffee pudding often showing up on the menu. Service gets full marks all round, as does the drinks list – whether your preference is for locally brewed ale, reasonably priced wine or a zesty cocktail.

‘It’s the whole package’ affirms one of the White Hart’s many advocates. The setting is a sprawling 15th-century pub a short drive from Oxford featuring a stunning dining hall with a soaring beamed ceiling, weighty wooden furniture and a stone fireplace. A mezzanine, a bar serving local ales, and an ‘orangery’ (popular for summertime pizzas) are further enticements. Happy young black-clad staff help to lighten the mood, aided by an all-encompassing drinks list and a menu of tempting modern assemblies ranging from posh fish and chips to more ambitious French-accented dishes.

Co-owner Mark Chandler has handed over the day-to-day cheffing duties to Grahame Wickham, who is maintaining the pub's reputation for assured, seasonally attuned cooking. Our November visit opened with a pairing of goat's cheese mousse and deep-fried goat's cheese bonbons with fig chutney and fresh figs from the owners' tree, while a main course of pan-roasted duck breast upped the ante, the juicy, tender meat well-matched with zesty preserved plums, kale and mashed sweet potato. Fish is also impressively handled, witness a handsome serving of succulent on-the-bone monkfish ‘bourguignon’, presented with pommes Anna and smoked pancetta in a tasty red wine jus.

Best of all was a gratifyingly large portion of lusciously creamy custard tart with poached pear, pear ice cream and a crunchy mouthful of honeycomb, full of bonfire-night flavours. There's also high praise for the Sunday roasts, topped up with seasonal vegetables from the pub's own garden and served with ‘pride and enthusiasm’. Small wonder that this package is often bursting at the seams with customers.