They’re back! Formerly in residence at The Gun in Hackney, Ling Ling’s - aka flawless chef duo Jenny Phung and James Shepherd – are once again cooking up London’s finest Sunday roast. Their punchy Chinese-inspired menu kicks off with a ludicrously crispy Sichuan tofu hash brown drizzled with fish roe, before a zingy duck salad. There are five options for the roast itself; beef short rib, five spiced braised pork belly, glass skin chicken with ginger and spring onions, five spice whole seabass and miso-glazed aubergine for the vegetarians. All of them come with roasties, tenderstem broccoli, carrots dotted with crunchy garlic panko, potent nori mustard and an ocean of miso gravy. If you’ve any room left (portions are sizeable), finish yourself off with dollop of extremely adult matcha tiramisu.
Sunday lunch. There’s nothing quite like it. An elemental meal, one that Londoners take incredibly seriously. Debates about what constitutes the ‘perfect’ Sunday roast have been known to last for hours.
There is no shortage of top roasts in London. We’ve rounded up the city’s best Sunday meals from a host of homely pubs and restaurants all around town. What makes a good roast? For us, it’s simple; a cosy room is a good start, maybe in a pub with an open fire. Then it comes to the plate – we need perfect roast potatoes, well-cooked lamb, beef or pork and a decent plant-based option too. A Sunday roast is more than just lunch - it’s self-care. From snug neighbourhood staples to more bijou gastropubs, posh hotels, Michelin-star spots, and even a metal bar in Camden, we’ve got something for every taste (if that taste is for comforting mounds of roast meat, lashings of gravy and carbs for days).
A lot of these places get quite busy, by the way. So you’re always advised to book ahead to avoid disappointment.
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