There’s something about Bristol that makes it particularly well-suited to the Sunday roast. Maybe it’s the city’s knack for taking tradition and giving it a gentle twist, or perhaps it’s the wealth of produce from the surrounding West Country farms. Whatever the reason, this city has elevated the humble Sunday lunch into something of an art form.

From cosy neighborhood pubs to sophisticated, sustainable restaurants keen to cash in on the week’s easiest service, moody basement steakhouses to Spanish-inflected feasts, Bristol’s Sunday roast scene reflects the city’s wonderfully diverse culinary landscape. You’ll find everything from classic beef with Yorkshire pudding to innovative sharing platters with Iberian accents, all united by a commitment to quality that’s made booking a Sunday table in Bristol an increasingly competitive sport.

Whether you’re after a traditional pub roast or something more adventurous, these are the spots that make Sunday lunch in Bristol worth getting out of bed for. Just remember to book ahead – these places fill up fast, and in some cases, you might need to plan several months in advance. But trust us, they’re worth the wait. 

Anyway, enough pre-amble; our beef is beginning to sweat under the heat lamps. Here are the best Sunday roasts in Bristol.

The Bank Tavern, John Street

If you want a measure of just how good The Bank Tavern’s Sunday roast is, consider this: when they reopened their booking system on New Year’s Day 2024, every single Sunday slot for the entire year was gone within two hours. 

This tiny pub in Bristol’s Old City, which has stood since the 1800s, made national headlines after winning Observer Food Monthly’s best Sunday roast in 2019, turning what was already a six-month waiting list into a four-year backlog.

But what makes a roast worth such an epic wait? It starts on Wednesdays, when the bones are roasted for the gravy – and yes, refills of this liquid gold come as standard once Sunday rolls around. The menu is refreshingly simple: 30-day aged rare topside of beef, braised free-range pork belly, or a vegetable and lentil loaf for the plant-based crowd. Each arrives with the full array of trimmings: Yorkshire pudding (properly puffed), roast potatoes (properly crisp), and seasonal vegetables including parsnip purée, creamy leeks, and cider-balsamic braised shallots.

With just seven tables and three sittings each Sunday, intimacy is guaranteed in this historic space that some claim could be Bristol’s oldest pub. The setting is everything you want from a proper boozer – well-worn and welcoming, with none of the pretense you might expect from somewhere serving food of this calibre.

Head chef Balazs Kovacs, brings years of Bristol kitchen experience to bear, starts with carefully sourced West Country ingredients and treats them with the reverence they deserve. The starters change weekly – you might find duck breast with kohlrabi and raspberry vinaigrette, or tikka cod with shallot pakora – while desserts like leche frita with honey ice cream ensure you won’t need dinner.

At £27.95 for three courses (or £24.95 for two), it’s remarkably good value for cooking of this standard. Just don’t skip the sides – at £4 each, the extra roast potatoes and creamy leeks are a glutton’s dream. That’s us; we are the gluttons. For those less indulgent, you can have just the roast round, too, for a keenly priced £18.95. Decisions, decisions…

For those without the patience (or foresight) to book ahead, there’s always the slim chance of nabbing a table from a no-show if you happen to be passing. Otherwise, keep an eye on their social media for cancellations – or start planning for 2025.

Website: banktavern.com 

Address: 8 John St, Bristol BS1 2HR

The Blaise Inn

Great restaurants often have unexpected origins. When Louise McCrimmon’s 23-year career as executive chef at Harvey Nichols Bristol was cut short by the pandemic, she turned challenge into opportunity, spotting her local pub in pretty Bristol suburb Henbury up for sale. 

Together with husband Ian and neighbors Nicola and Peter Gilbert, she took over The Blaise Inn in December 2021. Within nine months, they had a Bib Gourmand from Michelin, and by 2024, they’d been voted Bristol’s best Sunday roast by Bristol Live readers with a whopping 41% of the vote.

Housed in a beautiful 17th-century building near the gates of Blaise Castle Estate, the pub has been thoughtfully updated with a slate-blue bar, metro tiling, and antique brass fittings, while the dining room glows in rich crimson, decorated with oil paintings. There are still cushioned circular stools orbiting a mismatch of tables and Arbor on tap. It’s still a pub, and it’s exactly the kind of place you want to find after a Sunday morning walk around the estate.

McCrimmon’s classical French training shows in the attention to detail on the Sunday menu. The roast rump of beef arrives with a burnished shallot and punchy horseradish sauce, while the cider-roasted pork belly comes with generous stuffing and house-made apple sauce. For vegetarians, the sweet potato, goats cheese and walnut parcel proves this kitchen takes the meat-free option as seriously as the rest.

All roasts come with golden-crisp chicken fat potatoes (vegetarian alternatives available, naturally), cauliflower cheese, buttered greens and seasonal vegetables, plus Yorkshire puddings that dominate the plate in the best possible way. But it’s the little touches that elevate things here – the cider and balsamic braise that gives real vitality to those shallots, the parsnip purée that’s silken smooth.

The starters change regularly, but you might find a velvety pumpkin and orange soup with toasted pumpkin seeds, or a more luxurious half pint of shell-on prawns with watercress and lemon aioli. Save room for pudding though – the chocolate orange pot with Chantilly cream and candied orange seems engineered for Sunday afternoon comfort, while the cheese board showcases the best of the region with Bath Soft and Westcombe Cheddar among others. Phwoar.

At £19 for the beef (other roasts from £15), with starters at £6.50-£8.50 and desserts around £8, it’s sensibly priced for cooking of this quality. The well-chosen wine list and selection of local ales complete what has quickly become one of Bristol’s essential Sunday lunch spots. It’s also now one of our IDEAL 22 Bristol restaurants – surely the biggest accolade of the lot.

Website: theblaiseinn.co.uk 

Address: 260 Henbury Rd, Henbury, Bristol BS10 7QR

The Alma Tavern, Clifton

The Alma Tavern wears many hats – it’s home to what’s believed to be the oldest pub theatre outside London, offers luxury rooms upstairs, and has been part of Zazu’s Pubs’ thoughtfully curated family of Bristol venues since 2017. But on Sundays, all eyes turn to the kitchen, where head chef Tim Woodhead and executive chef Charlie Hurrell have developed a roast that helped earn this Clifton stalwart second place in that city-wide poll from Bristol Live we’ve already mentioned.

Their approach is refreshingly straightforward: take a classic roast and give it that extra touch that elevates it beyond the ordinary. The rare rolled topside of beef, for instance, comes with its own beef shin ragu, while the braised pork belly is accompanied by a smoked cheddar and leek croquette. Even the chicken supreme gets special treatment with a house-made apricot stuffing. It’s this attention to detail that’s really welcome in a meal out that can sometimes feel one dimensional and phoned in. 

Not so here. For the plant-based crowd, there’s real thought behind the butternut squash, leek, butterbean and rosemary filo parcel, too – a proper main rather than an afterthought. All roasts come with the expected trimmings: Yorkshire pudding, rosemary and thyme roasted potatoes, seasonal greens and roasted roots, with everything getting its own gravy (gluten-free alternatives available if you ask nicely).

The sides here deserve their own paragraph – the cauliflower cheese (£6) is exemplary, a real umami-laden affair, while the seasonal greens come lifted with almonds and confit garlic. But it’s the truffled mac ‘n’ cheese, topped with sourdough breadcrumbs, that really shows the kitchen’s fun side.

Desserts keep things classic but considered – the white chocolate ganache slice comes with raspberry and pomegranate gel and a boozy cherry compote that makes perfect sense of the combination. There’s a plum and Cointreau crumble too, if you’re after something warming and boozy.

Speaking of boozy, the drinks list matches this small pub’s big ambition, with local ales from Arbor and Bristol Beer Factory on tap, and a thoughtfully assembled wine list that leans toward good value European options. And if you’re a student? Show your ID and they’ll throw in a free Bloody Mary with your roast – though they warn you’ll be charged if you leave it unfinished, which seems only fair. Fair, and weird…

At £19.50 for the beef (other roasts from £14), this is honest pricing for cooking of this quality. Book ahead for one of their Sunday sessions between 12pm and 4:30pm – and maybe stick around for whatever’s playing in the theatre upstairs. 

Website: almatavernandtheatre.co.uk 

Address: 18-20 Alma Vale Road, Clifton, Bristol BS8 2HY

The Ox, Old City

This restaurant, tucked away a floor below street level beneath The Commercial Rooms (a ‘Spoons) on Corn Street, has been serving up top-notch, meat-heavy British fare since its inception just over a decade ago. The Ox has quickly built a reputation as one of the best steak purveyors in Bristol, offering a menu brimming with the choicest cuts of meat, all cooked over coals in a rugged but refined way in the restaurant’s central Josper oven. 

The Ox’s location, steeped in history, adds to its charm. Corn Street, along with Broad Street, Wine Street and High Street, were once the four cross streets that met at the Bristol High Cross, the heart of Bristol when it was a walled mediaeval town. Today, this historic street is home to The Ox, a restaurant that aims to blend tradition with modernity. 

The basement setting offers an intimate dining experience, making it an ideal spot for a romantic dinner or a special celebration. Unsurprisingly, the Ox do a wicked Sunday roast, but also welcome is the kitchen’s more than capable hand in the fish department. Their scallops, roasted in the shell and dressed with a selection of butters (heads up; the kimchi butter isn’t the one), make a fine starter before the carnivores close in.

Individual roasts are pitched at the premium end of Bristol’s Sunday scene – their dry-aged Buxton’s beef rump and slow-roasted porchetta sitting in the low-to-mid twenties – but it’s the sharing options that really show what the kitchen can do. A charcoal-roasted beef sirloin and porchetta combo arrives with roast bone marrow, onions and parmesan for the table to share, while the showstopping 30oz T-bone or bone-in rib of beef with horseradish is firmly in special occasion territory at three figures.

Start with something from their small plates – the roast bone marrow with caramelized onion, parmesan and sourdough toast is a steal at eleven quid, or splash out on those grilled scallops in the shell with garlic butter for a couple of pounds more. The Ox cured meat board makes a fine sharing starter, loaded with Cotswold salami, coppa, pork & pistachio terrine, rabbit rillettes, and pickles. 

Sides are equally considered – triple-cooked chips, proper mac ‘n’ cheese, and Somerset new potatoes all complement the main event without breaking the bank. All roasts come properly garnished with roast potatoes, roast carrots, braised red cabbage, leeks & greens, and Yorkshire pudding.

The basement setting, with its intimate lighting and exposed brick walls, makes for particularly atmospheric Sunday lunching. The drinks list matches the food’s ambition, especially in the ‘Red Wine Made for Steak’ section. Here you’ll find gems like the Indalba Brai Cabernet Sauvignon from South Africa with its notes of cooked fruit and, erm, “barbecue grit”, or the more accessible La Mascota Malbec available by both glass (£6) and bottle (£40). For special occasions, their ‘Statements’ section includes some serious Champagnes, topped by the Dom Perignon 2013 for those really pushing the boat out.

The Ox’s Sunday service runs from midday until 5pm. Yes, you’re in premium steakhouse territory when it comes to the bill, but you’re paying for top-quality ingredients and serious cooking in an atmospheric setting. This is destination dining for Sunday lunch – especially if you’re looking to impress.

Website: theoxbristol.com 

Address: The Basement, 43 Corn St, Bristol BS1 1HT

Pasture, Redcliffe

When Sam Elliott opened Pasture in 2018, he brought something different to Bristol’s steakhouse scene – a celebration of fire-based cooking that has since spawned siblings in Cardiff and Birmingham. While the restaurant’s bread and butter might be its theatrical steaks (displayed with pride in gleaming aging cabinets), Sundays see this passion for premium meat translated into one of the city’s most ambitious roast offerings.

The low-lit space, with its flagstone floors and open kitchen showcasing the charcoal grills, sets the scene for what’s to come. Their Sunday roast arrives as an abundant spread: a dry-aged sirloin of beef rolled and roasted over fire and served pink (coming in at a shade over £25), or a slow-cooked lamb shoulder designed for sharing at £58 (enough for two or more to feast on). For the truly committed, there’s their ‘House Cuts’ – any of their signature steaks served Sunday-style, including the prized châteaubriand or the show-stopping ‘dinosaur’ tomahawk, both priced by weight and designed for sharing.

Everything comes with proper trimmings: golden, shatteringly crisp roast potatoes, a rich spinach and leek gratin, seasonal greens, braised red cabbage, Yorkshire puddings, and bottomless gravy. The sides deserve special mention – the cauliflower cheese and ‘cabbage in the coals’ offering smoky depth to complement the main event for a modest additional charge.

The attention to detail extends to the drinks list. Their digestif menu is particularly strong – perhaps end with a glass of Royal Tokaji 5 Puttonyos, or their house-made limoncello. For something more indulgent, the salted caramel martini makes a decadent alternative to dessert (though at £8.95, their actual dessert menu, featuring treats like the chocolate dome with molten caramel sauce, is hard to resist).

This is Sunday lunch taken seriously – you’ll need to book well in advance, with tables often snapped up a month ahead, especially for prime times. While the pricing puts it firmly in special occasion territory, the quality of the meat, the generosity of the portions, and the theatrical presentation make it worth saving up for.

Website: pasturerestaurant.com 

Address: 2 Portwall Lane, Bristol BS1 6NB

The Maple Lounge, Cleeve

Just eleven miles from Bristol’s centre in Cleeve, The Maple Lounge stands as a testament to the power of keeping things local. This modern, family-friendly spot, complete with its namesake maple trees outside, has built its reputation on championing South West producers – from Somerset cheeses to Bristol-distilled gins and meats from the farms of nearby Nailsea. What’s not to love?

Their Sunday offering reflects this commitment to local sourcing. The roast menu leads with a tender local beef sirloin served medium rare, while the roast pork comes with all the traditional accompaniments including proper sausage stuffing. For the indecisive (or the particularly hungry), their trio of roasts lets you sample all three meats – beef sirloin, pork, and chicken – along with their respective trimmings.

Every roast arrives with a generous spread of sides: crisp roast potatoes, seasonal greens, roasted carrots, beetroot, butternut squash purée, cauliflower cheese, Yorkshire pudding, and rich gravy. The attention to detail extends to their extras menu – an additional Yorkshire pudding will set you back less than the price of a coffee, while their cauliflower cheese makes a worthy supplementary side.

For those seeking something different, their Sunday menu also features some appealing alternatives. The beetroot wellington offers a thoughtful vegetarian option, while their Maple Classic Burger keeps burger enthusiasts happy with its cured streaky bacon and cheddar cheese. The fish and chips, complete with curry sauce and minted peas, provides a taste of the British seaside on a Sunday, if that’s what you’re looking for.

Start with something light – perhaps their soup of the day with crusty bread, or the heritage tomato and chutney tart. The baked camembert for sharing makes an indulgent beginning if you’re dining as a group. They’re particularly accommodating of families, offering smaller portions for children, and most dishes can be adapted for gluten-free diners.

At £20 for the beef (other roasts from £18), this is honest pricing for cooking that takes its ingredients seriously. Their Sunday service runs from noon until 4:30pm, offering a relaxed setting for a family lunch or a pit stop if you’re exploring attractions like Goblin Coombe or heading to Bristol Airport. Just remember to book ahead – and yes, dogs are welcome both inside and out. Woof.

Website: themaplelounge.co.uk 

Address: Cleeve, Bristol BS49 4PG

The Clifton Sausage, Clifton

There’s something reassuring about a restaurant that’s been doing the same thing well for over two decades. The Clifton Sausage, which opened in 2002, has stuck steadfastly to its winning formula of hearty British classics served in unpretentious surroundings. Owner Simon Quarrie, who started as head chef 18 years ago before buying the business with his wife Joy in 2014, maintains the same high standards that have kept locals coming back.

The Sunday menu strikes that sweet spot between quality and value. Their standard roasts (sirloin of Somerset beef, slow-roasted Old Spot pork belly, or the vegetarian wild mushroom and chestnut option) form the backbone of the menu, while the signature Clifton Roast – which adds a modest £5 supplement for its generous combination of beef, pork belly, roast turkey, stuffing and a pig in blanket – caters to more ambitious appetites.

Starters set you back less than a decent glass of wine – their roast plum tomato and basil soup or warm goats cheese tart hovering around the £6-7 mark – while sides show similar restraint at £4 for cauliflower cheese or seasonal greens. It’s this kind of sensible pricing that makes their two-course offer at £24.50 (or three for £29.50) feel like genuinely good value.

All roasts come generously garnished with proper roast potatoes, braised red cabbage, seasonal greens and carrots, Yorkshire pudding, and rich gravy. The dining room, with its pine tables, warm yellow and sky-blue walls, and natural candle light, cultivates exactly the right atmosphere for a long Sunday lunch. It’s a place that’s mastered the art of being classy without being snooty – helped no doubt by affable bar manager Bob Cagney, who’s been perfecting the welcome here for 19 years.

And while you might be tempted by the traditional roasts, their namesake dishes shouldn’t be overlooked on Sundays. The sausage menu (where mains come in slightly cheaper than the roasts) offers choices from their signature Clifton with pork, cider and wholegrain mustard to more adventurous options like duck, plum and ginger, all served with your choice of mash or champ (the latter is just the ticket for us) and proper onion gravy.

The wine list is particularly accessible, with over thirty options available by the glass (including champagne), and the staff are happy to let you try before you buy. Finish with their sticky toffee pudding with butterscotch sauce and vanilla ice cream – a dessert that’s achieved near-legendary status among regulars.

Website: cliftonsausage.co.uk 

Address: 7 Portland St, Bristol BS8 4JA

Bar 44, Clifton Village

Since 2002, the Bar 44 brothers have been building one of Britain’s leading Spanish hospitality groups, but it wasn’t until 2018 that they brought their unique take on Spanish food to Bristol. Housed in a beautifully refurbished old bank in Clifton Village, complete with two transformed bank vaults for private dining, they’ve created something rather special – especially on Sundays, when their Spanish-inflected roasts have become one of the city’s most Instagrammed meals.

This isn’t your standard Sunday lunch. The roasts here come as sharing platters for two, with every element showing a creative Iberian twist. Their 35-day dry-aged picanha of Hereford beef (for two at £44) arrives with what might be Bristol’s most interesting Yorkshire pudding – filled with chorizo – while the slow-roasted Duroc pork belly (£39 for two) offers a similarly sophisticated take on the classic.

The accompaniments showcase the kitchen’s skill at bridging British and Spanish traditions: jamón fat roast potatoes with rosemary, garlic and thyme, manchego cauliflower cheese, and hispi cabbage enriched with jamón butter. Even the red wine gravy shows serious depth, while their burnt apple sauce makes the perfect foil for the pork. Vegetarians aren’t forgotten, with a celeriac steak option that gets the same careful treatment.

The Spanish influence extends well beyond the food. The drinks list is one of the most interesting in Bristol, with an exceptional sherry selection that includes their own UVA 44 Manzanilla. There’s a thoughtfully chosen Spanish wine list too, while their choice of six different sangrias (by the glass or pitcher) offers a more relaxed way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

The dining room, with its striking artwork from Spanish artist Andi Rivas, makes a dramatic setting for this Anglo-Spanish feast. While the prices put this firmly in special occasion territory, the generous portions and exceptional quality of ingredients justify the investment. Just make sure to book well ahead – these roasts have developed quite the following on social media, and tables aren’t easy to come by.

Website: grupo44.co.uk

Address: 18-20 Regent St, Clifton, Bristol BS8 4HG