The best Sunday roasts in Manchester and Greater Manchester

Editor’s note: The Black Friar is a traditional pub with a modern sensibility. Its acclaimed roast focuses on quality and conviviality.

• Price: Two courses for £32 or three courses for £39
• Menu: Roast beef or chicken with veggie and vegan options available. Plenty of non-roast options available on the set menu, from market fish to signature pies.
• Vibe: The perfect mix of classic cooking with contemporary comforts. A Salford star.

Editor’s note: Riva is a casual bar and restaurant with ambitious cooking. This Hale hotspot has won a loyal audience for its popular Sunday roasts.

• Price: Sunday roasts range from £21.50 to £27.50
• Menu: Roast beef, herb-rolled shoulder of lamb or lemon and herb chicken are the traditional Sunday lunch options. Lots of non-roast dishes on the menu too like asparagus and broad bean risotto or beer-battered haddock and chips.
• Vibe: Upscale suburban comfort with great Yorkshire puddings.

Editor’s note: Founder’s Hall occupies an enviable position in Albert Square. As the town hall emerges from its chrysalis of plastic and scaffolding, it’s an even better location.

• Price: Sunday roasts are great value at £17.95
• Menu: Roast beef or chef’s roast of the day, with butternut squash wellington for vegans. Unlimited Yorkshire puddings.
• Vibe: A great-value Sunday lunch contender in the heart of the city centre.

Editor’s note: San Carlo Alderley Edge isn’t strictly Greater Manchester but it’s worth the extra few miles for such a stylish Sunday.

• Price: Traditional Sunday roast options range from £18.95 to £21.95 with a luxury T-bone option for £70
• Menu: Roast rib of beef, roast rump of lamb or roast chicken with all the trimmings.
• Vibe: Live music and high-end Cheshire style.

Editor’s note: A village pub overlooking Chorlton Green, The Horse & Jockey is the quintessential Sunday lunch destination. It’s a family-friendly favourite with charm and a quality food offering.

• Price: Two courses for £30 or three courses for £37
• Menu: 35-day aged beef or half a roast chicken, with a mushroom wellington for vegans. Plenty of non-roast options on the set menu, from beer-battered haddock and chips to a signature burger.
• Vibe: The feel of a country pub just off Chorlton’s bustling Beech Road.

Editor’s note: Lock 84 is the restaurant at The Reach. Enjoy a peaceful canalside location in a hotel restaurant that doesn’t feel like a typical hotel restaurant. Cooler, much better food and popular with locals, too.

• Price: All roasts are £25 which includes a 250ml glass of Rioja
• Menu: Garlic, mustard and rosemary beef sirloin, sausage-stuffed chicken supreme or an artichoke, leek and walnut wellington. The cauliflower cheese croquette is a winner.
• Vibe: A great city centre option that’s handy for the train station.

Editor’s note: Rain Bar offers traditional comfort, a suntrap terrace and great-value Sunday roasts with unlimited Yorkshire puddings.

• Price: Sunday roasts are cracking value at £17.95
• Menu: Roast beef or Chef’s roast of the day with squash and lentil wellington for vegans. Go big for extra meat and pigs in blankets for only £3.95.
• Vibe: One of the best-value Sunday roasts in Manchester.

Editor’s note: It’s intimate and restaurant-y rather than traditional and pubby at 10 Tib Lane but the food quality is outstanding. The little details set this place apart.

• Price: Ranging from £19 to £22
• Menu: 32-day dry-aged sirloin, herb-stuffed porchetta or chicken supreme with mushroom wellington for vegans. Don’t miss extras like truffled cauliflower cheese with pine nut crumb.
• Vibe: Cool and food-focused. Some of the best starters and desserts on any Sunday service.

Editor’s note: Lively, loud and fun, Sundays at Albert’s Schloss are an institution. You can’t get Bavarian pork knuckle and roasties anywhere else.

• Price: Ranging from £21 to £23 with a Bavarian feast sharer for up to four priced at £70
• Menu: Dry-aged roast beef with horseradish cream, roast Cumbrian chicken with bacon and stuffing or schweinsaxe – and they all come with all the trimmings. There’s squash en croute for vegans.
• Vibe: Hearty and hedonistic. Alpine kitsch meets surprisingly satisfying food.

Editor’s note: Before there were towers, there was The Angel. Go for great beer and an authentic pub experience. It may not look like much from the outside, but it has form for seriously impressing on the food front.

• Price: Ranging from £18 to £20
• Menu: Rump of beef, porchetta stuffed with anchovies and herbs or cabbage rolls filled with puy lentils. The gravy is sublime.
• Vibe: A great roast. The greatest gravy in Greater Manchester.

Editor’s note: Blacklock is the Sunday lunch for meat obsessives. Here the roast is an institution where joints are cooked hanging over open coals and the bottomless gravy never runs out.

• Price: Ranging from £24 to £26 with a sirloin special for £33
• Menu: 55-day aged beef rump, 28-day aged lamb leg or 21-day aged pork loin. Barbecued cauliflower chop for vegans.
• Vibe: Carnivorously decadent and smoky. A focus on produce.

Editor’s note: Butter Bird elevates the humble chicken into a thing of succulent beauty. If rotisserie Sunday roast isn’t on your radar, it should be.

• Price: Ranging from £23 to £24
• Menu: Half a rotisserie chicken, either butter-basted or tea-brined, roast aged sirloin of beef or chargrilled aubergine for vegetarians. The meat options come with all the trimmings you’d expect whereas the aubergine comes with more appropriate accompaniments including basmati rice and roasted chickpeas.
• Vibe: Young, busy and full of energy. The best potatoes.

Editor’s note: The Drop is a casual option for a Sunday roast with sunshine Caribbean flavours. There’s a healthier, fresher style of cooking with great vegetarian and vegan roasts.

• Price: Ranging from £22.50 to £24.50
• Menu: Lemon and thyme roast jerk chicken with the option to add lamb chops as well or grilled pumpkin. Trimmings include mac’n’cheese, plantain, sweet potato and vegetable rice.
• Vibe: Colourful, relaxed and summery with jerk-spiced roast chicken taking the traditional up a notch or three.

Editor’s note: A Ramsbottom Sunday roast institution, the Eagle & Child offers rolling hills and majestic Yorkshire puddings. One of the best pubs for rounding off a country walk.

• Price: £23
• Menu: Striploin of beef, lamb rump or chicken supreme with cauliflower steak for vegetarians. Generous portions with both buttery mash and roasted potatoes plus superlative beef fat braised cabbage. Give in to temptation and order a braised beef stuffed Yorkie too.
• Vibe: A top rural roast. Big bold flavours but not all veggie-friendly.

Editor’s note: When it comes to Sunday lunch, Elnecot probably wins the social media buzz – and with good reason. It’s a Confidential favourite and it does the best Yorkshire puddings.

• Price: Ranging from £21 to £23
• Menu: Aged rib of beef, lemon and thyme butter-roasted chicken, crispy pork belly or slow-roasted shoulder of lamb. Nut roast for vegans.
• Vibe: Popular and unpretentious yet grown-up. Seriously good meat.

Editor’s note: The Firehouse has a laidback party atmosphere, even on a Sunday lunchtime. There’s a light summery energy but they still do a Sunday roast properly.

• Price: Ranging from £20 to £24
• Menu: Lemon, garlic and thyme roasted chicken (breast or half-chicken), roast Cheshire saddleback pork belly or roast topside of Lancashire beef. Oyster mushroom wellington for vegetarians and vegan roast available on request.
• Vibe: Perfect for pulling together after Saturday night with enough good-time energy to keep you going.

Editor’s note: Hawksmoor is the serious Sunday lunch. Awards, quiet luxury and a general air of refinement. Everything is polished, perfect and not as expensive as it could be for such a rareified roast. It’s definitely not muted though. The beef dripping roast potatoes are a brilliant, bombastic call to arms for the slathering of everything in animal fat.

• Price: Ranging from £29.50 to £35
• Menu: Dry-aged rump, dry-aged sirloin and the option to properly blow out with the sharers from the blackboard. Chateaubriand Sunday roast anyone? Winslade wellington for vegetarians.
• Vibe: A Sunday roast in the lap of the Gods. Plus the best stuffing anywhere.

Editor’s note: The Jane Eyre in Chorlton always gets the balance right. It’s inviting, almost pretty. However the food isn’t shy. Gutsy flavours are all over the Sunday lunch menu which is a proper treat for vegans too.

• Price: Two courses for £31 or three courses for £35
• Menu: Roast sirloin of beef, confit pork belly or chicken supreme. Nut roast for vegans with plant-based stuffing and Yorkshire pudding.
• Vibe: Inclusive neighbourhood bistro with a slightly fancier take on the traditional Sunday roast. Standout pork stuffing and beef fat roast potatoes.

Editor’s note: A lovely traditional pub and a lovely traditional Sunday roast. The Marble Arch doesn’t need to re-invent the wheel or the roast potato. It serves a proper Sunday lunch, with everything just as it should be. A palace of pints and simple pleasures.

• Price: One course £21.50 or two courses £28
• Menu: Drunken slow roast beef rump, lemon and thyme roasted half chicken, slow-roasted pork belly with cider gravy or roast leg of lamb with garlic and rosemary. Spinach and pine nut strudel for vegans.
• Vibe: Ultimate comfort food that goes the extra mile. Best enjoyed with a pint.

Editor’s note: Sunday roasts at Pip are a real event. It’s impressive grown-up cooking but a children’s menu is also available. There are gluten free options and roast potatoes cooked both within and without beef fat because everyone deserves a real slap-up Sunday lunch.

• Price: Two courses for £31 or three courses for £38
• Menu: Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding, slow-roast porchetta with crackling or roast Somerset Saxon chicken with truffled leeks. Fish pie and braised leek and butterbean gratin also available.
• Vibe: A great choice for families, non-meat eaters and gluten free diets as well as traditionalists. Confidentials’ most inclusive award-winner.

Editor’s note: Appropriately just up from The Palace Theatre, Sunday lunch at Refuge is full of spectacle and drama. There are the grand proportions of the rooms with its tiled walls and playful Manchester tradition. But most of all, there are the mountainous roast platters for two.

• Price: Individual roasts for £29 or epic sharers for two priced at £69
• Menu: Slow-cooked rump of Lancashire beef, garlic and thyme-roasted Cumbrian chicken or Yorkshire porchetta with all the trimmings. Or the sharer which includes the full works. Curried sweet potato and kale pie for vegans.
• Vibe: It’s all about the roast sharing platter.

Editor’s note: Sunday roasts are synonymous with the end to a country walk. Make them the grand finale to a bike ride at Station South on the Fallowfield Loop. Pedal power not obligatory.

• Price: Ranging from £17 – £19
• Menu: Roast beef topside with mustard, garlic and thyme, lemon and tarragon-roasted chicken plus a weekly roast special sourced from local butchers. Apricot and walnut harvest roast for vegans.
• Vibe: A well-priced quality Sunday roast in a light and airy setting. Popular with families.

Editor’s note: The perfect mix of totally relaxed Sunday bar lounging and top-tier sourcing. Meat comes from the esteemed Littlewoods butchers and smiles come courtesy of Trof. An NQ institution.

• Price: Ranging from £20 to £21.50
• Menu: Dry-aged topside of beef, slow-roasted lamb shoulder, free-range pork belly and crackling or roast chicken breast with garlic and thyme – with all the trimmings. Vegans can enjoy a chestnut roast.
• Vibe: A Northern Quarter tradition with top sourcing. Great Sunday sides – especially the peas and pancetta.

Editor’s note: The spicy gravy at Zouk is a legend in its own Sunday lunchtime. Not to mention the lobsters, the whole raan roasted leg of lamb and the huge sharing platters. 100% Halal.

• Price: Roasts start at £19.95 rising to £80 for the Sajji lamb which must be pre-ordered and £100 for the sharing platter for four.
• Menu: From whole-roasted poussin or whole roasted raan chicken to lamb henry or roast topside of beef, there are plenty of individual servings including vegetable tikka. Most interesting are the sharing platters and the whopping lamb leg. Curries and lobster specials make up the rest of the Sunday service.
• Vibe: Indian and Pakistani flavour meets Sunday roast tradition. Abundant, original and unmissable.