The Tamil Crown is down the kind of leafy road in Angel that would get Richard Curtis going. It’s an excellent neighbourhood pub and Indian restaurant, pulling a great pint of Guinness downstairs and serving heaving platters of Sunday roasts in the polished, upstairs dining room. Tender lamb shank or moist chicken with charred skin are the kind of plates you can eat in comfortable silence. Deep-fried cauliflower, jade-green beans cooked in coconut, and shimmering gravy surround the main event.

There aren’t many halal Sunday roasts in London, but of the ones we’ve tried, the jerked beef number at Guanabana, a Caribbean restaurant on Kentish Town Road, is the best.The perfect bite includes a little bit of everything: spicy jerked beef, the edge of a crispy roast potato, a caramelised baby carrot, a piece of sweet plantain, and an unevenly cut corner of a beautifully deformed yorkshire pudding soaked in gravy. Get a side of mac and cheese to make a near-perfect plate of food even better.

The Selkirk is a rustic Tooting pub which serves a truly epic roast that’s entirely worth leaving your sofa for on a Sunday. The roast British beef is the go-to move, thanks to its tender chewiness and smokiness that is the perfect match to the honey-roasted carrots and liberal serving of gravy. Every Sunday, the two-parts cosy, one-part classy dining room is filled with toddlers merrily tearing up yorkshire puddings, locals catching up over bloody marys, and at least three adorable dogs.

Shoreditch on Sundays can resemble the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse. You’ll find deserted streets with the odd human stumbling around dazed and confused, trying not to be sick. If it were a true apocalypse, The Princess of Shoreditch is where survivors would scramble for safety. And a beer. And of course a Sunday roast. This place does great pub food any day of the week, but on a Sunday their rare beef roast, topped with a massive yorkshire, will remind you that the world is not a bad place.

Come Sunday, The Baring, a slick Islington pub and restaurant which leans more the latter, has a selection of its midweek favourites like pillowy ricotta gnudi and quail shish. But you’d be making a mistake if you don’t get a roast. The plates of juicy chicken or strips of pink beef sirloin aren’t of the piled-high variety but are excellent. Plus the generously sized yorkshires are crispy, side bowls of golden roasties and greens ample, and jugs of gravy rich.

St John's Tavern, a roomy Archway pub, is one of north London’s most quietly excellent pubs for all things drinking and eating, but on Sundays it comes into its own. Huge shoulders of lamb sitting in a shallow pool of glistening deep brown gravy. Yorkshire puds that you could comfortably wear on your head, alongside slices of beef rump that belong in your mouth. Combined with its mean ability to pull a pint and make a fine martini, this isn’t just a decent Sunday spot, it’s a sensational one.

The Camberwell Arms is the Al Murray of pubs—a bit lairy from the outside, but incredibly well-mannered within. The well-mannered comes in the form of a casual dining room at the back, run by a couple of ex-St John guys. The Sunday lunches are exceptional—there are joints to share, but also fresh salads, pastas, and desserts beyond the standard puddings and cakes. If you think pasta for Sunday lunch sounds like sacrilege, you obviously haven’t tried it.

Sitting in The Clarence’s cheerful dining room is a lovely thing. Combine that with a portion of their gratin dauphinois and, well, you’re in heaven. The Stoke Newington gastropub is a family favourite with the kind of menu that guarantees a pop of the button and an enormous contented sigh. Expect to see some kind of large portion of beautifully cooked animal on the menu—a beef short rib, a shoulder of lamb—alongside an onion and girolle tart or other vegetarian options.

The Marksman in Shoreditch is one of the best gastropubs in the East End of London, so it shouldn’t come as a massive surprise that its Sunday lunch is up there too. They offer a three-course menu, where your main course is the standard choice of meats, and sometimes even pie. Our move is to come with a few people, order the whole chicken for two, and definitely opt for a dessert. When you’re done, roll yourself up to the terrace for a bit of fresh air and a couple of pints.

Can a steakhouse also do a good Sunday roast? The answer is yes. And the best thing about Hawksmoor is that there are enough of them dotted around London that you can probably find one to suit the vast geographical requirements of your friends who want to join you. They also like to keep things simple here—they only do roast beef. But this is a great steakhouse, so you can bet they do it well.