Classic Sunday roast at the Belrose, Belsize Park

Before moving to London, I completely underestimated the place that a classic Sunday pub roast holds in the hearts of Londoners. Recently, myself and Jack went for our first London pub roast in the newly-opened Belrose in Belsize Park*, just down the road from my favourite street, England's Lane. 

We'd been on a cheeky night out on Saturday (does anyone even say that anymore? Am I showing my age already?) so we were feeling a bit hungover and sleepy as we wandered over to the pub in the afternoon. 

The place was full of families, football fans, couples and even a few cute dogs snoozing underneath tables. I felt instantly at home; the atmosphere was relaxed and homely. They happened to seat us near the open kitchen, so we could see some of the kitchen action and of course, smell all the tempting food!

The pub has an amazing selection of drinks, particularly for beer fanatics - it even has it own on-site brewery. We were a bit too hungover to go hair-of-the-dog so unfortunately, we stuck to soft drinks! We also spotted a coffee machine by the bar so I imagine their coffee is pretty good too.

They had three options for the Sunday Roast menu - Chicken, Beef and Nut Roast. We initially wanted to have the rib eye of beef, but the beef had run out for the day, so we chose roast chicken instead. 

The roast chicken was beautifully-cooked, the true star of the dish. The skin was crispy and well-seasoned, whilst the meat inside was juicy and full of flavour. The chicken was served with a gorgeous white onion cream and I was more than a little obsessed.

Along with classic Yorkshire puddings, fluffy potatoes, we were given plenty of tasty side dishes such as Chantenay carrots and peas, which had a gently-spiced kick, braised red cabbage and a skillet of cauliflower cheese. 

As a child, I was quite a fussy eater about food - I've never managed well with soggy vegetables and I can confirm that I gobbled these veggies up (apart from the cauliflower cheese - I guess some things never change). They were perfectly-cooked, crisp and fresh-tasting and they didn't taste like they'd been an afterthought, how it can sometimes feel with pub roasts. I hadn't tried braised cabbage before and I absolutely loved it! 

Although the food tasted fantastic and the serving plates looked cute on our table for two, I did think that with a lot more people, all the extra plates made Sunday roast a rather clumsy affair. We were sat next to a group of six during our roast and when theirs arrived, finding space for all the extra side plates was a bit of a nightmare. 

Service on the whole was friendly, relaxed and the pub coped well with the rush of Sunday Roast orders. We waited longer than we wanted for our roast but the quality of cooking and attention to detail more than made up for the wait. I try to keep in mind that when a place has recently opened, there will always be a few teething problems with the rhythm of service. 

We left feeling incredibly full and more than ready for an afternoon nap. I'll be sure to come back again for a meal and drink or two in the future! 

You can check out the Belrose' range of menus here.

Thanks for reading! Where's your favourite pub for the perfect Sunday roast? Tell me below!

*This is a collaboration post. Jack and myself enjoyed a meal at the Belrose in exchange for a meal. To learn more, please see my disclaimer.   

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