Sunday Lunch at The Queens Arms review for Bite Magazine

Sunday lunch is a tradition that most of us can get on board with. You can wear your comfies, chat with friends and fam, drink whatever you like and be safe in the knowledge that it’ll always end with pudding. Winner, especially in the winter months, I say. The Sunday pub lunch takes that tradition another step towards perfection. Ok you have to leave the house, but hey presto –  no dishes! I expected good things from the Queens Arms (having won awards for their gastropub fare) and good things we found.

After taking a seat in our copper-topped booth table, I started with a seriously well peppered-up Classic Bloody Mary and mum supped a beer. We shared an order of the ham hough and black pudding lollipops, which were as good as something that cool-sounding should be. Crisp crumbs outside, a smoked-meaty filling inside and mustard mayo dip (more next time please!) for dunking. Wish we’d ordered twice, but the main event was still to happen.

The sunday roast is £29 to share and for this you get a bountifully-laden board with meat (for this is indeed a carnivorous undertaking), Yorkshire puds, roast tatties and various versions of veggies including roasted roots, and sprouts . As this review took place in December, you can guess which bird featured as roast of the week. The turkey ballotine had a pleasing ratio of white meat to the stuffing which had a deeper flavour, I think with some hearty liver in there. Home-made Yorkies – 2 each – were duly drizzled with gravy and golden crunchy roast tatties elicited a lot of ‘mmm-ing’. The sprouts were cooked with care; thankfully no mushy greens here. Only downer was the deliciously sweet root veg mash which unfortunately was served barely warm. Twice.

Pudding was pedestrian but satisfying nonetheless. A sizeable chunk of warmed chocolatey brownie and boules of raspberry ripple ice cream. I mention that I’d have preferred a more traditional fruit crumble and custard combo, but I remind myself again about the lack of dishes to do and duly eat up the brownie, followed by a nice cuppa.

The food at The Queens Arms sits way above many of its pub-neighbours in the city centre, and with its cosy vibe and impressive selection of drinks, I’ll come back another time to partake in some roast beast and get my chops around those fluffy Yorkshire puds again.

Post Script. I have no idea why there is no apostrophe in Queens Arms!