Everyone has their own opinion about the perfect Sunday roast, but Bristol is a good place to be if you’re after the best. The Bank Tavern is known all over the country for having the ‘world’s longest waitlist for a Sunday roast’, but it’s the similarly named BANK in Totterdown that’s caught the attention of Rate Good Roasts – which released its annual Sunday Roast Top 10 on New Year’s Eve.
Trying roasts from all over the country, and documenting findings on Instagram, Rate Good Roasts has its finger on the pulse when it comes to Sunday lunch. It reviewed BANK back in November and gave it a highly respectable score of 92.5% – coming seventh on the best Sunday roasts of 2023, while the number one spot went to The Abbey Inn near York (97%).
BANK is well-known for its use of ‘live fire cooking’ to create modern-fusion dishes and family-style serving throughout the week. On Sundays, its contemporary Sunday lunch is equally exciting. Just some of the roasts you can try (as of writing), include miso and black garlic pork belly; green harissa lamb shoulder; and crispy sage delica pumpkin – with all the trimming you can imagine.
Rate Good Roasts’ reviews are broken into 10 categories with the Vegetables, Drinks, Service and Value all attaining a perfect score. Meat, Sides, Venue and Yorkshire Puddings all received a 9/10. The only letdowns were the gravy and potatoes, scoring scored 8.5/10 and 8/10 respectively… but it seems to describe those scores as negative.
BANK isn’t the only local restaurant to make the Sunday Roast Top 10, one restaurant on the outskirts of Bath also did. Castle Farm in Midford came in at an incredible third place, scoring 95.5%. The restaurant is situated in a barn on an organic farm and serves ‘family style’ platters down the middle of the table – with a selection of three meats or veggie roast, stuffing, veggies, roasties and yorkies to help yourselves.
Reviewed in April of 2023, Sides, Venue, Gravy, Yorkshire Puddings and Drinks all scored 10/10. The other areas scored were Value, Service (9.5), Potatoes, Veggie Option (9) and Vegetables (8.5). Two other Bath restaurants missed out on the top 10 but did crack the top 15. The Moorfields (86%) and The Walcot (84%) came in 12th and 14th.