The best Sunday roasts in Birmingham

Book Harborne. Two of the best Sunday roasts in Birmingham are at The Plough on Harborne High Street and The Physician on Harborne Road in Edgbaston, and a third comes from The Plough's own team at the Hare & Hounds in Kings Heath. Expect to pay £22 to £28 a head for the roast before drinks. Here is where to go, what is on the plate, and when the kitchen calls time.

The Plough, 21 High Street, Harborne

The Plough is the one Harborne argues about. The Sunday menu keeps it short: lemon and thyme roast chicken on the bone at £23.50, sirloin of beef served pink or well done at £26.50, a weekly roast special at £26 and a cashew and almond nut roast with miso mushroom gravy at £23, which is vegan. Everything comes with Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, vegetables and homemade gravy. Add the cauliflower cheese with pangrattato for £6.50 and the chorizo stuffing for £5.75. Roasts run from 12.30pm to 5pm, or until they are all gone, and they do go. There is an optional 12.5% service charge.

The Physician, Harborne Road, Edgbaston

A Brunning & Price pub in the old BMI building on Harborne Road, which once held a library for the history of medicine. The rooms are high-ceilinged and grand, there is an open fire and a walled terrace garden, and eight local cask ales line the reclaimed wooden bar. The Sunday roasts are generous: roast beef served pink with Yorkshire pudding at £23.50, porchetta with sage and apple stuffing at £22.50, roast chicken with stuffing and a sausage wrapped in bacon at £23, and shoulder of lamb with rosemary and red wine gravy at £28. Cannot choose? The mixed beef and porchetta is £26.50. The vegan wellington, with butternut squash, wild mushroom, chestnut and lentil, is £18.50.

Hare & Hounds, 106 High Street, Kings Heath

The kitchen at the Hare & Hounds is run by the people behind The Plough and Deathrow Pizza, and it serves Sunday roasts from 12pm to 6pm, or until they sell out. There are meat, vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options, all labelled. You order at the bar and get a buzzer, and the hatch is at the bottom of the stairs by the York Road entrance, under 1907 tiles. Book a table, then stay for whatever is on upstairs; this is the room where UB40 played their first gig. Purity Mad Goose is on cask.

The Wolf, 2-10 Constitution Hill

The Wolf is a family-run craft beer bar at the bottom of Constitution Hill, on the edge of the Quarter, and on Sundays it serves roasts from midday with a choice of meats plus vegetarian and vegan versions. It closes at 8pm on Sundays and gets busy, so book. A good shout if half the table wants a roast and the other half wants a can of something hazy.

The Junction, 212 High Street, Harborne

Back in Harborne, further along the High Street at number 212, The Junction does the full set: rump of beef, roast chicken with bacon and chestnut stuffing, or pork belly, or all three to share. Sides are thyme-roasted potatoes, savoy cabbage, leeks and roasted roots with red wine gravy, and the root vegetable, cranberry and nut roast can be made vegan by dropping the Yorkshire. It serves from noon until 7pm, the latest of the lot, which suits a lazy start.

The Old Crown, 188 High Street, Digbeth

For the setting. The Old Crown is a timber-framed, Grade I listed building that is reputed to be Birmingham's oldest pub and its oldest secular building, with a large covered outdoor area. CAMRA notes Sunday lunches served from noon until 7pm. One warning for the ale drinkers: the handpumps came out in 2025, so do not expect cask.

Know before you go

• Book. Every place on this list fills on a Sunday, and The Plough and the Hare & Hounds both say roasts run until they sell out.
• Go early. The Plough stops at 5pm and the Hare & Hounds at 6pm. The Junction runs latest, to 7pm.
• Harborne is a double. The Plough and The Junction are both on Harborne High Street, so if one is full, try the other.

Prices are from each venue's own Sunday menu and change with the seasons, so check the menu on the day before you promise anyone the lamb.