The Good Food Guide has today announced its Top 50 Best Sunday Roasts in Britain, and two in Wiltshire made the cut.

The Guide’s search for the Best Sunday Roast, sponsored by Koffmann’s Potatoes and Tracklements, underlines the importance of championing those restaurants, pubs and cafes that are the backbone of the British dining scene.

Synonymous with tradition and family gatherings and offered everywhere from simple neighbourhood cafes to grand hotel dining rooms, it is obvious from the thousands of nominations received that a Sunday roast is, by far, Britain’s favourite meal with 75% of Good Food Guide readers saying a roast is Britain’s most famous dish.  

I mean, that was always going to be the case, surely? Well, here are the roasted facts.

The Good Food Guide also quizzed its readers about their Sunday roast habits, giving us a fantastic insight into Britain’s favourite meal.

Half of Good Food Guide readers eat a roast on another day of the week than Sunday with 79% eating a Sunday roast all year round.

The most popular roast meat was, as perhaps expected, roast beef (50%) followed by lamb (22%).

Roast potatoes are the nation’s favourite side dish with cauliflower cheese coming in second - both beating the Yorkshire pudding.

Gravy is the favourite condiment (correct) although 50% of those surveyed don’t think their roast is served with enough gravy (also correct).

But anyone, here are the all-important results.

The best roasts in south-west England:

  • Bank, Bristol  
  • St Kew Inn, Bodmin, Cornwall  
  • The Cornish Arms, Tavistock, Devon  
  • The Dartmoor Inn, Lydford, Devon  
  • The Great Bustard, Salisbury, Wiltshire   
  • The Millbrook Inn, South Pool, Devon  
  • The Somerford Arms, Little Somerford, Wiltshire 

The Great Bustard

The 19th-century inn in the village of Great Durnford has been revived and reinvigorated.

Their website states: "Once again the cornerstone of the community, this is its new chapter as The Great Bustard – a pub where locals gather for a pint, a restaurant with an inventive seasonal menu “local where possible but always the best of the best”, a farm shop stocking organic and local produce, an ambitious country escape with smart rooms to bed down in and considered spa treatments, surrounded by the River Avon and the patchwork fields of the Woodford Valley.

"We look forward to welcoming you here to eat, drink, sleep, retreat."

Recommended reading:

Two pubs around Wiltshire are in the top 10 best English 'foodie inns'

How one man saved the symbol of Wiltshire from extinction

Downton Distillery's Great Bustard Gin wins three awards

The Somerford Arms

The Somerford Arms is a thriving, family-run pub at the foot of the Cotswolds, tucked away in the village of Little Somerford, near historic Malmesbury.

Their website states: "As a Free House, the ethos of Scott and Rachel and the team is to create a pub with a relaxed and friendly atmosphere that they would love to come to themselves. 

"Somewhere that serves excellent, unpretentious food, fantastic beer and wine while all the time offering great value for money and accessible for all to enjoy."