Best Sunday roast in Manchester

A good Manchester Sunday roast is a specific thing. The Yorkshire pudding should be the size of your fist and crisp on the outside, soft in the middle. The gravy should be made from the day's roasting tin, dark and slightly sticky, not a clear stock with cornflour. The vegetables should be roasted, not boiled. The meat should be properly rested and sliced at the pass, not on the plate. Hit those four marks and you're somewhere worth going back to.

Manchester has more than its share of pubs hitting all four. The Marble Arch Inn on Rochdale Road is the long-standing reference point - beef, lamb and pork all done well, their own beer to pair, and they've been refining the recipe for decades. Elnecot in Ancoats is the modern, slightly fancier counterpart, with a more curated wine list and a more leisurely sitting.

South Manchester is genuinely strong on roasts: The Parlour in Chorlton, The Railway in Didsbury, The Beech and The Marble Beer House are all destinations on a Sunday. North side, The Crown in Heaton Lane and the Sam Smith's pubs in Stockport are quieter picks that punch above their weight.

The booking rule is non-negotiable for anywhere on this list. The good roast pubs sell out by Friday morning, especially for tables of 4+. If you've left it late, your best bet is either to walk in at 12 noon (some pubs hold a few walk-in tables for the first sitting) or to look at slightly less obvious areas - Withington, Levenshulme and Heaton Moor all have excellent roast pubs that get booked up later than the central spots.