It’s a British staple. A food tradition about friends, family and feasting on a day of rest – but does it matter if you get it delivered to your door instead of rustling it up yourself?
Dolly’s Vintage Tearoom, Carlton Hill, has started a Sunday roast home delivery service, featuring a choice of meat, seven different vegetables, roast spuds, Yorkshire pudding, stuffing and home-made gravy.
The meals will be be kept in plastic, microwavable containers which will be able to be reheated. The meals cost £5, plus a delivery charge of £2 within four miles of the cafe and £5 for four to eight miles.
Other restaurants and pubs, which serve traditional Sunday roasts, have mixed views.
Rowan Stephenson works at The Lincolnshire Poacher, Mansfield Road. Rowan says he has ‘never been much of a roast man’, but thinks roast dinners are all about the atmosphere of eating with your family in the pub.
“It’s about sitting around a table and having all your family there and your mates,” Rowan said, “It’s about opening up your home to your family, rather than being hungover and needing one delivered.
“We normally sell out of a couple of things by the end of the day.”
The Larwood & Voce pub, in West Bridgford, has been offering a takeaway Sunday roast service for more than a year.
People can phone in or come to the bar and order what they want to takeaway, says chef Thomas Smeeth.
“We tried and tested it ourselves before we did it – we found that as long as you use the right containers and heat products, it doesn’t make much of a difference.
“It’s not going to be the same as sitting in a restaurant and getting it dished up straight out of the kitchen, but it’s still good-quality dinner as long as everything’s done right.”
The pub also uses plastic containers to preserve the meals, and Thomas say there is a market for roast dinner delivery services.
“It’s quite a unique thing and people like roast dinners and not everyone likes to make them,” he said.
“On Sunday, people like to stay in and not go out. If you get one delivered to your door, it beats everything.”
OAKS Restaurant & Bar, Bromley Place, said they were unwilling to implement a takeaway or delivery service.
Manager Karolina Zykozic says the restaurant’s roasts are extremely popular – and it would not be able to cater for their diners should OAKS offer a delivery service.
Karolinia says it would be hard to deliver the roasts at a piping hot temperature, a key part of their offering.
She said: “The vegetables would go mushy and it would be a shame.
“People come in and gather together to share a massive plate of a roast – that’s the way we serve it.
“Mainly we attract families of four, five and six people. A takeaway service would ridicule the whole tradition.”
John Hancock, general manager of World Service Restaurant, Castle Gate, says he wouldn’t order a Sunday roast – even though the service is convenient for a lot of people.
“I prefer to do it myself to make sure the roast potatoes are really nice and crispy and served straight from the oven,” John said.
“I think it’s much better to have it either in a restaurant or by cooking it yourself at home as a fresh meal.
“I’m not sure how well it would keep to be honest. Obviously it’s nice to have it when it’s piping hot – and if you have to reheat it, it’s not the same and the dishes will be a bit soggy.”
John added, even if he had been out the night before and was feeling worse for wear the following day, he would still get up and cook his own Sunday roast for his family to enjoy.
He added: “I’d get in the kitchen, open a bottle of wine and have a glass of wine whilst I’m cooking.
“We’d all sit around the table and we’d all have the roast together.
“On Sunday, it’s nice to get up, read a paper, have a bit of breakfast, get the roast on, have a glass of wine and have a lovely Sunday lunch.”
