The Great Australian Sunday Roast

Picture this: it’s Sunday, you are knackered, the weather’s doing its unpredictable Australian best, and somebody mentions “Sunday roast.”

Instantly, a Pavlovian drool begins, and the prospect of crispy-skinned potatoes, gravy so thick you could asphalt a motorway with it, and Yorkshire puddings that float like culinary clouds warms even the iciest soul.

If you’re in Queensland, you know you’re headed to Red’s Kitchen & Bar at Sanctuary Cove on the Gold Coast – the high temple of roast beef and all the holy trimmings, where the potatoes crackle under your fork and the beef bleeds just the right shade of blush beneath its crust.

But say you are gallivanting elsewhere in Oz. Where should you plant yourself for that hallowed Sunday ritual?

Red’s Kitchen and Bar, Sanctuary Cove

Ask for the roast, sit waterside, and enjoy expertly roasted meat, potatoes with crunch and fluff in perfect proportion, and gravy that actually tastes of something. The must-have? Yorkshire puds, naturally – those honest pillows of batter that mop up the jus like a sponge at a wine spill.

Old Fitz, Woolloomooloo, Sydney

Sydney’s roast royalty, The Old Fitz, serves up a holy trinity: crackling pork belly, chicken Maryland and slow-roasted Japanese squash, all with crispy potatoes, carrots, greens, and fluffy Yorkshires. Or migrate to Forrester’s in Surry Hills, where the Yorkshire pudding bowls are so light and gooey they could double as comfort food therapy.

Victoria by Farmer’s Daughters, Federation Square, Melbourne

Here, you gather round the campfire grill, hover over duck fat roasties, and XL Yorkshire Pud so glorious they should come with a dexterity warning. Think premium Victorian meats, seasonal veg, lashings of gravy and sharing platters – the Sunday roast as a communal rite of passage. Bonus: pair with Pizzini Wines and feel yourself ascend to roast heaven.

The Guilford Hotel & Allegria, Ocean Reef, Perth

In Perth, the faithful flock to The Guilford Hotel for a sharing feast of roast meats, Yorkshires, and bottomless gravy, or head to Allegria for “the winner – Perth’s best Sunday roast!” where the beef is tender, the roasties are golden, and the Yorkshire pudding reaches great heights of deliciousness.

The Windmill, Adelaide

I came for nostalgia, stayed for the gravy. The Windmill’s Sunday roast is a love letter to bovine sacrifice – rosy beef, Yorkies puffed like egos in parliament, and roasties that crunch like a Liberal-party scandal. Even the peas felt proud. It is old-school, unpretentious and bloody hard to fault. Seconds? Obviously.

The Waggon, North Hobart

The Sunday Roast at The Waggon dazzles with meats so tender they practically apologise as you carve. Local veg, roasted to Tasmanian perfection, wink at tradition but pack a punch. Staff beam, gravy flows, and you leave far happier than seems strictly decent after lunch.

The Must-Haves of a proper Sunday roast

• Roast meat (lamb, beef, pork, or chicken), cooked until caving to its knife but holding onto its juices like a secret.
• Crispy roast potatoes (not boiled, not soggy – crisp).
• Seasonal vegetables (carrots, parsnips, you know the drill).
• Yorkshire pudding (for mopping up).
• Real gravy (not some insipid brown water).
• Most importantly: all the trimmings – stuffing, crunchy greens, and sauces spicy, sweet, or just eye-wateringly sharp.

This is how Australia does the Sunday roast: all the best bits, all the proper nostalgia, and just enough regional flair to keep you roving, fork at the ready, from coast to coast.