Proper Irish Sunday Lunch

Spoiler alert: it was excellent, zero regrets, and the only argument at the table was who got the last roastie. (Mario. It is always Mario.)

We’ve done the Dúchas takeover circuit at Homeboy Bar already — Lawrence, Diarmuid, Paddy — so this wasn’t a first date. This was coming back for the thing they’d been shouting about all month: the Proper Irish Roast, back from 30 August, every Sunday after that, live trad later if your belt still does up. We booked. We arrived hungry. Charlie looked after us like we’d been coming since 2019, which, at this point, is only a mild exaggeration.

Two roasts. Because of course we did.

The new-and-improved menu has a very dangerous line on it: the Roast Trio. Beef, chicken and pork belly on one plate, with the house special Yorkshire pudding, seasonal veg, buttered mash and a gravy situation that arrives both on the plate and in a jug, mid-pour, while Mario is still trying to take the photo.

That jug is not a garnish. That jug is the point.

The beef is thickly sliced and actually tastes of beef, which shouldn’t be a rare skill in London and yet. The chicken has skin and joy. The pork belly is the quiet troublemaker — sticky, rich, the bit you “just try” and then guard with a fork. The Yorkie is a proper house special, not an afterthought: crisp edges, soft middle, gravy architecture. Seasonal veg actually tastes of vegetables. The mash is the buttery kind that makes you forget you also ordered roast potatoes, until you remember you also ordered roast potatoes.

Then, because we are professionally incapable of leaving a menu alone, I got the Vegan Roast as well.

Beyond Meat as the centre, sunflower-oil roasties (so the vegan plate doesn’t have to share a fat with the beef), vegan buttered mash, same seasonal veg, its own gravy. It’s not a sad beige understudy. It’s a second roast that holds its own, which is the only test that matters when you’re sitting opposite someone who just got pork belly. If you’ve got a mixed table — or you just want to be greedy in two directions — this is how you do it.

Bobbin’s note: she has no moral position on Beyond Meat, but she would like it known that gravy poured from a height is the correct way to serve anything, including breakfast.

The drinks that made it a Homeboy Sunday

A pint or two of Guinness first, because this is still one of the best pours in London and it would be weird not to. Settled, proper, the colour of a good decision.

I went for a Bloody Mary — Wyborowa Blue Vodka, tall, sharp, lemon perched on the rim like it’s supervising the roast. It’s a brunch drink that doesn’t apologise for being at lunch. Sunday energy in a glass.

Then for dessert, I have never met a dessert cocktail I didn’t want as a main, claimed the Frozen Irish Coffee with Jameson Black Barrel Irish Whiskey, Kahlua, coffee, Spiced Guinness Demerara and condensed milk syrup. It’s cold, it’s sweet, it’s faintly ridiculous, and it is exactly what you want once the gravy jug is empty.

Think Irish coffee that went on holiday and came back with ideas.

Between the pints, the Mary and the frozen one, £37 of the bill is “we came for lunch and stayed for the bar,” which is the Homeboy business model and we are not fighting it.

The vibe check

Daytime Homeboy is the same room you already love — dark wood, banquettes, that slightly-too-glamorous-for-Essex-Road bar — just with more daylight and more gravy.

Bank Holiday Sunday fills it with the correct crowd: locals who booked early, Irish-in-London people who have found their church, and at least one table (ours) photographing a gravy pour like it’s a sporting event. Charlie keeps the plates moving and the craic light. Nobody rushes you. Nobody blinks when you order two roasts. The kitchen sends food out that looks like the photo, which is rarer than it should be.

Stay late enough and the trad starts. Eat early enough and you can still walk to Angel without needing a little lie-down on Upper Street. We did neither of those things responsibly.

Should you go?

Yes. Immediately. Book.

Especially now the roast is a weekly fixture again, not a rumour. £25 for the trio is proper value in 2026 London roast terms. £21 for a vegan roast that doesn’t feel like a compromise is rarer. Add a Guinness and something from the cocktail list and you’re still under £80 for a two-person feast that will put you in a taxi-or-nap decision.

Whether you’re a Dúchas graduate coming back for daylight hours, a first-timer who just wants potatoes and a pint, or someone who has been let down by a £34 steam-tray roast in Zone 2 — this is the one.

Sláinte to Dave in the kitchen for bringing the roast back properly, to Charlie for the pour and the pace, and to whoever approved “beef, chicken and pork belly” as a single line on a menu. We would like that person knighted.

Cat, Mario & Bobbin xoxo