For many years the Sunday Lunch at the Hand & Heart was renowned for being one of, if not the best Pub Roast in the City Centre. It was with much sadness that we were robbed of that excellent dining option when they closed down a few year back.

Roll on into late 2024 when with the pub finally reopened, they started doing food again and even better when they announced that Sunday Lunches were back. That news got even better recently when we read that the original chef Mark Robinson, the man who once served up that Top Level Roast dinner was back in the kitchen. This was a sign that we had to return to try out the Sunday Dinner once again.

SUNDAY MENU AT HAND & HEART

The Hand & Heart options for Sunday Lunch (that I was interested in) were Roasted striploin of beef and the Slow-roasted pork belly. The pork belly was always fantastic here in the past as was the Roast Beef (read about those here ). So it was a toss up between those two and an easy choice in the end as we both opted for the Roast Beef.

For the record the other options were a Garlic & Thyme chicken supreme, a Slow-roasted lamb breast, and a Beetroot Wellington. I would not turn my nose up at any of those but Beef and Pork Belly will win me over first

ROASTED STRIPLOIN OF BEEF

The Roast Striploin of Beef came served as per the menu with “roasties, mash, stuffing, roast carrots, honey-roasted parsnips, seasonal greens, braised red cabbage, Yorkie and proper gravy” that is pretty much everything that I want with my Sunday Lunch, ok so I am not particularly keen on braised red cabbage, and personally I don’t think stuffing belongs with Roast Beef but I still was going to eat them.

First impressions were good, the Beef looked reasonably pink and it was a decent sized set of slices. The meat had great flavour, and while the second slice was a bit more ragged and less pink but it was decent none-the-less. The gravy looked luscious, and was deep and rich, it certainly brought everything on the plate together and was a potential star of the show, most importantly there was plenty of it!

The Yorkshire looked big and well cooked but did need a good splash of that gravy to make it a perfect bite. I was also very happy that the seasonal greens turned out to some spears of tenderstem broccoli as that is one of my favourites 😍😎

Initially I could not see my potatoes but once I pulled the plate apart I found a good pile of small yet perfectly cooked roasties along with a mound of smooth buttery mash. I liked both even though I generally see mash as just a plate filler, the one they served here was particularly good.

I would have liked more roasties just because they were excellent, crispy coating and soft fluffy inside, they were almost like chip shop chip style in taste and texture, top level

The roasted carrot and parsnip were firm to the bite just as I like, and I enjoyed the honey roast flavour of the parsnip. It is good to see plenty of root vegetables on the plate as it does then feel like a proper seasonal offering

Overall this was a pretty decent Sunday Dinner, I would like to return to check out the Pork Belly and probably another plate of Roast Beef. Time will tell if it lived up to the old standards and will be the best on the city again, but it was certainly a good start for the Hand & Heart in regaining the King of the Roasts crown and definitely one of the better roasts I have eaten recently in town

The Hand & Heart can be found half way up the hill on Derby Road between the top of Maid Marian way and Canning Circus. Somewhat annoyingly the bus doesn’t not stop right outside but it is probably a good idea to walk up here anyway if only to burn off the calories 🤣

You can check them out on their website on their Facebook Page, and their Instagram profile