A chalk board proclaims ‘North London’s Best Sunday Roast’ in front of a venue that has just been named among The Good Food Guide’s top 100 UK pubs.
Since revamping and renaming the old Oxford Arms in 2023, The Parakeet’s owners – the very same who run The Jazz Cafe and Camden Assembly – have seen the Kentish Town pub make several best-of lists – so the chalk board claim may not be so bold.
Noon rolls around and we’re in; wooden floorboards, stained glass, green paint and funky art on the walls, plus a large dining room with an open kitchen that swiftly fills up with buzzing conversation.
Whether or not it’s the best, The Parakeet can perhaps lay claim to being the most popular Sunday roast in these parts. Over the next seven hours the surprisingly calm staff will serve more than 400 plates of beef, lamb, chicken or squash wellington – and still the phone rings with ‘can you fit us in?’ enquiries.
Perhaps we should have returned to see how they fared at the end of service, but we were greeted by smiling folk who efficiently spirited a glass of English sparkling wine and a pint of Camden Hells to our table, alongside slices of delicious warm bread with a treacly crust and smoked whipped butter.
There was more of the bread, toasted with the lightest creamy scoop of chicken liver parfait, offset by tangy pickles and a Cumberland sauce with just the right citrus content to cut the parfait.
Starters aren’t strictly necessary with a Sunday roast – whose popularity might be down to being served on a day when you can linger over a value-for-money plateful of delicious food after a bracing walk.
The lamb rump – beautifully cooked pink and sliced – and folds of thinly sliced pink roast beef – both £26.50 – went well with a rich Argentinian red.
All roasts come with honey roast carrots, winter greens, mashed swede with a crunchy crumb, and a very good Yorkshire pudding – often dry when mass cooked in advance – but here the right mix of crispy and soft.
You can order their excellent cauliflower cheese on the side for £6.50 – so rich a few spoonfuls each is enough.
Had the bowl of roast potatoes spent too long in the oven? Depends where you stand on roasties – these were certainly very crunchy.
And was the sticky toffee pudding (a good value £8) a shade less light, more solid, than the last time we tried it?
Perhaps, but this ‘best’ business is a high bar, and serving hundreds of roasts with this quality and consistency should win some kind of award.
Either way it’s a very good roast in buzzy surroundings, so if a collection of parakeets is a ‘pandemonium’ then join the chatter at this Kentish Town boozer.
The Parakeet is at 256, Kentish Town Road, NW5. www.theparakeetpub.com
