Last Updated on February 20, 2026

Traditional roast dinner in Westminster

Just round the corner from Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament, Blue Boar Pub promises a modern take on the classic British pub. In 2022 it won best Greater London pub in the National Pub & Bar Awards in 2022 and its menus are the work of chef Sally Abé, whose CV includes the Ledbury. With a CV that takes in the Ledbury and Harwood Arms plus many TV appearances, she now runs the fine dining restaurant, The Pem, at the neighhouring Conrad London St James hotel right next door to the Blue Boar. We went along with high hopes to try out their Sunday lunch and found a warm and welcoming place serving extremely hearty food with the emphasis on home-cooked detail. 

We arrived in driving rain so the warm and woody pub atmosphere of the Blue Boar immediately won us over. Lots of happy looking people digging into large plates of food equalled another good sign. 

As we were in a pub, beer seemed the order of the day. I enjoyed the Blue Boar Lager, a nice crisp choice, while my companion tried the Hawkstone IPA. He’d been intrigued by the Jeremy Clarkson connection and found it very satisfactory.

I do worry about the threat of overcooked leathery beef in roast dinner settings so was relieved when our waitress asked how I’d like my meat cooked. My roast rump of 56-day-aged Cumbrian beef turned up rare just as requested, tender and full of flavour and in huge quantity. Trimmings were equally good, with vibrant orange carrots full of flavour, sweet parsnips (which could have been more caramelised for my taste) and lots of broccoli cooked to just the right point. 

There’s another big tick for the homemade horseradish sauce, especially the bone marrow gravy, which is dark orange, piquant, almost sauce-like, and as far from Bisto as possible. Some magic has obviously gone on in the kitchen to come up with this. Good gravy needs a Yorkshire pudding and this is a superior version taking in all the necessary flavours and textures from crunchy to fatty to eggy. 

Unlike me, my companion did not feel challenged by the amount of food on his plate when faced with his loin of Berkshire pork. He did initially fret about how to rearrange everything so he could cut his meat and thought he might need a separate cutting board. He ended up managing just fine. Luckily, the Blue Boar provides its roast eaters with excellent steak knives – no hacking away with blunt implements here. It is this sort of attention to detail that makes the Blue Boar Pub experience stand out.

He described the pork as very tender and very delicious, and the huge shard of crackling vanished pretty quickly. The accompanying apple sauce was creamy and mild, and a world away from the lurid green shop-bought “chunks” that accompanies pork in so many pubs and restaurants.

Tbe Blue Boar’s roast potatoes were unsurprisingly good.

We added another dish from the sides menu – the grilled hispi cabbage, which came lightly charred and almost meltingly soft.

We had sensibly avoided filling up with starters but there was no way we weren’t going to see what the Blue Boar kitchen were doing with their puddings. 

I have felt aggrieved when faced with dry, lacklustre sticky toffee puddings with very little sauce. This is not a problem here, the sponge is swimming in it, an infusion of sugar and butter in perfect proportion, offset by a generous scoop of good buttermilk ice cream.

Across the table, there was silence as my companion admired and then tucked into a beautifully presented glass of buttermilk panna cotta with ripe raspberries and micro mint.

Even the coffee here comes with a surprise – in this case a freshly baked biscuit. 

Blue Boar is a friendly, comfortable, popular bolt-hole in the heart of Westminster that serves up fine traditional British food. If you go for a Sunday roast you will not leave hungry. This pub’s kitchen is clearly a place where no corners are cut or shortcuts taken and the service is excellent too. The meat roasts with all the trimmings are £29.50 while the vegetarian option (veggie toad in the hole) is a little cheaper at £22. And, finally, for those who want to treat their (well-behaved) dogs to a restaurant meal, there is even a new pet-friendly roast menu at Blue Boar Pub.

Blue Boar Pub

Blue Boar Pub
45 Tothill Street
London SW1H 9LQ