Meat, tatties, two veg, sometimes stuffing, and always a load of gravy. A bangin’ Sunday roast is the cure for just about everything, but sometimes your bog-standard roast beef and yorkshire pud from the local pub just feels too safe and same-y. That’s where smoked beetroot-braised figs, sumac-glazed carrots and sajji roast lamb come in.

Giving Aunt Bessie a serious run for her money, these Manchester haunts are reinventing the wheel when it comes to the nation’s favourite weekend tradition. Bringing in flavours and ingredients from far and wide to spice up your Sunday dinner, Paxo and Bisto aren’t even getting a look-in this roast season.

Read on for 10 unique and inventive Sunday roasts that you might not have tried yet - plus a bonus roast that's hot off the press.

Leek And Potato Cake From The Allotments Vegan Sunday Roast Menu — **The best kinda cake is made from leek and potatoes** The Allotment

The Allotment Vegan Eatery

Now when it comes to celebrating the humble vegetable, The Allotment have done it all from miso maple mushrooms to tex mex jackfruit tacos. Hot on the heels of Ducie Street Warehouse, this vegan eatery has also got a Sunday sharing platter with popcorn cauliflower, rocket pesto, crostini with tomato tapenade, and tomato and feta salad – you can chuck on a bottle of house vino for £8.50 too.

If you prefer to go down the more "traditional" vegan roast route, if that’s even a thing, then you can also choose between an aubergine steak or leek and potato cake with all the plant-based trimmings, the three courses for £25 deal making it hard to turn down a blueberry cheesecake or affogato to finish.

The Allotment Vegan Eatery Lloyd’s house, 18-22 Lloyd St, Manchester M2 5WA

Baratxuri

Pronounced ‘bara-ch-uri’, this fire-side haunt boasts a Basque-inspired menu straight from the fiery depths of Mayfield. Originally known for its tapas-style small plates and live-fire cooking, this spot at Escape to Freight Island was recently featured in Confidentials’ ‘Best things to eat in and near Manchester September 2021’ (big up), and caters for veggies, pescies, and fire-starters alike.

With a two-course Sunday dinner priced as just over 20 quid, and three courses for £25, you can peruse over the menu of suckling lamb, butterflied sardines, beetroot-braised figs, and rum trifle whilst indulging in a large glass of Basque-sourced booze. With sharing options and a cosy seating set-up, a trip to Garlic Town ("Baratxuri" means garlic) should definitely be added to your winter to-do list.

Although we love a spontaneous Sunday wander, bookings are always advised at Baratxuri to ensure that you have an intimate dining experience with a proper table and chairs.

Baratxuri at Escape to Freight Island 11 Baring St, Manchester M1 2PZ

Canto

Bringing some Mediterranean vibes to costa-del-Ancoats, Canto’s Sunday offerings add some much-needed European flair to traditional roast essentials. With a menu that features blood orange glazed carrots, manchego cauliflower cheese and a field mushroom wellington, Canto is putting Toby Carvery to shame one root vegetable at a time.

Sticking to the status quo when it comes to the meat and two veg combo, this Med-inspired spot gives you the option to choose between chicken, beef and pork belly – all served with crispy roast tatties, root veg mash, savoy cabbage, and an obligatory Yorkshire pudding.

If your Sunday is lacking something fishy, the option of a grilled whole sea bream with new potatoes, tenderstem broccoli and vinho verde sauce could be more up your street, and a pastel de nata never goes a miss to solidify a gravy-induced coma.

Canto Cutting Room Square, Blossom St, Ancoats, Manchester M4 5DH

Cibus

Before you start to panic, Cibus hasn’t invented some kind of pork and stuffing pizza monstrosity with a gravy dipping sauce.

Instead, this pizzeria-come-ristorante-come-bar is serving up Sunday dinners with porchetta at their heart and zucchini fritti by their side. Mastering the art of Italian influence, Cibus also drench their roasts in garlic and rosemary meat gravy and cater for vegans/veggies with vegetarian pie and filo parcels with pepper bangers and vegan yorkies.

The usual assorted pizza menu is also available on a Sunday, but you’d be daft to opt for a Siciliana when there’s spiced braised cabbage and buttered greens on the menu.

Cibus, 847-849 Stockport Rd Levenshulme, Manchester M19 3PW

Ducie Street Warehouse

As if Ducie Street Warehouse doesn’t have enough to rave about with its dog-friendly cinema, drag brunch and Christmas dinner masterclass, it now has a ‘just cauli-cheese’ menu that combines the king of winter veg with bacon frazzles, macaroni, and every other ‘oozy molten’ cheese you can think of, and that’s just the Sunday roast’s sideman.

Also getting creative when it comes to sharing platters and sides, Ducie Street Warehouse’s ‘slice of something for everyone’ option allows you to try a slice of each meat (shorthorn beef, cornfed chicken, leg of lamb and smoked gammon) with a giant Yorkshire pudding, proper roasties and seasonal veg – a great option to share with friends or enjoy alone if you’re after some Man vs Food content. Sides include salted caramel piccolo parsnips, chargrilled pineapple (great with gammon), and all-year-round Cumbrian pigs in blankets, the option to add three for £12.50 or four for £15 making this Sunday rendezvous a customisable no-brainer.

Ducie Street Warehouse Ducie St, Manchester M1 2TP

Habas Roast Dinner With The Lamb And Cualiflower Options — **To meat or not to meat, that is the question** Habas

Habas Bar & Restaurant

For a little taste of the Middle East on a drizzly Manchester weekend, Habas has introduced a brand-new Sunday menu with two roast choices and the option to bring your own wine for a fiver – signed, sealed, delivered, we’re yours.

Catering for the carnivores, the classic lamb roast is served with ‘modern Middle-Eastern flavours’ and a signature blend of spices, whilst the herbivores can opt for harissa roasted cauliflower. Sumac and orange honey glazed carrots, black garlic and mint roast tatties, and sauteed kale are then served as sides with both options.

A starter of filo cigars with spinach and feta cheese, and a cheeky pudding of orange and cardamom rice pudding can then sit side by side your Middle Eastern roast as the new Sunday menu runs alongside over 40 à la carte dishes and an eclectic selection of gins, whiskies, and cocktails.

Habas Bar & Restaurant 43A Brown Street, Manchester M2 2JJ

Jimmy’s

If a rock ‘n’ roll roast is what you want, then a rock ‘n’ roll roast is what you’ll get courtesy of Jimmy’s in Ancoats from 12 til 6 every Sunday. Served with every Northerner’s dream (a full teapot of gravy), this BBQ joint have whacked a smoked chicken supreme on the menu next to their sirloin of beef and vegan beetroot wellington. Jimmy’s also offers a Sunday special which varies from week to week if you’re feeling riské.

If all this grilled sirloin doesn’t seem smoky enough for you, then a side of fennel and sausage stuffing or some pigs in blankets are sure to give you a serious case of the meat sweats, the Mississippi mud pie just about sealing the deal for a Sunday afternoon cat-nap.

Jimmy’s 27 Blossom Street, Manchester M4 6AJ

Veggie Rasta Roast From Pull Up Cafe And Bar Carribbean — **A Rasta Roast with rice 'n' peas** Pull Up

Pull Up Bar Cafe

Spreading ‘good vibes and community spirit’ the only way it knows how; Pull Up bar and café is offering hearty Caribbean-inspired roasts that are sure to have you wondering ‘is this love that I’m feelin?’ from the first jerk-spiced bite.

The Reggae Roast stays loyal to the café’s Caribbean roots with its lemon and thyme roast chicken, carrots, plantain, rice ‘n’ peas, mac ‘n’ cheese, and spicy gravy – the option to swap chicken for steak or lamb chops allowing you to mix it up like David Rodigan every single Sunday.

Don’t worry (about a thing) if you’re veggie, gluten free, or vegan though as Pull Up’s Rasta Roast replaces chicken with roast pumpkin, peppers, spring onions, and olives, a side of sweet potato wedges, wholesome veggie gravy, and fried plantain taking you straight from Ancoats to Antigua.

Pull Up Bar Cafe 14-16 Swan St, Manchester M4 5JN

Sixes

Reviewed just a mere two weeks ago by Confidentials’ very own Sophie Rahnema, Sixes has been tried, tested, and quite frankly, bowled us over with its meat volcanoes, whisky short ribs, and indoor batting nets.

Although Sundays at the cricket are over until next summer (unless you’re an Aussie), Sixes is batting, fielding and serving up roasted goodness right through the winter, proving that there’s no rest for the wicket, sorry wicked.

Sixes’ Sunday menu consists of a 45-day-aged beef ribeye, beef fat roasties, charred honey carrots, spring greens, buttered savoy, smoked cauliflower cheese, a yorkshire pudding, and beef gravy. With the spot having opened its nets just a few months ago, we’re almost certain that this’ll be a roast you haven’t tried and tested yet, unless you’re a keen bean.

Sixes Cricket Club Cathedral St, Manchester M4 3TR

Roast Dinner Sharing Platter From Zouk — **Best get your skates on to make this first-come-first-served deadline** Zouk

Zouk Tea Bar & Grill

It’s not every day that you come across an award-winning Indian restaurant with eight different roast options served on a first-come-first-served basis. However, Zouk Tea Bar & Grill is promising just that as it rustles up a variety of Indian-inspired Sunday dinners and special lobsters.

With a whole poussin at the top of the menu and a sajji roast leg of lamb and vegetable tikka at the bottom, Zouk advise that you get in early and pre-order the lamb or chicken in advance, whilst the other roasts are served to the first past the post.

The hottest trend in Manchester’s A/W 2021 collection seems to be the roast sharing platter, closely followed by a colourful beret, and Zouk have stayed in fashun with their platters for either 2 or 4, each one packed with lamb, chicken, beef, seasonal veg, roast potatoes, spicy gravy and Yorkshire puddings – a mouthful to both read aloud and digest. Sides, curries, and special lobsters are also on Zouk’s Sunday menu as well as lassis, martinis and sparkling champagne.

Zouk Tea Bar & Grill Unit 5, Chester Street, Manchester M1 5QS

We give 10 Tib Lane a 10/10 for this new Sunday menu 10 Tib Lane

Bonus Roast

10 Tib Lane

Literally hot off the press. 10 Tib Lane has recently announced that they're also jumping on the Sunday roast bandwagon with a brand new menu of seafood, sirloin and celeriac wellington.

With 'no gimmicks or egos' in sight at this French contemporary eatery, the Sunday servings include a 42-day-aged sirloin, olive oil poached sea bass, and a celeriac wellington with gravy, tatties and braised red cabbage. Starters of crab rarebit, pork terrine and merguez sausage are also on the menu, and the option to daringly try an oyster (or 6) could liven up your Sunday one salty swig at a time.

10 Tib Lane, 10 Tib Ln, Manchester M2 4JB