The Lancaster Arms in Desford has become one of our favourite destinations thanks to their wonderful garden and Burleighs gin terrace. And now there’s another reason to visit with their fantastic Sunday lunch menu.
Since taking over at the pub, landlord, Ian, has breathed new life into The Lancaster Arms. With a focus on fresh, seasonal ingredients the menu has had an overhaul and there’s now a focus on grazing and sharing options… even at Sunday lunch.
The standout offer is their Executive Sunday roast boards, which are are exceptional. Alongside the standard roast option you can upgrade for £5 to the executive sharing board option. So what’s different about the upgrade? The main difference is the meat. Yes, on the executive board your choice of meat is cooked just to your liking and served individually to your table. As a group who all have their beef rare this was ideal. Furthermore with the executive boards your sides of roast potatoes, veg and cheese sauce all come as bottomless!
We’d asked for the beef to be rare and the board that came out was jaw dropping. The slices of roast beef were like steak and absolutely ample to share. No doubt ordering beef or lamb offers the greatest opportunity to tailor the cooking style to your liking, but you can also choose turkey, pork or vegetarian options too.
The Executive Boards are done to serve a minimum of two and if there are more than two of you you’re able to mix and match your meats. Beef and turkey? Lamb and pork? Take your pick!
The presentation of the meal is excellent, the large board is accompanied by individual pots of gravy, bread sauce and cheese sauce, which again are all refillable. The portion sizes brought out to the table were plentiful so we didn’t actually ask for refills of anything, which is no reflection on the food. The roast potatoes were perfectly crispy on the outside with a fluffy middle, but we couldn’t quite manage any extras. (It’s nice to know you have the option though, isn’t it?).
The pots of bread sauce and cheese sauce were a lovely extra bonus, which felt like a Christmas treat.
Alongside the main courses you can also add on starters and desserts. Starter options include Langoustines and Chicken Liver Parfait but with the size of the Executive Board roast I’d suggest it’s probably worth going straight to the main event and making the most of it!
For dessert we decided to make the most of the venue’s lovely terrace area and move to a table outside. A gin & tonic later and dessert seemed a little more manageable. The delicious creamy Rolo Cheesecake is homemade and served in it’s own individual jar and the Brownie Bites are perfect for sharing if you can’t quite manage anything to yourself.
It’s also worth noting that if you don’t fancy a big Sunday roast you can also enjoy a lighter terrace bites Sunday menu outside, with options including Roasties with gravy, Yorkie with meat slice and gravy drizzle, Whizzbangers and more. Spending a Sunday afternoon grazing on roast potatoes with a bottle of wine sounds perfect.
The Sunday lunch Executive Boards are priced at £25 per person, which is at the higher end of the Sunday lunch price scale in Leicestershire, but for the quality and size of what’s presented it seems a fair price.
With three people all declaring this was the best roast dinner we remembered having in years, it’s safe to say it gets a huge Cool As Leicester recommendation. In fact it’s on our absolute must visit list!
The Lancaster Arms is located on Station Road, Desford LE9. On Sunday food is served from Monday – 6pm and advance booking is recommended (we also recommend you go down early and have a drink outside first!).
For more information and to view the menu in full visit The Lancaster Arms website. You can also follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
Having frequented The Lancaster Arms as regular customers we were invited to review their Sunday lunch boards. We received our food free of charge and paid in full for drinks. We were under no obligation to give a positive review.