Top 10 quirkiest places to eat your Sunday lunch

We're a bit bored of the whole roast-meat-and-veg-down-the-pub thing. Spruce up your Sunday lunch by eating it at one of our Top 10 weird `n wonderful UK restaurants.

Marsden Grotto, South Shields

The *only* European restaurant based in a cave, The Marsden Grotto in Tyne and Wear dates back to the 18th century and is riddled with tales of smugglers, skeletons and ghosts. Now excavated to a two storey height, you can enjoy your typically gastropub-style Sunday lunch (or fish and chips, which they specialise in) overlooking the sea, followed by a ride in the cliff-side lift. Hold on tight! Open midday-6pm on Sundays.

The Pudding Club, near Stratford-upon-Avon

Cut out the boring savoury part, and make your meal all about the sticky, sugar-laden pudding. The Pudding Club was founded at The Three Ways House Hotel in 1985 to big up the Great British pud, and for £36 you’ll get a light main course followed by a buffet of SEVEN traditional puddings… we’re talking jam roly poly, gooseberry fool, summer pudding… it all depends on the season. Pudding Club meetings are very popular, so check the available dates first here.    

J. Sheekey Oyster Bar, London

Responsibly sourced seafood for Sunday lunch… how fancy! Have half a dozen oysters and a glass of Gaston Chiquet for £16.75, or catch the every-other-Sunday special, Sheekey’s Speakeasies, where host for the evening Hardeep Singh Kohli introduces a late lunch performer at 2pm and an evening show at 7pm, accompanied by a Bloody Mary and excellent seafood. Expect everything from comedians to musicians who love to involve the audience.

The Tea Cosy, Brighton

Eccentric, quirky, and the most kitsch place you’ll ever eat, tables are hard to spot among the piles of British memorabilia at The Tea Cosy in Brighton. They’re obsessed with the royal family - try the ‘Princess Diana Memorial Tea’ (cakes, finger sandwiches, homemade chutney and scones aplenty), or maybe eat light with ‘Prince Harry’s Tea’ (a boiled egg with soldiers and a pot of tea). Open 12-5pm on Sundays.

A godly Zizzi’s, Cheltenham

Never did we ever see such a thing… a pizzeria slap bang in the middle of a church (Cheltenham’s St James’s Church, to be precise). The wooden worktop kitchen sits in front of an epic stained glass window and a giant organ, and the restaurant itself is split into two floors: bar on the top, restaurant on the bottom. It’s still the same old Zizzi’s menu – quality pizzas, salads, and Italian oven dishes – and is open from midday-10pm on Sundays. Best mind your Ps and Qs there.

The DC-6 Diner, Coventry

Aeroplane food has never tasted so good. The Douglas DC-6 plane – which spent much of the 1960s on covert mission in Southeast Asia, and appeared in the film Casino Royale in 2006 – has been converted into a 40-seats restaurant and plonked in the middle of the Coventry aviation museum. A special Sunday menu offers dishes such as Brussels pate to start, roast sirloin for main, and a selection of homemade desserts. Open 1pm-8pm on Sundays.

The Crooked House, Staffordshire

Well we had to include at least one pub roast in our Top 10. But the snazzy thing about this Sunday lunch is that it’s served in a very crooked house (pictured above). First built in 1765 as a farmhouse, it was mining in the 1800s which caused the subsidence, making one side of the building four feet lower than the other. You can play great tricks on tipsy friends here: ask to see the marble roll uphill, or marvel at the sliding glasses on your table. Expect everything from award-winning faggots to roast meats and fish ‘n chips for lunch. Service from midday-3pm, and 6pm-10pm on Sundays.

Sarastro, London

‘The show after the show’, Sarastro is a magical mix of music, glittering decoration, and exotic cuisine. It entertains guests with a string quartet and operatic performances every Sunday lunchtime and evening, which are best washed down with the ‘Opera Menu’. Expect all the usual favourites, plus a more Mediterranean selection of starters and main courses. There’s 'no stuffy, gourmet pretentious-ness of fine dining’ here according to the website, so don’t expect fancy frills. Open midday-10:30pm on Sundays.

Bar 44, Vale of Glamorgan

This trendy tapas joint was nominated as a must-go Sunday lunch destination by one of our Twitter followers, @LovetoDine. No doubt she was first enticed by the promise of two-for-one cocktails between 6pm and 11pm on Sunday nights; but the real attraction is the quality of tapas (including ample veggie options, such as salted Marcona almonds, a plethora of Spanish cheeses, and braised saffron rice), and ‘a Spanish take on a Sunday Roast’. Open 9:30am-11pm on Sundays.

The Gatsby and a movie, Berkhamsted

Make a big deal out of Sunday lunch… treat yourself to a swanky meal at the Hollywood-esque Gatsby restaurant (complete with white grand piano and twinkling chandeliers), followed by a movie at The Rex upstairs, a very cool art-deco 1920s cinema complete with cocktail tables, plush red velvet chairs, and a champagne bar. Food at Gatsby is chic and sophisticated, and fish comes fresh from Billingsgate market. There’s a pre-cinema menu available, and traditional roasts are served from midday-9:30pm on a Sunday.

Do you have a favourite Sunday spot which we’ve missed off? We’d love to hear from you. Talk to us in the Comments box below.

Main image taken from The Crooked House website.

Other Sunday stuff

Our top 5 Sunday roasts

What to cook your Mum on Sunday

A sensational three-course Sunday lunch