The Ox
Gaby Soutar ate the ox cheek here in December 2014 and called it black as soot; the kitchen still sends it out twelve years later, at twice the price.
Why go
The reputation is the Sunday roast, and it comes with a restriction the pub prints itself: the roast section of the menu is headed Available Sundays Only
.3 Roast Scottish beef and roast pork belly are £25, the veggie roast is £20, and all three come with the house Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, carrot and greens. The standing behind that dish is press, and it is worth being precise about which press. In December 2023 The Times placed the pub sixth in a UK top seven, describing it as a top tip for Sunday lunch
and noting that children are welcome until 10pm and biscuits are provided for dogs
, with The Guardian having ranked it earlier the same year. Both placements reach here through Gary Flockhart's report in the Edinburgh Evening News.2 The room was The Bellevue before a 2014 takeover, which Soutar reviewed while it was still new.1
Order this / avoid
- Order: the roast, on a Sunday, and add a Yorkshire pudding for £1.50. Go beef or pork belly, or take the veggie roast, which The Times says arrives
with a tangy tomato gravy
.2 - Order: the ox cheek any other day. It is the one plate where a critic's account and the current menu point at the same thing, and Soutar's description of it in 2014 still reads like a spec:
It came with plenty of musky gravy, a pile of well pulped mash and strips of fondant carrot, sprinkled with a little caraway seed.
1 - Avoid: turning up hungry for a roast on a weekday. Six days out of seven the thing this pub is known for is unavailable.
What locals & experts say
- Gaby Soutar, The Scotsman (2014): Food 8/10, Ambience 8/10. She was as clear about the misses as the hits. On the haddock tempura:
It was a little slick overall, as a herb oil had been drizzled round the plate... the curried parsnip and pickled carrot mixture... was served cold so managed to quickly drain the heat from the battered meat that was stacked on top.
On the kitchen's habit, the same herb oilwas verdant and delicious, but, as a slight overkill, featured as part of every savoury dish
. On the winter spelt salad:The perfect winter salad. I was walking in the air.
1 - The Times, via the Edinburgh Evening News (2023): number 6 in a UK top 7 for Sunday roasts.
Run by three foodie friends, it attracts a largely local clientele, who rate it for its down-to-earth flavours.
2 - A checked negative, on the award question: The Good Food Guide runs the one national Sunday-roast award found this pass, built from over 18,000 reader nominations. Its 2024 Scotland list names Coorie Inn, Hawksmoor Edinburgh, Porter & Rye and The Loveable Rogue West End. The Ox is not on it.4
- A second checked negative: nobody has reviewed this kitchen under a byline since 2014, and no critic has ever written about the roast.
Good to know
- Timing: the kitchen runs noon to 9pm every day, to 9:30pm on Friday and Saturday. The bar goes to 11pm most nights and midnight on Friday and Saturday.
- Booking: taken, and the last booking is 9pm. For a Sunday lunch, treat it as necessary.
- Price: roasts £20 to £25, ox cheek £25, Ox pie £21, beer-battered haddock £19, eight-ounce sirloin £31, half a dozen Scottish oysters £18, sides £5.50 to £6.
- Children and dogs: kids welcome until 10pm, and biscuits are kept for dogs.2
- Getting there: London Street runs off the bottom of Broughton Street, five minutes downhill from the east end of Queen Street. Jeff's list files this as New Town; the venue puts itself off Broughton Street and so does everyone who has written about it.
- Hygiene: Food Hygiene Information Scheme Pass, inspected 11 September 2024.
Jeff's take (his words)
- Note: "Multiple awards for best Sunday roast in UK and scotland"
- On the awards: this did not hold up, and it is worth saying why. No body has ever given this pub a Sunday-roast award, and the one national programme that runs such an award named four other Scottish venues in 2024. What is real is two national newspaper placements in 2023, The Times at number six of seven and a Guardian ranking that summer. The papers said it, and no judging panel did.
Verdict
could-visit — A Broughton gastropub whose reputation rests on one dish served one day a week. The evidence for the roast is real and it is press rather than award: The Times put it sixth in a UK top seven in December 2023 and The Guardian ranked it that summer, both reported by the Edinburgh Evening News, and no Sunday-roast award to this pub exists in any source reachable this pass. The kitchen's own standing rests on a scored 8/10 from The Scotsman in December 2014, which named an ox cheek that is still on the menu twelve years later at twice the price, and which was equally clear about a herb oil that turned up on every savory plate. It stays at could-visit because the dish it is known for has never been reviewed by a critic, no one who cooks it is named anywhere, and the one real national roast programme looked at Scotland and picked four other rooms.