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Apart from being in a homestay or being invited to someone's house, where mum can cook a lamb roast, where can you have a lamb roast in Australia?

I'm more asking in terms of what kind of eatery you'd go to, rather than a specific restaurant. Would you go to a pub, a club, an up-market restaurant, a buffet place like Sizzler's, or somewhere else?

Related question: What foods must I try while visiting Australia?

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    My hunch is a pub, hotel or club would be your best bet. More high end places tend to opt for more "interesting" (or fancy or unusual) ways to cook the same meat
    – Gagravarr
    Nov 28, 2013 at 12:38
  • Don't you live in Sydney?? ;) But agree with Halabi, I'm now also hungry and it's midnight. Thanks.
    – Mark Mayo
    Nov 28, 2013 at 13:08
  • @MarkMayo living in Sydney is a disadvantage! :) travel.stackexchange.com/questions/12847/…
    – Andrew Grimm
    Nov 28, 2013 at 20:23
  • The Ranch in North Ryde definitely does lamb roasts (theranch.com.au/downloads/the_ranch_lunch_menu.pdf - top right on page 2). I've been consistently underwhelmed by their non-roast offerings though, so wouldn't recommend them. :P
    – dlanod
    Nov 28, 2013 at 23:05
  • You wouldn't typically go to a restaurant for this type of food. But there are some kinds of restaurants that specialize in "Australian food". They will often be enormous places in the suburbs. Another kind of restaurant that would serve this kind of food is called a "carvery" or sometimes a "grill" though the latter tends to be more a kind of Australianized American style food. As mentioned elsewhere, the most common place to buy a roast dinner would be at a pub or, depending which part of the country you're in, a club (RSL, rugby, surf lifesaving, etc).
    – hippietrail
    Oct 28, 2014 at 6:56

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Given that it's Australia's national dish, it's actually kind of hard to find restaurants serving roast lamb, presumably because it's slow to cook and rather expensive these days (lamb prices have more than doubled in the last few years). Lamb shanks, on the other hand, feature on the menu of virtually every casual eatery in Australia.

enter image description here (Sunday roast with lamb, by "Sir Thomas Napier" on flickr)

But the best place to look is definitely a pub, aka "hotel" in Australian. The British "Sunday roast" survives in Australia as well and a great many, but by no means all, hotels put on Sunday roasts that often feature lamb. Here's a random selection in Sydney from Time Out, although you'll note that not all are lamb and many are "continental" rather than Australian/British in style, because Sydney's a bit too hip that. And here's another top 10 of more classically English-style roasts, although again, many seem to focus on beef.

"Clubs", the odd Australian institution of gambling joints thinly disguised as sporting or veterans' clubs, also frequently offer Sunday roasts, but the quality of the food tends to be disappointing. (I'm painting with a broad brush here, and there are exceptions both ways.)

enter image description here (Traditional Argentinian Carne al asador, by seretide, Wikimedia Commons)

All that said, the best lamb in Australia I've had was grilled by my Argentinian ex-boss, and the 2nd best is served at Argentinian joint Porteno in Surrey Hills, Sydney. The process of roasting it crucified on a metal stake looks a bit like something out of a horror film, but hot diggity dog is it good. Probably not quite what you were looking for, but hey, multiculturalism is also very Australian these days ;)

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    I'll second the pub nomination. Also check out any local RSLs, as often they'll have a roast night which will include lamb.
    – dlanod
    Nov 28, 2013 at 22:41
  • I don't really go to RSLs much, but don't they often have some kind of membership requirement? Or is it just a guest book you have to sign or something...
    – Sam
    Nov 29, 2013 at 0:53
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    Depends on state and local rules, but if you're a visitor not living in the area, usually all you need to do is sign a slip.
    – lambshaanxy
    Nov 29, 2013 at 1:22
  • Clubs are not really an Australian institution. They're definitely a New South Wales institution and I think it's probably the same in Queensland. But not so at all in Victoria and I don't know either way for the other states and territories.
    – hippietrail
    Oct 28, 2014 at 6:51
  • Hmm? I used to live in Melbourne, and there were something like 5 clubs with pokies within spitting distance of my house. No shortage of RSLs either: rslvic.com.au/rsl-network/victorian-map-of-all-branches
    – lambshaanxy
    Oct 28, 2014 at 10:28

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