There’s a pub in Highgate called the Red Lion & Sun. It’s located near a main road that leads to the A1, but the traffic noise is never an issue. If you have read The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith (aka J.K. Rowling) you will have read about the Red Lion & Sun. If you keep abreast of award-winning pubs and gastropubs in Britain, you will be aware that it has been accorded a large number of accolades. It’s that kind of place.

A hedge and other assorted foliage help to prevent any traffic noise from disturbing diners in the Red Lion & Sun’s outdoor front dining ‘room’

This part of the capital (London N6) is one of the highest locations in the city. At the front of the pub is a greenhouse-effect outdoor eating area (the pub’s idiosyncratic and colourful frozen margarita trolley, permanently parked outside the front door, is shown on the home page), while there is a small pretty garden at the back. Plus, of course, plenty of seating inside.

My Red Lion lunch a couple of weeks ago: curried mutton chops with herbed rice and a tomato and onion salad

You can see what I opted for from the menu in the photo above, although the chicken schnitzel with green beans, crispy shallots, salsa and coriander mayo came in for serious consideration. I might add that they do a seriously good cheeseburger. The Red Lion is over 500 years old – this being Highgate, Dick Whittington must surely have supped ale here more than once? – but its present landlord has kept his establishment bang up to date, hence all those prizes and all that prestige. And having acquired this premises some 20 years ago, he has very recently bought another 500-year-old Highgate Village pub a little further down the road and down the hill.

The Angel has an impressive frontage but it has now dropped the ‘Inn’ bit from its name

Apart from on Sundays, The Angel is predominantly a breakfast/brunch eaterie. Eggs, kippers, bacon, sausages are all available, as is much else besides, including avocado. (Exactly when did avocado become more of a breakfast thing than a dinner thing?) There are a handful – well, actually, less than that – of lunch offerings from noon, such as halibut supreme, beer-battered haddock and that cheeseburger again, but the emphasis is on your first meal of the day. Until we get to between 12-5 on Sundays.

The very pleasant airy interior of The Angel, where Sunday lunches have become a very big thing

That is when the Sunday roasts kick in. All sorts of them. You might go for the rib of beef. Perhaps the pork belly. (I do really like pork crackling.) Or, albeit I don’t see myself having this one, the vegan roast. So having enjoyed the Red Lion & Sun a fair few times, I really do need to give this a go sometime soon. But they don’t do reservations. And not since the Hardrock Cafe when I was in my 20s have I done queueing to get into a restaurant.

Something is going to have to give.

Robert Green