The Red Lion & Sun

The Country Pub Format, Reconsidered for North London

There is a particular kind of pub that London does well when it stops trying to be a bar and commits fully to being a pub: wide wooden tables, natural light through a conservatory, a garden that gets used even when it probably shouldn't, and a kitchen that actually cooks. The Red Lion & Sun on North Road in Highgate belongs to that category. The interior runs to cool light blue walls and simple furniture, with bar stools along a proper counter and a glassed conservatory room that extends the space without pretending to be a restaurant. Two garden areas sit outside, both fitted with heaters, which in London means usable for roughly nine months of the year.

The whole setup lands closer to a rural inn than most central London pubs manage. That's partly geography: Highgate's position on the northern heights of the city, with Hampstead Heath nearby and streets that still feel residential rather than commercial, gives the neighbourhood a character that pub design alone can't manufacture. The Red Lion & Sun leans into that setting rather than fighting it.

How the Menu Is Structured, and What That Tells You

The clearest signal about how a kitchen thinks is the frequency at which it changes its menu. Here, it updates daily, published each morning on the website. That cadence implies sourcing discipline: a kitchen that rewrites its list every day is one that builds menus around what's available rather than engineering availability around a fixed menu. The partnership with a local Highgate butcher reinforces that logic. The two operations are in conversation, and the menu reflects what that conversation produces.

Architecture of the food covers a wider range than most gastropubs attempt without losing coherence. Starters move between Korean-spiced chicken wings, Dorset crab prepared in a Basque style, and chargrilled sardines with olive oil, lemon, and garlic. The cosmopolitan reference points are applied with enough specificity to suggest kitchen knowledge rather than trend-chasing. Basque-style crab preparation is a distinct technique; Korean spicing on wings reflects a real flavour tradition. These aren't fusion gestures for their own sake.

Main courses tend toward the long-cooked. Slow-cooked pork belly with crackling and buttery mash sits alongside duck cassoulet built on a canonical bean stew enriched by smoked sausage fat. These are dishes that reward patience in the kitchen, and they anchor the menu in a British-French comfort register that suits the pub setting. The cassoulet in particular is a useful measure: executed well, it's one of those dishes that separates kitchens serious about technique from those going through the motions.

Desserts operate on a clear populist logic: Eton mess, sticky toffee pudding, passion-fruit cheesecake. No apologies made, none needed. For those who want to end savoury, British artisan cheeses come with Dorset pear paste and crackers, which is a more considered selection than most pubs offer at that stage of the meal.

Sunday Lunch as the Week's Main Event

Sunday lunch at this kind of pub occupies a specific cultural role in north London, and The Red Lion & Sun fills it with some intent. The Sunday session draws on 35-day dry-aged Aberdeen Angus beef, with côte de boeuf available for sharing. The dry-aging protocol at that length produces pronounced mineral depth and a tenderness that faster processing doesn't replicate. The involvement of the local butcher in that supply chain is relevant: sourcing relationships matter for consistent quality in aged beef, and proximity helps.

The Sunday service is described as consistently popular, which means forward planning is advisable. Walk-ins on a Sunday afternoon are a gamble worth thinking twice about.

The Drinks Side

The wine list opens at £8 for a glass of organic Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. That starting point is worth noting: organic sourcing at the entry level suggests the list has been assembled with some care rather than simply priced down to meet a house-wine bracket. Good cask ales are on offer alongside the wine, which is the appropriate baseline for a pub operating at this level.

Mezcal selection is worth mentioning as a category signal. Stocking a range of mezcals rather than a single token bottle places The Red Lion & Sun in a cohort of British pubs that have moved beyond treating spirits as an afterthought. Mezcal's complexity and geographic specificity — different agave varieties, production regions, and distillation methods producing genuinely distinct spirits — rewards a venue that takes it seriously. Whether the selection here reflects that depth of curation is a question the drinks menu on any given visit will answer.

For those interested in the broader London bar scene, the capital offers a different tier of specialist venues: 69 Colebrooke Row and A Bar with Shapes For a Name operate at the technical cocktail end, while Academy and Amaro represent other facets of the London drinks scene. The Red Lion & Sun operates in a different register entirely: it's a pub that happens to take its drinks seriously, rather than a bar that happens to serve food.

Beyond London, the same commitment to substance over spectacle shows up in venues like Bramble in Edinburgh, Schofield's in Manchester, Merchant Hotel in Belfast, Mojo Leeds, and Horseshoe Bar Glasgow. Further afield, L'Atelier Du Vin in Brighton and Bar Leather Apron in Honolulu demonstrate how the serious-drinks-in-a-relaxed-setting formula translates across different geographies.

Planning Your Visit

Address: 25 North Rd, London N6 4BE. Getting there: Highgate Underground station (Northern line) is the practical access point for most visitors coming from central London. Reservations: Booking ahead is advisable, particularly for Sunday lunch, which the kitchen treats as its main event of the week. The daily-changing menu is posted each morning on the venue's website, making it worth checking before you arrive. Dress: No stated code; smart-casual is consistent with the neighbourhood and the setting. Garden: Two outdoor areas with heaters extend the space in reasonable weather.

For a broader map of where The Red Lion & Sun sits within the city's dining options, see our full London restaurants guide.