Many people tried to prevent Ilona Maher from reaching her destination. Many of them end up sprawled out on the grass, helplessly watching as the US Rugby superstar scores yet another try.
Yet when the Olympian tried to enter an unassuming pub tucked away in the backstreets of a city in southwest England, all it took was a sympathetic shake of the head to shoo her away.
But it’s just a typical Sunday at The Bank Tavern in Bristol. This is home to the most popular meal ticket not just in the city, but probably anywhere in the world.
When bookings opened on January 1st, the pub’s legendary Sunday lunches were booked out for the rest of 2026 in 11 minutes, two minutes earlier than the previous year.
This is three times faster than last summer’s Glastonbury Festival tickets sold out. The event is as notoriously difficult to secure admission as the countless great musical artists who have graced its stages.
Still, The Bank’s owners keep their feet firmly planted on the bar’s wooden floors.
“Every time, there’s a wave of anxiety about whether or not it’s going to sell out,” Sam Gregory, the pub’s landlord, told CNN.
“Bristol has so many great places to eat and we’re incredibly lucky that people continue to make the effort to book with us…we don’t take that for granted!”
Sunday lunches and roast dinners, the beloved backbone of British pub cuisine, are easy to find, but sourcing a truly great roast can be a difficult task.
Hidden in the winding medieval side streets of Bristol’s Old Town is a multi-award-winning work that’s surprising, even if you stumble past its sage-green doors.
The bank, which bills itself as having a “uniquely poor environment,” has no parking or dining area. Food is only available at lunchtime and delivered to just seven empty tables. Most hours of the week, the tables are occupied by eager patrons sipping their favorite ales.
“All the characters are here: Mad Mick, Dr. John, Wobbly Bob,” Gregory said.
“They all come in for a pint of Bass. It’s just solid booze, but with the added unexpected bonus of food.”
For those lucky enough to secure a Sunday reservation, it’s a real bonus.
Butternut puree acts as the moat for the iconic castle of a carefully prepared roast dinner. Three roast potatoes (always of the Maris Piper variety), creamed spinach, herbed vegetables, stewed red cabbage, seasonal vegetables such as carrots and parsnips, and your choice of beef, pork, chicken or vegetarian pitivier (puff pastry) support the fluffy Yorkshire pudding.
The menu changes subtly depending on the season and availability of local produce, with lamb, pheasant, partridge and venison all appearing as options throughout the year.
Naturally, all of the above is drizzled with plenty of gravy and takes three days to make, starting with roasting the bones. The entire process will be overseen by four full-time chefs and will begin in earnest on Wednesday.
Such efforts have not received attention. Voted Britain’s Best Sunday Lunch by the Observer in 2019, we have racked up regional accolades for our roast dinners. What’s the secret? It is sprinkled with the passion of the good old days.
“It’s about having chefs who love what they do,” Gregory explained.
“They take incredible pride in each and every plate that is served…that resonates with their customers. They taste it, and they enjoy food that has been lovingly prepared with a lot of care.”
Roast dinners weren’t always a popular centerpiece at The Bank.
Mr Gregory, the latest in a long list of landlords dating back to the pub’s origins in the early 19th century, took over the reins during the 2008 financial crisis, in a significant departure from his original plans to join the Royal Marines just a stone’s throw away.
What began as a temporary caretaker to “keep the lights on” turned into an 18-year mission for Gregory to turn a “run-down” facility into a popular destination that garnered media attention from around the world.
Always popular, but once lacking in ‘subtlety’, Sunday lunch quickly became the focus of the landlord’s plans to breathe new life into the predominantly wet-driven pub. Most of their income comes from drinks, not food.
With the support of a then-new chef who advised him to cut back on Sunday lunches, Gregory’s childhood favorite took on new life.
One of six children, Gregory said, recalling his youth, “There were meals that I wasn’t allowed to skip.”
“Even though we didn’t have any food in the house, my mother would always gulp down this wonderful Sunday lunch and we’d all sit around the table. It was the envy of my friends and one of my (important) childhood memories.”
After winning the Observer award, Gregory recalls there was an “extraordinary” increase in interest in the pub. At the time, the six-month waiting list encouraged them to spend a fortune on a major kitchen renovation.
But disaster struck a few weeks later, when the UK entered a coronavirus lockdown in March 2020. The bank weathered the pandemic, thanks in part to its popular home-heated roast dinner delivery kits, but by the time it fully reopened in 2022, the waiting list had grown to an eye-watering four years.
After closing the diary to clear the backlog, the pub spent the next two years’ worth of Sundays seating people in the queue. Gregory fondly recalled a young diner who wasn’t even born when his parents reserved the table, and another said he had no regrets about finally being able to dine after three years and a 230-mile round trip.
Since then, several big names have secured the spot, including comedian Jack Whitehall and eventually Maher.
The American, who played for the Bristol Bears women’s rugby team for the first five months of 2025, was shortlisted after cancellations opened up within a week of her initial inquiry.
“She’s a lot of fun. She’s a really great personality,” Gregory said of Ma, who has documented her journey for her huge TikTok following, which now numbers 3.9 million users.
“We added probably 1,000 to 2,000 followers, mainly from the US. The comments were out of this world. ‘What is this?’ Some people asked for recipes like Yorkshire pudding.”
The feeling was very similar.
Gravy splattered on the soon-to-be-empty plate, and Maher said, “This is great. It’s everything I wanted.”
