I’m not sure food served in pubs was as limited as some have made out, but 25 years ago it could certainly (from what I remember) be hit and miss. But in recent decades, both the offering of meals and drinks has greatly improved and eating out at your local can be just as (or indeed more) pleasurable than dining in a restaurant.

The significance of the 25 years is that is supposedly when the gastropub revolution was born – with the Eagle in Farringdon, London, apparently. “Pubs were no longer places just to have a pint and pickled egg,” notes the Sunday Telegraph in an article this weekend.

I was only age seven, but I remember eating more than a picked egg in pubs back then. Putting that aside, however, the anniversary provides a timely opportunity to celebrate just how great boozers that serve excellent food really are.

There are plenty of great pubs that are “wet led” (one of my favourites being the Southampton Arms in Kentish Town), yet generally speaking I think that pubs that care about the quality of the beer they serve, also tend to offer really good food.

And when it comes to judging pub grub, I look no further than traditional Sunday lunch. I’ve had a lot of great roasts (usually beef) recently in venues where I also enjoy drinking well-looked after ales on a Saturday night. My recent posts on Tripadvisor are testimony to this – just take a look at my write-up of the Snooty Fox in Canonbury or the Crooked Billet in Clapton.

In fact, given the choice these days of eating a Sunday roast in a traditional pub or a stuffy restaurant where they take ages to even take your order, I would usually go for the former. Call me impatient, but I prefer to go to places where you can order your meal at the bar. In that way, you are not waiting for a waiter and waitress to read your mind and guess when you are ready.

But you can have friendly staff behind the bar, as well appropriate background music, yet if the food isn’t great then customers won’t have the experience they desire. So the quality of the Sunday roast is paramount.

If you’ve read any of my Tripadvisor posts you’ll see I have distinctive views as to what makes a good roast, so here are just a few key things that I look out for:

1) Meat – I usually go for roast beef and here quality and quantity is really important. You can have really tasty meat, but if they’ve skimped on the portion size, you are sure to be disappointed. And if it is beef, then done overcook it – beef is meant to have at least some pinkness when it lands on your plate.

2) Yorkshire pudding – This of course need to be homemade and crispy on the outside, yet light and fluffy on the inside. I am not bothered about these being massive, but I do get annoyed when you choose another meat and they tell you that your meal doesn’t come with a Yorkshire pudding.

3) Roast potatoes – Pubs need to give you at least four of these (served crispy) in my view. And punters will see right through cost-saving techniques if they cut them too small and insist that to be an adequate portion.

4) Vegetables – It’s hard to go wrong steaming cabbage or boiling garden peas. But I think pub chefs have an opportunity to wow their customers with vegetables, by doing something a lit bit different, so that they are more than just “fine”. On more than one occasion recently, I’ve wanted to keep some savoy cabbage for my last mouthful because it has been so flavoursome. And good cauliflower cheese never goes unnoticed.

5) Gravy – We’ve come a long way with pub food in recent years, but I really don’t think that gravy has kept pace with change. I would expect the water in my washing up bowl to taste better than some of the rubbish that has been served to me recently. Too often its very thin and watery – and when its verging on decent, then chefs sometimes skimp on the volume. I long for everywhere to be serving hearty, thick gravy that is oozing with flavour. My search continues.

6) Accompaniments – If you are having roast beef, it is essential that horseradish and mustard is offered. When roast lamb is served, there needs to be mint sauce. I think it’s embarrassing for pubs when they say they don’t have these. Even if they get the above five points right, the customer has been let down if the relevant accompaniments are missing.

There is no doubt that the trend for unprofitable British pubs closing down each year will continue. Getting decent beers on hand pumps (the so-called craft beer revolution) can help keep places open, but I also think that the Sunday roast has an important role to play. Fill a pub serving decent ales on a Saturday night and then – even if they are suffering from hangovers – a tasty lunch the next day will be sure to welcome them back through the doors.