“There are no good private dining rooms.” The evil Ed Cumming once tweeted something like this. One thing to take away: private dining rooms rarely have the same excitement, decor, and sometimes even the same menu as the main restaurant.
But as with any completely made-up rule, there are notable exceptions. Some of these are below; Private dining rooms standing alone with the restaurant. And there are also areas within the restaurant that cater to large groups and come into their own come Christmas time. That said, it’s split, the best places for large groups, doing something creative rather than roughing up the decor, catering to a variety of diets (there’s always at least one when there’s a group of seven), and ranging from “catering” to “catering” They have an extensive wine list. From “the budget of a poor journalist friend” to “the boss pays”. The worst… the worst is not on this list. Having so much fun.
Pied à Terre
If you’re feeling well enough to book a private dining room for your friends and colleagues, go full chocolate and opt for a Michelin-starred French restaurant. Step forward to Pied à Terre and get three such rooms; one of them is in the heart of the action and is located at the front of the restaurant. They don’t do turkey for Christmas in France, so they don’t do it here either, preferring to feature turbot on the festive tasting menu. This comes with a veritable herb garden as well as a precious lettuce stew, followed by Fallow stag garnished with delicate white truffle.
Elsewhere, Pied a Terre’s vegetarian offering is perhaps the least French; It features smoked coconut bean velouté with pistachio beetroot crema and white balsamic, fishless caviar. The service is friendly and warm, but also offers a French sense of formality.
34 Charlotte Street, W1T 2NH, pied-a-terre.co.uk
Rochelle Canteen
Despite its famous walled Garden of Eden, Rochelle Canteen is for life, not just for summer. The dining room is housed in an old-style bike shed and sits above the play gardens, so it’s no surprise that many guests had to take all their friends along. But that’s not all the rules of the playing field, and there’s no ban on drinking; On the contrary, the wine list, curated by Melanie Arnold, is as famous as the food for its variety and generosity: bottle prices start at £25 and most hover in the mid-40s.
The menu, designed by Margot Henderson, is even more appealing. Her ability to combine comfort with creativity easily rivals that of her St John-famous husband, Fergus. There are schnitzels, casseroles, spicy crushed flatbreads – at least for now; The menu is hyper-seasonal. Throughout the month, guests will be equally well served with lavish, shareable dishes that live up to the title of Henderson’s first book, You’re All Invited.
16 Playground Garden, E2 7FA, rochellecanteen.com
wild by tart
With the exception of the excellent Lorne, the character of every restaurant in Victoria seems to be subsumed by a glassy, soulless pile of architecture, but Wild by Tart has done its best to stay true to its quaint name. Warmly lit and softly furnished; The bar is long, full of flowers, and serves up beautiful drinks like seasonal margaritas; Only £7 between 17.00 and 19.00. There’s a private area – a mezzanine overlooking the restaurant – but the main dining room has plenty of tables for eight; diners here can enjoy a banquet menu centered around the charcoal grill, wood oven, and owners Jemima and Lucy’s farm. Tamworth pork with parsnip puree, wood-fired pumpkin with chimichurri and seed dukka, porcini and taleggio arancini sing from festive food menus. Dogs are welcomed (perhaps even encouraged), which means friends with pups have no excuse to avoid all the fun.
3-4 Eccleston Place, SW1W 9NF, wildbytart.com
Toklas
Toklas restaurant and bakery is the culinary offspring of Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover, best known as the founders of the Frieze art fair. Once a brutalist space used as a car park, the building is as frighteningly cool as one might expect from such pedigree, with its sleek modernist design and striking artwork; Luckily the food is not like that. The banquet menu is served “family style” in large, shareable plates of whole turbot or roast chicken with wild mushrooms and bay. Staying true to the spirit of the feast, meals include crusty homemade bread and a side of rosemary-speckled roast potatoes. Toklas even turns triple-carbing into an art form with desserts such as chocolate cake, tarts or fruit tarts.
1 Surrey Street, WC2R 2ND, toklaslondon.com
Darby’s
Maybe it’s that song, maybe it’s the 100-odd Christmas movies set there, but there’s an irrepressible festive feel to New York City. Unfortunately, there’s also something about the current exchange rate that rules out the possibility of a visit – so Darby’s, Robin Gill’s New York-style restaurant in Battersea’s surprisingly tranquil Viaduct gardens, will have to suffice. It could be worse. Gill is a superior chef, able to master most cuisines and is particularly good at the Big Apple. She also loves to party, and Darby’s is designed accordingly: space is there for either standing around a table to feast on sharing plates of braised short ribs, crispy shallots, and crispy beef-fat potatoes, or for standing and chatting. It is large enough to accommodate large groups. Enjoy canapés like Cornish crab cocktail with pickled cucumber and rich veal nuggets with hot mustard. Drinks, like I said, Gill loves parties. The Manhattan rivals anything you’ll find in Manhattan, and in Gill’s tribute to his Irish heritage, the Guinness flows smoothly and quickly.
3 Viaduct Gardens, SW11 7AY, darbys-london.com
Curious Kudu
The holy grail of private dining rooms is characterful and doesn’t charge a room fee. Step forward Curious Kudu: A gallery by day, a restaurant by night that requires no room fee, only minimum spend. The room has its own private entrance, so you don’t have to walk into the main restaurant wishing you were there. But the food is Kudu through and through – onion tart tatin with boerenkaas cheese, braai lamb shoulder glazed with pink peppercorns and rosemary broth, and bread so addictive it should just be prescription, doused with melted smoked bacon butter or melted seafood It comes with butter and almonds.
117 Queen’s Road, SE15 2EZ, kuducollective.com
hawksmoor
It’s hard to avoid Hawksmoor at this time of year – literally, given there are eight of them in London at the moment – but also the rarely changing menu, a potent mix of seafood, steak and at least six types of carbs, screams winter . Even the best of cocktails, like the cherry negroni and the ‘full-bodied’ Old Fashioned, are festive in flavor and strength. The charismatic Will Beckett, founder of Hawksmoor, was one of the first to take issue with the tweet suggesting there was no good private dining room – and he was right, as Hawksmoor is truly impressive. Take PDR’s latest addition to the group, Hawksmoor Wood Wharf, which is housed in an eco-friendly floating pavilion. The festival menu is as you would expect from Hawksmoor; namely “cows in a blanket” is their usual menu with the delightful addition of roasted parsnips and sprouts.
Across the city thehawksmoor.com
Hoppers
The fact that at least six people are needed to even taste the holiday feast at Hoppers is reason enough for it to be on this list. The menu sounds so good that it’s worth making more friends if you’re not making enough friends right now. The menu is billed as seasonal twists on Sri Lankan New Year’s Eve classics and signature dishes – get the richly spiced mutton roll here, made with venison instead of mutton and topped with warm cranberry sauce. Instead of the famously overrated turkey, they’ve roasted a whole lamb shoulder karish, or—well, “and” depending on how many friends you have—a chicken marinated in a mixture of deep-roasted coconut and red peppers. and rice. You can enjoy these in private dining rooms in both Marylebone and Kings Cross, but unfortunately not in Soho, where the entire restaurant is the size of a sock. For my money, Marylebone has the edge: the dining room, inspired by the late Sri Lankan architect Geoffrey Bawa’s tropical modernist movement, offers an appealing mix of light and dark, airy and cozy, and the private rooms are only semi-private – so patrons can both hear each other’s conversations and enjoy the view of the main restaurant. can enjoy its interesting design.
77 Wigmore Street, W1 and 4 Pancras Square, N1, hopperslondon.com
Upstairs at The George
No matter how fervently one advocates forgoing traditional festive fare, there is always that one person who sees December as a reason to eat as much fries as possible. This person and his friends were seen at the II Building on Portland Street. Take it to the Upper Floor of The George, a grade-listed pub. The festive menu, like many features, dates directly from the Victorian era. There’s a whimsical nod to the 21st century in the form of a cottage terrine, confit goose leg with all the trimmings, suckling pork and a celeriac and mushroom pie for vegetarians. The chef overseeing the food is James Knappet of the two-Michelin-starred Kitchen Table, and this speaks volumes as well as price. Best of all, for your traditionalist friends, The George looks, feels and drinks like a proper pub, with a range of cask ales and craft ales, as well as a sparkling range of English sparkling wines.
55 Great Portland Street, W1W 7LQ, thegeorge.london
bistrotek
Pie shops and cafes aside, there aren’t many eateries that can claim to open east before the weather gets colder. The Bistrotheque doesn’t do this, but it might well have, as it first opened its doors in a disused warehouse in Bethnal Green in 2004. The fact that it’s been a beloved local haunt ever since tells you pretty much everything you need to know. Bistro-style dishes are seasonal, shareable, and simple: think fillet steak, dauphinoise with potatoes, roast chicken with aioli, and pecan and orange cake with apricot cream. When practiced well, these are probably the only foods one really needs. Both the space—a light, bright, whitewashed dining room filled with filament bulbs—and the relaxed, happy atmosphere lend themselves well to groups accommodated around large tables in the dining room. It’s not overly festive – it’s too cool for that – but it’s a solid place for fun group times.
23-27 Wadeson Street, E2 9DR, bistrotheque.com