Whether you want to sneak in catch up with friends early in the festive season or find somewhere for an indulgent Christmas Day feast, here are some of London’s best restaurants and hotels putting on decadent festive menus through November or December.
1 Jikoni, Marylebone
This much-loved restaurant by chef Ravinder Bhogal is putting on a festive menu that is inspired by the chef’s mixed heritage and festive traditions. On the menu, you’ve got the likes of prawn toast scotch egg with banana ketchup, wild mushrooms on toast with curry hollandaise and truffle, and Porth Colmon lobster moilee with coconut chutney or paneer gnudi, winter green saag. Diners can tuck into either the banana cake with miso butterscotch or apple crumble pavlova with saffron custard for dessert.
Service: Now through to end of December
Address: 19-21 Blandford Street, Marylebone W1U 3DJ
Price: a la carte
Website: jikonilondon.com
2 Holborn Dining Room at Rosewood London, Holborn
For bookings up to 10 people, the Holborn Dining Room is putting on a classic British festive feast that includes wintery dishes such as venison and smoked bacon pate en croute, traditional roast turkey with sage, onion and chestnut chutney. For Christmas, the restaurant will put on a five-course meal that comes with a welcome glass Ruinart Brut. This meal includes native lobster served with avocado, picked white crab baby gem and Mari Rose sauce, a choice between a traditional Christmas roast ort Aberdeen angus served with a Yorkshire pudding. For private dining, The Pie Room has a festive menu for up to 10 people.
Service: November 15 to December 24,
Address: 252 High Holborn, WC1V 7EN
Price: From £90/£205 Christmas Day
Website: holborndiningroom.com
3 José Pizarro, Bermondsey
Available for parties of eight or more people, José Pizarro will put on a couple of set menus full of Spanish festive hits. This includes pan con tomate, Jamon Iberico, croquetas, wild white prawn with garlic and chilli, ox cheek cannelloni with confit mushrooms, stuffed whole chicken, Basque-style cod, creamed spinach with chickpeas and crunchy fried potato gratin. For dessert, there’s a Spanish caramel pudding and whipped cream. There’s also a fish only menu and dining parties of seven or fewer, can order off the a la carte menu, or pre order a whole suckling pig.
Service: Available from November 1
Address: 194 Bermondsey Street, Bermondsey, SE1 3TQ36
Price: From £65
Website: josepizarro.com
4 28°-50°, Chelsea, Oxford Circus, Marylebone
The French and modern European restaurant and wine bar is open for festive dining as well as Christmas Day lunch across its sites. Private dining rooms are available, and naturally, there will be plenty of delicious wine to warm you up. For festive dining, choose between a three or five course set menu created by the restaurant’s head chef. For Christmas lunch, there’s a five-course menu that comes with a glass of champagne. Across the menus, feast on dishes such as smoked salmon with pickled cucumber and mustard yoghurt, ham hock terrine, roast turkey breast with trimmings, baked celeriac and Christmas pudding with brandy custard.
Service: Festive menus available from November 22, Christmas Day
Address: 15-17 Marylebone Lane, W1U 2NE; Market Place, 4 Great Portland Street, London, W1W 8QJ; 96 Draycott Avenue, SW3 3AD
Price: Festive menu from £54.95; Christmas Day from £84.99
Website: 2850chelsea.co.uk; 2850oxfordcircus.co.uk; 2850.co.uk
5 The Cinnamon Collection, City, Covent Garden & Battersea
Across the Cinnamon Collection’s various venues, there are multiple options for festive feasting, throughout the season including Christmas Day. Dishes include Indo-Chinese chilli paneer, grilled wild prawn in kasundi mustard and coconut, Hyderbadi-style aubergine with sesame tamarind sauce, roast goose breast or Alleppey-style shrimp curry. The Indian restaurant group puts twist on its Christmas pudding, spicing it with garam masala and serving it with cinnamon ice cream.
Service: November 14 to December 23, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day
Address: The Old Westminster Library, Great Smith Street, Westminster, SW1 3BU; 9 Devonshire Square, EC2M 4YL; 28 Maiden Lane, WC2N 7JS; 4 Arches Lane, Battersea Power Station, SW11 7AB
Price: From £60pp
Website: thecinnamoncollection.com
6 No. Fifty Cheyne, Chelsea
Celebrate Christmas in style at No. Fifty Cheyne with Iain Smith’s festive set menu. Start with truffled butternut squash and chestnut soup before moving on to roast turkey with pigs in blankets, sausage and sage stuffing and boulangère potatoes with Brussels sprout ragu. For dessert, its Christmas pudding with baked apple compote, crystallized pecans and brandy custard.
Address: 50 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea SW3 5LR
Price: £48 for two courses or £58 for three courses
Website: fiftycheyne.com
7 Ekstedt at The Yard at Great Scotland Yard Hotel
This Scandinavian open fire cooking restaurant by Michelin star chef Niklas Ekstedt will put on a Swedish smorgasbord for Christmas Eve boasting meatballs, homemade liver pate, pickled herring, Swedish Christmas ham and vanilla rice pudding for dessert. Guest will receive a mulled wine on arrival as well as a glass of mumma, a Swedish drink made of lager, stout, madeira and gin.
Service: Christmas Eve
Address: Great Scotland Yard Hotel, SW1A 2HN
Price: £120
Website: hyattrestaurants.com
8 Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, Knightsbridge
Both the Christmas Day menu and the festive dining one boast extravagant dishes that have the wow factor. This includes spiced red wine with chicken liver parfait and grilled bread, sherried scallop with smoked cauliflower and cauliflower cream. Duck with buttered and creamed turnip with truffle, and Brussel sprouts with chestnut and bacon are festive nods, as is the smoked walnut mousse with gingerbread ice-cream and the Christmas tipsy cake with roasted pineapple, vanilla and sherry.
Service: Christmas Day lunch/ November 20 – December 30
Address: Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, 66 Knightsbridge, SW1 X 7LA
Price: £320/£160
Website: dinnerbyheston.co.uk
9 Hélène Darroze at the Connaught, Mayfair
Held in a London hotel that regularly makes the World’s 50 Best Bars, this French restaurant – also three Michelin stars – is offering as six course spread that well and truly departs from the traditional English Christmas roast. The sublime meal starts with caviar and crab, followed by XL Scottish scallops embellished with black truffle, champignons de Paris, lardo di Colonnata and Douglas pine. The restaurant also has a Christmas Eve dinner as well as a Christmas day dinner menu.
Service: Christmas Day lunch
Address: The Connaught, 16 Carlos Place, W1K 2AL
Price: £395
Website: the-connaught.co.uk
10 Marcus at The Berkeley, Knightsbridge
This Michelin-starred restaurant overseen by the accoladed chef Marcus Wareing is preparing an elegant riff on traditional Christmas feasts. It includes the likes of cured Scottish salmon, Orkney scallop served in a spiced lobster bisque and turkey with nutmeg cream and spiced red cabbage, and a Bûche de Noël for dessert. Christmas Day might be the last opportunity to try the restaurant out, as it will close for good at the end of the year.
Service: Christmas Day
Address: The Berkeley, Wilton Place, SW1X 7RL
Price: £450
Website: the-berkeley.co.uk
11 Claridge’s Restaurant, Mayfair
The new flagship restaurant for this resplendent hotel, recently voted number one in London in the recent World’s 50 Best Hotels list, is putting on a show stopping spread for its first festive service. On the six-course menu, you’ve got dishes such as caviar and foie gras, foie gras terrine turkey leg and Christmas pudding. The hotel has other festive dining options across its food and drink venues as well.
Service: Christmas Day
Address: Claridge’s Brook Street, W1K 4HR
Price: £495
Website: claridges.co.uk
12 Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester, Mayfair
Alaine Ducasse will put on a six-course meal that comes with wine pairings. While the menu is currently unavailable, expect the three Michelin-starred contemporary French restaurant to “present a contemporary reinterpretation of festive cuisine” and to pull out all stops.
Service: Christmas Day lunch
Address: 53 Park Lane, Mayfair W1K 1QA
Price: £450
Website:dorchestercollection.com
13 The Ritz Restaurant, The Strand
This Michelin starred restaurant will put on a six-course menu. There’s also Father Christmas, a caricaturist and musicians playing jazz. The meu is available on request, and wine is not included.
Service: Christmas Day lunch
Address: 150 Piccadilly, St. James’s, W1J 9BR
Price: £600
Website: theritzlondon.com
12 London Shell Co, Paddington
For the novelty of being on the boat but without the risk of sea legs, the London Shell Co’s static restaurant, The Grand Duchess, is moored at Paddington Basin. Its festive set menu features the fresh seasonal seafood it is known for with the additions of things like roast beef and cauliflower cheese. For an even more charmed experience, sister boat The Prince Regent putters up the canal. It doesn’t have a special festive menu, but with the likes of hand-dived scallops, baked cod, and Cornish crab on the menu, it’s still a treat
Service: Prince Regent sets sail at 7pm; The Grand Duchess is open for lunch & dinner
Address: Sheldon Square, Paddington Central W2 6PY
Price: The Grand Duchess £55 The Prince Regent £75
Website: londonshellco.com
13 Sea Containers Restaurant, South Bank
Throughout December, Sea Containers Restaurant is offering an indulge in a decadent three-course festive sharing menu with plates for the table, a turkey roast with all the trimmings, traditional Christmas puds and views of the Thames. Menu highlights include shaved Brussel Sprouts flatbread and gin cured salmon. For Christmas Day dining, start your meal with a glass of champagne, before tucking into the likes of rabbit terrine, slow roast sirloin and forest mushroom and chestnut tart.
Service: Festive sharing menu is available throughout December for lunch and dinner; the Christmas Day menu is served from 12pm-9.30pm
Address: 20 Upper Ground, South Bank SE1 9PD
Price: Festive sharing menu £73; Christmas Day set menu £125
Website: seacontainerslondon.com
14 Riding House Café in Fitzrovia & Bloomsbury & Rail House Café in Victoria
The Riding House Cafés offer a range of festive menus across all three sites. There’s a range of menus – meaty and plant based, sharing, group menus and grazing menus. There’s also a five-course menu for Christmas day. Whichever one you go for expect to indulge on the likes of truffled portobello and sweet potato Wellington, grilled hake and turkey with apple and herb stuffing. There’s also brioche doughnuts and mince pies for dessert too.
Service: Available from November 14; Christmas Day times TBC
Address: 43-51 Great Titchfield Street, Fitzrovia W1W 7PQ; 1 Brunswick Centre, Bloomsbury WC1N 1AF; 8 Sir Simon Milton Square, Westminster SW1E 5DJ
Price: Christmas Day £95pp; festive dining from £55pp
Website: riding.house
15 Sam’s Riverside, Hammersmith
This Thames-side gem has an elegant Christmas party menu for you to enjoy with your friends, family or colleagues – in the venue’s private dining room if you like. There are several options on the menu, but highlights include Carlington oysters and duck breast with braised red cabbage. For Christmas dining, you’ve got the additions of dishes such as Hereford aged ribeye beef tartare, dripping toast, quail egg, and roast turkey with apricot and chestnut stuffing, and gingerbread and vanilla brulé.
Service: Festive dining from November 27 – December 30
Address: 1 Crisp Walk, Hammersmith W6 9DN
Price: Christmas Party menu £65 pp; Christmas Day £200
Website: samsriverside.co.uk
16 The Biltmore, Mayfair
The Biltmore’s festive set lunch starts with the likes of home cured mulled wine salmon and truffle, leek and guineafowl before moving on to roast turkey, roast Cornish turbot or pearl barley and artichoke risotto. For dessert, it’s a choice between a traditional Christmas pudding, apple tart tatin or a vegan Christmas spice cake. The hotel is only open to in-house guests on Christmas and Boxing Day.
Service: Until December 24
Address: 44 Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, W1K 2HP
Price: £55 for two courses, £65 for three
Website: hilton.com
17 Petersham Nurseries, Richmond & Covent Garden
Both locations are offering whimsical, rustic festive feasts made with nature’s bounty. Covent Garden’s comes with an Italian accent and includes dishes such as truffle and spinach tortello, scallop carpaccio, and slow cooked beef with truffle mash and cabbage. Over in Richmond, toast to Christmas with a homespun meal of fish stew, braised pork cheek or chargrilled monkfish. Look out for festive cocktails, like a fig bellini, as well as festive floral workshops in either location.
Service: Available through December, closed Christmas
Price: From £60 for two courses
Address: Off Church Lane, Petersham Road, TW10 7AB; 2 Floral Street, London WC2E 9FB
Website: petershamnurseries.com
18 Sette by Scarpetta at Bvlgari Hotel, Knightsbridge
Adding impeccable Italian chic to your festive season, Sette in the Bvlgari Hotel, has as slick Christmas lunch made up of beef tartare and truffle tartlet, smoked salmon with carab cannelloni, roast turkey and a pistachio panettone for dessert.
Service: Christmas Day
Address: 4 Knightsbridge Green, SW1X 7QA
Price: Christmas Day £195pp
Website: settelondon.co.uk
19 The Ned, City
The prestigious hotel and members' club always receives a festive glow up at Christmas, and all of the venue’s food and drink outlets put on a seasonal special. Millie’s Lounge has a traditional three course meal, while Cecconi’s three course menu comes with an Italian twist. The Parlour and Electric Bar & Diner also have menus with Christmassy flares. There’s also a festive afternoon tea, and for £200 per person Cecconi’s is putting on a Christmas Day feast, which you can upgrade to bottomless.
Service: From November 27 + Christmas Day (12pm-8pm)
Price: From £70 pp
Address: 27 Poultry EC2R 8AJ
Website: thened.com
20 One Aldwych, Covent Garden
This sumptuous hotel celebrates Christmas Day with a sublime feast that starts with warm smoked salmon custard before moving on to baked beetroot or chicken and ham hock terrine. This is followed by lobster bisque or field mushroom consommé, and then a roast served family style with all the trimmings.
Service: Christmas Day 12.30pm – 6.30pm
Price: £275, drinks not included
Address: 1 Aldwych, WC2B 4BZ
Website: onealdwych.com
21 Firebird, Soho
Firebird’s festive dinner is a departure from the traditional Christmas roast while still being quite festive. Depending on what you’re after, there’s a dinner and lunch set menu or an a la carte menu also. All feature the likes of smoked beetroot tartare. Whole pheasant with date and cavolo nero or roasted pumpkin with truffle butter and chestnut.
Service: Through November and December
Price: Set menu from £48pp
Address: 29 Poland Street W1F 8QR
Website: firebirdlondon.co.uk
22 Straits Kitchen at Pan Pacific London, City
Another departure from tradition, the Straits Kitchen puts a Singaporean twang onto the festive season with its festive four course set menu. Get stuck into a snow crab golden cup with edamame and wakame, Peking duck with caviar and hibiscus plum, peppercorn Sarawak salai flank steak served with turmeric sticky rice and festive mocha mousse. Th hotel also has a festive afternoon tea if that’s more your thing.
Service: November 13 – January 6, 2024
Price: Roast £85
Address: 80 Houndsditch, EC3A 7AB
Website: panpacific.com
23 La Dame de Pic at Four Seasons Ten Trinity Square, Tower Bridge
The hotel’s two-Michelin star French restaurant is putting on a decadent six course feast this Christmas, served family-style. Menu highlights include coal cooked Scottish lobster, wild seabass and caviar, South Lanarkshire elrick log with chestnuts smoked vanilla and rhum. Diners can end their meal on a festive Christmas tree made with pine bud panna cotta.
Service: December 23-26
Price £360 per person plus drinks pairings, from £110
Address: 10 Trinity Square EC3N 4AJ
Website: ladamedepiclondon.co.uk
24 Galvin at Windows, La Chapelle, Bar & Grill; Mayfair, Spitalfields Bloomsbury
Michelin starred brothers Chris and Jeff Galvin will put on various festive options across their three London restaurants, for private and regular dining. Chose from various dishes including roast chicken, Cornish cod and Dorset crab, as well as hone roast pork belly, white chocolate cheesecake and pavlova.
Service: Christmas Day
Price: From £50
Address: 22 Park Lane W1K 1BE; 35 Spital Square, E1 6DY; Kimpton Fitzroy Hotel, 1-8 Russell Square WC1B 5BE
Website: galvinrestaurants.com
25 Hoppers, Soho, Marylebone, King’s Cross
Sri Lankan and south Indian favourite Hoppers will be serving up their festive feasting menu this festive menu, that comes either meaty or vegetarian. Try the likes of venison roll and cranberry hot sauce, Kalupol roasted chicken and rasa, and bone marrow varuval for the meat eaters. Vegetarians can devour jackfruit cutlets, hot butter chilli paneer and BBQ hispi cabbage.
Service: From November 1
Price: £49/£45 meat/veg pp
Address: Unit 3, 4 Pancras Square, King’s Cross, N1C 4AG; 49 Frith Street, W1D 4SG ; 77 Wigmore Street, Marylebone, W1U 1QE
Website: hopperslondon.com
26 Benares, Mayfair
Executive Chef Sameer Taneja puts on a Michelin quality Indian feast this Christmas season, which can be taken in the restaurant’s main dining room or in one of its various private dining areas. Dishes are served family-style and include the likes of Kashmiri-style lamb with chilli and fennel gravy, yellow lentil dal, tawa masala wild halibut with clam moilee and bronze turkey mom with truffle shorba.
Service: November 13 – December 30
Price: From £92
Address: 12a Berkeley Square, Mayfair, W1J 6BS
Website: benaresrestaurant.com
27 Kapara, Soho
Fun Tel Aviv restaurant is putting on festive feat full of show-stopping dishes such as poussin stuffed with baharat and freekeh spices; portobello and porcini mushrooms with a saffron and a redcurrant jus; and a brussel sprouts served with sunflower seed gazpacho, smoked streaky pork belly with a tangy blood orange marmalade.
Service: November 14 – January 14, 2024
Price: From £65 pp
Address: 14 Greek Street, James Court, Soho W1D 4AL
Website: kapara.co.uk
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