The 12 top tables of Christmas — or where to have a really raucous lunch

It’s the big Narnia, isn’t it, sitting down for a bloody bully lunch? When a luncheon is right, clip stops, it’s similar falling successful love.

You’d deliberation each edifice would person the chops to alteration this benignant of spendy bedding in, but not adjacent Michelin stars tin warrant the close premix of comfort, candlelight and generosity of spirit. And what usage is the cleanable array successful the cleanable edifice if they turf you retired aft 2 hours? Here, astatine least, is simply a elemental solution: publication from 1.30pm onwards, to debar big-lunch kryptonite: the dreaded array turn.

Of course, Christmas meals aren’t Christmas meals without the pre-drinks (nor the post-drinks obviously). As such, question retired The Botree Bar astatine the Botree edifice (30 Marylebone Lane, W1U 2DR, thebotree.com), for first-rate cocktails successful surroundings that suggest refinement arsenic good arsenic pleasing levels of Christmassy giddiness. The Ferenc’s Festive Negroni is simply a must, and determination are even oysters connected the barroom paper if you fancy a small pre-lunch lip-smacker.

Once you’re suitably warmed up, caput to 1 of these, my 12 tables of Christmas. It’s nary clip to beryllium a Scrooge.  

Ask a hardened regular of Mayfair’s Noble Rot what the champion array is for a naughty luncheon and they’ll say, “that 1 astatine the apical of the stairs”. Hidden awayin a cosy corner, Table 40 is known arsenic The Chave Suite for the photograph of  winemaker Jean-Louis Chave’s Les Chalaix vineyard which hangs implicit its horseshoe-shaped banquette. Officially for four, the Chave tin comfortably compression six. Stunningly bully food, mellow work and the daily-changing acceptable luncheon is £28 for 3 courses. Go ample connected the Coravin database of exceptional good wines by the glass.

5 Trebeck Street, W1J 7LT, noblerot.co.uk

t’s had its up and downs implicit the past 112 years but since Richard Corrigan took it connected astir 20 years ago, it’s been each ups. Settle astatine the array adjacent the achromatic marble counter, by the oyster shuckers, wherever the light’s lukewarm and dim, the flowers beautiful, and the soundtrack is jazz and the gentle ace of shucking. Your starting artifact is simply a solid of fizz. Twinkling connected the paper are dressed crab, Cornish food stew, food pie, Dover sole, creamy mash. The cheeseboard is an escapade successful Irish cheesemaking. Corrigan should beryllium knighted for his committedness to making definite radical person a due bully time. If luncheon truly lingers, there’s ever his concealed basement den for each kinds of carrying on, shenanigans and ballyhoo. Expect a bully luncheon to spell from £100-a-head.

11-15 Swallow Street, W1B 4DG, bentleys.org

The hottest opening this twelvemonth is undoubtedly a pub, but not conscionable immoderate aged pub. The Devonshire is tally by a maestro of conviviality, Irish publican Oisín Rogers, who promises that “this volition ne'er beryllium a spot wherever we accidental no”. Tables are hard to travel by — though not impossible, and determination are cancellations — but successful a fewer weeks the caller Claret Room opens connected the 2nd floor, wherever array 53, a country banquette by the window, looks the spot to furniture in. This cosy, anything-goes pub has comforting nutrient similar potted shrimps, risotto, steak and chips, oregon a beef feature and Guinness suet pudding. Set luncheon is from £25, but it’s with the Pomerols et al wherever the cheque’s going to get toppy.

17 Denman Street, W1D 7HW, devonshiresoho.co.uk

It looks similar a twee suburban boozer, but Heath Ball’s Highgate Hill instauration is amended astatine facilitating agelong lunches than astir swanky uptown places. The food’s delicious: roasted suckling pig, Singapore lobster, immense platters of chargrilled langoustines. Table 7 by the model (for six) is the prize seat. There’s a bully premix of tegument interaction trendy natty wines for the kids and thumping Rhône, Bordeaux and oak-aged Super Tuscans for the aged farts. You can’t spell incorrect here. Expect to commencement astatine astir £30-a-head, but it tin spell anywhere.  

25 North Road, N6 4BE, theredlionandsun.com

There’s obscurity similar Otto’s this broadside of 1972, with its committedness to haute cuisine successful the aged style. The country twinkles with silverware and the benignant of affluent French nutrient that requires a week to digest. There is performance and play with each course, aided by patrons Otto Tepasse and Elin Hansen. Duck and lobster (£150 and £200-a-head respectively) are pressed successful an antique metallic vice to extract each scrap of affluent foodstuff and flavour and past flambéed with 5 types of booze. L’escargots travel successful parsley, ail and bony marrow. Otto’s is A LOT — and it is magical. If you’re into celery foodstuff and cleanable eating, don’t adjacent deliberation astir it. They volition crook implicit backwards to guarantee you are happy: 1 regular impermanent was truthful bushed aft luncheon they enactment him to slumber nether a broad connected a sofa and woke him up successful clip for meal with a solid of Champagne connected a metallic salver. Lunch from £70, but the sky’s the limit.

182 Gray’s Inn Road, WC1X 8EW, ottos-restaurant.com

They telephone it a “bistro for locals” and for the billionaire people of neo-Notting Hill, possibly it is. Securing tables present is simply a negotiation: if you’re a power-player with a hard connected for caviar rostis and olive-fed beef, determination is obscurity other connected satellite London close now. Once you’re in, the fishbowl windows marque it consciousness peculiarly bully to beryllium connected the inside. There’s drop-the-mic bully rootlike dishes. Head cook Max Coen has tremendous endowment but is arsenic humble arsenic Aussie proprietor Chris D’Sylva is ballsy and brash. Always publication for 2pm lunch, oregon 8pm meal sitting if you similar to get stuck in. Don’t fuss asking for a 7pm table, unless you’re Victoria Beckham. The country tables, 220 and 224, are the sweetest but are fixed astatine D’Sylva’s discretion.

105-107 Talbot Road, W11 2AT, dorianrestaurant.com

Kick disconnected with a silky aureate Negroni and caput to array 180, astatine the backmost by the blazing unfastened occurrence successful the conservatory. Heaven. Luca has a Michelin prima and the nutrient is neat and serious, but the Italian vigor keeps it loose. The Italian cooking present pivots connected British ingredients: Orkney scallops, Jerusalem artichokes, Cornish mussels (and the five-course acceptable luncheon paper is simply a bargain astatine £95). The vino database is replete with tempting Tuscan vintages. Owners Daniel Willis and Johnny Smith circulate, oozing charm. The barroom is simply a vibe astatine the extremity of a agelong lunch, too.

88 St John Street, EC1M 4EH, luca.restaurant

Given the expansive surrounds of neighbouring Mayfair, it feels each the naughtiest to look from this sleek and timeless eating country somewhat dazed and woozy, aft a luncheon of good achromatic Burgundies and velvet Clarets. No edifice sails past the 15-year people without immoderate superior culinary chops and truthful it is here: travel for Christmas arsenic it mightiness beryllium done connected the Riviera, with large platters of prawns, for King Crab tarts, for clam-studded linguini and roast chickenhearted coddled with lemon. Service is the discreet kind; nary eyebrows are raised erstwhile the 3rd vessel is ordered. The cocktail database is fearsome, too: a faux pas to place it, no?

53-54 Brook’s Mews, W1K 4EG, lpmrestaurants.com

The Dining Room has expansive edifice spaciousness. Swarovski chandeliers bathe the country successful festive twinkling light, portion the heaviest of yellowish golden curtains lone ramp up the magic. There’s tons of trolley action, with beef Wellington carved tableside. The nutrient is beautiful, holding its prima since 2015. The Goring is the past family-owned expansive edifice successful London, the lone 1 with a royal warrant, and immoderate astonishing faces often appear. The circular array 16 seats 9 and is the 1 to publication for a giddy lunch. It’s alternatively ceremonial — carousing is possibly retired — but you cannot neglect to consciousness precise peculiar here. This year, the edifice is serving a blowout Christmas Day luncheon for £340 per person.

15 Beeston Place, SW1W 0JW, thegoring.com

Slide into the booth, array 77, bid a Boho Negroni, and excavation successful to Tom Cenci’s eccentric twists connected retro favourites. Hearty and affluent nutrient inactive ticks a batch of veggie and plant-based boxes. The carbonara is tender strips of celeriac topped with an ovum yolk for richness, and wood-fired leeks with a large vegan ricotta. A fashionable haunt for LGBTQ+ and arsenic generous to vegans and veggies arsenic the aged schoolhouse meatheads. The seating is soft, lighting low, buzz good. Nessa successful Soho is simply a 2023 newcomer that attracts a younger agelong luncher. The vino database is simply a premix of funky and classic. Lunch from £70.

86 Brewer Street, W1F 9UB, nessasoho.com

Tables 11 and 12 beryllium connected a level immersed successful the reassuring burble of a much-loved pub, yet besides somewhat removed. With St John veterans astatine the helm, this gem of a Dickensian boozer delivers British pub dining, and lunching. Go for creaking floorboards polished by time, pickled bits, smoky bits, piggy bits, and hefty cuts of meat, food and pies to share. Order a Gibson, Champagne with a fewer oysters, Hereford helping ribs with bony marrow and parsley salad, chips, past food and brownish food and chromatic tart, and expect to spend, with wine, astir £75-a-head.  The classy European vino database errs connected the natty — look, it’s E2 — but not to its detriment.

254 Hackney Road, E2, marksmanpublichouse.com

High ceilings, tons of earthy light, reclaimed oak tables and chairs, paper connected a dusty blackboard… Frank Boxer, member of Jackson, is 3rd procreation edifice royalty and has cleverly disguised 1 of London’s champion restaurants arsenic a welcoming pub. Chef Mike Davis is an alumni of Canton Arm’s Trish Hilferty and serves bully British seasonal bits with Italian flair. You cognize luncheon is simply a agelong 1 erstwhile astatine the extremity of service, each the unit beryllium down and devour the leftovers. Grab a immense pastry to stock for cosy feels. Book array 100, a banquette successful a nook that looks implicit the kitchen, and expect a measure of £50ish a person.

65 Camberwell Church Street, SE5 8TR, thecamberwellarms.co.uk