The 12 best Christmas tables – or where you can enjoy a really lively lunch

When lunch is right, time stops. It’s like falling in love. Or at least it’s adult Narnia sitting down to a damn good lunch.

You’d think any restaurant would have the wherewithal to facilitate this kind of expensive bedding, but not even Michelin stars can guarantee the right mix of comfort, candlelight and generosity. What good is the perfect table in the perfect restaurant if you get thrown out after two hours? At least here there could be a simple solution: to avoid the big kryptonite lunch, the dreaded table flipping, book from 1.30pm (2pm is even better). After that, employees tend to leave you to your own devices.

Of course, a Christmas dinner isn’t a Christmas dinner without the pre-drinks (and of course the post-drinks too). Where to drink? Attempt Up at Rules (34-35 Maiden Lane, WC2, Rules.co.uk) for its lovely cocktails and beautiful, cozy interior or the new martini bar at Hawksmoor (St Pancras, Euston Road, NW1, thehawksmoor.com) in the old Midland Grand.

Once you’ve warmed up enough, head to one of these 12 Christmas tables. It’s no time to be a Scrooge.

Noble rot Mayfair

If you ask a die-hard patron of Mayfair’s Noble Rot what the best table for a naughty lunch is, they’ll say “the one at the top of the stairs”. Tucked away in a cozy corner, Table 40 is known as “The Chave Suite,” after the photo of winemaker Jean-Louis Chave’s Les Chalaix vineyard that hangs above its horseshoe-shaped banquette. Officially designed for four, the Chave can comfortably accommodate six. Stunning food, friendly service and a daily changing lunch menu costs just £28 for three courses. However, the à la carte dish is hard to resist, especially the duck offal ragu. Make yourself comfortable on the Coravin menu with exceptionally fine wines by the glass.

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

Bentley’s Oyster Bar & Grill

There have been ups and downs over the last 112 years, but since Richard Corrigan took over almost 20 years ago, things have only gone uphill. Sit at the table next to the white marble counter next to the oyster shuckers, where the light is warm and dim, the flowers are beautiful, and the soundtrack is jazz and the gentle crack of oyster shucking. Your starting block is a glass of sparkling wine. The menu includes fried crabs, Cornish fish stew, fish pie, Dover sole and creamy mash. The cheese board is an adventure in Irish cheese making. Corrigan should be knighted for his commitment to making sure people have a good time. If lunch really takes longer, there’s always his secret basement hideout for lots of fun, shenanigans and ballyhoo. Expect a good takeaway lunch from £120 per person.

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

The Devonshire Grill Room

The hottest opening in recent years is undoubtedly a pub, but not just any pub. The Devonshire is run by a master of conviviality, Irish publican Oisín Rogers, who promises that “this will never be a place where we say no”. Tables are hard to come by – although not impossible, and there are cancellations – but in a few weeks the new Claret Room opens on the second floor, where Table 53, a corner banquette by the window, looks like a place to sleep. This cozy, anything-goes pub serves comforting fare like potted prawns, risotto, steak and chips or beef cheek and Guinness suet pudding. The set lunch starts at £25, but at Pomerols and others the check will be higher.

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

The red lion and the sun

It looks like a small suburban boozer, but Heath Ball’s Highgate Hill institution is better at accommodating long lunches than most swanky city center joints. The food is delicious: roast suckling pig, Singapore lobster, huge platters of grilled crawfish. Table seven by the window (for six people) is the winning spot. There’s a good mix of trendy, sparkling, skin-contact wines for the kids and punchy Rhône, Bordeaux and oak-aged Super Tuscans for the old farts. You can’t go wrong here. Expect it to start at around £40 per head, but it goes anywhere.

25 North Road, N6 4BE, theredlionandsun.com

Otto’s French Restaurant

There is no restaurant like Otto’s this side of 1972, with its commitment to old-style haute cuisine. The room glitters with cutlery and rich French food that takes a week to digest. There is performance and drama for every course, supported by guests Otto Tepasse and Elin Hansen. Duck and lobster are pressed in an antique silver vise to extract the full juice and flavor, then flambéed with five different types of spirits. Snails come in parsley, garlic and bone marrow. Otto’s is A LOT – and it’s magical. If you like celery juice and clean eating, don’t even think about it. They’ll go out of their way to make sure you’re happy: one regular was so tired after lunch that he let him sleep under a blanket on the sofa and woke him up in time for dinner with a glass of champagne on a silver tray. Lunch from £80 but the sky is the limit.

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

Dorian

They call it a “bistro for locals” and for neo-Notting Hill’s billionaire class, perhaps it is. Securing tables here is a negotiation: if you’re a power player with a penchant for caviar hash browns and olive-fed beef, there’s nowhere else on the planet London right now. Once you’re inside, the fishbowl windows make you feel extra comfortable inside. There are good vegetable dishes to take away. Chef Max Coen has enormous talent but is as humble as Australian owner Chris D’Sylva is brash and cheeky. Always book for lunch at 2:00 p.m. or dinner at 8:00 p.m. if you don’t mind a long wait. Don’t ask for a table at 7pm unless you are Victoria Beckham. Corner tables 220 and 224 are the cutest, but are assigned at D’Sylva’s discretion.

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

Luca

Start with a silky gold Negroni and make your way to table 180, right at the back of the blazing open fire in the conservatory. Heaven. Luca has a Michelin star and the food is decent and serious, but the Italian energy remains laid back. The Italian cuisine here is based on British ingredients: Orkney scallops, Jerusalem artichokes, Cornish mussels (and the five-course lunch menu is a bargain at £95). The wine list is rich in tempting Tuscan vintages. The owners Daniel Willis and Johnny Smith are present everywhere and are full of charm. The bar also creates a cozy atmosphere at the end of a long lunch.

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

LPM

Given the magnificent surroundings of neighboring Mayfair, it feels all the more indecent to emerge from this elegant and timeless dining room, slightly dazed and dazed, after a lunch of fine white Burgundy wines and velvety Clarets. No restaurant celebrates its 15-year mark without some serious culinary excellence, and so it is here: Come Christmas like it’s the Riviera, with amazing shrimp platters, king crab tarts, clam-studded linguini and lemon-infused fried chicken. The service is discreet; No eyebrows are raised when ordering the third bottle. The cocktail menu is also terrifying: a faux pas to miss it, right?

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

The dining room at The Goring

The dining room has the spaciousness of a grand hotel. Swarovski chandeliers bathe the room in festive sparkling light, while the heaviest yellow gold curtains add to the magic. There’s plenty of trolley action with carved Wellington beef at the table. The food is great and has had its star since 2015. The Goring is the last family-run grand hotel in London, the only one with a royal commission, and there are often some surprising faces popping up. The round table 16 offers space for nine people and is ideal for a lively lunch. It’s more formal – carousing may be taboo – but it makes you feel very special. This year the hotel is serving a fantastic Christmas dinner for £340 per person.

15 Beeston Place, SW1W 0JW, thegoring.com

Nessa

Head to the booth, table 77, order a Boho Negroni and be enchanted by Tom Cenci’s eccentric takes on retro favorites. Hearty and rich food still meets many requirements for vegetarian and plant-based foods. The carbonara consists of tender strips of celeriac topped with an egg yolk for more spice and wood-fired leeks with a great vegan ricotta. A popular LGBTQ+ hangout and just as generous towards vegans and veggies as the old school meatheads. The seating is soft, the lighting is low, the mood is good. Nessa in Soho is a 2023 newcomer that attracts a younger long-lunch. The wine list is a mix of funky and classic. Lunch from £70.

86 Brewer Street, W1F 9UB, nessasoho.com

The shooter

Tables 11 and 12 are on a platform, nestled in the calming sound of a popular pub, but also slightly off the beaten track. With St. John veterans at the helm, this gem of a Dickensian boozer offers British pub grub and lunch. Opt for creaky, time-polished floorboards, pickles, smoked cuts, pork cuts and hearty cuts of meat, fish and pies to share. Order a Gibson, champagne with a few oysters, Hereford wing ribs with bone marrow and parsley salad, chips, then cheese, brown butter and honey tart and expect to spend around £75 per person with wine. The elegant European wine list is wrong about it being E2, but not to their detriment.

254 Hackney Road, E2, markersmanpublichouse.com

The Camberwell Arms

High ceilings, lots of natural light, reclaimed oak tables and chairs, a menu on a dusty blackboard… Frank Boxer, Jackson’s brother, is a third-generation restaurant king and has cleverly disguised one of London’s best restaurants as a welcoming pub. Chef Mike Davis is a graduate of Canton Arm’s Trish Hilferty and serves good British seasonal dishes with an Italian flair. You know lunch is long when at the end of the service all the staff sit down and eat the leftovers. Grab a giant cake to share for a cozy atmosphere. Book table 100, a banquette in a booth overlooking the kitchen, and expect to pay a bill of around £50 per person.

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