The loveliest restaurants open on Christmas Day in London

"Оптимизм - это доктрина, утверждающая, что все прекрасно, включая безобразное, все хорошо, особенно плохое, и все правильно, в том числе неправильное… Доктрина эта передается по наследству, однако, к счастью, не заразна." Амброз Бирс

Ease the stress of the season and perfect roast potato panic by putting down the roasting tray and seeking help from the professionals. Increasing numbers of London restaurants are opening their doors on Christmas Day and just as many pubs are open for food as well as the traditional afternoon pint or port. We’ve picked some of the finest, so come and salivate over the sweetest set menus this Christmas in London. It’s what Santa would want.

  • The loveliest restaurants open on Christmas Day in London

    The Gilbert Scott, King’s Cross

    A grand day deserves a grand venue, and there’s nothing slight about the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, nor Marcus Wareing’s acclaimed Gilbert Scott, which resides inside the sprawling five-star Victorian landmark building. At £120 for five courses – or £185 with matching wines – this is about as festive as you can get.

    Address: The Gilbert Scott, St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, Euston Road, London NW1 2AR


    Telephone: +44 20 7278 3888


    Website: thegilbertscott.com


    Price: £120 per head or £185 with wine pairings

  • The loveliest restaurants open on Christmas Day in London

    Laurent at Café Royal, Piccadilly

    Laurent Tourondel’s grill and sushi bar prides itself on bringing a taste of New York to London and this Christmas is no exception, with a chic, Manhattan-worthy menu for £140. Options of seared blue lobster or gin-cured salmon kick off a sophisticated take on the traditional lunch, while all the mains come with crispy goose-fat potatoes. It’s the mandarin-pistachio baked alaska, however, that really has us feeling all festive.


    Address: Laurent at Café Royal, 68 Regent Street, Soho, London W1B 4DY


    Telephone: +44 20 7406 3310


    Website: laurentatcaferoyal.com


    Price: £140 per head

  • The loveliest restaurants open on Christmas Day in London

    Sea Containers Restaurant, South Bank

    An unspoilt view of the Thames is your accompaniment to this Christmas feast, which comes in at £115 a head and begins with butternut squash velouté before options of whipped brie, handpicked crab, burrata and salmon crudo. Roasted turkey main can be skimmed over for sweet-potato gnocchi or dry-aged sirloin and mulled wine poached pears are a fun alternative to more traditional Christmas pudding or Black Forest log cake.

    Address: Sea Containers Restaurant, 20 Upper Ground, South Bank, London SE1 9PD


    Telephone: +44 20 3747 1063


    Website: seacontainerslondon.com


    Price: £115 per head

  • The loveliest restaurants open on Christmas Day in London

    Holborn Dining Room, Holborn

    The £170 Christmas feast at this opulent brasserie situated inside The Rosewood Hotel is traditional with a twist. We’re eyeing up the rabbit and bacon croûte with pickled vegetables to start, then the Cornish cod forestière with truffle mash and sweetcure bacon, and raspberry almond trifle for pudding.

    Address: Holborn Dining Room, Rosewood London, 252 High Holborn, Holborn, London WC1V 7EN


    Telephone: +44 20 3747 8633


    Website: holborndiningroom.com


    Price: £170 per head

  • The loveliest restaurants open on Christmas Day in London

    Cinnamon Club, The City

    The traditional Christmas lunch doesn’t quite do it for everyone, so if you recoil at the sight of stuffing, then you might do better with a booking at Indian fine-dining spot Cinnamon Club. If its gorgeous setting in a former library doesn’t make you smile, then the food will: chargrilled curried king prawns, clove-infused goose breast, spice-crusted halibut and paneer and fruit kofta are some of the many mains on the £125 menu, which makes for one of the most exciting of the season. We’ll have extra helpings of the garam masala Christmas pudding with cinnamon custard, please.


    Address: Cinnamon Club, The Old Westminster Library, 30-32 Great Smith Street, Westminster, London SW1P 3BU


    Telephone: +44 20 7222 2555


    Website: cinnamonclub.com


    Price: £125 per head

  • The loveliest restaurants open on Christmas Day in London

    Kerridge’s Bar and Grill, Embankment

    Treat yourself with a £250 per head Christmas lunch at Tom Kerridge’s first London restaurant, at the Corinthia Hotel. The much-loved Michelin-starred chef has created an elegant spread that starts, naturally, with Champagne and canapés before a cream of chestnut soup with kitsch classic devils on horseback, or Cornish crab vol-au-vent. For the big event, there’s rotisserie roasted Norfolk brown turkey with sage and apricot stuffing or fillet of beef for the poultry-averse.

    Address: Kerridge’s Bar & Grill, The Corinthia,10 Northumberland Avenue, Westminster, London WC2N 5AE


    Telephone: +44 20 7321 3244


    Website: kerridgesbarandgrill.co.uk


    Price: £250 per head

    The Spaniards Inn, Hampstead

    It feels like Christmas whatever time of year you duck through the creaky doors of Hampstead Heath’s Spaniards Inn, which was built back in 1585 and appears in Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers. Expect actual Christmas Day, then, to feel like a turbocharged version of the event, with a pick-and-choose menu that includes the requisite roast turkey breast, but also beef sirloin, mushroom and nut wellington, pan-fried trout and lamb rump.

    Address: The Spaniards Inn, Spaniards Road, Hampstead, London NW3 7JJ


    Telephone: +44 20 8731 8406


    Website: thespaniardshampstead.co.uk


    Price: £72.95 per head

  • The loveliest restaurants open on Christmas Day in London

    Bob Bob Ricard, Soho

    It’s proudly open 365 days a year, so at Bob Bob Ricard you’ll be able to use that Press For Champagne button on the day when it really matters. Go fully luxe with oysters, smoked salmon and caviar from the British and Russian menu. And one of the best things about this central London mainstay being open on Christmas Day is the fact you’ll be able to park in Soho for free.

    Address: Bob Bob Ricard, 1 Upper James Street, Soho, London W1F 9DF


    Telephone: +44 20 3145 1000


    Website: bobbobricard.com

  • The loveliest restaurants open on Christmas Day in London

    Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester, Mayfair

    A three-Michelin-starred Christmas lunch inside the storied walls of Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester might weigh in at £380 a head, but you’ll receive one of the most lavish menus of the season, with a superior wine pairing for each course. There’s Parmentier velouté sea scallop and black truffle, confit duck foie gras terrine, Scottish langoustine and fillet of sea bass with gratinated cauliflower and white truffle – all followed by the pièce de résistance; a ‘Jaune des Landes’ capon. And then maybe a well-deserved lie down.

    Address: Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester, 53 Park Lane, Mayfair, London W1K 1QA


    Telephone: +44 20 7629 8866


    Website: alainducasse-dorchester.com


    Price: £380 per head

  • The loveliest restaurants open on Christmas Day in London

    Dean Street Townhouse, Soho

    We can do nothing but swoon at a Christmas Day menu that starts with a langoustine bisque and ends with gingerbread, butterscotch and Jersey cream. Score some seasonal style points at Soho’s Dean Street Townhouse, which feels like having lunch in a cosy living room, so you won’t feel too guilty about doing a runner for the day.

    Address: Dean Street Townhouse, 69-71 Dean Street, Soho, London W1D 3SE


    Telephone: +44 20 7434 1775


    Website: deanstreettownhouse.com


    Price: £100 per head

    Duck & Waffle, The City

    Get that little bit closer to Santa’s sled by spending Christmas Day 40 flights up in the Heron Tower at Duck & Waffle, which remains the highest restaurant in the UK. £110 per head sorts you a welcome Woodford Reserve eggnog followed by lobster cocktail, a turkey, turbot or nut roast main, pine-cone panna cotta, cheese selection and – if you’ve any room left – mince pies and coffee to finish.

    Address: Duck & Waffle, 110 Bishopsgate, London EC2N 4AY


    Telephone: +44 20 3640 7310


    Website: duckandwaffle.com


    Price: £110 per head

  • The loveliest restaurants open on Christmas Day in London

    The Flask, Highgate

    Served at one of the capital’s most adored pubs, The Flask’s £85 Christmas menu is one of the most reasonably priced in town. Cosy up in a centuries-old snug or around a roaring fire and tuck into Gressingham duck rillettes or pan-roasted scallops with golden beetroot and muscatel pickled grapes, before Usk Vale turkey breast and all the trimmings.


    Address: The Flask, 77 Highgate West Hill, Highgate, London N6 6BU


    Telephone: +44 20 8348 7346


    Website: theflaskhighgate.com


    Price: £85 per head

  • The loveliest restaurants open on Christmas Day in London

    Hoi Polloi, Shoreditch

    The restaurant on the ground floor of Shoreditch’s Ace Hotel is set in a wood-panelled womb-like space that comes over like the fanciest diner Brooklyn has to offer. For £85 a head you’ll get game terrine, turkey with all the trimmings and sticky toffee pudding with brandy custard and vanilla ice cream followed by a plate of British cheese. There’s a veggie option too, with roast squash to start and a toasted pearl barley and mushroom risotto, while kids get a simplified version of the main menu for £40. After you’ve cleaned your plate, take a postprandial constitutional on the nearby cobbles of Columbia Road, one of London’s most Dickensian streets.

    Address: Hoi Polloi, 100 Shoreditch High Street, Hackney, London E1 6JQ


    Telephone: +44 20 8880 6100


    Website: hoi-polloi.co.uk


    Price: £85 per head

    Orrery, Marylebone

    Orrery was launched by Sir Terrance Conran in the 1990s, and its fine French dining still has clout amongst gastros in the know. Simple yet highly effective, the Christmas menu at the Marylebone favourite is packing a punch via classics with character. Its seven courses for £139 start with salmon gravadlax with cucumber and include wasabi avocado followed by beef wellington with pommes mousseline and Madeira sauce, then lemon posset and pineapple sorbet. A bit more will get you some decent wine pairings and a bit more than that will get you the really good stuff.

    Address: Orrery, 55 Marylebone High Street, Marylebone, London W1U 5RB


    Telephone: +44 20 7616 8000


    Website: orrery-restaurant.co.uk


    Price: £139 per head

  • The loveliest restaurants open on Christmas Day in London

    Riding House Café, Fitzrovia

    Less formal than – but every bit as delicious as – the hotel restaurants open on the 25th is Fitzrovia’s Riding House Cafe, a chilled-out brasserie that’ll be serving the full Christmas lunch package from midday until 4pm for £75 a pop. There’s roast turkey, of course, but also a mouthwatering-sounding vegan option of barbeque cauliflower with chimichurri, as well as truffled sweet potato and spinach Wellington for the vegetarians and chermoula-blackened bream with kohlrabi, watercress and sumac for fish fans.

    Address: Riding House Café, 43-51 Great Titchfield Street, Fitzrovia, London W1W 7PQ


    Telephone: +44 20 7927 0840


    Website: ridinghouse.cafe


    Price: £75 per head

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