Journal
The pre-theatre dinner has a bad reputation, and unfairly so. Done well, it is a small art: a kitchen that understands the clock, a menu built for the occasion, a glass of something to set the evening going. The trick is choosing the right room.
The streets around the West End are full of them, and our guide to Covent Garden and Soho point you to the best. Tell them you have a curtain to catch and let them do the rest.
Pudding can wait for the interval, or for afterwards.
Dining The best restaurants in Barbican: where to eat well, chosen on merit.
5 places Read guide →
Dining South of the river, Waterloo feeds theatre-goers, commuters and the odd stray tourist in roughly that order of urgency.
6 places Read guide →
Dining Mezze, grills and warm hospitality: where to eat the best Lebanese food in London.
5 places Read guide →
Eating
Most great dinners in London are a means to an end. You eat, you talk, you move on to the bar, the show, the rest of the night. The tasting menu refuses to be that. It is not the warm-up. It is the whole event, the curtain up and the curtain down, three hours that […]
13 Jun 2026Read →
Eating
Afternoon tea is not a tourist trap. It is one of the last unhurried things London does on purpose. Lunch is rushed and dinner is a production, but the hours between belong to nobody, and that is precisely the point. You sit. You stay. You let an afternoon become long. In a city that measures […]
2 Jun 2026Read →
Eating
London does not fall for things loudly. It just keeps showing up. And over the last decade or so, the city has shown up for Japanese food again and again, until it stopped feeling like a special occasion and started feeling like a default. You see it everywhere now. The counter where one chef feeds […]
28 Apr 2026Read →