Dining
The 6 Best Restaurants With Entertainment in London
Six London rooms where the food holds its own and a show comes with it, from Crazy Coqs and Sarastro to Proud Embankment, with what to expect on the night.
In short: our top picks are Crazy Coqs at Brasserie Zedel, Sarastro and Proud Embankment. 6 places in total, chosen on merit, with the full reasoning below.
Dinner-and-a-show usually means a compromise: a decent meal followed by a taxi, or a spectacle propped up by reheated chicken. The rooms below refuse to choose. Some put a cabaret on while you eat, some keep a band going past midnight, one stages live opera between the meze and the baklava. A word of warning, because it matters here more than at a normal restaurant: the food and the entertainment rarely peak at the same moment, and the bill reflects both. Go for the night out, not the tasting menu. Book the early seating if you want to actually hear your table, the late one if you came to stay. Everything here is open and running in 2026, checked the week of writing.
| Place | Area | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Crazy Coqs at Brasserie Zedel | Piccadilly | ££ |
| Sarastro | Covent Garden | ££ |
| Proud Embankment | Embankment | £££ |
| The Piano Works | Farringdon | ££ |
| The London Cabaret Club | Bloomsbury | £££ |
| Cirque le Soir | Soho | ££££ |
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Editor’s choice
Crazy Coqs at Brasserie Zedel
Why we pick itEat downstairs in the grand art deco brasserie (the steak frites and prix fixe are some of the best value in the West End), then walk through to the velvet-lined Crazy Coqs for jazz, song or a cabaret turn. Two shows most nights, 7pm and 9.15pm. The most grown-up version of this whole idea.
French brasserie with cabaret
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Sarastro
Why we pick itA gloriously over-decorated Theatreland institution stuffed with gilt and salvaged opera boxes. On Sunday and Monday evenings a string quartet plays and singers, often from the Royal Opera, perform between courses. Thursdays bring swing and Motown. Food is honest Med and Turkish rather than the point; the spectacle is.
Mediterranean and Turkish, live opera
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Proud Embankment
Why we pick itA vast two-floor room under Waterloo Bridge built for spectacle: aerialists, burlesque, fire and choreographed numbers while you work through a pan-Asian set menu. Loud, theatrical, very much a celebration venue. Stay past the meal and it tips over into a late club until the early hours.
Pan-Asian dinner with cabaret and circus
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The Piano Works
Why we pick itA Victorian warehouse basement where the band only plays what the room requests, scribbled on slips and fired off non-stop. Proper dinner is served Tuesday to Saturday (ribeye, bowls, a decent veggie spread) and the music runs late. More raucous than refined, but the energy is real and it never stops.
Live request piano and dining
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The London Cabaret Club
Why we pick itSet in the 1920s Bloomsbury Ballroom, this is the polished, themed end of the genre: a three or four course dinner threaded through a slick choreographed show, then a DJ after-party. Current run is a Bond-ish espionage number. Dress up, it is that kind of evening.
Immersive cabaret dinner show
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Cirque le Soir
Why we pick itThe most extravagant on this list and the least about the food. Book a table for bottle service and a set menu, then sit back as contortionists, fire eaters and the famous champagne shows roll through the night. A celebrity-and-table-money crowd; go knowing exactly what it is.
Circus-themed club with dining
Before you book
Most of these run set menus tied to the show, so book direct and well ahead for Fridays and Saturdays. Expect roughly 60 to 150 pounds a head once drinks and the show are in, more at Proud Embankment and the London Cabaret Club. Crazy Coqs and Sarastro are the gentler spends. Check start times: cabaret seatings are fixed, and latecomers miss the first act.
Common questions
What are the top picks in this guide?
Crazy Coqs at Brasserie Zedel is our editor's choice: Eat downstairs in the grand art deco brasserie (the steak frites and prix fixe are some of the best value in the West End), then walk through to the velvet-lined Crazy Coqs for jazz, song or a cabaret turn. Two shows most nights, 7pm and 9.15pm. The most grown-up version of this whole idea. Crazy Coqs at Brasserie Zedel, Sarastro and Proud Embankment lead the guide, with 6 places in total, all chosen on merit.
How does Lamplit London choose its recommendations?
Every place is chosen on merit, after first-hand visits where possible, with no pay-for-placement. Read our full method at https://www.lamplitlondon.com/how-we-choose/.
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