The Wolseley

Breakfast starts at seven at 160 Piccadilly, and the room you eat it in was built in 1921 as a car showroom, which explains the scale, the domed ceiling and the sweep of black and gold that makes The Wolseley feel more like a European grand cafe than anything native to London. It opened as a restaurant in 2003 and has spent the two decades since becoming something close to an institution.

The menu covers breakfast through to a late dinner service, seven days a week, with Wiener schnitzel, steak tartare and eggs Benedict among the dishes that turn up on repeat orders. The pastry counter, visible from the entrance, is worth a look on the way in even if you are not stopping for cake. Dinner leans slightly more ambitious than the daytime menus, with a short list of specials that changes more often than the core offering, though most regulars stick to the dishes they already know well.

Afternoon tea runs through the mid afternoon and is a genuine alternative to the more famous hotel teas nearby, generally easier to book and noticeably less formal in tone. The room stays busy across the whole day rather than peaking at a single service, which makes it a reliable choice regardless of the hour.

Prices sit comfortably below the grand hotel dining rooms it is often compared to, without feeling like a discount version of the same experience, and the crowd ranges from City lawyers on a business breakfast to tourists working through a full afternoon tea.

The honest caveat is that the cooking, while dependable, rarely surprises. This is a restaurant selling atmosphere and consistency rather than culinary ambition, and diners expecting the kitchen to match the drama of the room may come away thinking the food is the least interesting part of the visit. For what it sets out to do, an elegant, reliable all day room in the middle of London, it succeeds completely.