Wagtail, City of London

Getting to the ninth floor of this King William Street office block and stepping out into a dining room with a wraparound view of the City still catches most first time visitors off guard. Wagtail occupies the top two floors of a fairly unremarkable modern building near Bank, and the payoff for the lift ride is genuine: on a clear evening you can pick out St Paul’s, the Shard and the Walkie Talkie without craning your neck.

The layout splits the experience in two. The ninth floor restaurant, overseen by a Michelin trained kitchen team, does proper plated food: lobster, aged steaks, a raw bar, the sort of dishes that justify a tablecloth and a set of proper cutlery. Up on the tenth floor the mood changes entirely, small plates and sliders replace the main menu, and the focus shifts to cocktails, Champagne and a DJ once the sun goes down.

Order the lobster if you’re eating properly downstairs, it’s the dish the kitchen is clearly proudest of, and the côte de boeuf for two holds up against steakhouses twice the price. Upstairs, stick to the signature cocktail list rather than trying to order food, since the terrace menu is really built for grazing between drinks rather than a full meal.

Prices sit at the top end for the City: starters comfortably clear £18 and mains push past £40 for the better cuts of meat, before wine. It suits client dinners, City workers celebrating a bonus, and anyone who wants a rooftop view without travelling to Shoreditch or the South Bank for it.

The honest catch is that the view does a lot of the heavy lifting on the upper terrace, and on an overcast evening or in winter when the outdoor seating closes, some of the magic goes with it. Book the terrace specifically if that’s what you’re after, general reservations for the restaurant don’t guarantee you a table with the view. Reservations run through the Wagtail website or OpenTable, and weekend evening slots go quickly.