Advertisement

Christmas Day dinner in London 2019: Best restaurants open on December 25

There are two kinds of Christmas people in the world: those who take great festive joy in serving up a banquet for 15 on December 25, and those who consider having their arm up a turkey’s backside at 6am to be a fate worse than going to work.

For those of the latter persuasion, London’s restaurants on hand to help. While the majority quite rightly shut up shop for the holiday, a handful of saintly establishments will still be opening their doors.

If you want to tuck into a festive feast before the day itself, check out our round-up of Christmas menus in the capital – but if it’s the big day itself you’re interested in, then read on.

From traditional turkey with all the trimmings to globetrotting festive treats, here’s our pick of the best restaurants open and celebrating in the capital on Christmas Day.

Kerridge’s Bar and Grill

image

Tom Kerridge is a man you’d trust to host a proper Christmas dinner. His London restaurant at the Corinthia hotel is doing just that, with a seven-course feast of festive stalwarts and little surprises. After champagne and canapes, guests will tuck into chestnut soup with Devils on Horseback, along with a crab vol-au-vent with caviar butter sauce. For the main event choose between a rotisserie turkey with all the trimmings (including a sourdough bread sauce) or roast beef, before picking a pud: indulge in either a traditional Christmas pudding or one made with dark chocolate and served with Douglas Fir ice cream.

How much? £250 per person

10 Northumberland Avenue, WC2N 5AE, kerridgesbarandgrill.co.uk

Cinnamon Kitchen Battersea

image

Christmas Day is being celebrated at every one of chef Vivek Singh’s London restaurants. For a more sophisticated soiree, Singh’s Indian fine-dining restaurant The Cinnamon Club will be offering a four-course menu for £125 per person, while his two Cinnamon Kitchen restaurants will be serving four and five-course offering for considerably less. The £50 menu at Cinnamon Kitchen Battersea also offers four courses, with dishes including chargrilled duck breast with mappas sauce, duck liver and heart tak-a-tak, and a Christmas pudding with clove ice cream.

How much? £50 per person

4 Arches Lane, SW11 8AB, cinnamon-kitchen.com

Dean Street Townhouse

image

Those looking for a home-from-home in which to spend Christmas day should head to the dining room of this cosy Soho House-owned hotel. Dean Street Townhouse will host a three-course menu, with starters including langoustine bisque and a venison, pork and chestnut terrine, before moving onto a Norfolk bronze turkey as the main, or options of either turbot with shellfish dripping, wild mushroom Wellington or beef fillet with bone marrow potato.

How much? £100 per person

69-71 Dean Street, W1D 3SE, deanstreettownhouse.com

Simpson’s In The Strand

image

The Christmas Day offering at Simpson’s In The Strand is packed with more festive flavours than you can shake a candy cane at. Start off with either a ginger-spiced butternut squash soup with fig croutons and pickled walnuts, or a mulled wine foie gras roulade. The main event allows diners to choose either roasted beef or turkey from the trolley, or between pan seared seabass and a truffle and wild mushroom pithivier. Traditional Christmas pudding with brandy sauce is of course on hand, alongside a chocolate and chestnut yule log with spiced poached pears.

How much? £205 per person

100 Strand, WC2R 0EW, simpsonsinthestrand.co.uk

Nobu

image

Fancy Christmas with a chance of celeb-spotting? For the first time since it opened in 1997, glamorous Japanese favourite Nobu will be open on the big day itself. They're laying on a special seasonal menu, the highlight of which is sure to be the famous miso-marinated black cod, though the steamed ginger pudding sounds suitably cosy, too. The menu includes a glass of Champagne on arrival, half a bottle of wine, a bottle of water and tea or coffee. Vegetarian options are, of course, available.

How much? £250 per person

19 Old Park Lane,W1K 1LB​, noburestaurants.com

Quaglino's

image

Quaglino’s will serve up its usual fun combo of live music and food with the Totem Choir singing gospel style. The three course menu offers a fish, meat or veggie option with a traditional pudding or yule log for dessert. Open from 11:30AM to 7PM, this is a fun choice if you enjoy a sprinkling of glamour on Christmas Day, Berry Christmas cocktail in hand.

How much? £120 per person for three courses followed by mince pies and tea or coffee

16 Bury St, SW1Y 6AJ, quaglinos-restaurant.co.uk

Monmouth Kitchen

image

Seven Dials is a beguiling spot for Christmas shopping, but Monmouth Kitchen makes a strong case for returning on the big day itself. The Covent Garden restaurant is offering a five-course menu including oven-baked lobster with king prawns, a Parmesan creme and chilli crust, alongside an aged beef Wellington with charred greens and a red wine reduction. The restaurant’s sibling sites Leicester Square Kitchen, Bloomsbury Street Kitchen and May Fair Kitchen will also be open on Christmas Day and offering the same selection of dishes.

How much? £95 per person

20 Mercer Street, WC2H 9HD, monmouthkitchen.co.uk

Radio Rooftop

image

If Christmas dinner really isn’t your thing, then give Christmas brunch a go. Radio Rooftop, the Ibiza-style terrace bar at the ME London hotel, is hosting fairly alternative Christmas meal this year. The a la carte menu (a rarity on the big day) is made up largely of breakfast dishes and lighter bites, including turkey eggs benedict and a coconut waffle with Chivas whisky-cured salmon. Traditionalists, don’t fret – a festive roast will be on hand too.

How much? A la carte, dishes from £14

336-337 Strand, WC2R 1HA, radiorooftop.com

Duck and Waffle

image

It’s new executive chef Elliott Grover’s first Christmas in charge at sky high restaurant Duck and Waffle, and he’s pulling out all the stops. Across five courses, guests can choose from the likes of turkey with cornbread stuffing and maple baked sweet potatoes, lobster cocktail with Ossetra caviar, a Wellington nut roast, a Christmas pudding souffle and a chocolate-dusted pine panna cotta shaped like a pine cone. If that’s not pretty enough, don’t forget to take in the restaurant’s stunning City views.

How much? £110 per person

110 Bishopsgate, EC2N 4AY, duckandwaffle.com

Radici

image

Acclaimed chef Francesco Mazzei is throwing an Italian Christmas feast at his Islington restaurant Radici on the big day. Oven roast turkey will be served with pumpkin, lentils and dumplings as the main course on the set menu, but not before hearty portions of winter vegetable and venison lasagne, pumpkin soup and oodles of antipasti. The whole meal is rounded off with a festive-themed Italian dessert fusion – a panettone tiramisu.

How much? £65

30 Almeida Street, N1 1AD, radici.uk

Hélène Darroze at the Connaught

image

Hélène Darroze is throwing a two Michelin-starred Christmas at her acclaimed restaurant at the Connaught, serving both lunch and dinner on the day. The earlier meal boasts six courses, with the traditional turkey substituted for a luxurious dish of capon with black truffle, celeriac and Albufera sauce. Dinner is a slightly shorter five-course affair with fish as the main event, featuring both seabass with clams and seaweed, as well as lobster with salsify, black trumpet mushroom and tarragon.

How much? Lunch for £295 per person, dinner for £195 per person

Carlos Place, W1K 2AL, the-connaught.co.uk

Bōkan

image

If you’re looking to feed many different tastes this Christmas, Canary Wharf restaurant Bōkan is the place to do it. On both its dinner and brunch menus, each of the three courses features five choices of dish, meaning that guests can enjoy anything from pate en croute with wild boar and foie gras, to steamed halibut with garganelli pasta, burnt orange puree and roasted cauliflower. Both sittings cost the same – but brunch includes bottomless prosecco.

How much? £79 per person for brunch or dinner

40 Marsh Wall, E14 9TP, bokanlondon.co.uk

Loyal Tavern

image

Ex-Duck and Waffle chef Tom Cenci is used to keeping a kitchen going 365 days a year, and he’s continuing this Christmas cooking tradition at his new Bermondsey restaurant Loyal Tavern. His tantalising set menu for the big day includes dishes of slow-cooked beef cheeks with fresh black pudding and suet dumplings, a kid goat and pork belly meatball with plum broth, and blackened cauliflower with sesame yoghurt and chilli.

How much? £75 per person

171-173 Bermondsey Street, SE1 3UW, loyaltavern.co.uk

Riding House Cafe

image

Christmas Day is a globetrotting affair at Riding House Cafe this year. The three-course menu at the cosy Fitzrovia restaurant features traditional serves alongside plates from around the world. Diners can choose a classic roster of smoked ham hock terrine with sprout tops to start, followed by roast turkey with all the trimmings. Alternatively, adventurous types can opt for salt and sugar-cured salmon with smacked cucumber and fermented chilli, followed by chermoula-blackened bream with kohlrabi, yoghurt and sumac.

How much? £75 per person

43-51 Great Titchfield Street, W1W 7PQ, ridinghouse.cafe

Orrery

image

There’s no turkey on the menu at Orrery, but the eight other courses will leave you about as stuffed as one. A beef Wellington is at the centre of the generous offering, served with pommes mousseline and Madeira sauce. The rest of the fare is bookended with an amuse bouche and salmon gravadlax with cucumber and wasabi avocado to start, and finished with either a satsuma or clementine (after a first dessert of lemon posset with pineapple sorbet).

How much? £139 per person, wine pairings available from £79-£105

55 Marylebone High Street, W1U 5RB, orrery-restaurant.co.uk

Sea Containers Restaurant

image

Sea Containers Restaurant is celebrating Christmas on the banks of the Thames with quite the feast. Kicking off with a glass of Laurent-Perrier La Cuvee and an amuse bouche of butternut squash veloute with truffle mascarpone, diners can then choose from the likes of whipped brie with roasted grapes and parsnip chips, roasted turkey with pork stuffing or sweet potato gnocchi with Jerusalem artichoke and manchego, all served with chestnut mashed potatoes, maple roasted sprouts with bacon, and braised red cabbage.

How much? £115 per person

20 Upper Ground, SE1 9PD, seacontainerslondon.com