Famous London restaurants from film: Movie sets that you can have dinner at in the capital

Big Ben, St Paul’s Cathedral, Trafalgar Square – London’s most famous landmarks make too many cinematic cameos to count.

Away from the skyline, the capital’s restaurants have also hosted their fair share of on-screen dating disasters, bust-ups, break-ups and secret rendezvous.

From Chinese fine dining spots to East End boozers (with an awful lot of Hugh Grant in the mix), these are the London restaurants that have made their way into some of Hollywood’s big hits, and are still taking bookings today.

Nobu – Notting Hill, 1999

Kanye West may have namechecked these Japanese-Peruvian restaurants in his See Me Now lyrics only a few years ago, but Nobu has been synonymous with LA-style celebrity glamour for decades. Back in 1999, the Old Park Lane location made an appearance in Notting Hill, as a chosen lunch spot of Hollywood actress Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) and Will Thacker (Hugh Grant). The date ends abruptly when they overhear a loud conversation by a group of sexist diners discussing Anna’s career in less than polite terms.

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

Rules – Spectre, 2015

Rules in Covent Garden has more than one claim to fame. Most notably, it's said to be London’s oldest restaurant – having been founded in 1798 – and has entertained the likes of Charles Dickens, HG Wells and Charlie Chaplin over the years. More recently, it served as a meeting place for M (Ralph Fiennes), Q (Ben Whishaw) and Moneypenny (Naomie Harris) in Spectre, the 24th film in the James Bond franchise. You can ask to be sat at M’s table at the restaurant, easily recognisable in its position under a large painting at the back of the room. And yes, they do a mean Martini.

34-35 Maiden Lane, WC2E 7LB, rules.co.uk

Hakkasan Hanway Place – About A Boy, 2002

Sometimes it all comes out over dinner, doesn’t it? Hakkasan Hanway Place makes for a slick place for a date, and is the choice of Will (Hugh Grant, again) and Rachel (Rachel Weisz) in the 2002 film adaptation of Nick Hornby’s About A Boy. Things, however, do not run quite as smoothly as Hakkasan’s service. It is at the fine dining Cantonese restaurant that Rachel finally realises that teenager Marcus (Nicholas Hoult) is not actually Will’s son, as he had allowed her to believe, and she walks out.

8 Hanway Place, W1T 1HD, hakkasan.com

Regency Cafe – Brighton Rock, 2010/Layer Cake, 2005

This Pimlico greasy spoon is as well known for being a time capsule as it is for its fry-ups. Regency Cafe opened back in 1946, and has retained its low key but slick modernist decor ever since. It's unique aesthetic has made it a magnet for filmmakers, appearing just as at home in the 2010 adaptation of Brighton Rock – Graham Greene’s 1938 tale of teenage rebellion – as it is in a fight scene in 2005 gritty gangster drama Layer Cake, starring a pre-Bond Daniel Craig.

17-19 Regency Street, SW1P 4BY, regencycafe.has.restaurant

Momo – Bridget Jones’s Diary, 2001

If your career and relationship dramas tend to look a little bit Bridget Jones every once in a while, there’s always dinner and drinks with friends to hash it out over. Jones (Renée Zellweger) does so a fair few times during her turbulent romances with Mark (Colin Firth) and Daniel (Hugh Grant, yet again – perhaps he's the trick to keeping a place going?), one of which takes place in Moroccan souk-inspired restaurant Momo. The Soho spot is currently undergoing a major renovation with plans to reopen in March 2019, so it may look a little different the next time you visit.

25 Heddon Street, W1B 4BH, momoresto.com

Portrait – Closer, 2004

With spectacular views of Trafalgar Square and beyond to Big Ben, the top floor restaurant of the National Portrait Gallery is, in many ways, the perfect location for date night – that's if you don’t dwell too much on the visit made by Larry (Clive Owen) and Anna (Julia Roberts, again) in 2004 film Closer. The separated couple meet at the restaurant to sign their divorce papers, which Larry refuses to do unless they sleep together again for “old time’s sake”. The scene is as creepy as it sounds, but the restaurant is a winner.

National Portrait Gallery, St. Martin's Place, WC2H 0HE, npg.org.uk

The Royal Oak – Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, 1998

It wouldn’t be an East End gangster movie if there wasn’t a pub to get thrown out of – or around in, for that matter. The Royal Oak in Bethnal Green appears frequently throughout the Guy Ritchie’s 1998 gangster classic Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, serving as a base for the likes of Tom (Jason Flemyng), Bacon (Jason Statham) and Soap (Dexter Fletcher). Far from a shifty boozer, in reality The Royal Oak is actually a more than respectable gastropub serving Sunday lunch, rather than sawn-off shotguns.

73 Columbia Road, E2 7RG, royaloaklondon.com

Fatboy’s Diner – Sliding Doors, 1998

Looking at the polished chrome trailer which houses this fast food joint, you’d be forgiven for thinking Fatboy’s Diner wasn’t in London at all. The peculiar American-style Poplar spot features in Peter Howitt’s 1998 romcom Sliding Doors, which sees Helen (an especially British Gwyneth Paltrow) navigate parallel universes – one in which she catches a train and meets James (John Hannah) and one in which she does not. All the action takes place two years before the opening of Fatboy’s Diner’s very famous neighbour – once the Millennium Dome, now the O2.

Trinity Buoy Wharf, 64 Orchard Place, Poplar, E14 0JY, facebook.com/fatboysdiner