Thirteen Wonderful Christmas Menus for Celebrating in London

You’ll have seen enough Netflix Christmas movies by now to know that Americans do Christmas better. See, for example, the Snowday in Brooklyn pop-up in Notting Hill, bedecked with more tartan throws than Brooke Shields in A Castle for Christmas. The cocktails are nuts: sip a minty green “Grinch, Don’t Kill My Vibe” or slurp “Dude, Where’s My Sled” straight out of a glass bauble. Book in for a Christmassy brunch or dinner and sharing menus involving cranberry brie bites; smoked salmon and everything spice brioche; and vegan Wellington with all the trimmings. N.B. Make it brunch, if it’s those stacked pancakes you’re after.

With its in-house salumeria, Manteca in Shoreditch has the edge on all other purveyors of pigs-in-blankets. They’re just one of the trimmings on Chris Leach and David Carter’s Italian-accented feasting menu. It’s £75 for a cornucopia of home-made ricotta, wood-roasted muscat grapes, gorgonzola and more, ahead of a juicy cut of Dexter beef or maybe Middle White porchetta. Their hand-rolled pasta is the stuff of legend; you’ll want to add a supplementary course of brown crab cacio e pepe or black truffle rigatoni.

There are elaborate Christmas-themed grottos decked out like a Netflix holiday special, and then there’s Cave Cuvee’s Christmas cave. The cult East London wine cave has transformed its subterranean bar into a Santa’s grotto for the holidays, complete with plenty of tinsel and a Christmas-leaning menu (think bougie pigs in blankets, Comté with quince jelly) paired to seasonal cocktails, Top Cuvée mulled drinks, and the bar’s full arsenal of natural wines.

That bright twinkling star you see, that’ll be the Michelin star at Leroy in Shoreditch. Simon Shand’s menus are seasonal rather than all-out Christmassy. He does an £85 feasting menu for tables of six to eight, revolving around a splendid centrepiece of whole roast duck or veal Wellington with truffle jus. Starters and puds are set down to share, whether Christian Parra black pudding with chicory and orange or brown sugar meringues with clementines and chestnuts. Add oysters or a cheese course if you’re gastronomically that way inclined. A cool spot, but not so cool you can’t wear your Christmas jumper.

Rarebit in Elephant and Castle celebrates its first Christmas this year. Yes, there is rarebit on the £35 Christmas menu, but also house-cured salmon gravlax; roast turkey and all the trimmings; and Christmas pudding ice cream. Rarebit doubles as a bottle shop so know you’re getting a decent deal on booze, with bottles priced at £15 corkage or under.

After a flurry of excellent notices from a trio of critics, new dining pub The Baring in Islington can expect a busy first Christmas. It has how opened up its first-floor dining room for bookings (private hire available) and, for groups of six plus, chef Rob Tecwyn has written a doozy of a menu, balancing tradition and luxury. It’s £50 a head for the likes of salmon gravlax, rye bread, horseradish crème fraîche; roasted guineafowl, crushed swede, creamed kale and chestnut, and apple and pear crumble.

Get a head start on Veganuary by eating vegan (or ‘mostly vegan’ as Tendril would have it) this Christmas. Rishi Sachdeva’s long-running pop-up Tendril, ensconced on Princes Street in Mayfair until the end of January, has put on festive spin on his usual Discovery menus with new creations including grilled casatica, smoked honey and cranberry chutney; chargrilled squash, peanut sage crumble, braised red cabbage and port; apple and cherry crumble with Calvados cream. At £33 for lunch, £49 for dinner, it’s economic good sense.

In the absence of an invitation to a stately home this yuletide, we enjoin you to book your shindig at historic Quo Vadis where Jeremy Lee cooks as if for a lord and lady. Such abundance! Menus, from £65 to £95, present such conundrums as chicken pie with mash and sprout tops, or roast sirloin with pickled walnuts, horseradish, and roast potatoes? A veritable tumble of meringues, custard, cream, and fruit, or Dickensian figgy pudding? It’s not just the scran, it’s the mise-en-scène – all polished silverware, flickering candles and snowy linen. Three private rooms, seating 9 to 32.

Putting flavour on the table this Christmas is James Cochran at his Islington restaurant 12:51. The chef taps into his Vincentian-Scottish roots, amping up game rissoles with cranberry hot sauce;  Brussels sprout salad with XO sauce, and pheasant with coronation swede. Vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike can choose between five and eight course menus (£50 and £80), the latter coming with a goody bag from the chef (his Scotch Bonnet Chilli Jam would be a good stocking-filler).

Iconic London gastropub, the Anchor and Hope, invites you to just dig in. Their feasting menus, from £50, revolve around a single mammoth dish – perhaps cassoulet, fish stew, bollito misto with tiny pasta, Marsala, and mustard fruits, or a handsome Swaledale sirloin and chips –  with starters chosen on the day from a selection including Roquefort and pear salad and smoked salmon and Russian salad. Add sherry and a magnum of red and you’ll be there until closing time.

Italy in the summer has nothing on Italy in the winter. Think about it: truffles, puntarelle, chestnuts, panettone! They’re all on Mitsel Ibrahim’s £65 Christmas menu at Ombra, the excellent canalside Italian on the Bethnal Green-Hackney border. The seasonal à la carte runs throughout the season too (for all your perfect fresh pasta needs) but if the simplicity of a fixed menu appeals, then look forward to the chopped beef and winter truffle vol au vent, ravioli of Delica pumpkin and amaretti, and a frosty lemon sorbet sgroppino.

Expect endless, boundless gratitude from friends and colleagues if you arrange this year’s knees-up at Brunswick House. The extravagantly accoutred 18th Century mansion is a World of Interior spread come to life, each room an antiquities-stuffed marvel. For groups of 6-12, there’s private dining; for 12-110, it’s banqueting-style (from £65 in either case). Clever Jackson Boxer, his menus are at once light and celebratory. Chalkstream trout, green apple, celery, and grapes; dayboat pollock, with artichoke and corno peppers; and rum and raisin rice pudding are on the menu.

At Tooting favourite Smoke and Salt, the seasonal menus are Christmas-flavoured rather than Christmas-themed. Across the three sharing menus (regular, pescatarian, plant-based – all six courses and all £50) you’ll find such dishes as Brussels sprouts, crispy kale, and orange miso glaze; Chalkstream trout crudo, hand-dived scallops and lemon balm; and roasted apple ice cream with lebkuchen cheesecake. Festive tipples could include S&S’s own mulled wine or “egg-not”.