21 of London’s Top Private Dining Rooms For a Special Celebration

Some say the private dining room at Elystan Street is the best table in the house. There it sits, topped in white Corian®, not concealed in a corner but on the prime square of real estate between Phil Howard’s Michelin star kitchen and the dining room. Invite only your most appreciate food-loving friends (16 max) for the £115 tasting menu or the £60 Christmas lunch which involving gnocchetti with partridge and pheasant bolognese, and sloe gin baba with Seville orange and whipped cream.

A visual feast to match Jackson Boxer’s elegant British cooking, this Grade II-listed Georgian mansion offers grandeur at every turn. The Library offers a suitably grand dining space for a private celebration; decked out in a canopy of shimmering chandeliers and antique-filled wooden cabinets, it isn’t one guests will forget in a hurry. Several smaller rooms are perfect for smaller gathering of 14-28 guests, while the impeccably appointed Study has room for intimate gatherings of 12 guests. Learn more here.

If you’ve been charged with finding a venue that will chime with your brand values, put Silo at the top of your list. Chef Douglas McMaster’s pioneering Hackney Wick restaurant has broken away from the pack when it comes to sustainability, daring to introduce invasive species such as knotweed to menus, and doing away entirely with a bin (zero waste means zero waste). The private dining room for 10 to 14 is simple and serene. The all-in menu is £75.

The private room at Tom Sellers’ new Parisian-style bistro is the oenophile’s choice. It’s right next to the walk-in wine cellar where you can admire the restaurant’s vast collection of rare and vintage wines. Pick a bottle (maybe a 1989 Châteauneuf-du-Pape or a 1996 Tignanello) to enjoy with your feast Carlingford oysters, pork terrine, signature roast chicken and catch of the day ‘en croûte’. Seats 18.

They got their favourite designer Martino Gamper to do the private cellar dining room at The Marksman pub in east London, and it really is the coolest spot. Just right for eight to 12, it’s tucked away past the kitchen, where chefs Jon Rotheram and Tom Harris go to work on impeccable British produce. It’s £58 each for the feasting menus, supplementable with those Marksman little extras such as Scottish langoustines and mayo and beef and barley buns all round. Restaurant and terrace available for exclusive hire too. Learn more here.

Exclusive hire of the cosy and candlelit downstairs space at beloved local Italian Trullo in Highbury would make 11-34 of your friends very happy. Groups of up to 15 can order à la carte; larger groups get to choose between a £45 or £60 a head set menu which, this season, might mean mozzarella di bufala, chicken liver crostini, Hampshire pork chop, and tiramisu all round. A good call on the north side of town. Note: there is a minimum spend. Contact Trullo direct for further info.

At Dalston’s Acme Fire Cult, the PDR for eight to 18 occupies a shipping container/taproom within the 40FT Brewery lot. Rain or shine, chefs Andrew Clarke and Daniel Watkins cook outdoors over live fire producing fantastic feasts from £55 to £85. Build up from small plates of coal-roast leeks and pistachio romesco and sourdough drenched in ‘Marmite’ butter to big bangers like aged sirloin of beef with beef fat toast and bone marrow butter and smoked lamb shoulder with flat breads, wild garlic verde, and labneh. More info here.

Kudu Collective’s private dining room Curious Kudu in Peckham has its own discrete entrance, so you really feel it’s just you, your friends, and your supper. The South African-tinged feasts, £82pp, are served for the whole table, starting with homemade bread, and melted smoky bacon butter, then black pudding ‘magwenya’ doughnut, Cape Malay cured sea trout, and groaning platters of confit lamb shoulder with miso glaze. Seats up to 14. Learn more here.

Regenerated N1 pub The Baring has just opened up its first floor to diners. It’s available for private hire too, for up to 30. Ingredients are “not f—– around with too much” on chef Rob Tecwyn’s watch, as you’ll see from the feasting menu. Steamed Normandy leeks and duck egg mayonnaise; roasted goose breast, crushed swede, Brussels sprout tops, and truffle bordelaise; twice baked chocolate cake with Armagnac prunes; all yours for £55. More info here.

Gunpowder at Tower Bridge is a great shout for a group. The contemporary Indian cooking lends itself perfectly to sharing and is great value too at £45 (£70 with a drinks pairing) or £70 (£100 with drinks) for menus. Try the signature Bengali beetroot croquettes, and the soft-shell crab, the Kashmiri ghee roast lamb chops, or Aunty Sulu’s rabbit pulao. The Mezzanine room seats 32, the Clove Room 16. Elsewhere in the capital, you could look into private hire of the original Spitalfields site (for 24) or the private dining room for 26 in Soho.

A Michelin starred meal in Kensington? Sounds swish. Chef Mark Kempson’s soigné spot is more affordable than you might dare to dream, with the Christmas lunch fixed at £49.50 a head, and dinner at £85, for menus of classically minded British cooking. Kempson’s considered one of the country’s top game cooks so don’t miss the wild duck with creamed cabbage and stuffed prune or venison haunch and cavolo nero. The private room for 14 is chic and light.

A hop and a skip from Holland Park, Max de Nahlik’s friendly West London local has a first-floor dining room for groups of up to 32 or a share of the space for groups of seven plus. It looks picture-perfect, the long wooden dining table set banquet-style. It’s £50 for three courses such as chicken liver parfait, toast, tangerine and muscat jelly; roast venison haunch with red wine sauce; and miso triple chocolate brownie. Learn more.

One for the full-time and part-time vegans alike, Rishim Sachdeva’s ‘(mostly) vegan’ concept Tendril has a back room you can hire out for parties of up to 30. Sachdeva’s tasting-style menus aren’t just delicious, they’re extraordinarily good value for W1 at £55 for the festive edit. From lentil parfait with chilli and garlic to stuffed courgette pilaf and smoked potato pie, no two dishes are alike. More info here.

This diminutive Soho restaurant has a useful space in its downstairs dining room with its big oval table for 12. The monthly menu, £65, opens with starters to share like burrata and truffled wild mushrooms and garlic prawns, ahead of a grand feasting dish for the whole table to fight over such as Highland wing rib with confit potatoes or venison haunch and ragù with truffled creamed potatoes. Match it with wines from Greece, England, Argentine and beyond.

Connected to Cellar is Kindred in Hammersmith, a members’ club — but their private dining spaces are open to all. In a Grade II-listed mansion, it’s hard to choose, but choose you must between the theatrically lit Salon; the grand Butterwick Room; the oval table in the Bradmore Room, and the beautiful book-lined Library (seating 25, 14-16, 10 and 45 respectively). The Cellar menu is fashionable and global. Learn more here.

Book the lower ground floor at Barrafina on Adelaide Street and you get your own private chef. Get you! They’ll cook you your dream menu of Spanish tapas and pintxos such as prawn and piquillo pepper tortilla, chicken thigh and romesco, cured meats and patatas bravísimas. The room can be reconfigured to seat from 12 right up to 32. Barrafina has three other private rooms in its inventory, at Drury Lane, Coal Drops Yard, and a lovely recessed dining nook at Borough Yards.

The risk with booking a private party is it will feel like a wedding banquet. That’s certainly not the case at Turkish chef Civan Er’s Soho restaurant Yeni where it’s less ‘chicken or salmon?’ than ‘courgette flower, cured beef and sumac honey or olive oil braised beetroot, sour cherries and beyaz cheese?’  The upstairs room with steel-framed windows, acid green pendants, and ceramic tiles, seats up to 35. More info here.

For a special gathering or celebration in central London, it’s very difficult to improve upon this iconic member’s club and restaurant in Soho. Several private dining areas – including the svelte Marx and Blue Rooms, seating anywhere from 9-32 guests – come beautifully decorated, with Jeremy Lee’s joyful cooking adding a high note to the proceedings. Dedicated seasonal menus (including Christmas) and some of the best front-of-house staff anywhere complete the experience. More info here.

Going down the pub is never a bad idea, and certainly not when it’s as welcoming a pub as the Rose and Crown in Clapham. If there are fewer than 16 in your party, you can book a table downstairs in the wood panelled bar for roasts, pints, snacks, and the rest. The first-floor dining is available for hire for up to 30. The £55 festive menu has turkey ballotine with all the trimmings, endive and pear salad, and a flaming Christmas pudd.

One of the best private rooms in London, this East End institution’s downstairs space is legendary. Freshly pressed linens, cut flowers, and whitewashed walls lend an artful elegance, while the space’s location in a converted warehouse add a nonchalant touch to private events. A laid-back menu of chic bistro dishes offers a range of crowd-pleasers – oysters, steak tartare, honey cake with Chantilly cream – as well as fabulous cocktails and spot-on service. Between 36-80 guests – more info here.