Jump to: Hotel restaurants | Restaurants | Pubs
Take the stress and strain out of perfectly timing the turkey or wasting time over the washing up. Here's our pick of the best restaurants and pubs open in London for Christmas lunch.
Hotel restaurants
Dear Jackie
Soho - 20 Broadwick Street, London W1F 8HT
If you're looking for something in an opulent setting, then the lower-ground Dear Jackie at The Broadwick is definitely worth a look. The three-course menu features options like foie gras and chicken liver parfait and a roast free-range Norfolk bronze turkey with sage, leek and pancetta stuffing. There are vegetarian options, and if you don't fancy Christmas pudding, there's a 70% Chocolate Fondant for dessert.
Price: £195 (including a glass of Champagne)
Menu: Christmas Day menu
The Lanesborough
Belgravia - 80 Houndsditch, London EC3A 7AB
There are two options at this hotel for Christmas Day at The Lanseborough. There's The Lanesborough Grill for a menu that includes options of Cornish turbot royale or winter truffle agnolotti alongside the roast turkey. Or you can book The George's Room for a special Christmas Day Buffet that features everything from truffled quail and duck pie through or cep and madeira pithivier through to pudding and trifle.
Menus: Christmas Day menu | Buffet menu
Price: £310 for the buffet, £495 for The Grill
Royal Lancaster
Hyde Park- Lancaster Terrace, London W2 2TY
For Christmas lunch with a difference, book The Lancaster's bottomless Christmas Day brunch. Fancy sushi? A late Christmas breakfast as your first course? You've got it. Turkey with all the trimmings? No problem. Yule logs, mince pies and Christmas pudding - all at the same time? That's on offer too.
Price: £275, which includes and free-flowing Champagne and wine, £225 for chiildren
Menu: Bottomless brunch menu
Michael Caines at the Stafford
Mayfair - 16-18 St James's Place, London SW1A 1NJ
At The Stafford, Michelin-starred chef Michael Caines is settling in for his first Christmas at the hotel. The menu here includes his signature confit duck & duck liver terrine and The Stafford Beef Wellington as an alternative to turkey if you fancy it. There's a full vegetarian menu here too.
Menu: Michael Caines Christmas menu
Price: £295 per person, £148 per child
Whitcomb's at The Londoner
Leicester Square - 38 Leicester Square, London WC2H 7DX
Right on Leicester Square, this restaurant has a Mediterranean take on Christmas Day lunch. Options on the menu include a slow-braised beef eclair, while options for the main course include Robata-grilled aged beef tenderloin or roasted corn-fed chicken breast (no turkey here). For dessert, as well as Christmas pudding, here's the option of a glazed Jivara mousse.
Price: £195 per person (including a glass of Veuve)
Menu: Christmas Day menu
The Dorchester
Mayfair - 53 Park Ln, London W1K 1QA
The Mayfair hotel has four options for the day - The Promenade, The Grill, Alain Ducasse or a special chef's table dinner. The grill's menu includes venison tartare, game pie, tournedos rossini and more (and gingerbread soft serve). Alain Ducasse's three-Michelin-starred menu features duck foie gras terrine and a ‘Jaune des Landes’ capon as the main event as well as their special yule log.
Price: The Grill: £350, Alain Ducasse: £490, Promenade £475
Menus: The Grill | Alain Ducasse | The Promenade
Alex Dilling at Hotel Cafe Royal
Piccadilly - 10 Air St, London W1B 4DY
The two-Michelin-starred restaurant from Alex Dilling is open once again for Christmas Day this year. The menu includes Cornish turbot with brown crab and lovage sabayon as well as Lake District beef wellington while the lunch finishes with a buche de noel. If you're after something quieter and very high-end, this is worth considering.
Price: Four courses for £350 per adult
Menu: Christmas Day menu
See also:
108 Brasserie (Fitzrovia) - Their Christmas Day menu has options like a smoked venison carpaccio and 108 Gin & beetroot-cured Scottish salmon, before the main event. (£155 including a glass of Champagne - menu here)
One Aldwych (Covent Garden) - The hotel's Indigo restaurant offers a great view over its Christmas tree, making it a perfect spot for the big day. (£295, menu here).
Restaurants
Langan's
Mayfair - Stratton St, London W1J 8LB
As an old-school restaurant which has fairly recently had a big redesign, Langan's is perfect if you're after a proper classic Mayfair Christmas. Start things off with their canapes (which you can enhance with a caviar selection) while the menu includes dishes like foie gras terrine, scallop gratin and, if you don't fancy the turkey, lobster thermidor. There's even an eggnog custard tart to finish.
Price: £115
Menu: Christmas Day menu
Lucky Cat
Mayfair - 10 Grosvenor Sq, London W1K 6JP
Gordon Ramsay's Asian-inspired restaurant on Grosvenor Square is open for the day and is one of the few in central London to have an a la carte menu. This is one to think of if you want to swerve Christmas food altogether, with sushi, tempura, bao buns, dumplings and more dishes like black cod on the menu. If you want something a little more Christmassy, there's a sharing menu that includes turkey and lucky cat mince pies (with sobacha sponge and cinnamon mousse)
Price: A la carte prices
Menu: Christmas Day menu
Thai Square
Trafalgar Square - 21-24 Cockspur St, London SW1Y 5BN
Thai Square's Trafalgar Square restaurant has opened every Christmas Day since it first launched back in 1998. It remains one of the most affordable menus in central London on the day and the festive menu this year includes dishes like caramel chicken and their signature roasted duck.
Price: Menus start at £46
Menu: Christmas menu
Gaucho
Covent Garden, Hampstead and Richmond, Tower Bridge
Promising to please both Christmas purists and those who fancy something a bit different is Gaucho. Four of their restaurants are open on Christmas Day including their latest in Covent Garden. After cheese and truffle croquettes, there's a three-course set menu that includes dishes like Gaucho-cured smoked salmon with mains including turkey, ribeye steak, seared seabass or celeriac rossini. We also like the idea of a dulce de leche cheesecake for dessert.
Menu: Christmas menu
Price: £95
Orrery
Marylebone - 55 Marylebone High St, London W1U 5RB
Looking out over Marylebone, the Orrery is offering a Christmas lunch that previously has done away with the traditional turkey. Instead, there's salmon ballotine, chicken parfait and beef Wellington among the various courses on offer. The full menu for 2025 is yet to be revealed.
Price: TBC
Le Pont de la Tour
Tower Bridge - 36D Shad Thames, London SE1 2YE
Enjoy Christmas Day with a view of Tower Bridge at this riverside restaurant. The Christmas day menu is yet to be revealed, but previous years have included snacks like duck croquette and Comte gougeres with galantine of turkey, pan-fried halibut or roasted jerusalem artichoke & chestnut risotto as the main dish.
Price: TBC
The Cinnamon Collection
City, Covent Garden, Battersea, Westminster, Richmond
Vivek Singh is opening four restaurants on Christmas Day for a Christmas dinner with a modern Indian approach. So if you're after something that veers away from the traditional lunch, all of these restaurants are an option. Dishes include Tandoori turkey tikka, grilled jumbo black tiger prawns, roast goose breast and more.
Menus: Cinnamon Club | Cinnamon Bazaar
Price: Cinnamon Bazaar/Kitchen - £85 (Covent Garden, Battersea, City, Richmond), Cinnamon Club (Westminster) - £150
See also:
Bluebird (Chelsea) - Their Christmas menu usually features many non-Christmas dishes like Fettuccini Cacio e Pepe and Vitello Tonnato (as well as turkey, of course) so it's a good option if you want something other than the traditional lunch. (Price TBC).
Tayaabs (Whitechapel) - If you just want the comfort of their standard menu, Tayaabs is open as normal on Christmas Day.
Pubs
The Hound
Chiswick - 210 Chiswick High Rd, London W4 1PD
This is the latest pub that's co-owned by the JKS group and it will be their second Christmas. The menu on the day is served "family style" and includes venison tartare, duck terrine and salmon crudo, as well as turkey and beef and Christmas puudding (and Bakewall tart) to finish.
Price: £125
Menu: Christmas Day menu
The Guinea
Mayfair - 30 Bruton Pl, London W1J 6NL
This classic Mayfair pub is opening its doors on Christmas Day for a three-course menu. As well as a butter-poached ballotine of turkey, there's the option of carved dry-aged rib of beef with lamb cutlet or a wild mushroom, chestnut & puy lentil wellington. There's a glass of Champagne and amuse bouche on arrival too but it's a great place for a Christmas pint of Guinness too.
Price: £175
Menu: Christmas Day menu.
The Flask
Highgate - 77 Highgate W Hill, London N6 6BU
Work up an appetite before Christmas lunch at this Highgate pub or walk it off on the heath afterwards. The three-course menu has dishes like Devon dressed crab or venison pate en croute as well as mains of turkey, fillet of beef, pan-roasted halibut or wild mushroom & celeriac wellington.
Price: £120
Menu: Christmas Day menu
The Windmill
Clapham - Windmill Dr, London SW4 9DE
This festive-looking Clapham pub has an extensive menu on offer on Christmas Day. Start with dishes like baked South Coast scallops in the shell, move on to mains of turkey, duck wellington or mushroom and pan roast halibut suprême and finish with an apple, fig and chestnut crumble.
Price: £125 (£15 for children)
Menu: Christmas Day menu
Trafalgar Tavern
Greenwich - Park Row, London SE10 9NW
Walk along the Thames on Christmas Day to the Trafalgar Tavern at Royal Greenwich, where their three-course Christmas Day menu includes choices of rabbit & foie gras terrine, line-caught seabass, turkey or rib of beef as well as a rocky road dessert (alongside Christmas pudding, of course).
Price: £135 including petit fours
Menu: Christmas Day menu
Anglesea Arms
Kensington - 15 Selwood Terrace, London SW7 3QG
There's a three-course festive menu on the big day at this South Kensington pub - which kicks off with starters like smoked chicken filo tart, before main choices that include turkey, duck breast, pan-fried halibut and a vegan haggis, cheese and potato pie. Desserts include a Christmas crumble tart and Eccles cake.
Price: £107
Menu: Christmas Day menu
See also:
Lots of Young's pubs are open for lunch on the day, so if there's one near you, it's worth checking with them.
And in the spirit of Christmas
Christmas at The Alexandra
Wimbledon - 33 Wimbledon Hill Rd, London SW19 7NE
A pub that every year truly gets what Christmas is all about, the Alexandra has become famous for its Community Christmas lunches. Anyone who finds themselves alone in London on Christmas Day can come here for a free dinner with no strings attached. They're also looking for volunteers and donations which you can find out more about here.
The Hot Dinners guide to Christmas in London
Hamper guides, cookery book shopping, Christmas specials and more. Yes, we really do have everything you need for Christmas right here on Hot Dinners.
Subscribe to hear the latest from Hot Dinners
