In London, dining and going to the theatre is a classic combination. But if your heart sinks at the thought of three unimaginative courses scarfed down in 60 minutes, there are plenty of all-day restaurants happy to serve one course whatever the hour.
Below we’ve listed our favourite restaurants not only in West End Theatreland but close to the off Broadway-style stages around London, from Hammersmith out west to east London’s Arcola. Bear in mind that anywhere in the West End is walkable in quarter of an hour if, say, you want to eat at Bocca di Lupo but you’re going to the Royal Opera House.
As a rumbling tummy is the only thing more distracting in an auditorium than a mobile phone ringing, most of these restaurants are more suited to pre-theatre. But if you have the willpower to wait until after the final curtain to eat your supper, there are a couple of late-night places in here, too. Best of all, each is guaranteed to provoke a standing ovation, even if what’s on stage is a flop.
Best for: Apollo Theatre, Criterion Theatre, Gielgud Theatre, Harold Pinter Theatre, Her Majesty’s Theatre, Leicester Square Theatre, Lyric Theatre Piccadilly, Prince of Wales Theatre, Soho Theatre, Sondheim Theatre, Theatre Royal Haymarket
Rita’s Dining
There might not be a better snack-based triptych in London. Look: a punchy little jalapeño popper gilda, which with a mini martini costs £8; a bean devilled egg at £4; and saltfish beignets with green onion remoulade, also £8. The menu continues in a similar fashion, taking in Dorset clams and beef tartare, later braised lamb with turnips, pork chops and skate wings. Rita’s Dining is a dainty Soho spot — a celebrity place — pitched perfectly for a quick bite or a late table of everything.
49 Lexington Street, Carnaby, W1F 9AP, ritasdining.com
The Portrait Restaurant at the National Gallery
Richard Corrigan’s latest restaurant is part-Irish, part-British dining. It takes the best of both and serves it in a sweeping room full of natural light. And so with charming hospitality and views over London, enjoy a two-course menu for £34, three for £39. Starters might include crispy poached eggs with artichoke hollandaise or parmesan custard alongside anchovy crostini; main dishes might divert toward classics - think chicken cordon bleu - and for dessert, perhaps a marmalade steamed pudding with custard.
Saturdays between 12-2pm, 5-6pm. 2 St. Martin's Place, WC2H 0HE, theportraitrestaurant.com
Old Compton Brasserie
OCB feels like Balans did in its 90s heyday: an all-day anchor of the Soho gay village open to anyone whose idea of a mid-afternoon coffee is an espresso martini. The cooking of the crowd-pleasing menu is competent rather than accomplished — burratina or beetroot-cured salmon to start, then steak-frîtes or seafood linguine — but the hardworking staff carry it all off with such twinkly charm no one is complaining, and camp cocktails such as the Kylie Minogue spritz are top-notch. Weekend brunch here is a good shout before a matinée.
36-38 Old Compton Street, W1D 4TT, oldcomptonbrasserie.co.uk
Bocca di Lupo
Tucked on a dingy backstreet by the stage door of the Apollo Theatre, Bocca di Lupo is perhaps the ultimate Soho Italian, with a long marble bar for fast grazing and a proper dining room behind for more leisurely eating. Small plates of regional Italian cooking is the name of the game and the best way to approach the menu is to match every familiar order with something more recherche — one bowl of red prawn farfalle and another of scorpion fish paccheri, perhaps — or there’s a £15 pre-theatre deal which buys a starter, main (a vegetarian pasta of some sort) and salad. For an extra £5, dessert. Or grab a cone from Bocca’s ice-cream parlour Gelupo over the road to eat on the hoof en route to the theatre.
12 Archer Street, W1D 7BB, boccadilupo.com
Wild Honey St James
In the Sofitel but with its own entrance, Anthony Demetre’s Wild Honey resurrects the creative British cooking with which the chef made a name for himself at the original Wild Honey in Mayfair and Arbutus in Soho. Demetre’s plates have the colour that the grand if bland hotel dining room lacks, with a three-course pre-theatre menu to swerve the otherwise five-star prices. Expect the likes of Shetland Isle mussels with blood orange and sea purslane followed by slow-cooked ox cheek with seasonal vegetables, red wine and parsley sauce and an English custard tart with golden sultanas, pine nuts and salted butter.
Sofitel London St James Hotel, 8 Pall Mall, SW1Y 5NG, wildhoneystjames.co.uk
El Pastor
Tacos are a perfect pre-theatre quick eat, especially for two people to share, and the pairs of onion- and coriander-topped corn circles coming out of the kitchen of the Soho El Pastor are as good as you’ll find anywhere: we particularly recommend the soft-shell crab tacos and chicken tinga tostadas. But where El Pastor really comes up trumps is with last food orders from Wednesday to Saturday at 1am, when a sharing plate of short-rib tortillas and a round of pina coladas are just the ticket before the Night Tube home. Taco fantastico!
66-70 Brewer Street, W1F 9UP, tacoselpastor.co.uk
Best for: Adelphi Theatre, Aldwych Theatre, Duchess Theatre, Duke of York’s Theatre, Fortune Theatre, Lyceum Theatre, Novello Theatre, Playhouse Theatre, Savoy Theatre, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, Trafalgar Theatre, Vaudeville Theatre
Joe Allen
One of the West End’s longest-running productions, this American import has been a key member of the Theatreland cast since 1977 and serves as the unofficial canteen for hungry luvvies, many of whom are immortalised in framed posters of long-forgotten flops. Expect Anglo-American bistro fare — steak tartare, barbecued glazed chicken, pecan pie — plus a famous off-menu cheeseburger, best ordered after the show, before last orders at 10.30pm. The cocktail list, meanwhile, was put together by the late Russell Norman, who worked his way up from waiter to maitre d’ here in the 1990s.
2 Burleigh Street, WC2E 7PX, joeallen.co.uk
The Oystermen
Far too good to be left to the Covent Garden tourists, this under-the-radar seafood specialist serves some of the best-value fish and shellfish in the West End: cured sea trout, pan-fried hake (both little over £20). The oysters themselves comes naked or assertively dressed with sharply flavoured toppings; tempura oysters are a delicious alternative to eating the bivalves raw while weekday theatre-goers should investigate oyster happy hour, when six rock oysters and a glass of wine are served up from 3-5pm Tuesday to Friday.
12 Henrietta Street, WC2E 8NA, oystermen.co.uk
Spring
Eco-pioneer Skye Gyngell is far too sustainably-minded a chef to offer a straightforward pre-theatre menu; instead, early-evening guests at her serene Somerset House dining room get a no-choice “Scratch” menu served from Wednesday to Saturday, with three inventive courses (£30) made from ingredients that would otherwise have gone to waste. Courgette fritters with beetroot tops and herb crème fraiche might be followed by grilled squid wings with fennel salad and potatoes, and baked chocolate mousse with candied ginger cream and rye shortbread. Leftovers never tasted so essential.
Somerset House, New Wing, Lancaster Place, WC2R 1LA, springrestaurant.co.uk
Best for: Ambassadors Theatre, Arts Theatre, Cambridge Theatre, Dominion Theatre, Donmar Warehouse, Garrick Theatre, Gillian Lynne Theatre, London Coliseum, Noël Coward Theatre, Palace Theatre, Phoenix Theatre, Prince Edward Theatre, Royal Opera House, Shaftesbury Theatre, St Martin’s Theatre, Wyndham’s Theatre
J Sheekey
The Ivy and its fish-focused sibling J Sheekey were legendary celeb hangouts in the Nineties and though the star power has dimmed in this century one is still as likely to see a famous face from the stage dining on one of Sheekey’s leather banquettes as framed on the walls in one of the vintage black-and-white publicity photos. Tell the staff which play you’re seeing when you book and they’ll get you to your seat in time, whether you’re eating Dover sole in the main dining room or fish pie on the terrace out front; with last orders at 11.15pm, a post-theatre crustacea plater is not out of the question at Sheekey’s oyster bar before the last tube.
28-32 St Martin’s Court, WC2N 4AL, j-sheekey.co.uk
Lahpet
The first West End site for a Shoreditch restaurant that began life as a stall at Maltby Street Market, Lahpet is giving many Londoners their first taste of the flavours of Myanmar, served up in a cool, contemporary two-floor space. Dishes come across like a hybrid of Thai and Indian cooking: small plates of Andaman ceviche and tea leaf salad, or larger portions of pork belly and sour bamboo curry or red lentils with glass noodles and sweet potato. Veggie options are strong, though go easy on the carby yellow-pea parathas to avoid snoozing off before the interval.
21 Slingsby Place, WC2E 9AB, lahpet.co.uk
Best for: London Palladium
Bar Crispin
Kingly Street was until recently the home of Shampers, one of London’s best old-school wine bars. Alas Covid turned Shampers’ fizz flat and it’s gone to the great bottle bank in the sky but Bar Crispin, a few doors up, is the shape of wine bars to come. And a very small shape, too, with space for around 20 drinkers at zinc-topped table imbibing natural wine (150 bottles of the stuff) while nibbling on olives and almonds, knocking back oysters and grazing their way through a lovely little menu of smoked cod’s roe on toast, grilled asparagus with ajo blanco and black garlic, and confit duck with salsa verde and celery. It’s all brilliant value too. Cheers to the future!
19 Kingly Street, W1B 5PY, barcrispin.com
Best for: Apollo Victoria, The Other Palace, Victoria Palace Theatre
The Goring Cocktail Bar
The bar at London’s oldest family-owned hotel feels like starring in one’s very own production of The Mousetrap, with peerless people-watching of bejewelled tourists and pinstriped civil servants spied on from behind a complementary newspaper. Even if one isn’t going to the theatre, this is a thoroughly well-upholstered experience worth indulging in — Champagne poured at one’s elbow by dicky-bowed waiters, expertly mixed cocktails (both classic and contemporary) — though an experience best not attempted on an empty stomach. Happily, a bar menu of lobster Caesar salad, fish goujons and finger sandwiches is quite the smartest stomach-lining in SW1.
15 Beeston Place, SW1W 0JW, thegoring.com
Best for: Cadogan Hall, Royal Court
Azzurra
Azzurra opened near Sloane Square last year, a glitzy, all-or-nothing Italian seafood fixture that pays homage to Sicily and the Amalfi Coast. From Hong Kong restaurateur David Yeo, Azzurra embodies a “boat-to-table” ethos, focusing on seafood, crisp white wines and a good time. Before the theatre in the far west, it would be an ideal pitstop for an efficient plate of oysters and the like. Or after, a long feast of a frutto di mare.
127 – 128 Sloane Street, SW1X 9AS, azzurrarestaurant.co.uk
Colbert
Brasserie Zédel and The Delaunay remain surefire hits for a pre-theatre supper in Soho and Covent Garden. Sloane Square’s Colbert, meanwhile, is as much of a local landmark as the Royal Court next door, and if the theatre has a reputation for premiering edgy work from new playwrights, this ersatz French brasserie offers the sort of fortifying comfort necessary before watching something challenging from the next big thing. Expect artichokes and escargots, côte de boeuf and escalope de veau served up for Chelsea prices; croques, omelettes and a two-course prix fixe (£24.75) offer better value.
50-52 Sloane Square, SW1W 8AX, colbertchelsea.com
Best for: The National Theatre and Southbank Centre, The Old and Young Vics, Union Theatre, The Vaults
Yamagoya
Little talked about, quite curiously, Yamagoya is the now long-standing London outpost of an international chain of ramen joints. In a small, wood-panelled room are warming bowls of noodles, eggs soy-stained, pork soft. There’s chicken kaarage, gyozas of varying description; there might even be a clear raindrop cake, once so often paraded on social media, served on a little wooden board. It is by no means an earth-shattering restaurant, but for an easy, no frills meal in the confines of Waterloo, not far from the Southbank too, it is wholly worth it before a theatre trip.
49 The Cut, SE1 8LF, 020 7928 1093
Meson don Felipe
It might not serve the best Spanish food in London (though it claims to be the capital’s oldest tapas bar) but who needs Michelin stars when there’s a guitarist vigorously strumming flamenco music, bottles of fino and jugs of sangria to share and small plates that are more than serviceable for a quick bite to eat before or after the theatre? Meson don Felipe is far preferable to the chains fronting the river on the South Bank and so much fun, in fact, that one might decide to skip whatever’s showing at the National for another round of gambas al ajillo and chorizo castellano. ¡Olé!
53 The Cut, SE1 8LF, mesondonfelipe.co.uk
Best for: Menier Chocolate Factory, Shakespeare’s Globe, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse
Elliot’s
One would expect a restaurant in the shadow of Borough Market to make a fuss of the quality of its ingredients and Elliot’s doesn’t disappoint, with a line-up of small plates constructed from all sorts of exotic-sounding things: a salad of Vesuvius tomato, honeymoon melon, caper and rocket; sea bass crudo with fennel pollen and chilli; lamb heart with trombetta courgette and radicchio. Bigger plates include wood-fired pizzas and wood-grilled meat and fish while breads baked in-house and finished with fabulous toppings include garlic butter calzone and Cantabrian anchovy toast. This is smile-inducing food served by happy people; the only point of sadness is that the signature Isle of Mull cheese puffs can’t be taken away to scoff during the first act.
12 Stoney Street, SE1 9AD, elliots.london
Best for: Bridge Theatre
Gunpowder Tower Bridge
Like Dishoom but cooler, this second branch of Gunpowder lacks the intimate excitement of the Spitalfields original but the glossy two-floor site is way easier to get into. Pre-theatre menus are served at lunch and early evening, with two/three courses clocking in at £25 and offering approachable dishes such as tandoori chicken followed by Kerala beef pepper fry and triple-chocolate brownie with ice cream. Better, though, to order the signatures from the main menu that made the place famous: the spicy venison and vermicelli doughnut followed by a Barnsley chop with Kashmiri ghee roast costs a tenner more than the set menu.
4 Duchess Walk, SE1 2SD, gunpowderrestaurants.com
Brindisa
Do not become bored. Brindisa is fun and excellent value. For example, what better way to begin an evening than with two, three, four croquetas, dipped willingly in a sprightly sauce? Together with a zesty wine and here we have a pleasing entry into an evening, one wherein a blazing show is to follow. For almost 20 years now, Brindisa has enraptured Londoners with its Spanish flavours. Perello olives: we would be nothing without them. And so, really, the restaurant group is important, just as our theatres are.
18-20 Southwark Street, SE1 1TJ, brindisatapas.com
Best for: Sadler’s Wells
Morito
An offshoot of neighbouring Moro, weeny Morito applies the same moreishly Moorish formula to tapas-style small plates. There are a handful of tables hugging the walls but the best seats are in front of the chefs beavering in the kitchen behind the counter, from where the likes of crispy aubergine with whipped feta and date molasses, mackerel a la plancha with fresh garlic and chilli flakes, and spiced lamb with aubergine, pomegranate and pine nuts are plated up in lickety-split time. To drink, there are Spanish vermouths and sherries by the glass plus equally Iberian wines by the carafe.
32 Exmouth Market, EC1R 4QE, morito.co.uk
Best for: Almeida Theatre
Frederick’s
A lynchpin of the Islington dining scene, independent-minded Frederick’s has been following its own path for over 50 years, though at heart both the cooking and decor are frozen somewhere around the turn of the century. Still, when the results taste this good, no one minds if tuna and avocado tartare with wasabi and soy sauce, or chargrilled veal escalope with risotto primavera are no longer the last word in foodie fashion, while a separate vegetarian and vegan menu shows that the kitchen keeps step with the times. A 200-bin wine cellar is as much of an attraction, there’s a garden for summer and light-filled interiors when it’s too cold to go outside.
Camden Passage, N1 8EG, fredericks.co.uk
Best for: Hampstead Theatre
Singapore Garden
Bradleys might be the most convenient place for the Hampstead Theatre but factor in a five-minute walk before the curtain goes up and this smart (and smartly priced) South Hampstead local is a name worth knowing. Singaporean and Malaysian dishes such as sambal prawns, mee goreng and char kway teow are the specialities, but there’s also a decent line in Cantonese classics of soft-shell crab and sweet and sour pork. For cheaper, no-frills Chinese thrills, nearby Green Cottage on Finchley Road is excellent.
83 Fairfax Road, NW6 4DY, singaporegarden.co.uk
Best for: Arcola Theatre
Acme Fire Cult
A wood-fired grill might be the altar at which this foodie cult worships but the Dalston newcomer also preaches the gospel of east London restaurant clichés: sharing plates, natural wine, luxuriantly bearded chefs and craft beer (Acme is a partnership with the 40FT Brewery next door, as well as between chefs Daniel Watkins and Andrew Clarke). It’s far more fun than it sounds, both inside the Nordic-looking dining room and outside on the heated deck around the grill, but the biggest surprise is that vegetable dishes such as coal-roast celeriac and aubergine steak are even better than the modishly unfashionable meats like mutton and bavette.
Abbot Street, E8 3DP, acmefirecult.com
Best for: Eventim Hammersmith, Lyric Hammersmith, Riverside Studios
Sam’s Riverside
Firstly, we must acknowledge the parmesan churros. At Sam’s Riverside, a fairly flamboyant brasserie by the river, is a snack that rivals any in London: thin, fatty spears of dough, crisp outside and soft within, flavoured with salty parmesan throughout and topped with the same cheese grated. These with a dirty martini, which at Sam’s Riverside are usually of impeccable design, make for a perfect pre-theatre snack. Those hungrier might delve deeper into the menu and find more. On the set weekday menu — £25.50 for two courses, £30.50 for three — are dishes such as roast beef carpaccio, pea and mint soup, and mackerel with a cherry tomato and caper salsa.
1 Crisp Road, W6 9DN, samsriverside.co.uk
La Petite Bretagne
The crêpe is one of the world’s great all-in-one convenience foods and yet in London its it often relegated to something reheated on a hot plate on a cart in a park. Here in Hammersmith, however — and over the road from the Lyric — Brittany’s great gift to gastronomy is given the respect it deserves. Savoury buckwheat crêpes come filled with spins on the classic cheese and ham, there are flour-based, pancake-like crêpes topped with sweet things such as salted caramel, all washed down with — bien sûr — Breton cider. A two-course menu offers both a savoury and sweet crêpe and a soft-drink for £14.95.
5-7 Beadon Road, W6 0EA, lapetitebretagne.co.uk
Best for: Bush Theatre
Esarn Kheaw
The best eating in Shepherd’s Bush is the most casual — a wrap from Mr Falafel in the market, or a couple of plates of pizza-like manakish at Zeit & Zaatar — but for when something a smidgen more formal is required for pre-theatre, this longstanding Thai, owned by the same family since 1992, hits the (hot) spot. The fiery cooking of Thailand’s north-eastern Esarn (aka Isan) region is the house speciality, whether the homemade Thai sausages scattered with bird’s eye chillies or minced catfish with chilli and fish sauce. There’s green curry and pad Thai too but, really, there’s Westfield up the road for that.
