Restaurants

NOBU
Still one of the most sought-after restaurants in London, the original branch of Nobu (in the Metropolitan hotel) has three receptionists receiving between 500 and 550 calls a day – and the phone lines are open only from 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, and 10am to 5pm on Saturday and Sunday, so don’t bother calling in the evening. As at other very popular restaurants, you need to time your call just right to be assured of a booking – you can only reserve up to one calendar month in advance, and the larger tables go within a few days. The standard waiting time is between two and three weeks for lunch or dinner, so if you intend to book for Nobu, call them precisely one month before going. Feature continues

The good news is that if all this still sounds like a lot of faff, Nobu’s sushi bar does not accept bookings for either lunch or dinner – just arrive and you’ll almost certainly be seated. Better still, the restaurant does try to accommodate walk-ins if possible, though you may have to wait in the bar for between half an hour and an hour – which sounds just fine to us, as you can spend that long on the phone just trying to get through to some other busy restaurants. In short: as with many of London’s hard-to-get-into restaurants, it’s best just turn up and try your luck, unless you’re a larger group or have a specific occasion to celebrate and want to be assured of a decent table.

Alternatively…
We polled our own panel of critics to see if they felt it was worth the hassle of being made to jump through hoops to get a table in London’s most popular restaurants. The unanimous response was ‘no’. It’s worth remembering that if you want a really good dining experience, there are many outstanding chefs and restaurants that will not make you phone at specific times, take your credit card details or expect you to disappear after two and a half hours while leaving you £150 worse off per head.

There are scores of places that are much easier to get into – and are also better value. Even at top restaurants such as Le Gavroche, Foliage or the Greenhouse, you can get a table for a Friday or Saturday night with just one or two days’ notice. Additionally, the Square and the Capital are excellent bets, even for walk-ins early in the week or at lunchtime. Remember, if you don’t like the attitude of a restaurant before you’ve even set foot there, then you can always act on first impressions and decide to eat somewhere else – somewhere where the customer really does come first.