The best restaurants in London open for Christmas Day lunch and dinner

Piccadilly's grand dining room will be open on Christmas Day from 11.30am to 4.30pm, with a festive lunch that does all the classics: think smoked salmon, turkey with the finest of trimmings and Christmas pudding with brandy butter. Want to go off piste? Pump for beef wellington, baked cauliflower gratin and fig and apple sticky toffee pud.

This historic Highgate gastropub is the perfect spot in which to feast after a Christmas Day stroll on Hampstead Heath. Open from 12-6pm with the last seating at 3pm, come for an a la carte festive roast (there’s no set menu here), with seasonal starters such as curried parsnip soup, sides such as pigs in blankets and desserts like panettone bread and butter pudding. Cosy and classic and not too fancy. Ideal, then. 

Want to escape all things Christmas, but still fancy eating well on December 25? Head to Tayyabs. It’s business as usual at this Whitechapel stalwart – the owners aren’t Christian, so there’s not a whiff of turkey in sight, just their regular, extensive menu of Punjabi dishes to pick from. The kebabs are fiendishly good, as is the chilli-spiked lamb served simmering in a karahi. Remember to bring your own booze as it’s unlicensed.

A little bit British and a little bit French, at Bob Bob Ricard you’ll get caviar and oysters alongside beef wellington and lobster mac and cheese thermidor for Christmas. Of course, we know you’re really just going to ding constantly on their infamous Press for Champagne button, and on a day like December 25, that’s absolutely understandable. 

The flashiest spot in town, The Ritz’s Michelin-starred dining room, complete with floral swags, crystal chandeliers and massive pink marble columns is of course open on Christmas Day. Black-tie lunch is six-courses, with a live band and a visit from Santa with gifts for all the kiddies. It’s a mere £460 per adult and £300 per child. 

New Westbourne Park resto Canal is opening up on Christmas Day for a £100 a head set menu. From the same team as Bistro Freddie, you know things will be good here, including the views; the glossy riverside retreat sits pretty on a new-build chunk of yet-to-be battered brickwork by the Grand Union Canal. The lunch spread includes smoked salmon with pickled fennel, stracciatella with pickled pumpkin, and goose with creamed sprouts and roast potatoes. Vegetarians have king cabbage with celeriac and hazelnuts, and everyone gets brown butter cake and mulled pears for pud.

Booking Office 1869 is one of the most bewilderingly beautiful restaurants in the city. Come and eat your Christmas dins in the one-time St. Pancras ticket office, newly adorned with palm trees, lashings of gold and leopard print-inspired chairs. Their five-course festive meal is £165 a head, and comes with smoked salmon blinis and British charcuterie, classic Norfolk bronze turkey, or Scottish halibut with caviar velouté, grassfed British striploin, or wild mushroom pithivier for mains.

Located on the first floor of the Royal Festival Hall in the Southbank Centre, the festive views at Skylon are almost as much of a pull as the food. For £130 a head, the four course dinner kicks off with smoked salmon or crispy duck salad before your choice of roast turkey breast, beef wellington or celeriac wellington.

Looking for something central and reliable for Xmas Day dins? Then longstanding chain Thai Square will deliver. Their Trafalgar Square branch is open all day, offering a four course menu for £46 or three courses for £41. Who needs roast turkey when you can feast on sweet and sour seabass and tamarind prawns?

London’s oldest Indian restaurant – it opened way back in 1926 – Veeraswamy scored their first Michelin star in 2016. Open for Xmas Day – alongside sister spots Chutney Mary in St James’s and Amaya in Belgravia – their three course a la carte menu is £120 a head and if you opt for the lunch seating, a live band will be playing. Who needs turkey when you can have meltingly soft paneer and Travancore prawn curry? 

Plough face-first into the festive set menu from Dinner by Heston Blumenthal alumni Will Murray and Jack Croft, whose St James’s Market space is all about being sassily sustainable, growing their own produce and doing their own whole-animal butchery. At £250 a head for seatings on December 25, expect salmon belly crumpet, dressed Devon crab, beef tartare with oyster mayonnaise, mushroom parfait with Wiltshire truffle, and a main event of bronze turkey, or venison wellington. Save space for a special pud of yule log and mince pies.

The Delaunay – a sibling to that other handsome behemoth, The Wolseley – is another grand option for Christmas Day. A three course set menu here starts with duck liver parfait and toasted brioche to start, followed by either Norfolk roast turkey or lemon sole meunière before Christmas pudding with brandy butter.

Like a toned-down version of Sketch if it was in Istanbul, this classy modern Turkish restaurant is the latest venture of Turkish-Cypriot chef Selin Kiazim, formerly of the now-closed east London restaurant, Oklava. Open on Xmas Day, the festive offering is a la carte, and includes the likes of hummus with chilli butter, smoked aubergine, spiced lamb lahmacun and a hearty mixed grill of shish köfte, chicken shish, and lamb kebap. Come for a mighty, meaty celebration. 

This fancy fine dining spot The Pem is open for Xmas lunch. Tucked away inside Conrad London St. James Hotel, here you can expect a beaut of a British spread, with steamed Cornish crab with citrus and caviar to start. Go big or go back home when it comes to mains; there’s roast beef fillet wellington with wild mushrooms or honey-glazed goose with spiced cranberry, before cranberry and orange rum baba or roasted hazelnut Paris-Brest. It’s £195 a head.

If you're absolutely loaded, then may we suggest the recently re-opened restaurant at London's chicest hotel? Claridge's £550 a head Christmas lunch is far from cheap, but you'll be served a five course meal complete with elegant canapes followed by truffle risotto, and the requisite roasted turkey with all the classiest trimmings. All in one of the loveliest rooms in town. Millionaires to the front. 

Riding House Café offers Christmas dinner in a quirky Fitzrovia setting (think architectural salvage and wall lamps made from stuffed squirrels, for instance). For £95 a head you can get five generous courses, including beetroot-cured gravadlax with caviar and shredded sprouts, before roast turkey with apple & herb stuffing, creamed corn, cranberry sauce and a festive cheeseboard for the whole table. The Bloomsbury branch is also open on December 25.

Feel uber chic as you stumble down this Mayfair mews to discover a classic London bolthole. This historical gastroboozer goes back at least 500 years, and is the ideal spot to chow down on a three-course Christmas dins. First is pork terrine, smoked salmon or prawn cocktail, before butter poached ballotine of Norfolk turkey or carved dry-aged rib of beef with lamb cutlet. It’s £175 each. 

This grand Mayfair restaurant – open since 1976 – is a London institution and as such, is offering a classic Christmas Day feast. It's £115 a head, and includes scallop gratin or foie gras terrine, before a big ticket roasted norfolk bronze turkey with pigs in blankets, honey-roasted parsnips, roast potato, yorkshire pudding, roasted chestnuts and sprouts.

At this Covent Garden offshoot of Westminster’s Cinnamon Club, come for a £85 a head slap-up festive Indian feast. There’ll be tandoori salmon with dill and mustard, char-grilled goose breast with korma sauce, chicken biryani, and Christmas pudding with banana ice cream to choose from. Delicious.