London’s best restaurants for a business lunch

It’s owned by Fortnum & Mason and sits bang on London’s famous tailoring strip, so grown-up old-school treats are guaranteed at this glamorous, hushed dining room – 45 even has its own dedicated caviar trolley (accompanying eggs are scrambled at your lacquered table). Plates of grouse and Dover sole are also guaranteed to impress.    

It sounds like the ultimate posh-dosh dream-ticket: a jet-setting superstar chef with three Michelin stars overseeing a restaurant in a legendary Park Lane hotel. Of course, prices take no prisoners in this reverential French gastro-temple, although the three-course ‘lunch hour’ menu is a steal in such rarefied surrounds.

Owner D&D London understands its City clientele, so expect smooth-as-silk service and reliably consistent cooking at this minimalist, monochrome restaurant high above Moorgate’s mayhem. Michelin-starred fish cookery is the name of the game, and you can have anything from two to six courses from the daily fixed-price lunch menu.

Like ‘Hoppers for people with money’, this City offshoot of the Soho hit comes on like a swanky low-lit Indian grill. Expect super-slick service and a warren of little rooms that are just the ticket for discreet-but-buzzy business-lunching over fried fish ‘paos’, clove-scented samosas and ox-cheek vindaloo. A new jewel on Bloomberg Arcade.

With its art deco bar and tables primed for lunch meetings, Cabotte is built for City slickers needing somewhere tasteful to get on with business over some decent French food and wine (it’s run by two of London’s big-name sommeliers). The cooking is classy, but not overly adventurous – so you won’t get distracted.  

Zebra-striped floors, wraparound windows, a marble-topped bar, white-jacketed staff… Cecconi’s is nattily tailored for hedge-fund business lunches with an Italian flavour. Tables are at a premium and prices are high (this is Mayfair, darling), but there’s no arguing with an all-day menu that touts everything from veal milanese to lobster spaghetti.

A great escape from the West End’s shopping bedlam, calming Chisou is an unobtrusive shoo-in for aficionados of pure-bred traditional Japanese cuisine. There’s excellent sushi grazing at the counter, but izakaya-style sharing is the way to go for business lunching in the harmoniously neutral dining room. It’s relaxed and atmospheric, with just the right amount of bustle.

An established haunt of sharp-suited power brokers and Westminster politicos who enjoy swished-up Indian fine-dining in clubby, book-lined surrounds (this grand Grade II-listed building was once the Old Westminster Library). There’s a real sense of occasion about dining here (even if it’s only a working lunch), while set menus keep it affordable.   

A bona fide gastronomic institution, Bibendum remains London’s nattiest and most heart-warmingly pleasurable dining room – and a bookmarked certainty for budget-blowing business lunches, especially with two-Michelin-starred über-chef Claude Bosi (ex-Hibiscus) now manning the stoves. It’s unnervingly expensive but overwhelmingly excellent, with polished service and classy wines sweetening the deal.  

The very model of a smart-casual neighbourhood restaurant, Clipstone is quietly chic, interesting and exactly what’s required for a sociable business lunch – especially as the set menu rolls in at a very approachable £26 for three courses. Seasonal small plates, sharing dishes, clued-up genial staff and good wines help things along nicely.

Sizzling steaks and fish cooked over coals are the headliners at this handsome offshoot of Brighton’s Coal Shed. At lunchtime, all savoury plates are £10.95, so fill your boots from a menu that runs from torched mackerel salad to smoked pork rib with Korean miso. Brilliant staff ensure that business goes swimmingly.  

Dinings’ charmingly poky Marylebone original isn’t really business lunch territory, but its sleek Chelsea sequel definitely is. With its luxe street-level sushi bar and sunken dining room, it provides a striking backdrop for some subtly complex modern Japanese cooking. Revel in the dialled-up culinary razzmatazz… then seal the deal.

A classy destination for clinching deals over red meat and red wine, this branch of the Russian-owned, New York-style steakhouse chain is built for business. Swerve the prosaic lunch menu and go straight for the day’s ‘cuts’ chalked up on the blackboard: perhaps a Dexter porterhouse or Wagyu ribeye – depending on your finances.

A shoo-in for sanguineous steak in Covent Garden and a top joint for power lunching, Hawksmoor’s flagship branch ticks all the boxes: an atmospheric subterranean space with leather booths and flattering lighting; tip-top well-aged British beef; serious wines and killer cocktails. On a tight budget? Choose the fixed-price ‘express’ menu.

The vibe suggests a smart, colonial-era gentlemen’s club rather than a cliché laddish curry house, which makes Jamavar spot-on for Mayfair business. Its high-end food is also worth a serious punt, consistency is guaranteed, and service is never less than super-slick. Yes, it’s expensive, but fixed-price lunch menus are gentle on the wallet.

Now holed up in airy site on Shoreditch’s eastern fringes, this achingly stylish Burmese star is ideal if you’re business lunching with a group (rather than doing a one-to-one meet). Request one of their hideaway booths and order as much as you possibly can. The mood is buzzy, service is clued-up and it’s terrific value.

If you’re going for the big sell at lunchtime, this Notting Hill high-roller is top-tier for the gustatory good times. The Ledbury’s two-Michelin-starred status means deadly serious prices (the set lunch menu is £80), but there’s an infectiously hospitable hum to the place and Brett Graham’s unimaginably delicious food is a dead-cert ‘wow’.   

You’ll want to sit up straighter, refine your accent and use your cutlery in exactly the right order when dining here. The food is fine French dining at its best (tiny portions, lavish presentation), but Taillevent’s USP is an impressive line-up of 110 wines by the glass. Just right for oenophile clients who need impressing.  

From the bods behind the Clove Club, this classy joint serves up ‘Britalian’ cooking in a hyper-smooth design-mag setting of billowing drapes, burnished mirrors and deco-rustic fittings. Pasta’s the big shout (they make it on site), and there’s an ‘express’ lunch menu in the bar for those with tight schedules and slim wallets.  

Previously members only, Lutyens Grill at The Ned is now officially open to the public – but it’s still exclusive. Once a bank manager’s office, it comes on like a clubby wood-panelled NY steakhouse with imperceptible staff patrolling around placidly. Doing business feels just right here, although the bill will probably tell you that you’ve overdone it.

Super-sumptuous and hyper-exclusive, Ormer resides within a luxuriously appointed basement room beneath Flemings Mayfair – in other words, this is a serious business-lunch venue for the posh brigade. Shaun Rankin’s high-end Brit-accented food fits the bill, and service is the sort that earns blue ribands. Prices are steep, so you’ll be glad of the set lunch offer.

Serene and elegant, with bucolic views through its arched windows, Orrery achieves the almost impossible – serving up a lunchtime menu of exceptional beauty, glamour and flavour in demure grey-toned surroundings that are the toast of Marylebone. Three courses will just about leave change from £30, without drinks or extras. A business lunch no-brainer.

Famously intended as the canteen for Richard Rogers’ architectural practice, this riverside icon is still a diamond for business – although prices are far from your average workers’ playtime. Still, the Italian regional food is nigh-on faultless and the setting is absolutely gorgeous – summer lunch on the terrace is the way to go.

Small but lovely, this sibling of Mayfair’s Chisou offers the best of both worlds: it feels old school, but the music’s upbeat and the blowtorch-wielding chefs are from all nations. Fish fans drool over the modish carpaccios, the magnificently silky otoro tuna and the market-fresh ‘omakase’ sushi sets – a perfect sweetener at lunchtime.

Old-fashioned English chop house meets fiery, smoky Indian small plates – that’s the deal at this Covent Garden charmer, which has sociable class written all over it. Tandoor’s all-in lunch thalis (£14 a pop) will really spice up your day (and your business dealings) – and you’ll be totally won over by the cheery, smiley service too.  

Savile Row suits, Charles Tyrwhitt shirts and Churchill shoes are almost obligatory in this archaic, velvety-rich bastion of blue-blooded fine dining – so dress for lunch if you want to savour Wiltons’ gargantuan roasts and other pleasurably patriotic repasts. PS: switch off your electronic devices – the only apples and blackberries here are in the fruit crumbles.   

This enduring old-timer is defiantly out of step with the times – and that’s the way everyone likes it. The menu (sorry, ‘bill of fare’) is all about top-quality fish cooked the old way, most of the staff have been here for years, and the vibe is ultra-conservative – although rumour has it that you can use your mobile phones these days.