Private dining rooms in London

The finer things in life await at this knowingly OTT one-off. Feast on caviar, Richie Rich comfort food and fine wines in the royal-blue semi-private room, which continues the Orient Express (or is that Excess?) theme of the main room.

Capacity: 9-16

Good for: Big-number birthdays with flush friends.

Modelled on the cages used to catch oysters, this fun semi-private room serves sharing-style set menus straight from the open kitchen. Watch your seafood dishes being prepared through the bars and be thankful you’re not the catch of the day.

Capacity: 8-20

Good for: Parties with a bit more sophistication – this is a talking-point destination.

In this charming room, with its large windows, polished oak and potted palms, you bring your own A-lister vibe. Nuno Mendes signatures including the crab-stuffed donuts and steak tartare are available on the set menus, and the room gives access to the hotel’s secluded courtyard garden, too.

Capacity: 12 (minimum 8 people)

Good for: Summer shindigs, when you can really make the most of that courtyard – or business meetings for which the celebs in the main room would be too distracting.

When it comes to combining business with pleasure, Hawksmoor is a pro. This glossy, wood-panelled private sanctum, with its wraparound oxblood chairs, has a gloriously olde-worlde feel. Hawksmoor favourites such as Tamworth ribs and sticky toffee pudding book-end meaty mains on the set menus.

Capacity: 11-22 

Good for: Lunchtime get-togethers will take the weight of a minimum spend off your mind – and it’s when the majority of business deals are done.

Quaglino’s two private dining rooms overlook the main dining room, with its regular live music performances – so that’s the entertainment sorted. Looks-wise, the art-deco interiors add pizzazz. The food is fancy, but not enough to frighten the horses.

Capacity: 8-14 seated (Giovanni Room); 16-40 seated on four separate tables (Prince of Wales Room)

Good for: Cross-generational family gatherings or effortless business functions.

Fancy sitting at a gold table for your event? In Sea Containers’ private room, you can. Nice touches such as reclaimed lettering from the building’s original signage decorate the wood-panelled walls; menus include platters heaving with roasted sea bream and chicken.

Capacity: 22 seated

Good for: Small corporate gatherings where a funky setting (and ‘fresh air’ for smokers) are required.

Richard Corrigan’s Mayfair dame boasts not one but four private dining rooms, all of which share a penchant for luxury. The best is the intimate Kitchen Library, a cookbook-lined hidey hole within the kitchen that’s within touching distance of the chefs.

Capacity: 6 (Kitchen Library), 10 (Poet’s Corner), 12 (Chef’s Table), 30 (Lindsay Room)

Good for: Corrigan’s caters for every occasion, but the Kitchen Library is just right when signing big contracts with discretion, or nailing the all-important ‘I do’ moment (a room hire fee applies for fewer than four people).

This Chelsea favourite’s chic Conservatory is dressed up to the nines for private events, with a beautifully dressed central table in a Martin Brudnizki-designed space that is airy in summer and cosy in winter thanks to a roaring open fire.

Capacity: 26 seated at one long table (up to 40 at four tables); 30-50 standing

Good for: Significant anniversary parties, or grand birthday parties for grand old ages.

If you want to feel all Knights of the Round Table, check out the scarlet, embossed wallpaper, ornate, high-backed chairs and oval, rosewood table of Dinner’s private room. Before you ask, the set menus always feature the meat fruit and the tipsy cake.

Capacity: 12

Good for: Old-school schmoozing and money-no-object gatherings designed to be talked about.

This much-decorated modern Indian in Mayfair could charge what it liked for its two atmospheric private dining rooms down in the vaults. But the minimum spend is refreshingly fair – one more reason to go and taste Karam Sethi’s Michelin-starred cooking for yourself.

Capacity: Up to 9 or up to 14 seated

Good for: Seal-the-deal business meets or any other situation where you need to seriously impress.

Open the heavy, carved wooden doors of the private dining rooms at The Shard’s high-flying Chinese restaurant and you enter a little corner of China in London, whose floor-to-ceiling windows give gorgeous views of St Paul’s and the London Eye.

Capacity: 18 (Shanghai) and 26 (Beijing), both seated

Good for: Big-budget bedazzlings of hard-to-please visitors from overseas.

This cosy, vintage-leaning chef’s table does things a little differently: choose a set menu inspired by one of six other Caprice Holdings restaurants (J Sheekey, Scott’s, Le Caprice, Daphne’s, 34 and The Ivy), and a chef from that restaurant will cook it in the Deli.

Capacity: 10-12 seated, 25 standing

Good for: Civilised birthday parties and an experience that’s the next best thing to a table at The Ivy.