Christmas lights in London, six set menus from £15
Six set menus under the West End lights, from £15 pasta off Carnaby Street to the Savoy Grill
The Christmas lights are up over Regent Street, Oxford Street and Covent Garden, and London's West End has that early dark feeling again. Shops glow, the streets fill after work, and a walk under the lights turns into a plan for the evening. A set menu near the route gives that walk somewhere warm to end, from a pasta counter in Soho to a grill on the Strand.
These six kitchens answer the season in very different ways. Pastaio makes its pasta by hand each morning a few steps from the lights, while the Savoy Grill by Gordon Ramsay has more than a century of London Christmases behind it. In between sit two hotel dining rooms in Soho, a Mayfair house with its own Christmas market, and a window over Marble Arch where Oxford Street ends.
01 | Pastaio
Soho
three courses £15, Mon to Fri, 12pm to 6pm
Every morning the team at Pastaio makes fresh pasta by hand, and Time Out describes "steam billowing out of the open kitchen" over long communal tables on Ganton Street. The weekday deal is a pasta, a salad and a small tiramisu. At Christmas, the Christmas Lunch opens with 'nduja devils on horseback and burrata with chilli and oregano, and Penne Christmas brings gnocchi with Brussels sprouts, pancetta and chestnut. Hot Dinners rated the counter seat for two facing the street, which on a lit December evening is a lovely place to watch the crowds go by.
02 | Ham Yard
Soho
two or three courses £25 to £32, Mon to Sat, 12pm to 10.30pm
A multi-tiered gingerbread village goes up at Ham Yard for the festive season, and the roof terrace becomes a Fire Garden the hotel calls "a festive celebration of warmth and light." Downstairs, the art-filled dining room cooks with the seasons: recent menus have brought Brixham mussels with chargrilled sourdough and a fig sponge with fig leaf yoghurt sorbet. A cocktail at the pewter bar first is a good way into the evening.
03 | Refuel
Soho
two or three courses £25 to £30, Mon to Sat, 12pm to 1pm, 4pm to 6pm & 9pm to 10.30pm
On Richmond Mews, between Dean Street and Wardour Street, Refuel sits inside The Soho Hotel, a few steps from the noise. The set menu comes with a complimentary glass of wine, and the bar's Nine Regions cocktails travel round England using local English products. Recent dishes have included a chicken schnitzel with a fried St. Ewe egg and caper and anchovy butter.
04 | Novikov
Mayfair
four courses £45 to £58, Mon to Fri, 12pm to 4pm
In late November Novikov turns Mayfair Place into a Christmas market, with a Champagne ice bar, carol singers, roaming minstrels and Santa with a real reindeer. Inside, the Asian kitchen's open counter is fronted by a display of seafood and vegetables, and the Hikari lunch runs from yellowtail coriander and chu-toro nigiri to steamed sea bass.
05 | Lanes of London
Mayfair
two or three courses £30 to £40, Mon to Sun, 12pm to 10pm
The London Economic put it well: "When Oxford Street wears you down Lanes lifts you up." Lanes of London is the restaurant of the London Marriott Hotel Park Lane, with dark timber and windows framing a view of Marble Arch. Lunch or dinner can open with tempura prawns and saffron aioli to start and crispy aubergine in a curry sauce with coconut yoghurt to follow.
06 | Savoy Grill by Gordon Ramsay
Strand
two or three courses £62 to £68, Mon to Fri, 12pm to 5.45pm
The restaurant says the Savoy Grill by Gordon Ramsay "has always been where Christmas traditions are made." The Grill moved to the front of the hotel in 1904, close to the theatres, and was once known as the "second House of Lords". A 2023 refurbishment gave the dining room a new look drawn from that golden age, and the art-deco grill now carves joints from the trolley beside a beef Wellington.
Walk the lights first, then eat. By the time dessert arrives the streets outside are at their brightest, and the long way home under them is part of the evening. There are more ideas in every London lunch set menu and our set menu guides by area and occasion.