Covent Garden set menus from £19.95, near the theatres
A courthouse, a grain store and a candlelit bistro, from a £19.95 weekday lunch on Tavistock Street
Covent Garden is London's theatre district, and its set menus are served inside some of the West End's most unusual buildings. A former county court on St Martin's Lane keeps its wine in the old cells, a restored grain store on Drury Lane serves next door to the Gillian Lynne Theatre, and a Babylonian-inspired palace of gold and bronze fills three floors on Upper St Martin's Lane.
The set menus here come with a building attached, and the stories run from long-standing to brand new. Le Garrick is marking forty years as a Covent Garden institution, and Harry's Covent Garden has taken the corner of the piazza that Tuttons held for nearly 40 years.
01 | Côte Covent Garden
Covent Garden
two or three courses £19.95 to £23.95, Mon to Fri, From 11.30am
Leek and potato soup with chives and brioche croutons, then a fish parmentier of haddock, prawns and smoked salmon under a cheese crust: Côte Covent Garden puts proper brasserie cooking on Tavistock Street, a short walk from the piazza. Parisian-inspired interiors and an outside area keep it going from morning until night.
02 | Le Garrick
Covent Garden
two or three courses £22 to £26, Mon to Sat, 12pm to 6.30pm & after 10pm
Candle-lit booths downstairs and a window seat upstairs set the scene at Le Garrick. The kitchen calls its cooking high-quality regional French food, with dishes passed down through generations, and the London Standard's review picked out the beef bourguignon. Le Petit Journal counts 14 of the 20 staff as having been there more than ten years. Tables are booked by phone or email.
03 | Browns Covent Garden
Covent Garden
two or three courses £22 to £27, Mon to Fri, 12pm to 4pm
The wine at Browns Covent Garden is kept in the cells of the former Westminster County Court, and the courtrooms and judge's chambers are now private dining rooms. Steak frites with bone marrow Béarnaise and Cumberland sausage over brown butter mash carry the weekday lunch, and Time Out called the refurbished brasserie "more beautiful than ever".
04 | Caravan Covent Garden
Covent Garden
three courses £56, Mon to Sun
Sage and onion cornbread with gravy butter arrives for the table first at Caravan Covent Garden, the opening of an autumn and winter set made for sharing. Chicken schnitzel in a fermented Calabrian chilli butter sauce, or the burnt stem broccoli bowl, follows in a restored Grade II listed grain store next door to the Gillian Lynne Theatre.
05 | Gilgamesh
Covent Garden
three courses £20, Mon to Sun, 12pm to 5pm
Gold accents, bronze details and dark wood decorated with scenes from the Gilgamesh epic fill three levels at Gilgamesh on Upper St Martin's Lane. From 5pm the theatre menu takes over, opening on spring rolls and dumplings before a green curry or beef rendang, and all the meat is halal apart from the duck.
06 | Harry's Covent Garden
Covent Garden
two or three courses £25.95 to £30.95, Sun to Fri, 11.30am to 5.30pm
A massive terrace on the corner of the piazza belongs to Harry's Covent Garden, with glamorous Venetian-inspired interiors behind it. In the evening a November dinner set comes with a glass of Prosecco.
A courtroom, a grain store and a Babylonian palace all keep a fixed price within a few streets of each other. The rest of the West End is in every London lunch set menu and the set menu guides by area and occasion.