Where to take Dad: Father's Day set menus
The Father's Day tables worth beating your siblings to
Father's Day (Sunday 21 June) is the one Sunday lunch where “I've booked somewhere” is the entire gift. No socks, no novelty mug, just a table, three courses, and someone else doing the washing up.
We've pulled together the London set menus actually worth booking this year: real fixed-price Father's Day menus, not a free pint and a shrug. From a tagliata on the Covent Garden piazza to a giant silver Pegasus inside Selfridges, here's where to take him.
01 · Harry's Covent Garden
Covent Garden
Tagliata, tagliolini and a Padre Americano for dad, from £29.95.
On the Covent Garden piazza, Harry's does Father's Day weekend (20 to 21 June) the Italian way: two courses for £29.95 or three for £34.95, built around a tagliata di manzo, sliced beef, rocket, shaved parmesan. A 'nduja flatbread to start, tiramisù to finish, and a Padre Americano (Campari, vermouth, fig leaf soda, Harry's lager) to put in dad's hand.
02 · Balthazar
Covent Garden
Three courses, unlimited chocolate mousse, and dad eats free.
The grand Parisian brasserie throws a proper Father's Day dinner on Sunday 21 June from 5pm: three courses for £27.50, finishing with as much of the signature chocolate mousse as the table can handle. There's a live caricaturist, 50% off the reserve wine list, and dad dines free (one set menu per table). Book early; it goes.
03 · The Ivy
Covent Garden & St Paul's
Two ways to do it: the West Street original or the emerald Asia.
The Ivy gives you a choice this Father's Day. At the original 1917 dining room on West Street, a curated menu (£45 for two courses, £55 for three) runs to twice-baked cheese soufflé, roasted lamb rump and Ivy sherry trifle, with a Johnnie Walker miniature for dad. Want something glossier? The Ivy Asia, St Paul's serves its 'Tribute to the Sensei' menu across the whole weekend (salmon sashimi, chargrilled seabass in Thai coconut, sticky toffee pudding) for £29.95 or £34.95 in that famous emerald room above the cathedral.
04 · Brasserie of Light
Selfridges
Dinner under Damien Hirst's giant silver Pegasus, from £29.50.
Inside Selfridges, Brasserie of Light is all glitter, marble and a colossal crystal-encrusted Pegasus overhead. For Father's Day weekend it runs a curated menu at £29.50 for two courses or £38 for three, and the first 100 dads walk out with a Frédéric Malle fragrance. The most photogenic lunch on this list, by a distance.
Tables go fast for the 21st, so book this week. And let him think the bill was bigger than it was.