Six Fashion Week set lunches, from £16.95 in Soho to Mayfair
The week runs Thursday 17 to Monday 21 September: fixed prices from the Strand to Mayfair, between shows
London Fashion Week runs from Thursday 17 to Monday 21 September. For five days the walk between the Strand, Soho and Mayfair turns into a runway of its own. Shows start on time and lunch does not, so the fixed-price menus below are the ones that fit a gap between a 1pm and a 4pm slot, or a table at 5pm before an evening presentation.
The entry point is two courses for £16.95 at Brasserie Zédel under Piccadilly Circus. Poon's does two courses for £22 beside Somerset House, Romano's runs its prix-fixe all day at Simpson's in the Strand, Cafe Murano holds a 5pm to 7pm sitting on St James's Street, Sucre in Soho is the one to be seen in, and Lilibet's on Bruton Street puts a seafood set lunch in the middle of Mayfair's fashion houses.
01 · Romano's
Strand
Prix-fixe two or three courses £24.25 to £28.50, Monday to Saturday, 11.30am to 11.30pm; post-theatre three courses £19.75 from 9.45pm.
The all-day Grand Café room inside the relaunched Simpson's in the Strand, five minutes from Charing Cross and six from Temple. The prix-fixe runs from 11.30am to 11.30pm, Monday to Saturday, so it works for a late breakfast-hour lunch, a 4pm gap or dinner after the last show. A three-course post-theatre menu at £19.75 comes on from 9.45pm for the nights that run long.
02 · Poon's at Somerset House
Somerset House
Express Set Lunch two courses £22, Tuesday to Friday, 12pm to 2.30pm; a £29 pre-theatre sharing menu until 6.30pm, Tuesday to Saturday.
Cantonese home cooking beside Somerset House, in a warm, open-kitchen room four minutes from Temple. The Express Set Lunch is two courses for £22 on weekdays, and a £29 pre-theatre menu of three dishes, a house soup and steamed jasmine rice runs until 6.30pm, Tuesday to Saturday. It is the one for a fast lunch between two Strand shows.
03 · Cafe Murano St James's
St James's
Two or three courses £25 to £29, Monday to Saturday, 12pm to 3pm, 5pm to 7pm and from 9pm.
The original Cafe Murano on St James's Street, three minutes from Green Park and seven from Piccadilly Circus. The Northern Italian summer set runs from steamed mussels to cavatelli with fennel sausage and affogato, and it comes in three sittings: lunch to 3pm, an early evening 5pm to 7pm, and again from 9pm, which is as flexible as a set menu gets during a week of moving schedules.
04 · Sucre
Soho
Two or three courses £19.50 to £24, Monday to Saturday, 12pm to 4pm.
One of London's most beautiful dining rooms in Soho, five minutes from Oxford Circus and nine from Piccadilly Circus. The Latin American set lunch runs to 4pm, Monday to Saturday, at £19.50 for two courses or £24 for three, which is a low price for a dining room this grand. It is the sensible booking for a table of six between shows.
05 · Brasserie Zédel
Soho
Two or three courses £16.95 to £19.95, Monday to Sunday.
The grand underground Parisian room two minutes from Piccadilly Circus and five from Leicester Square, and one of London's best value set menus at £16.95 for two courses or £19.95 for three, seven days a week. It seats a crowd without a fuss, which is the point on a day when nobody knows how many are coming. It is also the one that takes a 3pm lunch without a raised eyebrow.
06 · Lilibet's
Mayfair
Two or three courses £29 to £34, Monday to Friday, 12pm to 2.30pm.
A glamorous art-deco seafood room on Bruton Street, five minutes from Green Park and six from Bond Street, in the Mayfair streets where the fashion houses keep their London flagships. The weekday set lunch is £29 for two courses or £34 for three, with a premium £50 and £55 menu running alongside it for the day the client is paying. It runs to 2.30pm, so it is the lunch to book, not the one to drift into.
Fashion Week runs Thursday 17 to Monday 21 September. All six are on All Set with the full menu, the hours and a direct booking link, and there are more in every London lunch set menu. Lilibet's and Cafe Murano are the two to book ahead.