As one of the culinary capitals of the world, London is awash with luxurious restaurants as well as many fine gastropubs. But for those seeking something in the middle — a premium-quality but unfussy restaurant in a good location, ideal for a power lunch — there are also plenty of options. Here are our three favorite business lunch spots in the British capital.
Hawksmoor Seven Dials
Photo Courtesy of Toby Keane
This Covent Garden restaurant is always a popular place for a power lunch. The subterranean steakhouse is famed for its melt-in-your-mouth sirloin, T-bone, rib-eye and porterhouse cuts, along with other traditional meat treats, such as bone marrow with onions, potted beef and bacon, and beef-dripping potatoes. Hawksmoor Seven Dials also serves good seafood, including roasted scallops with white port, native lobster with garlic butter and sea bream with chili. A main course will usually set you back between $25 and $70, and an express lunch menu offers three courses for about $45. Beware: This eatery is also renowned for its tempting cocktails (like the Dandy, cognac with maraschino and Benedictine, topped with champagne), so if you have a serious, sober business meeting to conduct, you may want to select somewhere else.
Located within Forbes Travel Guide Four-Star One Aldwych, Indigo offers a calm yet chic escape in the heart of Covent Garden. There is a multi-course tasting menu available for lunch, as well as the standard à la carte menu. But business lunch visitors should opt for the former. Available noon to 2:45 p.m. Monday through Friday, it includes a choice of three starters, three mains and three desserts, with a price of about $33 for two courses or approximately $42 for three courses. We recommend beginning with a terrine of corn-fed chicken, followed by the roasted tenderloin of Suffolk pork and concluding with coconut parfait.
A slice of central London with the flavor of southwest France, Club Gascon is a fine restaurant without any great pretensions. The pleasant and quiet interior is an ideal spot to hold a business meeting over delicious food, and there are different lunchtime options, depending on the time you have available. For those with a whole afternoon to spare, order the Le Marché menu, which changes every two to three months. It offers sublime seasonal fare — think seared wild pigeon with swede and carrot fondant, and spicy port sauce — in five courses for about $109. Alternatively, those with less than an hour to eat can choose the lunchtime special, which is two courses from the above menu for about $44.
