Date-night restaurants in London, properly
Date-night London: the restaurants that do it properly. Low light, a bar to sit at first, a menu you can share, a reasonable bill at eleven. A Vivi short list.
Date-night dining is a separate genre. The shared requirements: the ability to sit at the bar before the table is ready, a menu that has room for vegetarians and carnivores, soft enough light that nobody feels under scrutiny, and a bill you can split without embarrassment.
First dates
- Bar Gemella, Soho - small, walk-in, theatrical. You can leave after one drink if it is not working.
- Noble Rot, Bloomsbury - conspicuously grown-up. Take someone whose wine opinions you want to meet.
- Quo Vadis, Soho - the bar downstairs, then the dining room upstairs.
Second dates
- Brat, Shoreditch - if you survived the first date, this is the statement meal. Take someone you can share the turbot with.
- Trullo, Highbury - comfortably romantic without being obvious.
- Lyle’s, Shoreditch - the tasting menu, the wine pairings, the fifty-decibel hush.
Last-ditch dates
- The Wolseley, Mayfair - 22:30 reservation. If the conversation is flagging, the room carries it.
- Riding House Cafe - because sometimes you just need eggs.
How to pay
Split the bill evenly and do not discuss it at the table.
Clara Whitfield
Editor and restaurant critic
Clara Whitfield is the editor and lead restaurant critic of Vivi. She has eaten through the London restaurant scene professionally for over a decade, contributing reviews and features to regional and national food publications.
She writes Vivi's weekly restaurant review and the Saturday essay. She prefers early dinners and a table facing the room.