The best London restaurants open on Christmas Day, from Bob Bob Ricard to Enoteca Turi
The Christmas Day lunch, as even the most inattentive viewer of Eastenders will have grasped, is an emotionally charged occasion with the potential to escalate into an Armageddon of insults more explosive than even the most shoddily-made Christmas cracker.
Far safer to remove what is possibly the biggest point of contention — the lunch itself — and allow someone else to do the cooking and, even better, the washing up.
London’s hotels, with their captive market of tourists, are an obvious if likely expensive starting point, though it’s worth noting that even somewhere as luxurious as Claridge’s will drop its prices significantly on Boxing Day (from £495 to £110, in the case of Claridge’s beautiful art deco Foyer and Reading Room).
The capital’s non-European restaurants, meanwhile, are a reminder that while Christmas may be a Christian festival, the holiday season is celebrated by all faiths and those with none. Tayyabs, the Whitechapel kebab and chop house, is a raucous antidote to seasonal sentimentality, while Chinatown on Christmas Day feels like any other bank holiday.
Below, however, we’ve recommended the restaurants offering push-the-boat-out celebration lunches, or simply the sort of festive feast we all wish we could rustle up given the time and access to professional chef qualifications.
And remember,
