Looking to refuel after an evening at the theatre? Here’s where to find dinner in London
From the Barbican and the National Theatre to the Tate, our playgoer’s guide to drinking and dining after curtain call has you covered.
Take an early evening stroll through the city on any given weekday and you’ll find that, for all of London’s gastronomic exuberance, the dominance of the pre-theatre rush has reduced culture’s closest bedfellow to a three-course, in-and-out blob. This is useful if you’re retired enough to consider 16.30 a fine hour for dinner, or are busy herding three kids towards The Lion King. Otherwise, eating steak stingy-on-the-frites while half the city is still on a Zoom call is definitely not hakuna matata.
Post-theatre eating is undoubtedly the more grown-up option – less hurried and more natural a setting in which to pore over what you’ve just enjoyed (or endured). The trouble is that when you emerge from yet another revival of Hamlet, London’s cultural institutions stand like mausoleums in gastronomic graveyards, flanked by restaurants that feed before the curtain rises or close just as it falls.
But for those of you who are strong-willed enough to resist the gravitational pull of a fast-casual eatery, the promise of the post-culture meal can be realised – so long as you know who’s still cooking and what’s worth staying up for.
The Barbican
On any given evening The Barbican has several floors of theatre, dance, cinema and classical music performances for you to pore over. It’s just a shame that afterwards, its labyrinthine walkways deposit you into a part of town where the best restaurants seem hopelessly out of reach. In fact, salvation is but a short walk away.
St John
St John’s whitewashed dining room, serving a purist nose-to-tail menu until 22.30 on Mondays through Saturdays, is as pared-back as its brutalist neighbour. However, the welcome is gladly anything but, and few things will return you more pleasurably to earth than a bone-marrow-and-parsley salad followed by a slice of Lancashire cheese.
26 St John Street, EC1M 4AY
Bouchon Racine
Fifteen minutes in the opposite direction is Henry Harris’s ebullient bistro above the Three Compasses, which recently knocked the Ritz off the top of the National Restaurant Awards. Tête de veau and whatever else Harris has decided is sufficiently terrifying are served upstairs and the 300-year-old pub on the floor below possesses that rarest of London treasures: a late licence.
66 Cowcross Street, EC1M 6BP
The National Theatre and British Film Institute
The South Bank has no shortage of drama on stage or screen but the real cliffhanger is when you emerge after 21.30 and realise that your choice of dinner is between Giraffe and Wahaca. Thankfully there are two local dining rooms worthy of a proper debrief.
Lasdun
From the team behind The Marksman, Lasdun, which is conveniently inside the National, serves the kind of mouthwatering seasonal pies and puddings that makes attributing the moniker “theatre restaurant” almost insulting. Luckily for you, Lasdun has told me its best availability is always after the pre-theatre crowd has gone to bed.
National Theatre, SE1 9PX
Poon’s at Somerset House
A 15-minute riverside walk will deliver you to Amy Poon’s restaurant at Somerset House. After 21.00 it serves siu yeh, the southern Chinese tradition of a late-night meal, cobbled together from whatever the kitchen has held back from the day’s service.
Somerset House, Lancaster Place, WC2R 1LA
Tate Modern and Shakespeare’s Globe
A few hours at a Tate Late is surely enough to whet your appetite. But alas, Borough Market – normally only too happy to commit daylight robbery against unwitting tourists – has been reduced to a sea of stacked chairs. Bar one or two exceptions, that is.
Kolae
This southern Thai grill is reliable equally in its consistency and punchy flavour combinations. The curried mussel skewers are to be ordered without debate, followed by phuket-style braised pork belly and a whole stone bass. But be warned: when a waiter says something is spicy, believe them. After three hours of Shakespeare, it’s exactly the kick up the arse that you need.
6 Park Street, SE1 9AB
Agora
Chances are you’ve already been cornered at a party by someone explaining why Agora is London’s best restaurant, which they can never get into. Armed now with the knowledge that it’s walk-in only and open late, next time you can gleefully inform them that their best chance of getting through the door comes just after curtain call.
2 Bedale Street, SE1 9AL
Royal Albert Hall
How the Royal Albert Hall becomes the epicentre of culture during the Proms while the surrounding streets can muster little more than a Ben’s Cookies, one can never know. Still, there are two notable spots – one old-school and one more modern – to find refuge after the concert.
Da Mario
Just eight minutes away from the concert hall, this rambunctious family-run Italian spot has hoarded all the character that South Kensington appears to have mislaid. Once a favourite of Princess Diana, you’ve got until 23.30 every evening to wolf down a bowl of its 24-hour beef ragù.
15 Gloucester Road, SW7 4PP
Sol’s
For something a little more date-night, we suggest skirting the top of Kensington Gardens to Sol’s, a small, walk-in-only wine bar with low-intervention wine and Mediterranean small plates. It’s open until 23.00 and is exactly the sort of place Beethoven would have frequented after dotting his last semiquaver of the evening.
25 Leinster Terrace, W2 3ET
Royal Court
The Royal Court has spent 70 years giving Sloane Square far more cultural clout than this postcode has any right to. But after the show, it’s still nice to be reminded that you’re in swanky SW1, darling.
Martino’s
Despite being a relative newcomer, Martino’s has the white-jacketed, martini-soaked confidence of somewhere decades older. The kitchen takes last orders at 22.30 (plenty of time for tortellini in brodo), though drinks continue to be served until the early hours, six nights a week.
37 Sloane Square, London, SW1W 8AN
At Sloane
At Sloane lets non-guests order from the hotel’s 24-hour room-service menu until the bar closes – at midnight on Sundays through Tuesdays and 01.00 on Wednesdays through Saturdays. That means anyone can enjoy a burger at an hour that might suggest the Royal Court’s new three-hour play could have used one last edit.
1 Sloane Gardens, SW1W 8EA
Covent Garden
Between its theatres, opera house and cinemas, Covent Garden’s restaurant scene suffers the same problem as its cultural counterpoint: plenty of choice but surprisingly little you would actually want to spend an evening at.
Speedboat Bar
Speedboat Bar fully embraces the post-culture ideal. While much of London is heading home, this riotous Thai-Chinese bar seems to hit its stride just as the theatres empty. Salty chicken skin, fiery curries and pineapple pie can be ordered until 22.45 on Mondays through Thursdays and, heroically, 00.15 during the weekend.
30 Rupert Street, W1D 6DL
Romano’s, Simpson’s in the Strand
The newly revived Romano’s – Simpson’s more convivial sibling – offers something suspiciously tailored to this article: an “After the Applause” menu. Served from 21.45, Monday to Saturday, salade à la Russe is followed by pork-and-herb faggots and a chocolate éclair – a fittingly theatrical late supper in a dining room lined with portraits of playwrights.
100 Strand, WC2R 0EZ
