London’s Best Private Dining Rooms Offer More Than an Intimate Space for Get-Togethers

If you’re having dinner with eight guests or more, you’re going to need a private dining room. Or at least somewhere mostly private. With those numbers you’re probably celebrating and, even if you’re not, you’re gathering because you want to be together – not surrounded by a spread of strangers. So why not properly commit? PDRs offer a secluded space to roam freely, swap seats and, if the occasion calls, give speeches. The best ones feel memorable, but relaxed; think gentle lighting, a quality sound system and comfortable chairs. The restaurants below do all that and then some.

Best for: Raucous karaoke parties
Who doesn’t want a karaoke-and-bao sesh with a dozen of their favourite people? Bao’s karaoke TV rooms give you two hours in a private room with 300,000-plus songs, disco lights and table-service bao. Delicious, pillowy fun. And there’s no room hire, either: spend £35 a head on food and drink and it’s yours. You’ll find them at Bao’s Borough, Battersea and City sites. You don’t have to sing, but why wouldn’t you?
Capacity: Small rooms for roughly six to 14.

Best for: Elegant and intimate pub dinners
The Hart is Public House Group doing what it does best: soft lighting, beautiful wood furnishings, roaring fires, excellent pints. The food (elevated pub fare) is properly good, not just for Instagram. There are several private spaces to choose from to suit groups of up to 45 (including The Snug, which seats 16), but best of all are the booth-style tables for four with curtains you can pull for privacy. Ideal for long lunches with somebody you want to keep to yourself.
Capacity: Booths for four; larger dining spaces available.

Best for: Keeping things stylish and sexy
As with most things Stevie Parle (Town) touches, Motorino arrived fully formed and buzzing. Here, he teams up with Luke Ahearne (the chef that earned Marylebone’s Lita its Michelin star) to create a large, modern London-Italian restaurant with big Negroni energy and multiple PDRs. Two are fully enclosed, panelled in sexy wooden walls with flattering lighting; the third opens onto the main dining room via retractable glass doors. Come for the fig leaf Margaritas, stay for the Irish whisky tiramisu.
Capacity: Three rooms of varying sizes.

Best for: Feeling as if you’ve been transported to an Italian garden
Luca does that soft, candlelit glow that makes everyone look like they’ve had a great night’s sleep, and its private spaces are among the loveliest in town. The terrace is a secluded, foliage-filled courtyard with a stone fireplace and retractable cover, designed like a traditional Italian garden for long feasting tables, whatever the weather. Inside, the Garden and Pasta Rooms suit smaller groups.
Capacity: Smaller rooms for eight to 10; terrace up to 20.

Best for: Relaxed dining that feels more like being at a friend’s house
Mangal II is the one for fun, modern Turkish. A neighbourhood joint that’s scene-y but not try-hard, with charcoal smoke and natural wine. You can take over the basement for larger groups and pre-agree a feasting menu of things like mackerel pide, silky hummus, grilled meats and ocakbasi-grilled razor clams. The vibe is warm, candlelit and ideal if you want something that feels more like your cool friend’s house than a “venue”.
Capacity: Basement for roughly 20 to 25.

Best for: Perfect Martinis
It’s comforting to the point of smug to know you have your own room upstairs at One Club Row. The space sits in what used to be the owners’ apartment, known for particularly raucous house parties. Now reborn as The Apartment, diners can expect pitch-perfect Martinis, schnitzel the size of your face and the thrill you’ve bagged one of the year’s trendiest openings for your event. French fries and aioli arrive on proper plates, as they should.
Capacity: Roughly 20 to 40 seated, depending on room.

Best for: An unforgettable meal in a London institution
The grande dame of Dean Street has private rooms that can basically do it all: breakfasts, weddings, long lunches, you name it. There are three on the second floor, but the Blue Room is the one if you’re in party mode: plenty of space for dancing to tunes you’ve selected on the room’s built-in jukebox. There’s also that slightly delicious feeling of misbehaving inside a building that’s been both a brothel and Karl Marx’s gaff (not simultaneously).
Capacity: Around 23 seated; up to 50 standing.

Best for: Celebrating with family
All of Angela Hartnett’s Café Muranos have private rooms, but Marylebone is particularly charming. Alfie’s Room is tucked away with its own entrance and private loos. With everyone seated at one long table, it’s exactly the place to herd parents, in-laws, aunties and uncles for a big family-style Italian feast, with platters of fritti and bowls of pasta handed along the table – and lots of wine.
Capacity: Around 20 seated.

Best for: Self-service drinks and plenty of entertainment options
If your brief is “for the lads, but actually good” – Brigadiers is the one. The Indian barbeque restaurant does private dining brilliantly and here the team has gone all out. There are multiple options to choose from, but The Pool Room is the showstopper. Not only are there sofas and a long table, but there’s also a pool table, big screens for football, your own sound system, a whiskey vending machine, and self-serve beer and cocktails from The Drinks Command Unit. Here, you’ve got all the ingredients for the kind of party that becomes lore.
Capacity: Pool Room up to 25, larger numbers standing.

Best for: Stunning skyline views
Townhouse 8 is what happens if someone turns an ’80s New York apartment fantasy into an events space. High up at King’s Cross luxury hotel The Standard, it combines a living room with mid-century furniture, a vinyl library and listening corner, two dining areas, a proper working kitchen and a wraparound terrace with some of the best skyline views in London. It’s perfect for “we hit target” parties and big birthdays.
Capacity: Around 22 seated; larger numbers standing.