Dinner in Marylebone village, ten steps north of the West End

A lane that remembers a river

Every other street around it runs straight. Marylebone Lane wriggles. It leaves Oxford Street close to Bond Street station and bends its way north towards the High Street, because it follows the course of the Tyburn, the stream that once ran here in the open and now runs underground. The district even takes its name from it: St Mary by the bourne, the church beside the stream, softened over the centuries into Marylebone.

That crooked line is the reason the village feels like a village. A few steps off the best-known shopping street in the country the pavements narrow, the buildings drop a storey, and the shops sell cheese, flowers and secondhand books instead of trainers. Dinner here has a different tempo from dinner in the West End proper: closer tables, fewer tourists, and a waiter who might still be there in ten years.

The kitchens, sorted by mood

Restaurants come and go on any London street, and Marylebone is no exception, but a handful of rooms have become fixtures. Use them as a map of moods rather than a ranking.

Walking in from Oxford Street

The best way to arrive is on foot from the shops. Cross Oxford Street near Bond Street station, find the mouth of Marylebone Lane on the north side and follow its bends. Within two minutes the noise has fallen away. Carry on across Wigmore Street and the lane delivers you close to the High Street, where the real village begins: Daunt Books with its skylit gallery, the flower shops, and the pavements where people actually stop to talk.

At the very top stands St Marylebone Parish Church, where Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett married in secret in 1846 before leaving for Italy. It is a good place to turn round, and a better place to begin a story over dinner. From Oxford Street to the church is no more than fifteen minutes at a stroll, which makes the village the easiest dinner in W1 for a guest staying near the shops.

Reserving a village table for two

Small rooms fill quickly, particularly from Thursday to Saturday, so reserve. Ask for a table against the wall or by the window rather than in the middle of the room; in a narrow Marylebone dining room the difference between a good table and a poor one is a matter of feet. If you are going on to a concert at Wigmore Hall, tell the restaurant when you book and they will pace the courses.

Tell Clementine where you have booked, for when, and under whose name. Your companion meets you at your hotel and you walk over together, or she meets you at the door of the restaurant a few minutes before the table. She receives her fee in private as the evening begins, never at the table, and dinner goes on your bill, as on any night out.

Sunday, when the village is at its best

On Sunday mornings a farmers' market fills a car park just off the High Street, and the whole neighbourhood comes out for bread, fruit and coffee. The shops open late and close early, the traffic almost disappears, and a long lunch in Marylebone becomes one of the most civilised afternoons London offers. An afternoon booking that starts at the market and ends with lunch at a pavement table, followed by a walk up to Regent's Park, asks for nothing more than good weather and three hours.

Two hours, or the full four

A village dinner fits two natural lengths. Two hours for £500 covers a table and a short walk, ideal for a weeknight when you are tired and want good food and good company without a long evening. The dinner date stretches to four hours for £900, with a drink first and a nightcap after, perhaps at The Golden Eagle or back at your hotel bar. For an afternoon that becomes an evening, three hours sit at £700, and every length appears on the rates page.

Village regulars from the Selection

Rosa lives in Marylebone and counts the cheese counter on Moxon Street as her local; she will have chosen for both of you before you sit down. Liana, also a resident, is devoted to the single-dish steak supper on Marylebone Lane and the calm walk afterwards. Bianka studies a menu like a contract and will talk about pasta with the seriousness other people reserve for politics, and Karolina takes an early, simple supper on Marylebone Lane before a recital.

Rosa and Bianka are both in our curvaceous edit, and Rosa, Liana and Bianka all appear among the brunettes. For hotels and stations close by, see the Marylebone page; Clementine answers any message within fifteen minutes.