What We OfferDinner date companionship
Four hours around a good table, north of the Oxford Street crowds
One companion, four hours, £900: that is the whole offer, and it spans the full shape of an evening out: a drink to begin, the meal itself at an easy pace, and a last glass somewhere afterwards. Five minutes north of the department stores the crowds thin and the side streets fill with dining rooms, Marylebone to the west of Portland Place and Fitzrovia to the east. For a dinner with company, few corners of London are better stocked.
You choose and reserve the restaurant, or ask Clementine for ideas first. Her company for those four hours is what the £900 covers. Food, wine and any shared cab go on your bill, exactly as when you take anyone out to dinner.
Windows for Dinner dates
The companions the desk suggests first for this kind of evening. Any other window in the selection can be asked too.
The usual running order
Treat it as an outline rather than a timetable. Some guests skip the first drink and linger at the table instead; others eat early and spend the final hour walking. The four hours are yours to arrange.
Marylebone tables worth booking
Marylebone eats like a village with an unusually good address. Trishna on Blandford Street cooks coastal Indian food in a relaxed room that wears its Michelin star lightly. Orrery, upstairs on Marylebone High Street, looks over the churchyard gardens and suits a slower, more formal evening. Fischer's brings Viennese comfort and a late apple strudel, and Chiltern Firehouse supplies a courtyard and a little theatre. For something smaller, the lanes of St Christopher's Place hide courtyard tables half a minute from the shops.
Charlotte Street and the Fitzrovia side
Cross Portland Place and the mood shifts. Charlotte Street runs north from the Tottenham Court Road end with a kitchen every few doors: Roka for the robata grill, Pied à Terre for a long tasting menu in a narrow townhouse. Berners Tavern inside The London EDITION is the grand room of the neighbourhood, and Portland on Great Portland Street writes a fresh menu every day. Our Charlotte Street field notes sort the rest by mood.
Dress, arrival and the fee
Tell Clementine the restaurant and your companion dresses for it: quiet tailoring for Orrery, a touch more evening for Berners Tavern, relaxed for a counter seat. Meet at the table and the booking begins when she arrives; meet in your lobby and you walk in together, which many guests prefer. Either way her fee is handed to her privately at the start, well away from the table, so the dinner itself never carries a transaction.
Companions who enjoy a long dinner
Bianka reads a menu twice before she chooses and keeps a favourite Sicilian corner on Charlotte Street; ask the day before and she will have the best seat held. Patricia enjoys a slow evening booked a little ahead and is at her best in a quiet Marylebone room. Karolina pairs an early supper with a recital whenever Wigmore Hall has one worth hearing. Angelika starts at seven and arrives with a firm view on whatever hangs on the restaurant walls, and Luna asks for the wine list before anything else reaches the table. Patricia and Luna both sit in the auburn and red group.
Early sittings and late ones
Holding tickets for later? Plenty of kitchens on both sides of Portland Place open early for people heading to a show, which leaves time for a recital at Wigmore Hall or a musical at the Palladium and a drink once it finishes. At the other end of the evening, guests who land late or work late often want to sit down at nine. Chiltern Firehouse and Berners Tavern both take late tables, and the four hours then run on towards midnight without anybody feeling hurried. Send Clementine the time on your reservation and the companion's arrival moves to match it.
When four hours feel short
Say so before they end. If her evening is clear, Clementine confirms the added time in writing, and the difference is paid to her on the spot. If you already know the night will run late, an overnight is the simpler booking from the start. The booking page covers the rest.
Dinner dates, explained
Clementine will suggest places and say which ones hold late tables, but the reservation is best made in your own name. Send her the time you have booked and the companion's arrival is timed around it.
Of course. Berners Tavern at The London EDITION and The Wigmore beside The Langham both make a hotel dinner feel like a night out, and room service counts too after a long day.
No. A counter seat and a tasting menu cost the same for her time. Only the bill for the meal changes, and that part is yours.
Anywhere central is fine: your lobby, a hotel bar, the corner of Marylebone High Street and Wigmore Street. Send the place and the hour; she will be there first.
Read before you go
- 5 min readDinner in Marylebone village, ten steps north of the West EndMarylebone Lane still follows the bends of a buried river. The village kitchens along it and up the High Street, how to choose one for a date, and how the evening is timed.
- 5 min readDurrants and the old Marylebone manner, from the panelled bar to breakfastWood panels, deep armchairs and porters who remember a name. The Georgian hotel behind the Wallace Collection, how its manners shape an evening, and who to invite along.
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Describe the plan in a sentence or two. A name, a fee and an arrival time come straight back.