Restaurants Open Christmas Day in London 2026
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The Christmas-Day pick in London for 2026 is The Ritz Restaurant, the two-Michelin-star room on Piccadilly named the UK's best restaurant in 2025, serving a six-course Christmas lunch. Editorial runners-up: Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester, Helene Darroze at The Connaught, Savoy Grill, The Goring and The Wolseley.
London does the opposite of Bangkok on the 25th. Christmas Day all but shuts the city's restaurant scene; the standalone rooms go dark and the chefs go home. What stays open is a short list of grand hotel dining rooms that have served Christmas lunch for a century or more. They are expensive, they book out months ahead, and they ask for the money up front. Six, ranked by prestige and certainty.
Six Tables for a London Christmas
The best table in London on Christmas Day, by the metrics that matter. The Ritz Restaurant holds two Michelin stars under executive chef John Williams MBE, and it was named the UK's best restaurant at the 2025 National Restaurant Awards. Its Christmas Day lunch is the most documented in the city: six courses of the finest British produce at £670 per adult and £365 per child, with a five-piece band, a caricaturist and a visit from Father Christmas. The gilded Louis XVI room is the grandest dining space in London. Full non-refundable prepayment confirms the table; this seat goes first.
Three stars on Park Lane, and the grandest French Christmas in the city. Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester holds three Michelin stars under chef patron Jean-Philippe Blondet, and its Christmas Day lunch runs six courses with wine pairing at £360 per person. The festive menu reads like the house at full stretch: breast of guinea fowl with black truffle, jaune des Landes capon with truffled caillette, and the Yule Log Our Way in chestnut, blackcurrant and vanilla. Choose it over The Ritz for French technique over British tradition, and for the quieter, more cerebral room. Book through the hotel and confirm the 25th.
The third of London's Christmas-Day three-star rooms, in the wood-panelled Connaught dining room on Carlos Place. Helene Darroze holds three Michelin stars in the 2026 UK guide, her south-west French cooking shot through with travel, as in the Isle of Mull lobster finished with tandoori spices. The Connaught serves a decadent Christmas Day lunch with a festive supplement of £160 per adult, beverages aside. It is the warmest of the three-star options, all soft furnishings and pastel calm rather than gilt. Reserve through the hotel concierge and confirm the date well ahead.
The British-tradition pick, and the one for diners who want turkey rather than tasting menus. The Savoy Grill, the Gordon Ramsay room off the Strand where Escoffier once cooked, serves a six-course Christmas Day menu at £275 before drinks: an Arnold Bennett souffle to start, then roast Norfolk turkey with cranberry and stuffing, beef Wellington or Dover sole grenobloise, and a flaming Christmas pudding. The Art Deco room is one of London's great dining spaces. It is the most classic and the least precious of the list, and the easiest to bring a table of family. Book through Gordon Ramsay Restaurants.
The royal Christmas. The Goring, the only hotel ever granted a Royal Warrant for hospitality, sits a short walk from Buckingham Palace, and its Michelin-starred Dining Room under chef Graham Squire serves the most traditional grand-hotel Christmas lunch in London. Order the Eggs Drumkilbo, the lobster-and-prawn dish that was a favourite of the late Queen Mother, before the festive roast. The room is all Swarovski chandeliers and Belgravia calm, the service old-school to the last fold of napkin. It is the choice for diners who want British heritage over French flash on the 25th. Book through the hotel.
The grand-cafe Christmas, and the most relaxed booking on the list. The Wolseley, the soaring 1920s former car showroom on Piccadilly, opens on Christmas Day from 11.30am to 4.30pm and does all the classics without ceremony: smoked salmon, turkey with the finest trimmings, Christmas pudding with brandy butter, and a baked cauliflower gratin for the vegetarians. The marble pillars and chandeliers give it the grandeur of the hotel rooms at a gentler price. With its long service window it holds availability slightly longer than the starred rooms, so it is the late-decision Christmas table. Book direct.
How to Book on Christmas Day
The hotel dining rooms are the only certainty here, because they are the rooms that actually open. The Ritz, Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester, Helene Darroze at The Connaught, the Savoy Grill, The Goring and The Wolseley all run documented Christmas Day lunches, and most require full non-refundable prepayment to confirm. Book by late November; the three-star rooms and The Ritz sell out first, often weeks ahead. Lunch, not dinner, is the London Christmas Day tradition, so the sittings run early afternoon rather than evening.
One thing to plan around. London Christmas lunch is a long, formal affair, three to four hours with a band at The Ritz and ceremony everywhere. If you have small children or a tight afternoon, The Wolseley's all-day cafe service is the easier shape. And confirm the 25th specifically rather than 'the festive season,' since the hotels also run Christmas Eve and Boxing Day menus that are not the same booking. Reserve the date, pay the deposit, and London will give you one of the grandest Christmas lunches in the world.
Frequently Asked Questions
On Christmas Day, London's open tables are almost all grand hotel dining rooms, because most standalone restaurants close for the holiday. The surest bookings are the two-star Ritz Restaurant, three-star Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester, three-star Helene Darroze at The Connaught, the Savoy Grill by Gordon Ramsay, the Michelin-starred Goring Dining Room in Belgravia, and The Wolseley on Piccadilly. Each runs a documented Christmas Day lunch and requires booking well ahead.
The Ritz Restaurant is the strongest Christmas-Day pick in London for 2026, the two-Michelin-star room under John Williams MBE that was named the UK's best restaurant at the 2025 National Restaurant Awards and serves a six-course Christmas Day lunch with a live band. For three-star grandeur, Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester and Helene Darroze at The Connaught both run festive lunches; for British tradition, the Savoy Grill is the call.
The grand hotel rooms are expensive on the 25th. The Ritz Restaurant's Christmas Day lunch is £670 per adult and £365 per child for six courses with a band. Alain Ducasse at The Dorchester runs a six-course Christmas lunch with wine pairing at £360, and the Savoy Grill serves a six-course menu at £275 before drinks. Helene Darroze at The Connaught adds a £160 festive supplement. Full non-refundable prepayment is usually required.
Yes, and earlier than you think. The handful of hotel dining rooms that open on Christmas Day sell out weeks or months in advance, and most require full non-refundable prepayment to confirm. Book by late November at the latest, and confirm the 25th specifically rather than the festive week. The Ritz and the two three-star rooms go first; The Wolseley, with its long 11:30am-to-4:30pm service, holds availability slightly longer.
Yes. Christmas Day is the one day a year when most of London's restaurant scene shuts, including nearly all the standalone fine-dining rooms such as Core by Clare Smyth, The Ledbury and Sketch. What stays open is a short list of luxury hotel dining rooms that have served Christmas lunch for generations. If you want a specific non-hotel restaurant, you are dining on Christmas Eve or the 27th, not the 25th.