In this guide
Christmas Day is the one day of the year when London stops. Nearly every restaurant closes, no public transport runs at all, and the places that do open sell a fixed menu, at a fixed price, paid for in advance and rarely refundable. It is less a dinner reservation than a small logistics exercise, and the people who end up disappointed are almost always the ones who left it until December.
Here is what actually opens, what each price band buys, and the two constraints that should decide your booking before the menu does.
Book near where you are sleeping
This is the rule that matters most, and it is the one every roundup leaves out.
TfL runs no services at all on 25 December — no Tube, no buses, no Overground, DLR, Elizabeth line, trams or river boats. Not a reduced service: none. What moves is black cabs, private hire, Santander Cycles and rental e-scooters, and cab fares on Christmas Day are well above normal, assuming you can get one at all.
So a restaurant on the other side of London is not a forty-minute journey that day. It is an expensive cab each way, booked ahead, or a long walk. Pick somewhere within walking distance of where you are staying, then choose the menu. Doing it the other way round is how people end up paying £80 in cabs on top of a £150 lunch.
💡 Staying centrally makes this much easier — most of what opens on Christmas Day is in Mayfair, Westminster, the West End and along the South Bank, which is walkable from a lot of central hotels. See the getting around guide for how the rest of the festive week works.
What actually opens
The field is smaller and more predictable than it looks:
- Hotel dining rooms. The bulk of it. Hotels have guests who need feeding, so their restaurants open when nothing else does. This is why Christmas Day dining skews expensive — you are eating in hotels because hotels are what is open.
- Rooftops and destination restaurants, usually the ones inside or attached to a hotel.
- A handful of pubs, mostly larger ones with a proper kitchen, and mostly in zones 1 and 2.
- A few chains. Hard Rock Cafe, Browns and similar. Reliable, well-drilled at feeding a room on a schedule, and considerably cheaper.
What does not open: essentially every independent restaurant in London, every food market, and nearly everything outside the centre. Do not plan around a neighbourhood favourite being available.
What each price band buys
| Band | Roughly | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Chains and pubs | £45–£90 | Three courses, a drink on arrival, a fixed sitting time. Straightforward and by far the best value with children. |
| Hotel dining rooms and rooftops | £110–£180 | Four to six courses, champagne on arrival, a room that has been decorated for it, and a longer table booking. |
| Grand hotels | £275–£450 | Five or more courses, unlimited champagne in some cases, live music, and a two-and-a-half to three-hour sitting. |
| The very top | £670 | The Ritz. |
Children are usually priced separately and much lower — often between a third and a half of the adult price — so a family meal is rarely four times the headline figure. Check whether the children’s price includes the same number of courses, because it frequently does not.
Confirmed for 25 December 2026
Most of London has not published its 2026 Christmas Day menus, and the roundups currently ranking for this search are quietly running last year’s prices under a 2026 headline. These two are dated to 25 December 2026 and bookable now:
| Where | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| The Ritz, Piccadilly | £670 adult, £365 child to age 15 | Christmas Day lunch in the Ritz Restaurant. Full non-refundable prepayment to confirm. Confirmed on the hotel’s own site. |
| Hard Rock Cafe, Piccadilly Circus | £70.47 adult, £27.22 child | Three courses, sittings from 11am to 10.30pm, drinks extra. Sold as a ticket through DesignMyNight rather than the cafe’s own site. |
We will add venues here as they publish. If you are choosing now, the price bands above are a more reliable guide than a figure you find on a listings site.
⚠️ Treat any 2026 price you see elsewhere with suspicion until you have seen it on the restaurant’s own site. Several major listings pages carry a 2026 headline and a 2025 date further down the same entry.
Booking: the part that catches people out
Full prepayment, non-refundable, is normal on Christmas Day. The Ritz wants the whole £670 before it will hold the table. Others take a substantial deposit on the same terms. This is not a restaurant being difficult — a no-show on 25 December cannot be resold — but it does mean a booking is a purchase, not a reservation, and you should read the terms before you pay rather than after.
Book by late October. DesignMyNight’s own booking data puts the average Christmas Day reservation at about 59 days in advance, which lands in the last week of October. The best-known dining rooms go well before that, and the Ritz takes bookings a year out.
A few practical things worth confirming when you book, because they vary and none of them are usually on the listing:
- The sitting time and how long you have the table. Christmas Day almost always runs on fixed sittings, and a 12.30 lunch may need to be out by 3.
- Whether drinks are included. “Champagne on arrival” means one glass. A £130 menu can become £200 a head with wine.
- The children’s menu and price, including what age the child rate stops at.
- Dietary requirements, which usually have to be given days in advance on a set menu, not on the day.
Festive menus through December
If the point is a Christmas meal out rather than a meal on Christmas Day itself, the rest of December is a completely different proposition — far more choice, far lower prices, and no transport problem.
Festive set menus run from late November to Christmas Eve at a large share of London restaurants, typically two or three courses for £40 to £85, and often with a group minimum. They are aimed at the office-party market, which has two consequences worth knowing: the good rooms book out for Thursday and Friday evenings in the first three weeks of December, and a Monday or Tuesday booking is both easier to get and frequently cheaper.
Christmas Eve is the quiet opportunity. Restaurants are open and normal service is running, the city is winding down rather than shut, and it is far easier to book than either the party weeks before it or the day after.
For a proper meal out that is not tied to a festive menu at all, the special occasion restaurants guide covers the rooms worth booking any time of year, and the Sunday roast guide covers the closest thing to a Christmas dinner you can get in January.
If you would rather not sit down to a full lunch
Christmas afternoon tea is the obvious alternative and a much easier booking — it runs from early November to the first week of January, costs £70 to £130, and does not commit your whole day. Claridge’s, the Landmark’s Winter Garden, Fortnum & Mason and the Ritz all reprint their tea menus for the season. The Christmas guide covers those, and the full afternoon tea guide has every price.
Worth being clear about the difference: afternoon tea at Christmas is a treat you can slot into a shopping day in early December. It is not a substitute for Christmas Day lunch, because on 25 December itself the hotel tea rooms are running their Christmas Day service, not their tea service.
Continue planning your Christmas
Christmas in London. The rest of the season, and how to get around it:
- 🎄 Christmas in London — markets, lights, ice rinks and what has quietly stopped running
- 🎡 Hyde Park Winter Wonderland — what it costs once you are inside
- 🥂 Afternoon tea in London — every room, every price
- 🍽️ Special occasion restaurants — for the rest of the year
- 🚇 Getting around London — including what runs over the festive week
Prices and terms checked on 4 September 2026, against the venue’s own website except where the table says otherwise.
Common questions
Are restaurants open in London on Christmas Day?
Very few. Nearly all of London's independent restaurants close on 25 December, and what stays open is mostly hotel dining rooms, a handful of pubs, and a few chains. Almost all of it is a fixed-price set menu booked and paid for in advance — you cannot walk in anywhere.
How much is Christmas dinner at a restaurant in London?
Roughly £45 to £670 a head. Chains and pubs sit around £45 to £90, hotel dining rooms and rooftops around £110 to £180, and the grand hotels run from £275 upwards. The Ritz is the top of the market at £670 per adult and £365 per child for 25 December 2026.
Does the Tube run on Christmas Day?
No. TfL runs no services at all on 25 December — no Tube, buses, Overground, DLR, Elizabeth line, trams or river boats. Santander Cycles, e-scooter hire, black cabs and private hire are the only ways to move, and taxi fares are far higher than usual. Book somewhere you can walk to.
When should I book Christmas dinner in London?
By late October at the latest. DesignMyNight's booking data puts the average Christmas Day reservation at about 59 days ahead, which lands in the final week of October, and the best-known rooms go earlier than that. The Ritz takes bookings a year out.
Can you cancel a Christmas Day restaurant booking?
Usually not. Full non-refundable prepayment is the norm rather than the exception on 25 December — the Ritz requires the entire amount up front to confirm. Read the terms before you pay, because a deposit you assume is refundable generally is not.
