Gorgeous rooms for private dining: London's best secluded tables

Go private at London's newest hotel: The Stratford

Edgy in its location, its Jenga-like architecture and its sophisticated Scandi interior (the designer was responsible for the new Noma restaurant in Copenhagen too), this is the place to entertain and impress the most foodie of guests.

Chef Patrick Powell, formerly head chef at Chiltern Townhouse, has impressive creative energy and the technical meticulousness of a classical culinary training. Be sure to order the pistachio and liver parfait choux eclairs as the most irresistibly decadent aperitif snacks. Other exquisite dishes include a Sakura (Japanese) tomato tart and a showstopping sake-braised turbot served with congee (Asian savoury porridge), chicken skin and cashews. Desserts are divine, especially the honey cake. The wine list is impeccable (with plenty of low intervention natural wines too and not greedily priced) and guests can visit the glass-encased walk-in wine room.

Glamour overload: the Millicent Fawcett Room at Sketch, Mayfair

Exceedingly glamorous and housed in a Grade II building, formerly home to fashion house Christian Dior, Sketch has launched a private dining room named after famed suffragist Millicent Fawcett, who, on 17 July 1869, spoke on this site about the enfranchisement of women. With shades of deep purples, pinks and burnt orange, the room is located within the Lecture Room & Library, recently awarded a third Michelin star. It is an intimate, cossetting space for eight people.

The menus are everything a top accoladed restaurant should offer: magically creative, surprising, complex and using the best produce in the world from ceps and carabinero red prawns to grouse and turbot. The vegetarian tasting menu is equally beguiling. Culinary and Instagram heaven.

Room hire is £250 Fri/Sat dinner, other times £200.

Boho intimacy at Orasay, Notting Hill

Altogether unexpected, the PDR at Jackson's Boxer's delightfully laidback, yet culinarily adventurous latest restaurant, Orasay, in Notting Hill has an intimate tented ceiling and seats 12.

Seafood from the Hebrides is a speciality and the £65 PDR menu includes snacks, steak tartare, burrata, a handcut noodle with mushroom butter dish plus the option of a grating of white truffle at market price (currently £30); whole John Dory, and Cru Virunga chocolate and caramel/peanut dessert.

Seats 12/no hire charge/menus £45/£65

Eye on the pie at Holborn Pie Room

Like dining in a culinary history book surrounded by mahogany shelves groaning with highly collectable Victorian pie-making ephemera, candlelight and shimmering marble, this has to be the definitive festive dining spot. The Pie Room sits within Holborn Dining Room at The Rosewood Hotel, Holborn.

This is where pastry whisperers extraordinaire chefs Calum Franklin, and Nokx Majozi create magnificent intricately crusted creations: whether pork and pistachio terrine en croûte, chicken, griolles and tarragon pie, beef Wellington; potato, Comté cheese, and caramelised onion. For dessert there is jelly and ice cream or Pump Street chocolate and walnut sponge.

True devotees will go for a five-course pie-tasting menu at £100pp including lobster thermidor tart, Comté and caramelised onion pie, parsley sauce, steak and kidney pudding, apple tarte Tatin with vanilla ice cream.

Surely the ultimate British treat.

Where Michelin-starred British meets French soul: Kitchen W8, Kensington

Discreet and convivial in deepest neighbourhood Kensington, Michelin-starred Kitchen W8 has marked its 10th birthday by creating an elegant new private dining room. Seating 14 guests, it features ravishing, hand-painted floral wallpaper – very now – and cream leather banquettes.

The £55pp private dining menu features head chef Mark Kempson’s 'modern British with French soul' dishes including grilled Cornish mackerel, smoked eel, sweet mustard and leek; glazed shoulder of lamb, globe artichoke, olive gnocchi, tomato and balsamic; and apricot and almond croustade with honey ice cream. There's the option of the restaurant's full six-course tasting menu (£75pp) too.

Private dining Nuno Mendes style: Mãos, Shoreditch

A new Michellin star recipient, Nuno Mendes describes Mãos, meaning 'hands' in Portuguese, as 'a kitchen, dining room and wine room, reassessing what tasting menus and restaurants are all about.' The entire 15-seat restaurant can be taken over as a private hire, otherwise it is reservations only, and tasting menu only.

This is fine dining but in a much more fluid, experiential form where guests move around the space and expect the unexpected. In the kitchen day-to-day is Edoardo Pelicano who worked with Mendes at Viajante. The food is described as where Portuguese and Japanese food meet, with lots of umami and fermented foods.

Dishes may include red prawn and langoustine tartare with fermented cabbage and shiso and beef fat aged lobster with umeboshi and dried tomato.

Sri Lankan specialities: Hoppers, Marylebone Village

London's appetite for Sri Lankan food shows no signs of abating and this more grown-up and cosseting sibling to the original Soho Hoppers is great for parties too.

Down in their vaults in Marylebone are private banquette spaces ideal for an intimate gathering. The menu centres around Hoppers’ namesake dish, a bowl-shaped pancake made from fermented rice batter and coconut milk, and the dosa, made from a fermented batter of ground rice and lentils. The highly original cocktails created for Hoppers by ultra-talented sommelier to the restaurant group make every celebration even better.

The ultimate spot for people-watching: The Wolseley, Mayfair

Renowned as one of the best people-watching restaurants in London, the stupendous Wolseley woos diners every visit and remains a favourite haunt of many actors and writers.

How perfect then, that their private dining room is accessed by discreet stairs from the main dining room, making it an eyrie with a bird's-eye view of all the proceedings below. It is, of course, a beautiful room in its own right, and they serve all The Wolseley's classics including luscious prawn cocktail, veal schnitzel and cheesecake.

Stunning vistas: Sam's Riverside, Hammersmith

A great new addition for west London diners, Sam's Riverside, whose Culinary Director is the legendary Rowley Leigh, boasts an 18-seat glass-walled private dining room, with polished concrete floors and striking, vivid artwork by Tomo Campbell not to mention views of the Thames. The three-course PDR menu features original dishes by head chef Harvey Trollope including diver-caught scallop ceviche; clams, braised trotter, white beans; roast brill, girolles, meunière butter, chicken jus; and peppered venison chops, onion squash and sprout tops.

And, yes, proprietor is that Sam Harrison, who used to run Sam's Brasserie in Chiswick and Harrison's Balham and trained with Rick Stein. He happens to be one of the most warm, charming and capable restaurateurs in town and this prime site next to Riverside Studios and Hammersmith Bridge is likely to become a new literary/arty/foodie hub.

Bizarre and exotic: Kebab Queen, Covent Garden

Expect the unexpected, this is a theatrical, wacky complete one-off: a private chef's table hidden behind an old kebab storefront underneath Maison Kebab restaurant.

The design is risqué: blue leather swivel counter chairs, a heated counter where dishes are served directly on top, removing the necessity for plates and cutlery. Vivid pink drapes and chandeliers that take their cue from a 70s vibe finish the look.

The menu is a six-course tasting menu created by a former Le Gavroche chef. Dishes may include foie gras kebabitino, a chicken shish kebab two ways with crisp chicken skin, spit roast Fasenjan lamb, inspired by the Persian stew, and made ever more flavoursome served with its Persian rice crust, or tahdig.

Seats 10. Set menu £60pp/£100 with drinks pairing

Soho bohemia: The Blue Room at Quo Vadis, Soho

There is something seductively rakish about the historic Quo Vadis restaurant, once the home of Karl Marx ,and more recently owned by Maro Pierre White and Damian Hirst.

Now Quo Vadis is happily part of the Hart Group with the inimitable and much-loved chef-patron Jeremy Lee invariably marching through the dining room and enquiring in his mellifluous Dundee tones how dinner is going. A lover of British produce and classic Elizabeth David recipes, Lee delights in avoiding culinary fashion.

Very much a party place, there is a choice of four PDRs for drinks parties and sit-down meals. One of the loveliest is the blue room with long blue velvet banquettes. Tables are always dressed beautifully. A set menu may include Lee's signature smoked eel, onion and horseradish sandwich, and a luscious fig and almond pudding.

When it has to be Spanish: Barrafina, King's Cross

Everyone loves the buzz of Barrafina and the tapas prepared at the counter by some of the friendliest and most foodie staff in town. To save the inevitable queuing, book a private room (seats 24) and indulge in the pick of their signature dishes: from definitive croquetas and tortilla with jamon and cabrales (blue cheese of distinctive strength) to monkfish carpaccio marinaded in paprika and fino with date and avocado purée. There are dishes for spectacular sharing, including arroz negro with baby pork ribs, artichokes, baby cuttlefish and romesco sauce. Catalan profiteroles are superb too.

Stylish la dolce vita: Theo Randall at The Intercontinental, Mayfair

Theo Randall, who trained at The River Café, has an absolute passion for Italian ingredients treated with simple respect and impeccable taste. His irresistibly feelgood menus are available in stylish private dining rooms at Theo Randall at The Intercontinental. The rooms are flexible and can be combined for drinks parties or sit-down dinners. A typical menu might include burrata with roast red pepper, fennel, Swiss chard and Taggiasche olives, slow-cooked shoulder of lamb with fresh cannellini beans and spinach, plus Theo's unmissable chocolate and almond cake with roast almond ice cream.

Dine with wine: 28°-50°, Marylebone Village

Oenophiles will appreciate the wine-focussed approach at 28°-50°, where wines come first. Resplendent charcuterie, shellfish and excellent cheese platters keep it simple when the emphasis is on the quaffing in stylish, bistro-style surroundings. Ask for Italian engineer turned sommelier Michael Tarentino who is charmingly engaging and a great raconteur.

The Sicilian secret beloved by chefs: Casanova & Daughters, Seven Dials

Tucked away in a secluded corner of ever-Instagrammably beautiful Neal's Yard, Covent Garden, Casanova & Daughters is both deli and wine bar as well as supplier to some of the capital's top restaurants including three Michelin star Sketch and Ducasse at The Dorchester.

Upstairs is a chic, understated private dining room with one long table and high stools seating a maximum of 22 (more for a stand-up canapés party). The menu is deceptively simple: anchovies, artichoke bruschetta, pasta with pistachio pesto yet using world class produce and incomparably delicious. Even the olive oil will have guests swooning. Equally, the wines are from small-scale producers and mostly low-intervention natural wines. The timbered room has a gorgeous view over Neal's Yard, which looks magical at nighttime, and a lovely intimate, secret feel.