The best private dining in the City of London

Near Mansion House, on the ground floor of the boutique luxury hotel Vintry & Mercer, the Vintry Kitchen is a relaxed all-day café and wine bar. Available for private hire, the café can accommodate up to 100 people for standing receptions and 60 for seated meals.

Expect the refined elegance found throughout Vintry & Mercer, seasonal and sustainable dishes, an exceptional wine cellar, and all the little sides that pair so well with wine and cocktails.

Tiled floors, hanging plants from the ceiling, tealight candles on tables – it’s the ideal private hire if you need a run of the place but you don’t want something lofty and grand. Smart-casual with top-quality menus and wine straight from the barrel.

Few things in the London skyline are as iconic as The Gherkin. The 38th floor of everyone’s favourite pickled building contains private dining rooms aptly named after cloud types: Alto, Cirrus, Stratus, Cumulus, and Nimbus. These private dining rooms offer stunning views of the City with one entire glass wall from floor to ceiling.

Private hire is lavishly catered for with bespoke breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea, and dinner menus that highlight Searcys’ passion for the highest quality British produce and seasonality. Booked as double rooms, ideal for 24 to 60 guests, depending on the layout, Searcys offers one of the most exclusive City of London private dining experiences.

With a sought-after location directly across from Monument Station, Wagtail Rooftop Bar & Restaurant is our pick for versatile City private dining, able to accommodate everything from intimate dinners to large-scale parties, conferences, and weddings. The 10th-floor terrace offers beautiful spaces that can cater to up to 400 people.

Spread across two floors, there are two terraces, a fully heated and covered rooftop terrace bar, and an exclusive private dining room for 10 in the majestic cupola, all for private hire. Wagtail’s menu showcases British produce, provenance, and seasonality, and the drinks menu has been curated in partnership with London’s best wine merchants and local distilleries. It’s all great here, the views are really just the icing on the cake.

As Vinoteca says, the private dining experience here is whatever you want it to be. Stylish yet casual, the Mezzanine offers a moderately-sized private dining experience that can accommodate up to 42 people seated. It’s our pick for a City private dining room that’s not at the extreme end of the price spectrum.

Located in the heart of the City, between Mansion House and Cannon Street stations, Vinoteca offers several seasonal events menus with a hire of the Mezzanine. It’s a laid-back and contemporary setting for a private meal, wine tasting, or bespoke event. Simple but done well.

Located riverside on the bank of the Thames, nearest Cannon Street Station, and with a spectacular view of Tower Bridge, the Captain’s Table is an exclusive private dining room at the award-winning Oyster Shed riverside pub, bar, and restaurant.

The Oyster Shed is bright and spacious but keeps the Captain’s Table separate for exclusive hire. The private dining room can accommodate up to 35 in a modern space with slight nautical touches in the decor. If you need a space to accommodate more, the Rockefeller Lounge on the top floor can accommodate up to 100 seated and 200 standing.

Champagne, oysters, and a standout seafood menu – this is definitely one for the lovers of seafood and riverside bars. Still, the Oyster Shed also offers stunning classic dishes of the meat and vegetarian variety, meaning your event can cater to all.

The Ivy correctly decided that what the City needed – with all its glass and steel skyscrapers – was more greenery, and with a perfect view of the historic Bishopsgate Gardens and St Botolph Church, the Ivy City Garden came to be.

The Garden Room is The Ivy’s exclusive and rather dramatic private dining room with walls adorned with blue woven fabric panelling and decorative antique mirrors inset into pale blue painted panels. There are accents of Largstar-shaped brass, and antique mirror ceiling lights – very Instagrammable if that’s an important factor for you.

​​This lush botanical private room can accommodate 24 guests on one long table, or 32 guests over four round tables of 8, and is available for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, as well as for drink and canapé receptions for up to 50 guests. Its picturesque quality, top-tier menus, and botanical ambiance all make for a standout City of London private dining experience.

One of our favourite private dining venues is located moments from Barbican tube station and a stone’s throw away from Shoreditch. Fare is cool and casual, with the perfect amount of refinement and potted plants to make us feel right at home.

We love Fare for its hospitality and multiple offerings, such as its versatile spaces to suit a plethora of occasions, crafted cocktails, curated wine selection, and top-class menus. We’d like to give a notable mention to its (always desirable) al fresco dining on the terrace at ground level – if there’s anything that heightens the flavours of Fare’s top-notch menus, it’s the open air.

The lower ground floor is home to the Bar (it can accommodate 30 covers), the exclusive and intimate Wine Room, as well as the main dining room. You’ll find a relaxed ambiance within a contemporary industrial-chic space with warm accents from the lighting and colour palette. Book one of their lovely spaces or hire the full venues with a capacity of 220 people.

Fare is our central destination for intimate dinners, weddings, corporate meals, lively celebrations, and so much more.