Struggling to find a restaurant big enough to accommodate all your friends? Don’t worry, Mr. Popular, we’ve got you covered with these banging group restaurants in London.
Be it birthdays, family dinners or a meet up with a bunch of mates, there’s always the need for a good group dining restaurant. And while these meals can be a total laugh, it’s not always easy to pick the right place.
Is the vibe at place X too stiff for a boozy birthday party? Could we all fit round the pokey corner seats at place Y?
Forget all that. We’ve written you a guide of all the best places for you to cram all your pals in for a big meal and not have to worry about anything other than having a good time.
Read on for our guide to the best restaurants for big groups London has to offer.
Best Group-Friendly Restaurants in London
Tayyabs
Whitechapel
There’s nothing like a curry house to support tablefulls of you and your mates, eating and drinking like it’s the last days of Rome, and when it comes to curry houses you can’t do much bigger and better than Tayyabs.
The place is an east-London dining institution, turning out multitudes of well-fed diners every night. You’ll find spacious tables big enough to support even the biggest of groups and on them dishes of curry that ranks as some of the best in London.
Of that excellent curry Tayyabs are probably best known for their barbecue and tandoori grillwork. You shouldn’t miss out on any of it.
Brasserie Zédel
Another London institution with enough space to support a small army is Brasserie Zédel. You’ll find it down a spiralling staircase in Piccadilly Circus that leads to a space so massive and baroque you almost wouldn’t believe it.
The food is French, and very good. Expect to be eating meat heavy, washing it down with copious amounts of wine and leaving a fair few stone heavier than you arrived at.
Just to top it all off, they’ll likely have a live band playing to you as your group dines – Zédel’s is known for good vibes as well as good food.
Ave Mario
It’d be impossible for us to write a guide on fun restaurants in London for groups without mentioning something from the Big Mama Group. To be honest any one of their restaurants would be a good fit here but we’ll go with Ave Mario as it’s a classic.
The place is about as over-the-top as they come – almost gimmicky. Pretty much everything is bright, shiny and red from the booth seats to the tiled flooring and not a detail has been spared in extravagance.
But Ave Mario isn’t just looks. They do some mean food too – of course, not without its own touch of theatre.
Dishoom
Multiple Locations
Dishoom stormed onto the London dining scene and secured its place in the hearts of curry fans and cookbook aficionados alike. The food has remained some of the most talked about in London even years later.
So with that in mind, if you’re looking for the best London restaurants for groups, you can’t do much better than Dishoom.
The curry is all delicious and you pretty much can’t go wrong with anything on the menu. They do some great sharing menu options too, but you’ll need to be in groups bigger than eleven to take advantage of that.
La Bodega Negra
If you want restaurants for groups London has you covered, but if you want to spice that big group dinner up, you’ll want to book a table at La Bodega Negra. You’ll be spicing things up for two reasons:
The first is the fact you’ll be tucking in to a feast of Mexican food all dressed up to look very pretty on you and your group’s instagrams, and doing right in the flavour department too.
The second reason you’ll be spicing your evening up is the subterranean sex-shop vibes the place leans into – the door is literally guarded by a mannequin in a gimp mask, but what do you expect, this is Soho afterall…
Hoppers
Multiple Locations
Sri Lankan food has seen its own rise to fame in London of late, and offers many of the same perks that its Indian neighbour’s cooking culture does, namely that it makes for great sharing food.
At the forefront of the Sri Lankan restaurant scene in London is Hoppers, a brand that’s now got several sizable restaurants around the city. You’ll find plenty of space in any of them for a big group dinner, as well as a menu of food that won’t disappoint anyone.
And if you’re out for a special occasion there’s a pretty good list of drinks to choose from too. Just sayin’…
Four Seasons
Chinatown
There’s probably no better food in the world for large group dining than Chinese, and so in that respect Four Seasons might be one of the best restaurants for large groups London has to offer.
It’s right in amongst it in Chinatown and in spite of some serious competition is probably the best of the bunch. They’ve won awards and no small amount of recognition for their Peking duck – a duck that you need to have if you eat here – and as you can expect, have enormous menus stacked with more than enough dishes for a sumptuous feast to feed the lot of you.
Ciao Bella
When dining in a big group atmosphere is just about as important as food. It’s a special thing when you find a restaurant that offers both at a high level. You’ll find it at Ciao Bella – one of London’s most popular Italian restaurants, and one with plenty of space for you and your pals.
You’ll have a choice between indoor seating – where you’ll be surrounded by portraits of famous Italians and trinkets – or outdoor, where you’ll be dining kerbside on a sleepy London street, hopefully with a balmy evening reminiscent of your last summer holiday in Italy.
Acme Fire Cult
Dalston
A great spot if you’re after the best restaurants for groups London has in its sizable repertoire is Acme Fire Cult. This place opened its brick-and-mortar location in 2021 after success in pop-up form at London Fields Courtyard.
They specialise in what’s known among the elites as live-fire cooking – BBQ to the rest of us. Everything here is done over naked flame, coal and wood, and done with care. Whether it’s the meat or the veg, it’s all pretty on point.
They’ve got plenty of space inside and out, and some feeds that will stick to your ribs – best shared among a big group so you can try a bit of everything.
The Pelican
We’re not gonna lie, getting a table at The Pelican can be tough no matter how big your group. Book early enough in advance though and you’ll have plenty of space in the suave dining area of this Notting Hill gastropub.
The food is broadly British and all sourced with sustainability in mind. That said you can expect the menu – scrawled on a chalkboard by the bar – to change on the reg and reflect the season you’re eating in.
Cooking here is great, the reason this place is so busy, but there’s a minor second reason to come: group dining in a pub means you won’t need to walk further than the bar for after dinner drinks.
Mercato Metropolitano
Not actually a restaurant per se, but for group dining London doesn’t do much better than Mercato Metropolitano – a giant food court and bar space packed with plenty of options and plenty of space for massive groups.
That choice is another reason Mercato makes it into our London group restaurants guide. Mercato’s got enough choice to satisfy even the pickiest of eaters. How many times have you tried to organise a big dinner but come up against trouble when no one can agree what food they want to eat? Not here, dear reader, not here.
Max’s Sandwich Shop
Crouch End
It may not be the biggest space in the world but what Max’s Sandwich Shop lacks in size it makes up for in hospitality – the staff will be more than happy to cram you around one table if you’re happy to eat that way.
What’ll you be eating? Some of the best sandwiches in London. Chunky beasts that riff off cuisines of the world: some come stuffed with curry, others ham, egg and shoestring fries.
They knock out some pretty tidy bloody caesars or do picklebacks – shots of whisky chased with pickle juice – that pretty much guarantee eating here turns messy.
Sexy Fish
Chances are, if you’re dining in a big group, you’re out for a special occasion. If that’s the case and you want to really push the boat out, this swanky spot in Mayfair might be the place for you and your crew.
Sexy Fish is the embodiment of maximalist Mayfair dining, a restaurant OTT enough to give the Big Mama Group a run for their money designed by Damien Hirst and sporting a full-on coral reef fish tank. They really turn it up in the kitchen too – Asian-inspired seafood being the order of the day.
You’ll be dining on some pretty great sushi and sashimi but you’re really here for the fish they do on the robata grill and perhaps for a glass or two out of their Japanese whisky collection – the largest such collection in the world…
Persepolis
We’re more than ready to admit that a place like Sexy Fish might not be everybody’s cup of tea. If you want something a bit more chilled, we recommend Persepolis.
The food here – Persian – is some of the best value around and has a genuine cult following in London. They’ve even written a series of cookbooks, found in the kitchens of pretty much every young foodie in the capital.
The restaurant’s still pack out their restaurant with people seeking out the food at its source though, and that food will be a mezze of middle eastern dishes, regularly changing, best shared in chilled, pick-away-at-it style.
Normah’s
Bayswater
Normah’s is another one of those London restaurants that inspires a cult following, and like Persepolis makes it into our guide for its ability to cater for a decent-sized group of people without breaking the bank.
It’s likely to be a less leisurely affair – you’ll be slurping down laksa and putting away beef rendang – you must order the beef rendang – and moving on to a nearby bar or pub so that the next big group can have your table.
You won’t be disappointed by any of the food though. It’s comfort food at its finest. Normah learnt her trade cooking for her massive family back in Malaysia and that homely style rings true.
Practical Tips for Exploring the Best Group-Friendly Restaurants in London
- We say this in pretty much every restaurant guide but we’ll say it again. Book! It’s especially true if you’re going as a big group. We’d add that you should book well in advance for big groups. London is full of hungry people and getting a table can be a nightmare.
- If you know these restaurants already you can always call ahead and try to request a specific table to make the meal a touch more special.
- If you want a deal – and to remove the burden of choice from your hands – speak to a manager in advance about a set menu. For large groups they may be keen to make a deal for you, it simplifies the process for everyone.
