The Late-Night London Guide
Where to eat and drink after dark in this woefully sleepy city.
I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to kick this newsletter off with a bit of a moan about London – specifically how it is, on paper, supposed to be this 24-hour global metropolis, but everything shuts so damn early. As you’ll be aware, most of our international counterparts (New York, Hong Kong etc.) do not operate like this. In the rest of Europe, people are just settling down for dinner while our restaurants are calling last orders. Over in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, where my dad lived until recently, restaurants’ peak hours were around 10pm and most public spaces would be open until midnight, sometimes later.
Maybe it’s because I’m single, childfree and work in an industry where going out is part of the job that London’s sleepy nightlife scene irks me so much. A paternalistic, ‘lights out’ culture is bad for a young woman’s romantic, social and professional life, and therefore her overall wellbeing. But it is also a macro issue – and one apparently bad enough that last year Sadiq Khan felt compelled to set up a Nightlife Taskforce and request additional powers from the government to support the nightlife economy. (The tricker equation is really getting ‘Nimby’ residents on side.)
As Rebecca Dolan wrote last summer in GQ, there’ve been a few glimmers of hope lately, with some newer openings in the city making the concerted effort to extend their hours. It was actually this piece that inspired me to scour for a few more and create today’s list of places in London where you can eat, drink, dance and be merry well into the night.
The criteria to be considered for this late-night London guide is as follows: if it’s a restaurant, you have to be able to order food past 10pm on a Friday or Saturday. For places serving drinks, they have to be open past midnight. It’s a fairly low bar, to be honest – but one that an embarrassing number of spots in the city do not pass. (I’m sure any Berliners reading this must think we are absolute wimps – and they would be right!)
As I’d hope you’d expect from Late Filing, these are also the sort of bars and restaurants you’d want to patronise at any time of day, not just because they’re the only places open. In fact, for some of them, going at 10pm is probably your best shot at getting a table. All of them have been vetted by myself or someone whose taste and judgment I trust. Credit in particular to my friend Alia Abdulla, a woman-about-town who more than fits that description and who shared some great intel.
FYI: the full list of 20 late-night spots is for paid subscribers. If you fancy upgrading, it’s just £5 a month, which gets you full access to The Digest on Thursday and a feature like this every weekend.
Central
Below Stone Nest in Soho
Open until 2am
Around the corner from the chaos of Charing Cross Road, Below Stone Nest is an underground drinking den designed by Jermaine Gallacher. It’s run by Frank and Jackson Boxer, with the latter presiding over the food (mostly snacks and small plates). From 10pm until close, you can order from a limited late-night menu that includes aubergine and miso skewers, grilled ham sandwiches and white Russian ice cream. Lines start forming outside later in the night, and last entry is at 1am. I’ve found the crowd is pretty young – mid to late twenties, which makes me feel like an elder. But, on the upside, people actually get up and dance.
Osteria Vibrato in Soho
Open until midnight (kitchen open until 10.45pm)
Opera singer turned restaurateur Charlie Mellor is a big proponent of late-night dining, hence why the kitchen at his new restaurant stays open until 10.45pm (11pm if you’re lucky). Located on Greek Street in Soho, Osteria Vibrato, which opened in February, is modelled on an old-school Italian osteria, with white tablecloths and candelabras. The menu switches up regularly, but expect classics from every region, such as veal tartare from Piemonte, pansotti in a walnut sauce from Liguria and aged ricotta from Sardinia.
