LDNGuide

Where To Have Your Next Team Dinner

14 spots for a celebratory meal with people you see every, single, day.
undefined

You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your family. And you probably can’t choose your colleagues either. Unless you’re the boss. In which case, be a good boss and take your employees out to dinner every once in a while.

Even if you’re not in charge, you may find yourself in charge of planning a team dinner outing from time to time. And whether you see a team meal as a fun activity, or simply a chance to figure out which person you’ll need to destroy to get ahead, you should pick a solid restaurant for the occasion. These restaurants are fun, suitable for groups, mostly work-appropriate, and serve food you’ll enjoy.

Here’s where to book your next team dinner.

THE SPOTS

photo credit: Karolina Wiercigroch

Indian

City

$$$$Perfect For:Big GroupsBirthdaysBusiness MealsCorporate CardsDinner with the ParentsEating At The Bar
RESERVE A TABLE

POWERED BY

SevenRooms logo
Earn 3x points with your sapphire card

You spend day in, day out entertaining your colleagues with TikToks, memes about hating work, and stories of your trainwreck of a love life. But it’s a tiring job. When you want some time out of the office, head to this Indian spot near Bank. A feelgood party in the City, Brigadiers is the kind of excellent restaurant that will do all the hard work for you. There’s a whisky vending machine, a pool room, approximately 10 televisions showing live sport, oil portraits of Thierry Henry, lamps in the shape of monkeys, and—dun dun dun—the best lamb chops in London. 


Circolo Popolare is a great place to get excessively merry with your work wife/husband/codependent hot mess. A high-energy Italian restaurant that’s a total no-brainer for any kind of celebration, you’re definitely going to want to get involved in the carbonara that’s served out of a giant wheel of cheese and the XXL desserts. Chuck in a few of the fun Big Mamma cocktails and your team dinner is totally sorted.


If we learnt anything from Sweeney Todd, it’s that even the biggest dickheads can get on board with pie. And that guy’s only marginally worse than your boss. Take the team for dinner at all-day British spot Holborn Dining Room inside the Rosewood hotel. This place serves everything from steak tartare to half pints of Atlantic prawns, but all you really want to get involved in is the pies. This place can be expensive so it’s probably best to keep it reserved for bonus season or when the company card is due a workout.


Look, if you’re going to have to spend the next two hours pretending you care about your colleague’s loft conversion, then you might as well reap the rewards of rolling with a group. And what is the ultimate benefit of group dining? A heavy-duty dim sum order, of course. Pearl Liang in Paddington has a big glassy exterior that gives the illusion of business, with a vast menu of daytime and evening dim sum deals that mean you can use this meal as an excuse to try everything from the cheung fun in XO sauce to the spicy prawn wontons. Also, they have plenty of big round tables so no one on the team is going to have to awkwardly sit at the end and pretend they’re not insulted. Be sure to check out their group set menus once you’ve satisfied that dim sum craving.


Behold! The gastropub! Friend to overtly tipsy colleagues and gratin dauphinois fans everywhere. A great shout for any team that’s a glorious mix of people who want to get hammered and those who want to politely eat some slow-cooked lamb and be on their merry way, The Clarence Tavern is a pub that will cater for all. From the team behind Anchor & Hope and Canton Arms, this Stoke Newington spot may be a pub but the orange wine, burrata, and whole-fish dishes will ensure that your team dinner feels a whole lot more special than all those 5pm Friday post-work pints at Spoons. Just be sure to book ahead.


Work is all about friendship born of mutual suffering. Maybe it’s having to buddy up to convince a Miranda Priestly wannabe that they really can’t return those socks without a receipt. Or maybe it’s figuring out how to get the printer to connect to your laptop. Or maybe it’s having the sheer anxiety of booking this team meal. Whatever the reason, if you weren’t able to laugh through your daily work grievances together, you probably would have quit by now—and there are few restaurants better for having a laugh in than Ciao Bella. This old-school Italian in Bloomsbury doesn’t have the best Italian food in London but the portions are big, the prices are affordable, and their outside terrace is one of the single greatest group dining spots in London.


Unlike all of those Zoom meetings where you spend the entire time checking your mic isn’t on, Hoppers is never, ever boring. The £45 Sri Lankan tasting menu at this King’s Cross spot includes mutton rolls, hot butter, bone marrow varuval, hoppers, and crab kari, or devilled paneer and plantain cutlets if you order the vegetarian version. Basically, it’s the kind of meal that laughs in the face of your lunchtime tuna sarnie Pret habit. The coconut spritz vacation feel and foliage really won’t hurt either.


Honestly, most of your CV could loosely be defined as creative writing. You have absolutely no idea about the field you’re currently working in, so you’re looking to book somewhere that isn’t going to send the old Imposter Syndrome into overdrive. Introducing Casa Do Frango, which for all intents and purposes is a classy take on Nando’s with caipirinhas and much better chorizo and plantain packed rice. A straightforward and roomy restaurant in London Bridge, they also have a decent number of vegetarian dishes considering they specialise in piri-piri chicken, plus a meal here is unlikely to set you back more than 35 quid.


You’ve been to Dishoom. Most of your team have been to Dishoom. And yes, even your dad who just discovered Snow Patrol has been to Dishoom. But there’s a reason why this modern Indian mini-chain of restaurants is so popular. Each of their locations across London have vegan, dairy-free, and gluten-free menus, as well as all of their go-to dishes like prawn koliwada, curries, and lamb chops. Their King’s Cross spot is in a huge warehouse, and although you’ll pretty much always find queues at Dishoom, you can book for groups of six or more.


Turns out your team are great, you’re all doing brilliantly, and you’re going out for dinner this Thursday because, why not? Who knew work could work out so well. St John Bread and Wine—a legendary British restaurant in Shoreditch—is the perfect choice, so it’s a good thing you’re booked to go there and… oh and they’ve only gone and ordered the whole suckling pig. Don’t worry—there are amazing vegetarian options as well and you don’t have to get the pig if you don’t want to but, you know, it’s a team thing.


You just found out that not-great boss who has treated your team to one dinner in the last five years (and it was at Chicken Cottage) has been re-located to Redditch. As an added bonus, Rachel (we love Rachel) has been promoted. Time for a proper celebration and a proper team dinner at Shikumen. This large-format Chinese restaurant in Shepherd’s Bush is a celebration-worthy spot, and one of our favourites for a group. Order the roast duck to share, a whole lot of dim sum, and plenty of drinks. This is what teamwork looks like.


If your team is brimming with worldly, highly cultured, and generally overachieving individuals, consider booking your next team dinner at Moro. This restaurant was inspired by the chef’s travels around Spain and North Africa, and you can think of it as a grown-up restaurant for grown-up people, but without being stuffy in the slightest. It’s an excellent setting for discussing why every other department is worse than yours.


You and your colleagues have been stuck in all-day meetings for a week straight, and you’re all in need of a stiff drink and a plate of delicious cheesecake. The Rail House Cafe in Victoria is an excellent go-to for everyone to let off a bit of steam. There’s a shiny bar and loads of sofas for your work crew to sprawl with a few cocktails, and the easy brasserie food is exactly the kind of no-fuss stuff you want after a long day.


If you and your work crew are the type to spend every Thursday night down the local, drinking the week away, it might be time to shake up your routine a bit. Head to The Laughing Gravy in Southwark. The gastropub vibes mean you can trick even the most jobsworth members of your team into the building and even get them to try one or two twists on traditional dishes like a scallop and crayfish scotch egg, or something from their wildly creative dessert menu. Everyone’s stomachs will be well-lined, so your team might actually be productive on a Friday for once. We said might.


Chase Sapphire Card Ad

Suggested Reading

Where To Go For A Business Lunch In London image

Where To Go For A Business Lunch In London

18 great spots that cover every type of business lunch you can imagine.

24 Restaurants Great For A Group Dinner In London image

Organising dinner for friends or colleagues is a tricky balancing act. Here’s a selection of the best group-friendly restaurants to have that get-together.

undefined

Where to get dinner with a group when you want the food to be more memorable than the bill.

Infatuation Logo

Company

2024 © The Infatuation Inc. All Rights Reserved.

FIND PLACES ON OUR APP

Get it on Google PlayDownload on the App Store