When you walk into German Gymnasium - look up.

This stunning Grade II listed building, which used to be an actual Gymnasium funded by a group of Germans living in London all the way back in 1865, was taken over in 2014 by a restaurant group who spent a fair few bob on renovations, though they did leave intact the imposing high ceilings and original beam features that you’ll notice above your head when you first walk in.

The food at German Gymnasium might not be the most exciting, but the impressive, posh environment and added bonus of being right next to two of the biggest transport hubs in London make it a restaurant that’s useful for almost every conceivable occasion. Breakfast meeting before heading to Cambridge to meet that tech company? Yep. Birthday dinner on a Friday night so that Estelle can make it from Paris and Nick can make it from St. Albans? Book it. Utility date night with the person you met on the internet last week? Suggest here (but also probably have an exit strategy). Even if you need a spot to host a bar mitzvah for several hundred people, this is your place, and yes that actually happened, and yes we were there, and yes it was awesome.

In the event that you’re not hitting German Gymnasium for a bar mitzvah, know that the best place to be is on the mezzanine floor, where things are a bit quieter, and also where there’s a nice view of all the action going on below. You can still look up from there too, but you can also look down. And who doesn’t love doing that?