Balthazar

Balthazar occupies the old Flower Cellars on Russell Street: storage halls built in 1871 for Covent Garden's flower sellers, redeveloped in 2013 as a Parisian brasserie under a partnership between Caprice Holdings and the New York restaurateur Keith McNally. The main room keeps McNally's signature look — a pressed-tin gold ceiling, oxblood leather booths, a mosaic tiled floor and a long bottle-lined bar running its length.

Two private rooms flank the restaurant. Le Petit sits behind the ground-floor bar, with aged parquet and a run of antique mirrors (one etched with the house cocktail list), and holds up to 24 seated or 40 standing. Le Grand, a floor up, is the larger of the pair: an Art Deco mural of dancers looks over its dining tables, and its own pewter-topped bar gives a party somewhere to split off and mingle, up to 48 seated or 80 standing.

Both rooms can run breakfast through to dinner, and either pairs with a full restaurant buyout for up to 150 seated. Steak frites, fruits de mer and French onion soup anchor a classic bistro menu; private hire and enquiries route through the Caprice Holdings events team.