Beast

Tucked down Chapel Place, a lane off Oxford Street on the Marylebone side of the West End, Beast trades the conventions of the London steakhouse for something closer to a feast. The Rare Restaurants group built the room around a single idea: long communal oak tables, laid with silver candelabra and fine crystal beneath rows of flickering candles, where guests sit shoulder to shoulder over the same spread. Exposed brick and rough stone, low light and hunting-lodge detailing give it the air of an Arctic fishing hut reimagined for a moneyed London crowd.

The kitchen deals in two ingredients above all: dry-aged USDA steak and Norwegian king crab, brought whole to the table and carved to share. It is theatre as much as dinner, which is what makes it work for a private party. Groups take the set Land & Sea menus, and larger celebrations can hire the restaurant in its entirety, terrace included, on a Sunday when the room is closed to the public.

For a birthday, an anniversary or a company dinner that wants presence, Beast offers a single grand room that photographs as well as it feeds. The covered courtyard terrace, strung with festoon lighting and thick with greenery, opens the space up in warmer months.