CLAP London

CLAP arrived in Knightsbridge in early 2024, the brand's European debut after Beirut, Dubai and Riyadh, settling into the top two floors of a converted building on Basil Street a few steps from Harrods. The interiors are the work of Japanese designer Noriyoshi Muramatsu of Studio Glitt, who layered natural wood and solid stone against bolder gestures: chandeliers that fuse traditional Edo-Kiriko glass-cutting with figures drawn from Japanese pop culture, including a now much-photographed cluster of plastic toys overhead in the seventh-floor lounge. The result is a sensory Japanese dining concept that runs energetic rather than hushed, with music-led programming carrying the mood from the restaurant up to the rooftop.

The sixth floor holds the main restaurant, where live sushi and robata counters open onto the room and floor-to-ceiling glass frames the city skyline, the dome of Harrods included. One floor up sits the seventh-floor lounge, bar and terrace, the venue's nightlife heart: a long cocktail bar inspired by Tokyo's after-dark scene, resident DJs late into the evening, and an outdoor terrace with 180-degree views across central London. On the ground floor, CLAP Ka-Fe is a smaller, calmer counterpoint for intimate gatherings.

For private events the whole venue is flexible. Individual floors and the bar can be taken on their own or combined, and full takeovers run to roughly 290 guests across the indoor restaurant, lounge, bar and terrace. The seventh floor is the obvious draw for a DJ-led evening, with its in-house sound system, resident booth and a rooftop that holds the room together once the music starts.