Clipstone

Clipstone occupies a bright corner site in Fitzrovia, around the corner from its older sibling Portland and part of the same Woodhead Restaurant Group. It opened in 2016 and has kept the same shape since: one airy dining room, an open kitchen behind a tiled counter, a long window bar of stools facing the street, and a wine blackboard beside the pass.

There is no private room here, which is rather the point. Private hire takes the whole restaurant, up to forty seated, so a group gets the corner, the kitchen and the bar to itself rather than a room off to one side. Menus, drinks and the table layout are all built to the booking, with a sommelier tasting beforehand, and events are run by the restaurant's own senior team rather than a separate department. In the warmer months the heated terrace outside adds a second, quieter room in the open air.

The cooking is produce-led and written fresh each day, with no fixed geography. It is the kind of room that suits a dinner where the guests are meant to talk to each other: daylight early, low light late, and a wine list with real range.