Colbert

Colbert sits on the corner of Sloane Square, an all-day Parisian café conceived by Chris Corbin and Jeremy King and opened in 2012 on the former site of the Oriel. Named after the 1930s actress Claudette Colbert, it was designed by David Collins Studio to look as though it had quietly occupied this corner of Chelsea for the best part of a century: red leather banquettes, chessboard tiling, Art Nouveau arches, custom moulded-glass chandeliers and a wall-to-wall collection of vintage French posters and faux-aged photographs.

The room runs from breakfast through to post-theatre dinners seven days a week, with the Royal Court Theatre as its near neighbour and a pavement terrace facing the square. It is the kind of place that draws a Chelsea regular crowd at every hour, equally suited to a quiet morning coffee or a late supper. The all-day menu keeps to brasserie classics, and there is a bar built into the main room for aperitifs and after-theatre drinks.

Now part of the Wolseley Hospitality Group, Colbert is a polished, intimate setting rather than a large event space. The largest standard table seats six, but the restaurant can be taken for private hire by arrangement, which makes the whole café, with its warm Belle Époque interior and Sloane Square frontage, available for a celebration or a more discreet gathering. Enquire for availability.