Joe Allen

Joe Allen has drawn London's theatre world down its steps since 1977, the West End counterpart to the New York original that Joe Allen opened off Broadway. In 2017 it moved a few doors from Exeter Street to 2 Burleigh Street, carrying its dark walnut panelling, red brick, brass rails and bentwood chairs, along with the thousands of West End and Broadway posters that paper the walls. The room reads as it always has: low-lit, unhurried and a little clandestine, with framed photographs of the stars who have eaten here over the decades.

The main dining room seats a hundred, and the whole restaurant takes up to 150 for a standing reception with canapes and bowl food. Joe's Bar, at the front, keeps a long counter of dark walnut, a mirrored back bar and a piano that plays through the evening, its cocktails and martinis a fixture of the pre- and post-show ritual. Taken in full for a private event, the restaurant clears a dance floor among the banquettes while the kitchen sends out the American classics the place is known for.

Actors, directors and audiences have used it as a late canteen for the best part of fifty years, which is much of its appeal for a party: a room with a crowd and a memory behind it rather than a blank hire space. It suits a birthday, a cast celebration or a post-show gathering that wants character over polish, in a corner of Covent Garden built around the theatres.