Les 110 de Taillevent

Les 110 de Taillevent is the London home of the Paris house Le Taillevent, and it takes its name from the 110 wines it pours by the glass. The list runs past two thousand bins, and the kitchen sends out classic and modern French cooking to match it. It occupies a former bank on Cavendish Square, a few steps north of Oxford Circus: an oak-panelled dining room under a gilded coffered ceiling, with a wall of green wine bottles rising behind the counter and tall windows onto the square.

For private events the restaurant offers two options. The Lamennais Room is its dedicated private dining room, lined with large classical paintings and hung with a single chandelier; ceiling-high windows give onto Cavendish Square, and velvet drapes and oak keep the mood warm. It seats thirty for lunch or dinner and holds forty for a reception, and it suits a wine tasting or a celebration as readily as a working lunch. For a larger gathering the whole restaurant can be taken exclusively, seating sixty-five or receiving eighty standing.

The wine-led setting makes it an unusually easy room to build an evening around, and the in-house sommellerie is central to how it entertains. It is a discreet address for private dining, wine tastings and launches in Marylebone.