Straits Kitchen & Bar

Straits Kitchen occupies the lower floors of Pan Pacific London, the bronze tower on Bishopsgate Plaza two minutes from Liverpool Street. It is the hotel's signature restaurant and it holds two AA Rosettes for Culinary Excellence. Executive Head Chef Adam Bateman, with more than twenty-five years in kitchens behind him, runs a menu that applies Western technique to Southeast Asian flavour, with the cooking of Singapore as its reference point.

The room is three connected areas rather than one, all under floor-to-ceiling glass, with soft curves, pale timber and a geometric stone floor. Taken exclusively it seats 122 and holds 180 standing, and the hire includes the adjoining Straits Bar, where the cocktail list is built on pandan, Thai basil, lychee and dragon fruit. The bar can also be taken on its own, semi-privately or in full, for up to 40 guests.

Three private dining rooms sit off the restaurant, each named after a Singapore hawker centre. Maxwell is the one built for entertaining: fifty guests, its own pre-event reception area, a Champagne wall, a built-in audio system and a glass door that closes the room off. Katong seats fifteen around a central captain's table under full-height glazing, and Newton takes twelve in dark panelling against a marble wall. The restaurant is licensed to midnight with extensions available, which makes a dinner with music straightforward to stage.