Google’s own most asked question about Christmas lunch in London is how much it costs at the Ritz. The Ritz does not say.
Its Christmas Day page advertises a six course lunch in a two Michelin starred dining room and carries no figure anywhere on it. Checked on 27 September 2026, along with five more of the rooms that come up first for this search, and rechecked on 2 October 2026 for the Ritz, Hawksmoor, the Ivy Collection and the Wolseley, none of which had added a price. Not one of them publishes a price.
What four grand rooms publish, and what they leave out
| Where | What they advertise | Price |
|---|---|---|
| The Ritz | Six course Christmas Day lunch, two Michelin stars | Not published |
| Quaglino’s | Four courses on Christmas Day, a drink included | Not published |
| Browns Covent Garden | A full Christmas 2026 menus and parties page | Not published |
| Hawksmoor | Christmas lunch, dinner and private dining | Not published |
| The Ivy Collection | Christmas across the group | Not published |
| The Wolseley | Nothing yet. Its Christmas page is not live | Nothing to publish |
Read the right hand column, because it is the whole story. These are not obscure rooms. They are the first names that come up for this search, they are all advertising Christmas Day service, and every one of them makes you begin an enquiry to find out what it costs.
That is a deliberate model rather than an oversight, and it is the same one the premium gyms and the observation decks use. A published price invites comparison. An unpublished one starts a conversation with somebody whose job is to close it.
Hawksmoor is the one that gives the game away. For the rest of the year it publishes its set lunch to the penny: twenty one pounds for one course, twenty six for two, thirty for three, printed on the page you land on. Our Borough guide quotes it. Its Christmas page advertises lunch, dinner and private dining and carries no figure at all.
So this is not a house style or a squeamishness about money. The same restaurant that prices a Tuesday lunch in public declines to price Christmas Day, which tells you the silence is about the date rather than the dining room.
The one festive price we could verify
The Ritz has published this year’s Christmas Afternoon Tea: £120 per adult and £79 per child up to the age of 15, and £135 and £90 on Christmas Day itself. It runs from 14 November 2026 to 6 January 2027. It is worth holding as an anchor, because it is the same building and the same kitchen on the same dates.
Set it against the ordinary sitting, which the Ritz publishes at £95 for adults and £73 for children, and the festive premium is twenty five pounds a head on the tea alone, or forty on Christmas Day. The afternoon tea guide has the full comparison and the wording the Ritz uses, which matters: its prices are a floor rather than a flat rate, so a particular sitting or date may be more.
If a tea in that room carries a thirty pound festive premium, apply the same logic to lunch before you ring. It will not give you the number, but it will stop the number being a surprise.
Christmas dinner in London, and the timing that decides more than the price
Christmas Day lunch in a London hotel is a months ahead booking, not a weeks ahead one. The reason is supply rather than fashion: almost every other kitchen in the city is shut, so the handful of rooms that open are covering the whole of London’s demand between them.
Book by October. By the time most people start looking, in the first week of December, the sittings that remain are the early ones and the late ones at the rooms that did not sell out.
The pattern to expect is two or three sittings rather than an open service, a set menu rather than a carte, and a deposit taken at the point of booking. Ask about the deposit terms in the same call as the price, because Christmas Day cancellations are where the strictest terms in London live.
The thing nobody factors in, which is getting there
On Christmas Day there is no Tube, no bus, no DLR, no Overground and no Tramlink. Not a reduced service. None at all.
That turns a lunch booking into a transport problem, and it is the single most common way a Christmas Day reservation goes wrong. Taxis and private hire run and charge accordingly. Our Christmas Day guide covers what is actually open and how people move around the city on the one day it stops.
So book somewhere you can walk to, or budget for the car. A room three miles away at half past one on Christmas Day is a different proposition from the same room in June.
What to ask when you ring
Ask for the price per adult and per child separately. Where festive pricing is published elsewhere on the same site, as at the Ritz, the child price runs about a third below the adult one.
Ask what is included. Quaglino’s advertises a drink with its four courses. Others do not, and a wine pairing on Christmas Day is where the bill moves.
Ask for the sitting times before you agree a date. Two or three sittings means one of them is early and one is late, and they are not the same day out.
Ask what the deposit is and when it stops being refundable. This is the question people skip and regret.
Ask whether service is included. A discretionary charge on a festive set menu at these prices is a meaningful number on its own, and since October 2024 it reaches the staff by law, which changes how you should think about removing it.
Everything on this page was taken from each venue’s own published pages on 27 September 2026, and rechecked on 2 October 2026 where the site could be loaded. Festive pricing appears late and changes without notice, and the rooms that publish nothing today may publish something in November. Confirm directly.
Where to go next
What is actually open on Christmas Day is the page to read alongside this one, because the transport shutdown shapes the whole day. The Christmas markets cover the weeks before it.
Afternoon tea has the Ritz festive pricing in full, and the hotels guide covers the rooms serving Christmas lunch in their ordinary season.
The Michelin guide explains the set menu arithmetic that applies here as it does the rest of the year: the same kitchen, a fixed menu, and a price that moves with the date.
Questions we get asked
How much is Christmas Day lunch at the Ritz?
The Ritz does not publish it. Its Christmas Day page advertises a six course lunch in its two Michelin starred restaurant and carries no price anywhere, so the figure only arrives once you make an enquiry. For an anchor, the same hotel has published this year’s Christmas Afternoon Tea at 120 pounds per adult and 79 per child against 95 and 73 for the ordinary sitting, and at 135 and 90 on Christmas Day itself, a festive premium of forty pounds a head on the day.
How much does Christmas lunch cost in London?
Almost nobody will tell you in advance. Six of the rooms that rank first for this search were checked in September 2026 and not one published a price: the Ritz advertises six courses, Quaglino's four courses with a drink included, Browns runs a full Christmas menus page, and the Wolseley had not put its Christmas page up at all. Expect a set menu, two or three sittings and a deposit, and expect to ring for the number.
When should you book Christmas lunch in London?
By October, and earlier for the grand hotels. It is a months ahead booking rather than a weeks ahead one, because almost every other kitchen in London is closed on Christmas Day and the few rooms that open absorb the whole city's demand. By the first week of December the good sittings have gone.
Is there transport in London on Christmas Day?
No. There is no Tube, no bus, no DLR, no Overground and no Tramlink on Christmas Day, and that is a full shutdown rather than a reduced service. Taxis and private hire operate. It is the most common reason a Christmas Day booking goes wrong, so either book somewhere you can walk to or budget for the car.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 170 in the guide.
Last checked 2 October 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
