The mistake is not the restaurant. It is the hour.
Curtain up in the West End is usually 7pm or 7.30pm, not 8pm. Which means a six o’clock table is a pre-theatre table, and a seven o’clock table is a decision to miss the first act. Almost every ruined theatre evening in London starts with somebody booking dinner at the time they would normally eat it.
Work backwards from the curtain
For a 7.30pm start, you want to be seated by 5.45pm and out by 7.05pm. That is roughly eighty minutes, which is enough for two courses and not enough for three unless the kitchen knows you are going.
Tell them you are going to the theatre when you book. This is the single most useful sentence in this guide and it costs nothing. A kitchen that knows will pace the table. A kitchen that does not will bring the main course at 7.10pm.
The rooms that solve it
Balthazar
- Address
- 4 to 6 Russell Street, WC2B 5HZ
- Nearest
- Covent Garden
- Hours
- Monday to Friday 11.30am to 10.45pm, Saturday from 10am, Sunday 10am to 9.45pm
- Price
- Prix Fixe, two courses £25.50, all day Monday to Thursday, midday to 6pm on Friday and from 5pm on Sunday, excluding bank holidays and for up to six people
How to get in
The easiest answer in Covent Garden, because it is open straight through. There is no gap between lunch service and dinner service to fall into, and the Prix Fixe covers the pre theatre hour on every day it runs, though on a Friday it stops at six, so order by then. Two minutes from the Royal Opera House.
A French brasserie doing the thing brasseries are for: feeding people at awkward hours without making it a production.
Brasserie Zédel
- Address
- 20 Sherwood Street, Soho
- Nearest
- Piccadilly Circus
- Hours
- From midday, last orders 11pm Monday to Saturday. Sunday only to 4pm
- Price
- Prix fixe, two courses 16.95 pounds
How to get in
For the Shaftesbury Avenue theatres, this is four minutes away and costs less than the programme. The Sunday 4pm finish rules it out entirely for a Sunday matinee dinner, which is exactly when people assume it will work.
The cheapest serious pre-theatre meal in central London by a distance, in a room grand enough that it does not feel like a compromise.
Andrew Edmunds
- Address
- 46 Lexington Street, Soho, W1F 0LP
- Nearest
- Piccadilly Circus, six minutes, or Oxford Circus, seven
- Hours
- Lunch Monday to Friday midday to 3.30pm, Saturday 12.30pm to 3.30pm, Sunday 1pm to 4pm. Dinner Monday to Saturday 5.30pm to 10.30pm, Sunday from 6pm
- Booking
- 020 7437 5708, or enquiries@andrewedmunds.com
- Price
- Pre theatre menu, price not published
- Standing
- In a Grade II listed Georgian townhouse, and part of Soho since 1985
How to get in
They advertise a pre theatre menu, which is the clearest signal a kitchen understands the clock, though they do not publish it, so ask when you book. Dinner starts at half past five, which is exactly the hour this page is about. Book and ask for downstairs. It is small, candlelit and the wine list is the reason to go.
Trishna
- Address
- 15 to 17 Blandford Street, W1U 3DG
- Nearest
- Bond Street
- Booking
- 020 7935 5624
- Standing
- One Michelin star, awarded 2012 and held since
How to get in
An early evening menu at a starred restaurant, of two, three or four courses, served between 5pm and 6.15pm, which is the best cooking on this page for the money and a window that fits a 7.30pm curtain exactly. Marylebone is a longer walk to the theatres than the others, so this is the one for a show at the Palladium rather than Covent Garden.
Match the restaurant to the theatre, not to the review
Covent Garden and the Royal Opera House: Balthazar, Rules on Maiden Lane, or Clos Maggiore on King Street. All within five minutes on foot.
Shaftesbury Avenue and Piccadilly: Brasserie Zédel, four minutes from most of them.
Soho theatres: Andrew Edmunds or Quo Vadis, whose Soho Set Menu is £30 for two courses and £35 for three, served Monday to Saturday from 5.30pm. Both start dinner at half past five, so a 5.45pm seating is the one to ask for.
One correction worth having if you are eating before the opera: the company renamed itself Royal Ballet and Opera in 2024. The building is still the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and the address has not changed.
Practical notes
Book the restaurant after the theatre ticket, never before. The curtain is fixed and the table is not.
Ask for the bill with the main course. The last ten minutes of a pre-theatre dinner are almost always spent trying to catch someone’s eye, and a bill requested early removes the only part of the evening that is genuinely stressful.
Two courses, not three. Pudding is what makes you late. Have it afterwards, in a bar, when you are not watching a clock.
Do not plan on eating after the show. London kitchens close earlier than visitors expect, and a 10.15pm curtain down leaves you very few options that are not a compromise. Eat first.
Everything here was taken from the venues’ own published information and rechecked on 28 September 2026. Confirm before booking, and check your own curtain time rather than assuming 7.30pm.
Plan your evening handles the order of the night around the curtain.
Where to go next
The National Theatre keeps its building open until 11pm and has three places to eat inside it.
What the West End shows actually cost is the other half of the booking: eighty five shows on sale, from £13 to £138, and Hamilton is cheaper to get into than thirty of the plays.
Covent Garden covers the restaurants around the opera house and the station trap that costs people fifteen minutes. Soho covers the theatres at the other end.
The set menus cover where else the same kitchens cost less, and London after dark covers the part of the evening that comes after the curtain.
Questions we get asked
What time should you eat before a West End show?
Be seated by 5.45pm for a 7.30pm curtain, which gives you about eighty minutes. West End performances usually start at 7pm or 7.30pm rather than 8pm, so a 7pm table is a decision to miss the first act rather than an early dinner.
Where is the best pre theatre dinner in London?
Balthazar on Russell Street for Covent Garden, because it is open straight through with no gap between services and its 25.50 pound Prix Fixe runs all day Monday to Thursday, until six on Friday and from five on Sunday. Brasserie Zedel for the Shaftesbury Avenue theatres, at 16.95 pounds for two courses and four minutes away. For Soho itself, Quo Vadis at 30 pounds for two courses from half past five.
Should you tell the restaurant you are going to the theatre?
Always, and at the time of booking rather than on arrival. It costs nothing and it is the difference between a kitchen pacing your table and a kitchen bringing the main course at ten past seven. Ask for the bill with the main course too.
Can you eat after the show instead?
You can, but London closes earlier than visitors expect and a 10.15pm curtain down leaves very few options that are not a compromise. Eat first and have pudding afterwards in a bar, which is the better evening anyway.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 57 in the guide.
Last checked 28 September 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
