Lunch at The Ritz Restaurant is not a single experience but four distinct menus, each tailored to a different appetite, occasion, and time commitment. Whether you have ninety minutes or three hours, and whether you prefer seafood, theatre, or a comprehensive tasting menu, there is an option for you.

Welcome to the Best Michelin-starred Lunch in Mayfair

Enter through the doors at 150 Piccadilly and arrive in one of the world’s most iconic restaurants. Beneath the soaring glass atrium, glistening chandeliers, and striking floor-to-ceiling mirrors of The Ritz Restaurant, you will find one of London’s most revered Michelin-starred lunch destinations, a place where five-star dining in London is not a marketing phrase but a lived experience.

Recently awarded Restaurant of the Year 2025 by The National Restaurant Awards, The Ritz Restaurant represents the apotheosis of British fine dining. Here, Executive Chef John Williams MBE and his talented team craft seasonal menus with the precision of a conductor leading an orchestra, treating each ingredient as a principal voice rather than mere accompaniment. For foodies and discerning diners, this is not simply lunch in Mayfair; it is a pilgrimage to the heart of British culinary excellence.

The restaurant’s philosophy is elegantly simple yet profoundly executed: retain the natural aroma and taste of the finest ingredients available. This means sourcing organic beef from the Cornish moors, lamb from the Lake District, succulent British lobster from Southwest Scotland, and hand-dived Orkney scallops from northern waters. Every element is considered, every choice intentional.

Lunch sittings run Monday to Sunday, 12.30 pm to 2.00 pm. This is your window to access what many consider the finest Michelin Star lunch experience in Mayfair, perhaps in all of London.

Les Saveurs de La Mer: A Four-Course Ocean Meditation

For the seafood devotee, for those who understand that the sea’s offerings represent nature’s greatest luxury, there is Les Saveurs de La Mer, a limited-availability four-course menu that elevates the best seafood in London into an artistic statement.

The menu’s opening quickly reveals its philosophy. For example, the Orkney scallop, hand-dived from northern Scotland’s cold waters, is the centrepiece. These prized crustaceans are known for their subtle sweetness, firm, buttery texture, and careful handling.

Chef Williams pairs Datterini tomato, known for its concentrated flavour and balanced acidity and sweetness, with fresh basil. The dish is minimalist, highlighting each ingredient while harmonising into a greater whole. It showcases the kitchen’s calibre not through complexity, but through restraint that lets quality shine.

The second course features Native lobster from British waters, known for its superior flavour. Its sweet, slightly briny flesh has a delicate mineral quality that reflects its origin. It is prepared to highlight, rather than mask, its character.

A spiced carrot purée with earthy and subtle heat accompanies it, while verbena adds a herbaceous touch to balance the richness. This dish exemplifies the blend of French technique with British ingredients, embodying fine dining rooted in place and season.

As the menu progresses, bolder flavours are introduced carefully, maintaining balance without excess.

The finale features a coconut mousseline paired with compressed pineapple and white rum, offering a sophisticated and subtly tropical flavour. It proves that sweetness doesn’t have to mean heavy sugar, providing an indulgent yet balanced dessert.

Arts de la Table: Theatre at Your Tableside

For those who understand that fine dining engages all senses, that the presentation and preparation of a dish are as much part of the experience as its flavour, Arts de la Table represents the pinnacle of British tableside service tradition.

This menu centres on the Beef Wellington: beef fillet from the Cornish moors, encased in mushroom duxelles and pastry so delicate it shatters at the gentlest pressure, finished with Madeira and Périgord truffle. The final preparations occur before you; a knife descends, the aroma fills the air, and you witness the kind of technical precision that distinguishes a two-Michelin Star kitchen.

Courses are framed by wild sea bass and a Crêpe Suzette finale, finished tableside with butter, caramel, and flame. This is 5 star dining in London as theatre, a dining experience that honours the classical traditions of French service whilst celebrating British ingredients.

The Epicurean: Five and Seven Course Tasting Menus

Two expressions of Chef John Williams’s vision: five or seven courses, each building a narrative across the meal. Both offer wine pairings at Classic, Fine, and Prestige levels, allowing the sommelier team to orchestrate the progression alongside each plate.

The five-course menu opens with dishes such as Dorset Crab and Imperial Caviar, moving through to Ballotine of Duck Liver and Cornish Turbot, and concludes with game and a delicate fruit dessert. The seven-course experience expands this with additional seasonal courses, native oyster, chestnut-fed pigeon prepared à la presse, and an alternative chocolate finale, each chosen to deepen and extend the conversation.

This is the kitchen’s full range: ingredient excellence, classical technique, and the restraint that lets each element register clearly. Longer than the three-course lunch, more comprehensive than Arts de la Table, it exists for those seeking the complete expression of The Ritz Restaurant’s philosophy.

The Ritz Classic Three-Course Lunch

Not every dining occasion demands seven courses or tableside theatricality. Sometimes, the most profound fine dining experience is the most direct: a three course lunch of impeccable execution, crafted with the same precision as any longer tasting menu, but distilled to its essence.

Available Monday to Friday, this menu represents genuine value at a Michelin Star restaurant in Mayfair. The kitchen applies the same standards across all offerings: opening courses might be Orkney scallop or smoked trout; mains range from John Dory to Suffolk lamb to Brittany pigeon; finales run from soufflé to cheese to Brillat-Savarin cheesecake. Every plate carries the full weight of The Ritz’s technique and sourcing philosophy.

Many guests extend their meal with supplementary courses: a cheese course or an additional main or starter. The menu invites this kind of lingering.

Menus for Every Guest – Vegetarian and Vegan Offerings:

For those with dietary preferences or ethical concerns about meat and seafood, The Ritz does not reduce vegetarian and vegan dining to an afterthought. These menus receive the same care and technique as the rest.

Starters range from heirloom beetroot with goat’s cheese and avocado to Cornish celeriac with hazelnut and vin jaune. Mains include courgette flower with couscous and Menton lemon and potato with leek and Tunworth cheese. Desserts span house-made sorbet, dark chocolate ganache with pineapple and coconut, and Bramley apple and blackberry soufflé.

The distinguishing principle: The Ritz does not create separate ‘vegetarian versions’ of dishes. The same kitchen standards apply across all menus. These are not accommodations; they are full expressions of the restaurant’s philosophy on ingredient, technique, and restraint.

Breakfast is created by the same exceptional culinary team responsible for The Ritz Restaurant, the hotel’s acclaimed two Michelin Star restaurant. While breakfast itself is not Michelin-starred, the philosophy underpinning every dish remains the same: exceptional ingredients, uncompromising standards and meticulous attention to detail.

The Dining Room: Architecture, Light, and Experience

No discussion of dining at The Ritz would be complete without acknowledging the setting. The dining room itself is a work of art, designed in Louis XVI style; during lunch, the spectacular glass roof naturally illuminates it, creating a sense of being within a jewel box. The floor-to-ceiling mirrors multiply the space, creating an illusion of grandeur that is, paradoxically, also intimate.

The table settings are impeccable: linens of the finest quality, glassware chosen for its clarity and thinness (which allows proper appreciation of wines), place settings that evolve with each course.

The dining room is not a mere backdrop; it is essential to the experience. Fine dining engages all senses, and The Ritz understands this completely.

Dress Code and Dining Times

The Ritz Restaurant observes a formal dress code: gentlemen are required to wear a jacket and tie; ladies are expected to dress in smart attire. Jeans and sportswear are not permitted.

This is not an arbitrary restriction, nor is it intended as exclusion. Rather, it acknowledges that dining at a five-star, Two Michelin Star restaurant in Mayfair is an occasion that deserves to be marked through dress. The formality of dress mirrors the formality of the service and the precision of the cuisine.

Lunch sittings are 12.30 pm to 2.00 pm, Monday to Sunday.

How to Book
Book your choice of lunch on The Ritz website or by telephone on +44 (0)20 7300 2370.

If you are reading this as a foodie, someone who thinks about food, who understands technique, who recognises the difference between good and exceptional ingredients, here is what matters about The Ritz:

• Ingredient sourcing
• Technical precision
• Consistency

The Ritz Restaurant opened in 1906 and has remained, for over a century, at the forefront of British fine dining. This is not an accident or mere historical momentum. It endures because it has continually adapted to changing tastes while maintaining its core commitments to ingredient quality, technical precision, and the belief that dining at the finest restaurants is an occasion worth marking.