Help me find a Special London Restaurant?! (please)

[lastminutelily]

Wondering if I can take advantage of the wonderful mumsnet hivemind.

40th birthday next weekend - wont bore with details as to why but we were not going to be in London for it - now we are - hence the short notice.

The ideal venue would be somewhere we can take a baby and toddler but still a v nice restaurant. Preferably somewhere with great vibe/luxury but cosy sort of thing - a really nice bar to have a drink before or after (or both!) would be fab.

Price not really an issue as it's a special occasion for us after a hellish year and we want it to be really nice. Having said that, it doesn't have to michelin starred or super fancy (although those things are fine) - just great food, great wine and great vibe.

Any suggestions? It's been so long since I've been out I feel like I've lost touch. Central or West London.

Hush in Mayfair lovely bar upstairs

Trinity in Clapham. Michelin but so chill and brilliantly nice with babies and kids. On edge of Clapham Common.

I recently took my nine month old to the Sky Garden restaurant and they were wonderful with him and loved his chaos.

I wonder if the other diners loved his chaos just as much.

Alexa thanks for the sarcasm (having a bad morning?!!) but actually he was perfectly behaved.

I meant chaos as in usual baby chaos, doing a poo half way through lunch and dropping spoons on the floor, etc!

That's just the kind of thing that would piss me off in a restaurant tbh. Not being sarcastic. You might think it's cute, I wouldn't.

Always love the smell of a baby’s nappy over a nice lunch!

Chichetti in Piccadilly

Sorry but am I missing something here, can others control when their baby does a poo?!!! As soon as he did it we took him to the baby changing facilities and changed him, no smell. Honestly some very miserable people on this thread!!! Are babies not allowed on restaurants for lunch then??

No but you can control where you take your baby! High end luxury restaurants are not places for babies IMO.

I think it totally depends on the place and of course lunchtime is fine.

I meant chaos as in usual baby chaos, doing a poo half way through lunch and dropping spoons on the floor, etc!
Why would the staff have 'loved' the spoon dropping and pooing, I don't get it. Anyway OP would Petersham Nurseries too far south west for you? We went there for my husband's last big birthday with our then 6 month old and it was lovely. No bar there but a nice wine/cocktail list.

I am shocked by some of the attitudes here! Are babies really not allowed in restaurants???

To the poster below I really hope your six month old didn't poo or drop anything whilst you were at Petersham.....! Ah no, of course you have one of the newer models of baby where their behaviour can be controlled from birth.....

Thank you OP!
Now I know where to avoid

Wondering how old are those who are posting that babies shouldn't be in restaurants at lunchtime??

Rick Stein in Barnes, it's great, with a river view, we went with my 9 month old nephew, no problems. Lovely food and staff, chilled and also has a bar.

To the poster below I really hope your six month old didn't poo or drop anything whilst you were at Petersham
I didn't say anything detrimental about your baby dropping stuff or pooing, I was just questioning your perception that the staff there 'loved' it - no need to be so combative! Also I don't think anyone has said that babies shouldn't be in restaurants at lunchtimes, I think people are just wondering if young children really need to be going to fine dining/Michelin restaurants. We stopped taking our DC to that kind of place once they reached around 6 months old and started to take them to less fancy places .

We’ve taken babies and toddlers to more than once and everyone has a lovely time. Lots of other families with kids too so you won’t be alone.

Oops. Sorry, missed the name of the restaurant! Hakkasan was my recommendation.

Must say I would avoid a Michelin restaurant with a baby and a toddler. Even if they are perfectly behaved they don’t tend to just sit there and make polite conversation.

I have to say I echo those who wouldn’t be happy to have paid a fortune to go out for a meal at a Michelin star restaurant and have other people’s kids there. However well behaved, if I’m paying up to £300 per head I have gone for a nice relaxed adult meal and don’t want kids around.

Horses for courses and normal toddlers are not compatible with posh restaurants imo. Sorry OP.

Sorry I missed the bit where you have a toddler. In that case I'd recommend Locando Locatelli - they are fabulous with kids, staff are wonderful and made our kids feel so special - they made dd her favourite pasta. La Gavroche was also brilliant with the kids too, it's more formal but not too intimidating.