venues with va-va-voom for 40th meal (London) s'il vous plait

[Toots]

Hiyall. Best friend wants 40th birthday meal with following attributes 'outside', 'pizzaz', 'not w**ky'. That's pizzaz, not pizza. Centralish London- poss on river, but doesn't have to be. NOT People's Palace or Oxo Tower- too pretentious.

Out with your quirky inexpensive little gems, please ladies.

Outside, that's stumping me.........
Will think and be back but meanwhile try www.toptable.com, or is co.uk?

Makes sense that a Thomcat would know about a night on the tiles, fnar,fnar.

hi toots, here is squaremeal's Best Alfresco selection .

of these i have the following comments:

Aurora - love this place, cool but not w*ky - imo at least! - the outside space is small though.

Canyon - fantastic, but expensive and in Richmond - err, probably not much use to you

Carluccio's cafe - St Christopher's Place, more like it on the budget front maybe and the food is good.

Sofra - St Christopher's Place, a good budget party option if you like Turkish food.

btw, squaremeal has lots of "best" categories to search so you might find some other options there if you hunt on different criteria.

hth.

Fnar Fanr! More of a club cat when it comes to nights on the tiles for this thomcat but hope you find a lovley restaurant and have a great night, xx

Fanks Thomcat

And fanks Bossykate. St Christopher's Place is top notion.

If you consider Docklands to be centralish (we have the Jubilee line now) there's Jamies, Gaucho Grill, RoyalChina, Zizzi's and Scuzi's at Canary Riverside. All have tables outside overlooking the river - Gaucho is probably the only one with "pizzaz" - but Scuzi and Zizzi do Pizza!

Not with water, but Coq d'argent, Kensinton Roof Gardens and Smiths of Smithfield all have roof terraces. SOS is very pizzazy, but maybe a bit w*y as well.

Bluebird Cafe on the Kings Road.

Thanks Prufrock and NYAW. Always been interested in Kensington Roof Gardens, and know she's a Kings Road fan so BBird (Aarrrghhhh - Big Bird) might float her birthday boat.

What about central, non-gloomy-basement-with-red-walls venue for 30th birthday party in wintertime where there is a bar (because I can't afford to pay for everyone's drinks) and we can dance to 80s and 90s music, cheap enough that I can invite everyone I like, and expect 50-70 to be free to come, instead of the usual London per square foot mentality? If I had the money I would have held dinner first - or I could be cheapskate and say whoever wants dinner can join us early and pay themselves? Mum is now so resigned to the fact that I am never getting married that she offered to pay half if I had a big party for once in my life! Hey, I might even invite some of you, to prove to her that you are real!

sounds like damario's to me! except for the basement bit of course... i'll have a think...