It’s the most wonderful time of the year, says Ben McCormack, and here’s the food to prove it.
The Christmas Day lunch, as even the most inattentive viewer of Eastenders will have grasped, is an emotionally charged occasion with the potential to escalate into an Armageddon of insults more explosive than even the most shoddily-made Christmas cracker.
Far safer to remove what is possibly the biggest point of contention — the lunch itself — and allow someone else to do the cooking and, even better, the washing up.
we’ve recommended the restaurants offering push-the-boat-out celebration lunches, or simply the sort of festive feast we all wish we could rustle up given the time and access to professional chef qualifications.
Le Pont de la Tour
Several D&D London restaurants are open on Christmas Day (including Bluebird, Orrery and German Gymnasium) but for the most magical setting, Le Pont de la Tour, by the river and looking straight at Tower Bridge, is hard to beat. Expect seasonal snacks of aged Comte cheese gougeres, Cornish crab tartlets and spiced duck beignet ahead of house-cured Loch Duart salmon and poached native lobster, roast crown of Norfolk bronze turkey with all the trimmings, and Paris-Brest with Christmas pudding ice cream. Vegans get chestnut gnocchi with pumpkin ketchup, and there’s a separate kid’s menu, too.
