Blog, Private Clubs
Private Club Introduction: The Lansdowne Club
Blog, Private Clubs, Restaurants & Dining
Who Actually Gets to Dine at 116 Pall Mall
From the outside, there’s little to suggest you might simply walk in for lunch. And yet, this is one of the few doors along Pall Mall that opens.
Most of Pall Mall still operates on a closed-door basis. All brass plaques, history and grandeur — with a polite doorman to ensure you stay outside rather than in. Then there is 116 Pall Mall, which at first glance suggests exactly the same.
The building houses the Institute of Directors — a membership organization set within the palatial surrounds of a Grade I-listed Regency building by John Nash. Carved marble, classical detailing, rooms built on scale rather than comfort. From the outside, there’s little to suggest you might simply walk in for lunch.
And yet, this is one of the few places along this stretch where you can.
The moment of hesitation
Arrival isn’t quite like a restaurant.
You step inside, unsure whether to pause or proceed, or head to the member reception desk. The staircase rises ahead of you, the ceilings lift everything upwards, and the building makes its own statement before anyone else needs to.
But no one stops you. Just head straight through.
A restaurant that hasn’t separated itself
The dining spaces, overseen by Searcys, haven’t been carved out or overly defined. They sit within the building rather than apart from it.
116 Pall Mall Brasserie sits to the rear on the ground floor, opening onto a terrace and garden that comes into its own in warmer months. Below, the Champagne Bar occupies the old cellars — vaulted, brick-lined, slightly more contained.
Both feel part of the same flow where guests pass through for meetings, coffee, lunch. Some are clearly here for business; others less so.
Who actually dines here
Not one type, which is the point.
Members of the IOD, certainly. People with meetings upstairs. A handful of regulars who know exactly where they’re going. And then those who have worked out that you can book — and decided to see what happens.
A theatre crowd drifting through from Haymarket. Shoppers cutting across St James’s. The occasional visitor who has wandered further than expected.
No one announces themselves as once inside, you’re simply part of the building.
The food
The menu stays where you’d expect it — modern European, seasonal, familiar enough for the setting. English asparagus, a fish cake that does the job, Basque cheesecake to finish. There’s a set menu at £28 for two courses or £35 for three, alongside a straightforward à la carte.
It’s run by Searcys, so it’s consistent and well handled. Nothing here is trying to compete with the restaurants nearby, and it doesn’t need to.
For LRG members, there’s a glass of Searcys sparkling wine at lunch — a small addition that perfectly suits the setting. See details.
Inside, but not entirely
What stays with you is the building itself.
You move between rooms that shift in tone — the scale of the lounges, the terrace tucked out of sight at the back, the cellar bar below. Each has its place, but none feel entirely separate from what surrounds them.
Why go
This isn’t somewhere you plan an evening around. It’s somewhere you use well.
A lunch between meetings. A pause before heading back out into St James’s. A table inside one of the grander buildings on Pall Mall, without needing to belong to it.
In a part of London where most doors remain firmly shut, that’s reason enough.
Not a member? Join Luxury Restaurant Club from £8 per month and start exploring. Or start with a complimentary 14-day preview here >
