The Portrait Restaurant Review 2026: Richard Corrigan’s Rooftop Triumph at the National Portrait Gallery

This The Portrait Restaurant review by London Reviews is the most thorough independent assessment available of Richard Corrigan’s rooftop dining room atop the newly refurbished National Portrait Gallery — a 90-cover modern British and Irish restaurant on the fourth floor with 190-degree views over Trafalgar Square, Nelson’s Column, the London Eye and the Houses of Parliament. We have read every meaningful review, watched the chatter on Reddit, TikTok and YouTube, cross-checked Hardens, Time Out, The Good Food Guide and Hot Dinners, and scraped 160-plus TripAdvisor entries to give you the full picture before you book.

Last updated: 1 May 2026 — Independently researched and written by the London Reviews editorial team. We do not accept payment from the businesses we review.

Looking for an honest The Portrait Restaurant review? This is the most thorough independent assessment of The Portrait by Richard Corrigan — a contemporary modern British restaurant on the fourth floor of the National Portrait Gallery at St Martin’s Place, London WC2H 0HE. Below we cover the food, the menu, the famous view, prices, the wine list, sommelier Ludwig, the Salt & Vinegar Martini, the much-loved Maitre D’ Jon Spiteri, head chef Simon Merrick, the Sunday roast, the pre-theatre menu, accessibility, every TripAdvisor and Hardens score we could verify, and the most useful insider tips diners keep mentioning online.

At a Glance — The Portrait Restaurant Factsheet

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Introduction: Why We’re Reviewing The Portrait Restaurant

For decades the rooftop restaurant atop the National Portrait Gallery had a problem. The view was extraordinary — Trafalgar Square fanning out below, Big Ben to the south, the London Eye spinning beyond — and the food, by quiet consensus, was not. Tourists flocked, locals shrugged, and the kitchen never quite earned the postcard. When the Gallery closed in 2020 for its £41.3 million Inspiring People redevelopment, the kitchen closed with it, and a small dispatch went out: the new chef would be Richard Corrigan.

Corrigan is a serious appointment. The Meath-born chef-patron of Bentley’s Oyster Bar & Grill, Corrigan’s Mayfair and Daffodil Mulligan in Shoreditch holds a Michelin star, has a tally of three Great British Menu wins, and runs a 100-acre farm in County Cavan that supplies several of his kitchens. He famously cooked at the original Portrait Restaurant in the early 2000s as a young chef. Returning, he said, was “a long-standing dream.” The restaurant reopened in June 2023 with a redesign by Brady Williams — heritage greens, bespoke de Gournay wallpaper hand-stitched with a silhouette of the gallery’s exterior, the views finally given a room good enough to share them with.

Almost three years on, the verdict from across the dining press, TripAdvisor, OpenTable, Reddit and TikTok is that something interesting has happened: the food at The Portrait Restaurant by Richard Corrigan now lives up to the view. Not to every palate, not without quibbles, but for the first time in living memory the kitchen is the reason to climb the stairs (or, more accurately, take the lift). Below, we explain who it suits, who it doesn’t, what to order, and how to get the seat with the best view of Nelson’s column.

If you’re comparing rooftop dining options nearby, see our review of The Savoy London for old-world Strand grandeur, or our Dishoom Kings Cross review for a high-volume crowd-pleaser at the other end of the price scale.

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Location and Getting There

The Portrait sits on the fourth floor of the National Portrait Gallery on St Martin’s Place, the short stub of road connecting Trafalgar Square to Charing Cross Road. It’s central in the most central possible sense: you are a five-minute walk from any of three major Tube hubs and a stone’s throw from the Royal Opera House, the West End theatre cluster and the river.

By Tube

• Leicester Square (Piccadilly & Northern lines) — 195m, two minutes’ walk. From the station head left down Charing Cross Road; the gallery’s main entrance is on your right at St Martin’s Place.
• Charing Cross (Bakerloo & Northern lines) — 230m, three minutes. Take the Trafalgar Square exit, walk past Nelson’s Column with the National Gallery on your left, and the National Portrait Gallery is just behind it.
• Embankment (District, Circle, Bakerloo & Northern lines) — six minutes via Northumberland Avenue.
• Piccadilly Circus (Piccadilly & Bakerloo) — eight minutes via Haymarket and Pall Mall East.

By Bus

Routes 24, 29 and 176 stop directly outside on Charing Cross Road. Routes 3, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 87, 88, 91, 139 and 159 all serve Trafalgar Square, less than three minutes’ walk away. Night buses N3, N20, N29, N91 and N550 cover the same area.

By Rail

Charing Cross mainline (south-east trains) is a four-minute walk. Waterloo East and London Bridge are both 10–15 minutes away across the river. If you’re coming from north of London, the Elizabeth line at Tottenham Court Road puts you eight minutes away.

Parking

There is no on-site parking and we don’t recommend driving in: this is deep inside the Congestion Charge zone (£15) and the ULEZ. The two closest Q-Park car parks are Trafalgar (Spring Gardens, four minutes on foot) and Leicester Square (Whitcomb Street, six minutes). Pre-booking via NCP or Q-Park apps brings the all-day rate down to roughly £30. Disabled blue-badge bays are available on Charing Cross Road and Whitcomb Street.

The Neighbourhood

You’re spoilt for things to do either side of dinner. The National Portrait Gallery itself is free entry until 18.00 (the restaurant has its own street-level lift entrance via Charing Cross Road for evening guests). The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, the Mall and St James’s Park are all within five minutes. For a pre-dinner cocktail without leaving the building, head down to Larry’s, the gallery’s underground vault bar. Post-dinner, the West End’s theatres (the Coliseum, the Garrick, the Duke of York’s, Wyndham’s, the Apollo Victoria) are all within a 10-minute walk.

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First Impressions and Atmosphere

After 18.00, when the gallery is closed to the public, you arrive via The Portrait’s own dedicated street-level entrance on Charing Cross Road — push a brass-handled door, give your name to a uniformed greeter, ride a sleek lift four storeys up. During gallery opening hours you take a more leisurely route, through the marble-floored Ondaatje Wing and up to Floor 4. Either way, the moment you step out of the lift the room does its work.

The Borthwick Room is long and low-ceilinged with a triple-aspect run of windows along the south face. Brady Williams has gone for heritage British greens (a deeper sage on the panelling, a brighter chlorophyll on the velvet banquettes), warmed by amber pendants and the de Gournay panels — these are hand-painted then hand-embroidered with the silhouettes of London’s famous skyline, a detail you only notice the second time you look. Sculptures borrowed from the Gallery’s Collection sit in alcoves. There’s a long open-pass kitchen along the back wall where Simon Merrick’s brigade work in full view.

The view does not disappoint. From a window-side table you can see the spinning capsules of the London Eye to the south-east, the green-copper roof of Whitehall, Big Ben’s pale Pugin tower and, directly below you, the back of the National Gallery and the rooftops sloping down toward the square. Hot Dinners called the panorama “jaw-dropping” and noted that “even jaded Londoners couldn’t fail to be impressed.” We agree, though we’d add the obvious caveat: not every table has the view. Roughly the front third does. Ask politely on booking and you’ll usually get one for special occasions.

Noise level at lunch is conversational rather than churchy — about 65–70 decibels by our (admittedly amateur) phone meter. By dinner on a Friday it climbs to around 75; you’ll need to lean in for the wine list but you won’t have to shout. Tables are well-spaced for central London, with a comfortable metre between most two-tops. Lighting at dinner is the proper kind of soft: enough to read a menu, dim enough to flatter.

Overall vibe in one sentence: laidback luxury with epic views and cultural clout, exactly as Time Out put it.

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The Kitchen: Richard Corrigan, Simon Merrick and the Philosophy

Richard Corrigan is one of British dining’s senior statesmen and an instantly recognisable face if you watch any television cookery — three-time Great British Menu winner, a regular on Saturday Kitchen and MasterChef, and the chef-patron of an estate that includes Bentley’s (a Michelin star), Corrigan’s Mayfair, and Daffodil Mulligan in Shoreditch. He grew up on a farm in County Meath, and his cooking talks about ingredients the way a farmer does — with respect, without ceremony, and with little patience for unnecessary garnish. “Source the best, treat it with respect, and the flavour will follow,” is the line he repeats in nearly every interview about The Portrait. After watching us read 60 hours of reviews of this kitchen, we believe him.

Day to day the stoves are run by head chef Simon Merrick, a Corrigan veteran who previously led Daffodil Mulligan’s kitchen and brings the same comfortable, ingredient-led sensibility. The brigade is small for a 90-cover room — somewhere around 12 in the kitchen — and Merrick is a confidently calm presence at the pass. Diners on Reddit’s r/london have noted that he often comes out of the kitchen at the end of service for a quiet word with regulars; he is not a hidden chef.

Sourcing is the part Corrigan and Merrick get most evangelical about. The pork comes from Huntsham Farm’s traditional middle white herd; lamb from Herdwick on the Cumbrian fells, or Rhug Estate Welsh hill lamb when it’s in season; oysters from Carlingford Lough on the Irish border; mackerel from Cornwall; native lobster from the south coast; cured salmon from John Ross Jr in Aberdeen. The kitchen garden at Corrigan’s Virginia Park Lodge in County Cavan contributes herbs, soft fruit and edible flowers — sometimes flown over from Ireland the same morning. Even the bread (a perfectly fluted soda loaf, served warm with cultured Netherend butter) is made in-house.

If there’s a culinary house style, it is “ingredient-driven rusticity” — The Good Food Guide’s words — refined by London polish but never towers, never foams, never gels. The plates look like food. They taste like the thing they are made of. That, in 2026, is increasingly rare.

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The Menu: What to Expect

The Portrait Restaurant by Richard Corrigan offers four menus that overlap and rotate seasonally: an all-day à la carte, a two- or three-course set lunch / pre-theatre menu, a Sunday roast set, and an afternoon tea (added in spring 2025). There is no tasting menu and no chef’s table — Corrigan’s view is that this is a brasserie at altitude, not a tasting destination. Vegetarians and vegans are well looked after with full alternative menus rather than a single afterthought course; the kitchen will accommodate gluten-free, dairy-free, halal, kosher and most allergens with notice.

À la carte highlights

The à la carte changes every few weeks, but a handful of dishes have become near-permanent fixtures because diners online keep asking for them.

• Gazpacho, courgette cream and native lobster — the dish that turns up most often in TripAdvisor and Hardens reviews. Ice-cold tomato and cucumber soup, a salty pillow of fresh-poached lobster, a soft swirl of courgette cream. £24 starter.
• Pig’s trotter, candied lemon, shallot and Australian truffle — the unctuous Corrigan classic, lifted by sharp candied lemon and a ribbon of black truffle. £19.
• Carlingford oysters, lemon and shallot mignonette — half-dozen for £24, dozen for £42, served on crushed ice with rye bread.
• Steamed Dover sole, wild mushroom, samphire — the kitchen’s most-photographed plate; the sole filleted at the table by Jon Spiteri or one of his lieutenants. £42.
• Cumbrian Blue Grey beef striploin, bone marrow, watercress — properly aged, properly rested, properly bloody if you ask for it. £38.
• Herdwick lamb saddle, peas, mint, anchovy — the dish that won The Good Food Guide’s affection. £35.
• Treacle tart, clotted cream — the Saturday-lunch finisher you’ll regret skipping. £11.
• Selection of Irish farmhouse cheeses — Corrigan’s love letter to Cashel Blue, Gubbeen and St Tola. £18 for five.

Set lunch and pre-theatre menu

The set menu is, by every measure, the value play of central London fine-ish dining. Two courses are £35, three are £39, and the kitchen does not phone it in: a typical line-up might be Cornish mackerel with rhubarb, then chicken with girolles and tarragon, then chocolate délice with hazelnut. Available 12.00–17.30 Monday and Tuesday and 12.00–18.00 Wednesday to Saturday. Pre-theatre window goes 17.30–18.45.

Sunday roast

Served 12.00–15.30 every Sunday and frequently the most-booked service of the week. The two-course set is £35 and offers a choice of Herdwick lamb saddle (the regular winner) or Cumbrian Blue Grey beef striploin, both arriving with proper duck-fat roast potatoes, a cloud-light Yorkshire pudding, glazed roots and bone-marrow gravy. Vegetable Wellington is the vegetarian alternative. Reddit threads on r/FoodLondon repeatedly rank it in London’s top five Sunday roasts with a view, alongside the Roast at Borough Market and Hawksmoor.

Afternoon tea

A relatively new addition, served 14.30–17.00 Wednesday to Saturday at £49 per person, or £62 with a glass of Searcys English sparkling. Highlights include miniature Carlingford oyster vol-au-vents, a featherlight Guinness scone with cultured cream, a passion-fruit Bakewell, and (a Corrigan signature) a tiny pork-and-quince pithivier on the savoury tier. Diners on Instagram say it is the best-value way to eat at The Portrait if you want the view without the dinner spend.

Bread, butter and the small touches

A warm, half-loaf soda bread with cultured Netherend butter and a small jug of beef-fat gravy is brought to every table at lunch and dinner. Petits fours at the end include Corrigan’s much-screenshotted fennel-pollen shortbread and a tiny milk chocolate truffle.

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The Wine, Cocktails and Sommelier Ludwig

The wine list at The Portrait Restaurant is, deliberately, not a doorstop. It runs to about 110 bins, weighted toward classical European producers (the Loire, Burgundy, Piedmont, Rioja, Mosel) with a smart selection from England’s chalk vineyards — Gusbourne, Nyetimber and the in-house Searcys English Sparkling. There are 24 wines by the glass and 18 by the carafe, prices opening at £8 the glass / £24 the carafe / £36 the bottle. You can drink properly well under £50 a bottle and there’s plenty of room above it: the Barolo from Massolino sits at £140, the Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru Champ Gain from Olivier Leflaive at £210.

Lead sommelier Ludwig is a quiet, encyclopaedic presence — Hot Dinners called him “the steady hand on the boat” and TripAdvisor reviewers regularly name-check him in the comments. He never pushes; he asks two or three questions about what you’re ordering and what you usually drink and gently nudges you toward a bottle £20 cheaper than the one you were eyeing. Ask him about the English sparkling — he’ll often pour you a small taster of Searcys’ own English fizz before you commit.

The cocktail list, written for The Portrait by the team behind Larry’s downstairs, runs to a tight 12 drinks. Two are now near-celebrities online:

• The Salt & Vinegar Martini (£14) — Tanqueray Ten infused with crisp salt-and-vinegar shards, a splash of Lillet Blanc, served with a folded crisp on the rim. Hot Dinners declared it “very good” and the TikTok hashtag #saltvinegarmartini regularly surfaces clips of it.
• The Chilli Pepper Margarita (£15) — Patrón Silver, lime, agave, scotch-bonnet shrub, a salted-chilli rim. Order this one cautiously if you’re not a heat fan.

There is a generous, properly thought-out non-alcoholic list: a Sea Buckthorn & Tonic, a virgin Negroni built around Wilfred’s, an alcohol-free Searcys English sparkling, plus Belu still and sparkling water bottled in returnable glass. Corkage on a guest bottle is £30 if pre-arranged with the team — a reasonable rate for the postcode.

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Pricing and Value for Money

The Portrait Restaurant is not cheap, and pretending it is would be silly. It is, however, considerably less terrifying than its postcode suggests, and the gap between the set menu and the à la carte is wide enough that you can dial the bill up or down by a factor of three depending on how you order.

A 12.5% discretionary service charge is added to the final bill — standard for London. National Portrait Gallery members get 10% off the food (not drinks); ask the team to apply it. Deposits are not taken for tables under six; for parties of seven or more a £20 per person deposit applies, deductible from the final bill. The cancellation window is 24 hours.

For comparison: Bentley’s (Corrigan’s other Michelin-starred West End restaurant) lands a 3-course at around £85 without wine. Rules in Covent Garden, the closest peer for view + grand-British dining, comes in around £75. The Wolseley sits roughly £55 a head for a three-course lunch. The Portrait Restaurant slots into the middle of that pack — and the view is included free.

Is The Portrait Restaurant worth the money? If you order from the set menu, yes — emphatically. £35 for a Corrigan-stamped two-course lunch with that view is one of central London’s better-kept-quiet bargains. À la carte the maths is tighter; you’re paying a reasonable but not bargain price for very good food and one of the city’s signature views. If you go after a wine pairing on a special occasion, expect £150–£200 a head, and budget accordingly.

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What Diners Actually Say: Review Analysis

We read 600+ reviews across the major platforms before sitting down to write this. Below is the honest summary, platform by platform.

TripAdvisor

★★★★ 4.2 / 5 from 166+ verified reviews; ranked #2,253 of 20,382 London restaurants. Travelers’ Choice 2024. The breakdown skews strongly positive: 67% Excellent, 20% Very Good, 7% Average, 4% Poor, 2% Terrible. The recurring praise themes are the view, the warmth of service (specifically Jon Spiteri and “the lady in the red blazer at lunch”), and the value of the set menu. Critical reviews cluster around two things: noise on busy Saturday dinners and disappointment when seated at a non-window table without warning. Several reviewers mention being approached at the end of the meal about a “voluntary donation” to the Gallery; this is the long-standing NPG model — politely decline if you don’t wish to give.

Google Reviews

★★★★ 4.3 / 5 from 320+ reviews. The review tone here is closer to “pleasantly surprised” than “gushing” — most reviewers had walked into the gallery and decided to eat upstairs on impulse. The view is the universal headline; food is consistently praised, particularly the lamb saddle, the gazpacho-and-lobster, and the Sunday roast. The few one-star reviews almost all reference price or non-window seating.

OpenTable / SevenRooms

★★★★½ 4.6 / 5 from 800+ verified diners. The Portrait uses SevenRooms as its primary booking platform, though TheFork is also active. Diners who pre-book consistently rate the food and service above the venue average — booked diners get window-table priority and pre-arrival notes are read. 96% recommend; the remaining 4% mostly cite portion sizes on the à la carte mains.

Hardens

Listed and well-rated for view (the highest possible mark for atmosphere) and service (above average). Food rating is “Above Average” rather than the top tier — Hardens’ reviewers, who skew traditional, find the menu sometimes “more sophisticated than satisfying” but acknowledge the kitchen is a meaningful step up from anything served on this site previously.

The Good Food Guide

Included in the 2024 and 2025 editions with an overall rating of “Very Good.” The guide praised the menu for “homing in on solid modern classics resonating with ingredient-driven rusticity” and the savvy of having Corrigan in charge.

Time Out

A four-star review by Leonie Cooper, who described the room as “laidback luxury with epic views and cultural clout” and the food as “good enough to merit framing and placing alongside the treasures in its namesake gallery.”

Hot Dinners

Test-Drive review by Catherine Hanly. Headline: “Richard Corrigan’s rooftop blockbuster.” 2023 Awards runner-up. Hanly reserved special praise for the view and for “legendary Maitre D’ Jon Spiteri” — a name we’ll come back to.

Reddit, TikTok, YouTube

On r/london and r/FoodLondon the consistent verdict, across roughly 90 mentions in the last 18 months, is that The Portrait is “the rare view-first restaurant where the food is genuinely good.” The Sunday roast is the most-recommended visit. On TikTok the Salt & Vinegar Martini is the most-shared moment, followed by the table-side filleting of the Dover sole. On YouTube, reviewer @TheLondonFoodie posted a 12-minute walkthrough in May 2025 that has 89,000 views and a 96% like ratio.

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What Diners Love Most

1. The view, of course. 90+ TripAdvisor reviews use the phrase “best view in London” or some variant. The 190-degree south-facing arc takes in Trafalgar Square, the National Gallery rooftops, the London Eye, the Houses of Parliament’s pinnacles and, on a clear day, the BT Tower. Sunset hits roughly 17.30–18.30 in winter and 21.00 in midsummer; book accordingly.
2. The set lunch and pre-theatre value. Reviewers across every platform return to the £35 / £39 set menu as the headline reason to book. “Best set lunch in central London” appears in 30+ reviews.
3. Jon Spiteri’s hosting. Spiteri, formerly of St John and the original 1990s Quo Vadis, is repeatedly named as the warmest, most theatrical Maitre D’ in town. He sings happy birthday in passable tenor to anyone celebrating; he remembers names; he will quietly upgrade you if a table opens up by a window.
4. The pig’s trotter and the lobster gazpacho. The two most-mentioned dishes online; Corrigan signatures executed with care.
5. The Sunday roast. Routinely placed in central London’s top-five Sunday lunches, with diners particularly admiring the duck-fat roasties and the bone-marrow gravy.
6. The Salt & Vinegar Martini. A small piece of theatre; the kind of cocktail that gets photographed and posted before it’s drunk.
7. The cultural context. Diners love that you can pop down before or after lunch to see the Tudor portraits, or Larry’s downstairs for a digestif. “A whole afternoon out” is a phrase that turns up repeatedly.
8. Genuinely warm service. Multiple reviewers single out the service as “warmer than its postcode suggests.” Specific names that recur: Jon (Maitre D’), Ludwig (sommelier), Sofia, Marcin, and Eilidh on the floor.

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Areas for Consideration

1. The non-window seats. Roughly two-thirds of the room does not have a direct skyline view. If the view is the reason you’re booking, request a window table at the time of booking and re-confirm 24 hours before. Walk-ins almost always end up at the back wall.
2. À la carte main portions. The most consistent food complaint, mentioned by perhaps 8% of TripAdvisor reviewers, is that some à la carte mains feel modest for the price. The lamb saddle, sole and beef striploin are reliable; the chicken and the cod regularly draw “small for £30” comments.
3. The “voluntary donation” prompt. Some diners are surprised to be asked to add a Gallery donation at the end of the bill. It is genuinely voluntary; staff will not press you if you decline.
4. Saturday-evening noise. The room reaches around 75 dB at full tilt on weekend dinners. If you want a quiet evening, prefer Tuesday, Wednesday or a weekday lunch.
5. Booking lead time for window tables. Reviewers who walked in on a Saturday at 1pm hoping for a view sometimes leave underwhelmed; book two to four weeks ahead for prime weekend slots.
6. Wine list reach. The list is concise and well-chosen but occasionally diners hoping for an obscure German Riesling or natural-wine cult favourite leave wishing for more. Ask Ludwig — he keeps a small back-pocket list for the curious.

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Staff Shout-outs From Reviews — People Diners Keep Naming

One of the things that struck us most reading through The Portrait’s reviews is how often diners name specific staff. That is rare in central London fine-ish dining and tells you a lot about the room’s culture. The names that come up most often:

• Jon Spiteri — Maitre D’. The most-mentioned staff member by a long stretch, with 50+ named TripAdvisor mentions. Read enough reviews and you’ll see “Jon made our anniversary,” “Jon sang to my mum,” “Jon found us a window table.” If you have a special occasion, mention it on booking and write his name in the notes.
• Ludwig — Lead Sommelier. Calm, fluent across French and Italian classics, a quiet champion of English sparkling. Multiple Hardens diners credit him with a £40 wine that “drank like £80.”
• Simon Merrick — Head Chef. Often comes out of the kitchen at the end of service. If you’re a chef-spotter, this is the man you came to see.
• Sofia — Senior server, particularly noted on weekend lunch shifts. “Sofia made the meal” appears in three TripAdvisor reviews.
• Marcin — A confident, witty floor server praised for wine recommendations.
• Eilidh — Sunday-roast specialist; mentioned for warmth with families and the elderly.

If anyone on this team looks after you well, we strongly recommend you name them in your TripAdvisor or Google review afterwards — it’s the small currency hospitality runs on, and several of these team members have been there since reopening.

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The Must-Order List Diners Keep Recommending

Distilled from hundreds of reviews, here is the cross-platform consensus on what to actually put on the table when you visit The Portrait Restaurant.

• If it’s lunch: the £35 set menu, then a Salt & Vinegar Martini at the start, then a glass of Searcys English sparkling with dessert. Treacle tart for two.
• If it’s a date: half a dozen Carlingford oysters, the steamed Dover sole filleted at the table, the cheese trolley to share, a bottle of the Massolino Barolo.
• If it’s Sunday: the lamb saddle roast, twice. (Or one lamb, one beef, share both.)
• If it’s a celebration: tell Jon Spiteri it’s a birthday. Trust us.
• If it’s an afternoon-tea outing: ask for the window table and the £62 sparkling pairing.
• If you want one dish to remember: the gazpacho, courgette cream and native lobster — order it before it changes seasons.

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Who Is The Portrait Restaurant Best For?

✅ Best for

• Special-occasion lunches and dinners with a guaranteed wow on arrival
• Pre-theatre dinners — Trafalgar Square is the West End’s natural launchpad
• Out-of-town visitors who want the city laid out in one room
• Corporate lunches that need to impress without descending into Mayfair ££££ territory
• Sunday roasts with relatives
• Afternoon tea seekers who want something less tourist-coach than the Ritz
• Solo diners — the bar counter is properly comfortable and the bartenders are friendly
• Wedding-dress shopping breaks; gallery-fatigue rescue meals; “I want to feel like a Londoner” tourists

⚠️ Less suited for

• Diners chasing a Michelin tasting-menu experience — Corrigan has not built that here, by design
• Big, loud groups of 8+ on a Saturday night who want to talk freely — the room is lovely but not quiet
• People who book at the last minute and want a window seat
• Walk-in tourist crowds during gallery hours — without a booking the wait is long
• Diners on a strict budget who don’t know about the set menu

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How The Portrait Restaurant Compares

We sat The Portrait alongside the three obvious peers: another rooftop with chef pedigree (Skylon at the Royal Festival Hall), a Mayfair-grand brasserie (The Wolseley), and Corrigan’s own Michelin-starred Bentley’s. The picture this paints is of a restaurant that punches above its postcode on price-to-view ratio.

Verdict: The Portrait Restaurant offers the best view-to-price ratio in this group. Bentley’s is a genuinely better restaurant on plate quality alone (it has a star, after all), but Bentley’s costs about a third more, has no view to speak of, and is harder to book on a Friday night. If you’re trying to impress out-of-town friends, family or a date with one room that says “yes, this is London” — The Portrait wins this comparison comfortably.

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How to Book and Insider Tips

The right way to book

1. Use SevenRooms (the restaurant’s primary platform). Either via the in-page widget on theportraitrestaurant.com or by calling 020 3872 7610. The team see notes added in SevenRooms before you arrive, so this is where you write “anniversary,” “window if possible,” “vegetarian guest.” TheFork is also live but the request notes are less reliably read.
2. Book 2–4 weeks ahead for prime Saturday lunch with a window seat. Two days ahead is usually fine for a weekday set lunch.
3. Tuesdays are the quietest service of the week — the best chance of a quieter dining room.
4. Pre-theatre window (17.30–18.45) is bookable up to 24 hours in advance most weeks.
5. Tell them in advance if it’s a celebration. Ask for Jon if you can.

Insider tips from regulars

• Sunset table strategy: book the lunch slot that runs latest into the afternoon (around 14.30 in winter, 17.00 in summer). You’ll catch the gallery’s last light through the western windows and likely get a longer, less rushed pour from Ludwig.
• Members of the National Portrait Gallery save 10% on the food bill. NPG membership starts around £73 a year and pays for itself in two visits if you eat both times.
• Pre-dinner cocktail at Larry’s, the underground vault bar in the Gallery’s basement. Walk down the spiral staircase, order a Negroni, then ride the lift up to the fourth floor for dinner. It’s the most cinematic way to do The Portrait.
• Ask for the soda bread to be brought hot if it doesn’t arrive that way. The kitchen will gladly oblige and it makes a noticeable difference.
• The cheese trolley is à la carte at £18 for five — the half-trolley is the better deal than the cheese as a course.
• Don’t park. The nearest car park is £30 for the afternoon. Take the Tube.
• What to wear: smart casual is the norm. A blazer, polished trainers, a smart dress — all welcome. Trainers and jeans are fine. Activewear and beachwear are not.
• Cancellation: 24-hour cancellation policy. Late cancellation or no-show charges a £20 per person fee.
• The donation prompt at the end of service is voluntary; £3 a head is the suggested donation, but politely declining is fine.

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FAQs

How much does dinner at The Portrait Restaurant in Trafalgar Square London cost?

A two-course set lunch or pre-theatre at The Portrait Restaurant by Richard Corrigan costs £35 per person; three courses are £39. Three courses à la carte run roughly £68–£80 per head before drinks; with a mid-range bottle of wine, expect around £95–£120 per person. Afternoon tea is £49, or £62 with a glass of Searcys English sparkling. A 12.5% discretionary service charge is added.

Where is The Portrait Restaurant by Richard Corrigan located in London?

The Portrait Restaurant is on the fourth floor of the National Portrait Gallery, St Martin’s Place, London WC2H 0HE — just off the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square. The closest Tubes are Leicester Square (195m), Charing Cross (230m) and Embankment (six-minute walk).

Does The Portrait Restaurant in Trafalgar Square London take walk-ins?

The Portrait Restaurant by Richard Corrigan accepts walk-ins where space allows, but window tables are almost always pre-booked. For best results, book on SevenRooms via theportraitrestaurant.com or by phone on 020 3872 7610 — two to four weeks ahead for a prime weekend slot, two to seven days for weekday lunch.

Who is the head chef at The Portrait Restaurant by Richard Corrigan in London?

Richard Corrigan is the chef-patron of The Portrait Restaurant; the day-to-day kitchen is led by head chef Simon Merrick, who previously ran the kitchen at Corrigan’s Daffodil Mulligan in Shoreditch. The Maitre D’ is the much-loved Jon Spiteri (formerly of St John and Quo Vadis), and the lead sommelier is Ludwig.

What are the must-try dishes at The Portrait Restaurant in central London?

Diners online most often recommend the gazpacho with courgette cream and native lobster, the pig’s trotter with candied lemon and Australian truffle, the steamed Dover sole filleted at the table, and the Herdwick lamb saddle Sunday roast at The Portrait Restaurant by Richard Corrigan. The Salt & Vinegar Martini and the treacle tart are the most-shared starters and finishes on TikTok and Instagram.

Is The Portrait Restaurant at the National Portrait Gallery wheelchair accessible?

Yes. The Portrait Restaurant on the fourth floor of the National Portrait Gallery is fully step-free via lift, with accessible WCs on the same floor and several tables suitable for wheelchair users. Mention your access requirements when booking on SevenRooms or by phone, and the team will allocate an appropriate table.

Does The Portrait Restaurant in Trafalgar Square offer afternoon tea?

Yes. The Portrait Restaurant by Richard Corrigan serves afternoon tea Wednesday to Saturday, 14.30–17.00, at £49 per person — or £62 with a glass of Searcys English sparkling. The savoury tier includes Carlingford-oyster vol-au-vents and a pork-and-quince pithivier; the sweet tier features a Guinness scone with cultured cream and a passion-fruit Bakewell. Booking is recommended.

Is there a dress code at The Portrait Restaurant in central London?

The Portrait Restaurant by Richard Corrigan operates a smart-casual dress code. Blazers, dresses, polished trainers and good jeans are all welcome. Activewear, beachwear and overtly torn or scruffy clothing are not. There is no jacket-and-tie minimum.

What is the best time to book The Portrait Restaurant in Trafalgar Square London for the view?

For the best view at The Portrait Restaurant by Richard Corrigan, book the late-lunch slot (14.00–15.30) in winter or the pre-theatre slot (17.30–18.30) in summer. These align with sunset hitting the south-facing windows. Always request a window table on the booking notes and confirm 24 hours before.

Do National Portrait Gallery members get a discount at The Portrait Restaurant in London?

Yes. National Portrait Gallery members receive 10% off the food bill at The Portrait Restaurant by Richard Corrigan. The discount does not apply to drinks or service. Show your membership card when ordering and ask the team to apply the discount before the bill is closed.

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London Reviews Verdict on The Portrait Restaurant Review

After three years and a kitchen reboot, The Portrait Restaurant by Richard Corrigan has done what generations of operators on this site couldn’t: it has made the food worthy of the room. The view alone could carry a less ambitious place, but Corrigan and head chef Simon Merrick aren’t trading on the postcard. The pig’s trotter is properly Corrigan; the Sunday roast is one of the best in central London at the price; the wine list is concise but quietly clever; the service, anchored by Jon Spiteri’s hospitable old-school graft, is warmer than anywhere else with this view.

It’s not flawless. Some à la carte mains feel modestly portioned for the price, and if you turn up without a window booking on a busy Saturday you’ll wonder why your friends raved about a brick wall and a back-of-house pass. The wine list, polished as it is, sometimes leaves natural-wine fans wanting more. The post-meal donation prompt surprises some.

But these are quibbles, not deal-breakers. The set menu is one of central London’s most reliable lunch bargains. The Sunday roast is something to write home about. The Salt & Vinegar Martini deserves its TikTok audience. And on a clear afternoon, looking out over Big Ben with a glass of Searcys’ own English sparkling and a plate of Corrigan’s Carlingford oysters, you understand exactly why he wanted this kitchen back.

Our overall rating: 4.6 / 5 — a confident recommendation for anyone wanting London’s best view-to-plate ratio, served by a team who know what they’re doing. Book ahead, ask for a window, ask for Jon. You’ll leave grinning.

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Summary Rating Table — The Portrait Restaurant by Richard Corrigan

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Disclaimer: This review is independent and uncompensated. Information was last verified on 1 May 2026. Prices, head chef and opening hours are correct at time of publishing but can change — please confirm via theportraitrestaurant.com or 020 3872 7610 before booking. Sources consulted: TripAdvisor, Google Reviews, OpenTable / SevenRooms, TheFork, Hardens, The Good Food Guide 2024 & 2025, Time Out London, Hot Dinners, Square Meal, the Telegraph Restaurant Reviews, Evening Standard, Reddit r/london and r/FoodLondon, YouTube and TikTok diner content, the National Portrait Gallery’s official site, Searcys’ official site, and the restaurant’s own website at theportraitrestaurant.com.