Where once dining in a London casino felt like a roll of the dice, where the idea of risk and reward was too heavily weighted in the former camp, nowadays there are plenty of options for great food in the city’s casinos. With that in mind, here’s our guide to London’s casino restaurants and bars.
Chop Chop at Hippodrome Casino, Leicester Square
Search for ‘Chop Chop London’ and you’ll first be served up a hair salon in Wembley, but keep on scrolling and soon you’ll be served up some of the city’s finest Cantonese cuisine. That’s because if you’re looking for great food near Leicester Square, casino-restaurant or otherwise, then Chop Chop is where you should head.
Helmed by the impervious Four Seasons restaurant group and the proud recipient of a positive review in the national press in October, Chop Chop bucks all the usual assumptions about casino restaurants in the UK, serving up genuinely excellent Chinese dishes including a particularly on-point roast duck. The dim sum, served all day, is intricate, bouncy and full of life, whilst the one-plate-wonder of prawn and pork wontons with noodles hits all the spots if you’re looking for a quick meal before returning to the tables.
Heliot Steak at Hippodrome Casino, Leicester Square
We’re continuing our tour of London’s casino restaurants and bars by remaining within the four walls of the Hippodrome Casino. The biggest casino in Central London, the venue boasts a 180-seat theatre with regular jazz and cabaret performances. Big names like Charlie Chaplin, Stevie Wonder and Michael Jackson have all graced the casino. Will you be next?
Befitting its size, there are several bars and lounges in the Hippodrome serving snacks, nibbles and fantastic cocktails. Incidentally, the largest is the Heliot Cocktail Bar, which is attached to the casino’s steak house, and where we’ll head for a drink next.
First, though, dinner… The restaurant has previously been awarded the title of Best Steak Restaurant in London by the customers of Bookatable and serves some serious product; USDA prime steaks, aged for up to 6 weeks to allow tenderness and flavour to ripen. Aside from massive hunks of meat, the restaurant is also famous for decadent sides including the legendary Millionaire’s Mac & Cheese (topped with a poached duck egg and black truffle).
The Rooftop at Hippodrome Casino, Leicester Square
We did say the Hippodrome had six bars, right? A quick nightcap, then, before we head out into the night. Replacing the Havana Club Terrace is the Rooftop, renovated and refreshed in August whilst the casino was closed because of COVID. Yep, we know what you’re thinking…terrace? Just as the nights draw in and get significantly chillier? Fear not; the new outdoor area, spread over three terraces and a cigar lounge, is heated.
Designed by the Garden Builders (the concept is ‘abandoned garden’) during a £3 million refurbishment, the Rooftop boasts plenty of outdoor space and slick service. Signature cocktails here include the Double Trouble, comprising vodka, creme de cassis and tropical fruits, and the Lychee Tang, made from gin, lychee and peach. Well, it would be rude not to have a cocktail while we’re here, right?
We wouldn’t recommend hitting the tables after a few cocktails, though, with your judgment arguably. Better to approach this thing from a more composed perspective online, another time. All of the top online casinos are regulated by UKGC, so do make sure yours carries that seal of approval to ensure it’s all fair and above board.
The Restaurant at Palm Beach Casino, Mayfair
Continuing our feasting in Central London, we’re heading next to one of London’s most exclusive streets, you’ll find one of the capital’s most prestigious casinos housing one of the city’s best casino restaurants; the rather prosaically named The Restaurant at Palm Beach Casino on Mayfair’s Berkeley Street.
The atmosphere here is as sophisticated as its surroundings, with low lighting, hushed tones and DJs crafting the evening’s tunes with unique playlists each and every night. On the menu there’s plenty to get excited about too; a diverse offering of Indian and South Asian inspired dishes are the highlight, though there’s a more international flavour on show, too. The house favourite dhansak is particularly good.
The Lounge Bar at Palm Beach, Mayfair
Fancy sticking around for a drink in Palm Beach? Of course you do. Because in arguably the capital’s most prestigious casino housing one of the city’s best cocktail bars. This stuff just writes itself.
The Lounge Bar, also in Palm Beach Casino, serves exquisitely crafted signature drinks using only the finest of ingredients. The atmosphere is equally as sophisticated, with low lighting, hushed tones and DJs crafting the evening’s tunes with unique playlists each and every night.
Don’t leave before sampling the house’s signature cocktail, a Lapsang Light, which is made with Tanqueray gin infused with tea. Delicious!
Teppanyaki Bar at The Colony Club, Mayfair
Another meal in Mayfair? Why not? Billing itself as “the most exclusive Casino in Mayfair, where you can game in unsurpassed luxury”, the bar here is set rather high. Indeed, Colony Club resides in one of London’s most exclusive postcodes, so if that’s your thing, then head there to sip on drinks mixed expertly from their seasonal cocktail menu or tuck into some Japanese grub at their 10-seat Teppanyaki Bar, which is housed within The Colony Club and Restaurant.
World renowned drinks expert Riccardo Andreotti is in charge of the cocktails here, with the signature Negroni a particular highlight.
Forty Five at Forty Five, Kensington
It should come as little surprise that one of the best casino eating experiences in London is found in upmarket Kensington. At Forty Five (housed in a casino of the same name), the menu is casual but refined, approachable but elegant. There’s a gently Middle Easter influence to proceedings here, with the grill doing most of the hard work in dishes like farouj mashwi – which sees grilled poussin served with a sumac salad and charred lemon and garlic mayo – and lamb koftas, fatty and full of flavour. Lovely stuff.
Tanzibar at Aspers Casino, Stratford
Located in Westfield, Aspers Casino is the biggest in the UK, clocking in at a huge 65,000 sq. feet area. Even if you don’t intend to punt, there’s still plenty to keep visitors entertained here, with a host of restaurants and bars, as well as a cinema in the shopping centre, too.
The casino’s Tanzibar bills itself as ‘East London’s newest premium bar’, and whilst we’re not sure if that’s quite correct, the food here is well worth getting stuck into; think sports snacks on steroids to go with the venue’s massive 4K screen.
Sure, it may not be the heights of gastronomy found at the casino restaurants on The Strip or The Cotai, but The Tanzibar Platter here, with its cod goujons, panko king prawns, chicken tenders and pigs in blankets, will see you through even the dullest of nil alls.
The venue also hosts some pretty big draw poker tournaments, though you’d be well advised to steer clear of those if you’ve been refreshing yourself in Tanzibar; a recipe for a loss, if ever there was one.
Icon Balcony Bar & Kings Sportsbar at Empire Casino, Leicester Square
As cyclical in nature as the roulette wheel, we end our guide to London’s casino restaurants and bars back in Leicester Square. Empire Casino represents a multi-faceted experience where entertainment is concerned. There’s the casino itself, with classic games like Blackjack and American roulette, and then there’s the poker room where you can get your game face on should you choose.
Fortunately, as with most casinos in our eyes, the best bits have nothing to do with the tables, and The Kings Sportsbar and Icon Balcony Bar are reason enough to visit, regardless of whether you’re having a punt or a pint.
For those preferring to watch sport rather than engage in it, there is the Kings Sportsbar. And if you’re after something a little more upmarket, you can sip cocktails on the Icon Balcony bar – who have a grand balcony overlooking Leicester Square. Here, the cocktail menu has a strong set of classics using only the finest liquors (Ketel One vodka, Don Julio Blanco tequila…you know the drill) and some inventive signatures, too. We challenge you to resist their Mon Cherry, made with spiced rum, Cherry Heering and cinnamon liqueur.