Dinner in the middle, when you are in E14 and she lives out west

The trouble with a table at either end

A good share of the guests who write to this office from Canary Wharf want dinner, and the women who most often cover E14 live nowhere near it. Milena lives in South Kensington. Lucy lives in Pimlico. The office builds that journey into any booking at the wharf and says plainly that in the evening it is an hour or more by car. That is fine for a late table on the water. It is less fine when what you want is dinner somewhere with more choice than the estate offers after nine.

The reverse is no better. Ask her to host dinner in South Kensington and you spend forty minutes crossing town from the towers, then the same again at the end of the night. A three hour booking loses more than a third of itself to journeys that way. The fair answer is to meet in the middle, and for these two directions the middle that works is Covent Garden.

Why WC2E rather than somewhere else

From the towers, the Elizabeth line reaches Tottenham Court Road in roughly twelve minutes, calling at Whitechapel, Liverpool Street and Farringdon, and the walk down through Seven Dials to the Piazza takes about ten more. Alternatively, the Jubilee line runs to Waterloo, and the walk across Waterloo Bridge to the Strand is one of the best ten minutes in London after dark, with the river lit in both directions. Either way, door to table comes out at about twenty five minutes.

From the west the arithmetic is much the same. The Piccadilly line runs from South Kensington to Leicester Square or Covent Garden without a change, and Pimlico is a straight run along the Embankment. The office times her side of it with the evening roads in mind, so you both reach the table together and nobody arrives having done the harder half of the journey.

Soho and Mayfair come close, and on some nights they suit better. Covent Garden wins on density. The Piazza, Seven Dials and the streets down to the Strand hold more good tables within eight minutes of each other than anywhere else in the middle of town, which matters when an evening is being planned from two ends by two people who have not yet met.

Tables that suit a halfway dinner

Rules, on Maiden Lane, has been feeding London since 1798 and is generally held to be the oldest restaurant in the city: red plush, game in season, and drawings and cartoons covering every wall. It is the right choice when the evening ought to feel like London rather than like another hotel dining room. J Sheekey, in the narrow alley of St Martin's Court, is the fish restaurant the theatres eat in, panelled and close, with an oyster bar alongside for something lighter.

Clos Maggiore on King Street is the room people book for its conservatory, a back room under glass hung with blossom and warmed by a fire in winter. Balthazar on Russell Street is a big mirrored brasserie, loud enough that a first conversation never has to fill a silence on its own. The Barbary in Neal's Yard seats its guests around a counter, which suits two people who would rather watch the cooking than stare at each other across linen.

None of these rooms has any arrangement with this office; they are simply the ones that suit the brief. Book the table yourself, as early as you can for a Friday or Saturday, and give the office the name and the time. A companion who knows the district will have a view on it, and if she thinks another room would suit the evening better she will say so before the booking is confirmed, not at the door.

Timing the two journeys

Tell the office the table time first. It works backwards from that for both of you, so she leaves home at the right moment and you know when to be on the platform. A half past seven table usually means leaving the wharf a little after seven, which on a weekday puts you on a train with the tail of the commuters rather than in the thick of them.

Theatre turnout is the thing to plan around. Between about half past ten and eleven the pavements round the Piazza fill up and Covent Garden station is best avoided, because it runs on lifts and they back up badly. If you are heading home on the Elizabeth line, walk up to Tottenham Court Road instead; if you are taking the Jubilee, cross the river to Waterloo. Both are quicker than queueing at the nearest station.

Most halfway evenings end where they started, at a table in WC2, with each of you heading home in your own direction. If the plan is to carry on at your hotel in E14, say so at the outset. The office will build the eastward journey into the booking and suggest a length that allows for it, rather than letting a train ride eat into the time you booked.

Who suits a table in the middle

The raven haired names on the board happen to fit this brief well. Milena is the one most used to evenings at the wharf and knows the run from South Kensington better than anyone, so she is often the first suggestion when a guest in E14 asks about meeting halfway. Karolina lives in Covent Garden itself, which removes her half of the journey altogether and means you arrive at a table she has already chosen, usually a counter.

Lucy is the other obvious choice. She lives in Pimlico, knows the east better than many people who live there, and a WC2 table sits comfortably between her flat and your hotel. Danielle, another raven haired name, lives in South Kensington but takes only a few evenings a week, so ask early. Between them the office can usually find someone free on a weekday with a day of notice.

Booking a halfway dinner

The plan this belongs to is dinner on your side of town, with one change: the side of town is a middle one you have both agreed on. Two hours at £500 covers a table and the walk afterwards. Three hours at £700 leaves room for a second stop or a slower dinner. A dinner date at £900 is the shape if you want drinks first and a long table after.

Her travel is inside the figure in both directions, as it is everywhere in Zones 1 and 2. The fee is handed to her in person when she arrives. Send Sylvie the date, the restaurant, the time and the hotel you are staying in, and she will reply with the names that are free and a setting off time for each of you.

If the Elizabeth line is new to you, our note on five zones on one train walks through the stations between the wharf and the West End, including the exits that save the most time at either end of a halfway evening.