Honestly, I didn’t expect much the first time I walked into restaurant 34 Mayfair London. I’d heard the name thrown around at dinner parties, seen it mentioned in a couple of weekend supplements. Another Mayfair restaurant, I thought. Another place where the bill arrives before the food has fully settled and you’re left wondering if the whole thing was worth it.
Finding the Place
The address is 34 Grosvenor Square, but don’t look for the entrance there — you’ll spend ten minutes walking in circles. The actual door is on South Audley Street, and there’s a doorman in a top hat standing outside it. Hard to miss, once you know to look. Bond Street station is about a five-minute walk, straight down Oxford Street and then left. Take a cab if it’s raining. It usually is.
The restaurant opened back in November 2011. Richard Caring launched it under his Caprice Holdings group — the same company behind Scott’s on Mount Street, J Sheekey in Covent Garden, Daphne’s in Chelsea, and the Sexy Fish restaurant in Mayfair that opened a few years later. He clearly knows how to open restaurants. 34 is proof of that.
Walking In
The room stops you. Not in a dramatic, look-at-me way. More like the way a really good hotel lobby does — you slow down slightly without realising it. Martin Brudnizki designed the interior, working with Edwardian and Art Deco references that somehow feel neither nostalgic nor pretentious. There’s parquet flooring, burnt orange banquettes, white tablecloths, small lamps on every table. A baby grand piano sits in the corner by the bar.
The open kitchen runs along the far wall. In the middle of it — literally the centrepiece of the whole operation — is a parrilla grill imported from Argentina. It burns on natural charcoal. You can smell it faintly when you walk in. In a good way.
Live jazz plays on Thursday and Friday evenings. The musicians are actually good, which shouldn’t be a surprise but sometimes is.
The Steak, Which Is the Point
Let’s be direct. Most people come to restaurant 34 Mayfair for the steak, and the steak is very, very good.
The sourcing is serious. Heritage breed cattle from the Yorkshire Dales. A5 Japanese Wagyu on rotation. Dry-aged Scottish grass-fed cuts. Argentinian beef when it’s available. The kitchen doesn’t shout about any of this on the menu — it’s just there, priced accordingly, cooked properly on that parrilla grill.
I had a New York strip on my last visit. Ordered it medium-rare. It came exactly medium-rare, with a crust on it that you only get from live fire. Not a griddle. Not an oven finish. Actual fire. The difference is real and you taste it.
The Chateaubriand is the sharing cut worth knowing about. It’s carved and it’s priced for a celebration, but if you’re splitting it between two people for a special occasion, it earns every pound.
Everything Else They Cook Well
The thing about 34 Mayfair is that it would be easy to dismiss it as just a steak restaurant. That’s a mistake.
The crispy duck salad has been on the menu in some form since the beginning. There’s a reason it’s never left. Properly rendered duck, good balance of sweet and sharp in the dressing, textures that hold up rather than turning soggy halfway through. The steak tartare is handled with care — cold, seasoned correctly, not over-mixed.
Seafood runs through the menu with genuine seriousness. Dover sole, whole lobster, oysters, tuna, a sashimi selection that feels considered rather than obligatory. On a warm evening with a glass of white Burgundy, the lobster here is difficult to argue with.
For sides: the truffle mac and cheese has a following among regulars that borders on the devoted. The onion rings are thick-cut and properly done. Order both if you can justify it.
Dessert. The doughnuts. Warm, cinnamon-sugared, served with three dipping sauces — chocolate, lemon curd, raspberry. They arrive looking modest and disappear in minutes. The apple pie is old-fashioned and better for it.
The Bar and What to Drink
The cocktail list is good without being exhausting. The Sakura Martini — Tanqueray gin, cherry blossom vermouth, orange bitters — has become one of those drinks that people order once and then request by name forever after. The wine list is long. Genuinely long. There are bottles on it that will make your eyes water and bottles that won’t, and the staff know the difference between a guest who wants to be guided and one who doesn’t.
When to Go
This matters more than you’d think.
Tuesday and Wednesday evenings are calm. The service is attentive because the room isn’t under pressure. Good for a business dinner or an unhurried date night. Thursday picks up. By Friday, the place is properly alive — full tables, the jazz playing, the bar three deep. Saturday brunch, which starts at 11am, is one of the better-kept secrets in Mayfair. The lobster Thermidor omelette is absurd in the best possible way.
Smart-casual dress code. Dark jeans are fine. Trainers probably not. The room has a standard and it’s easy enough to meet.
How It Fits Into the Mayfair Restaurant Picture
Mayfair has no shortage of options. Sketch restaurant in Mayfair London sits in a different category entirely — theatrical, multi-room, as much about the experience as the food. The Sexy Fish restaurant in Mayfair leans into late nights and Asian-inspired cooking. There are hotel dining rooms, celebrity chef outposts, intimate neighbourhood places like the Mistress of Mayfair that serve something altogether quieter.
34 sits apart from all of them. Not because it’s trying to — but because after thirteen years, it’s simply become what it set out to be. A room where the cooking is the point. Where the fire in the kitchen is real. Where you leave feeling like you ate something rather than experienced something.
That distinction matters more than people admit.
Before You Book
Address: South Audley Street entrance, 34 Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, London W1K 2HD
Phone: 020 3350 3434
Hours: Mon–Thu noon–10pm | Fri noon–11pm | Sat 11am–11pm | Sun 11am–10pm
Getting there: Bond Street Tube, five minutes on foot
Cost: Around £80–£120 per head with wine. The “A Taste of 34” set lunch — three steak cuts, a side, a sauce — is £36 per person and genuinely good value for what it is.
Bookings: Via 34-restaurant.co.uk or OpenTable. Book ahead for Thursday through Saturday. Walk-ins are possible midweek.
Private dining: The Emin Room handles groups, birthdays, corporate events, and celebrations. Separate bar, dedicated team, tailored menus.
Worth It?
Yes. Without much qualification. Restaurant 34 Mayfair London has been one of the most reliable places to eat in this city for over a decade, and it got there by focusing on the things that actually matter — good sourcing, skilled cooking, a room that earns the prices on the menu. It doesn’t need a rebrand. It doesn’t need a social media moment It just needs you to book a table and show up hungry.
