The best pubs for Christmas dinner in London

This Hackney classic is serving up a very special Xmas menu all through December, with head chef Joe Couldridge at the helm. Get a big gang together and fork out for the 7kg maple glazed whole suckling pig with apples & chestnuts (which is £550 per piggy and recommended for groups of 10 or more). 

Spacious Victorian gin palace The Salisbury Hotel is cooking up a seasonal storm this Xmas. With two courses for £30 or three for £35, chef Jake Taylor's menu for eight or more is a mighty thing. Pick from juniper-cured salmon or spiced squash soup to start, before a roast turkey breast and confit turkey leg, or mushroom and celeriac pithivier, or brown butter poached hake. Spiced chocolate brownie and mulled pear crumble make a welcome dessert alternative to all that Christmas cake too. 

Tucked down a sought-after mews, this venerable establishment is truly a thoroughbred in the Young’s pub stable. Rather more pricey than other boozers – you're in Mayfair, what did you expect? – there's a £120 and £160 Xmas dinner menu full of roasted and toasted goodness, but you'll have the honour of eating in their antique private dining room if that takes the sting out of the bill. 

Head to Hackney's Broadway Market and the Cat and Mutton, for an affordable Christmas set menu. At two courses for £29.50 or three for £35.50, you'll get your pick of celeriac & truffle soup, chicken liver pâté with drunken prunes or pickled pear & beetroot carpaccio to start followed by turkey and all the trimmings or haunch of venison, sea bream or a veggie mushroom & cashew wellington. Get a table upstairs and be as rowdy as you dare, with crackers included.

This historic Highgate pub is the perfect place to gather a gang and order from their £39 a head three course Christmas feasting menu. There are loads of options – from parsnip & celeriac nut roast to shin of beef & chestnut mushroom pie – so there's no need for anyone to pull a  Scrooge and grumpy on the group. Try and get the Dickensian back room, for an extra added festive feeling.

Thanks to the Thames lapping against its wall and the resulting busy tourist trade, this place is something of a local landmark. Their Christmas menu comes in at £39 for two courses and £45 for three, with the likes of n’duja scotch egg and duck rillettes with cornichons to start followed by a classic ballontine of free-range turkey with sage & onion stuffing. Pigs in blankets are £6 extra for the table, but we can't imagine a festive lunch without them.

The name of the game is, well, game at this Barbican gastropub. A three course luncheon with mince pies and coffee is £65 a had here, with a menu that's not like the other pubs; think Wild Suffolk red deer haunch and salt-cured duck. You'll probably want to add on some wine too, from their rather well-curated list. 

Among the best of the pubs jostling for the title of Clapham’s Finest Christmas Pub Lunch, The Avalon offers a classically best-of-British pub experience. We might’ve voted The Avalon’s gardens some of the best in London, but the inside is dazzling, too. Housed in an extravagant heritage building with sumptuous dining rooms, The Avalon’s menu focuses on small, British producers. From smoked salmon and roast pork belly porchetta, to a creative array of vegan options, it's £36 a head, but if you order it Monday to Friday from 12-6pm, it's just £27.