The Twenty Two

Mayfair at a Crossroads: Where Mediterranean Cooking Meets a Postcode That Commands a Premium

Grosvenor Square has always occupied an unusual position in Mayfair's dining order. The address carries weight, it is one of central London's largest garden squares, flanked by embassies and luxury residential buildings, yet it has never quite anchored a restaurant cluster the way Shepherd Market or Mount Street have. The Twenty Two is not competing with The Fat Duck in Bray or Moor Hall in Aughton on technical ambition. It is competing on address, room quality, and a wine program of genuine scale, and at that level it makes a reasonable case for itself.

Lunch vs. Dinner: Two Distinct Registers

Mediterranean menus in London tend to behave differently across the service divide. At lunch, the register is typically lighter, shorter formats, more vegetables, a pace that suits the W1 office and hotel crowd arriving from nearby properties. Dinner shifts the mood toward something more deliberate: longer tables, heavier pours, the kind of occasion dining that Mayfair does better than almost anywhere else in the city. The Twenty Two follows this pattern. The Michelin Plate recognition, awarded in 2025, signals that the kitchen is operating at a level of consistency that merits attention for evening visits particularly, when the full scope of the menu and wine list can be engaged properly.

For context on what Mediterranean cooking looks like across London's spectrum, the range is wide. At the sharper, more casual end, restaurants like Bala Baya and Oren bring Levantine energy and lower price points. Morchella and Bellanger hold a middle ground. The Twenty Two operates above that tier, anchored by its postcode and the formality that comes with a Grosvenor Square address. For comparisons beyond London entirely, La Brezza in Ascona and Arnaud Donckele and Maxime Frédéric at Louis Vuitton in Saint-Tropez show what happens when Mediterranean cooking encounters genuine luxury hospitality investment, a useful benchmark for understanding where The Twenty Two sits on a broader European scale.

The Wine List: 1,850 Selections and a Clear Value Position

A list of 1,850 bottles is a serious commitment. Few restaurants at the £££ cuisine price point carry inventory at this depth, and the fact that the list covers a range of pricing, neither entry-level house wine territory nor exclusively £100-plus, makes it genuinely useful rather than decorative. The markup structure is described as mid-tier, with a spread that rewards both modest and ambitious spend. Kevin Ho, who holds the dual role of sommelier and general manager, is the person to engage with on this front. That double function is worth noting: at venues where the GM is also the sommelier, service culture and wine culture tend to be more integrated, which usually produces better floor-level wine conversation than operations where the two roles are siloed.

For those who want to bring their own, a corkage fee of £30 applies, where corkage at comparable venues can exceed that significantly. The wine list's California section carries a $$ pricing signal, suggesting decent mid-range availability without the list being dominated by ultra-premium California Cabernet. For a room serving Mediterranean food, that breadth matters: the cuisine asks for flexibility across regions, and a list with 1,850 options should deliver it.

The Room and the Address

Number 22 Grosvenor Square is a direct address to reach, Bond Street and Marble Arch tubes both sit within walking distance, and the square is well-served by taxis and ride services. The area is quieter than the busier sections of Mayfair around Berkeley Square or Bruton Street, which gives the approach a more residential, unhurried quality. That atmosphere is consistent with the broader trend among serious London restaurants toward less performative settings, where the food and wine carry the evening rather than the spectacle of the room.

The Michelin Plate, while not a star, is a meaningful signal in this context. It places The Twenty Two inside the cohort of London restaurants that Michelin's inspectors consider worth marking, a group that includes many of the city's most consistent mid-to-upper-tier operators. That is not a criticism: consistency at this price point and postcode is harder to sustain than it looks.

Planning Your Visit

The Twenty Two sits at 22 Grosvenor Square, W1K 6LF. Cuisine pricing is at the £££ mark, meaning a typical two-course meal without drinks will sit above the £66 threshold. The wine list's corkage policy and mid-range pricing structure mean the total bill is manageable if you engage the list selectively rather than working toward the premium end. our full London experiences guide. For Mediterranean comparison points elsewhere in the UK, Gidleigh Park in Chagford, Hand and Flowers in Marlow, and Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons in Great Milton each illustrate how occasion dining performs outside the capital, while Peckham Cellars offers a useful counterpoint on what serious wine programming looks like at a very different price tier and postcode within London itself.