The Wigmore

From Bank Hall to Bar Menu: The Shape of The Wigmore Today

The high ceilings and broad proportions of The Wigmore's main room were not designed for pints and toasties. The space was a bank, and that architectural fact has shaped the kind of pub it has become: one where the scale invites a certain ambition, where the room can hold a full early-evening crowd at the bar and still seat a dinner service without either group feeling like an afterthought. Hotel-attached pubs in this part of London have historically struggled to resolve that tension. The Wigmore, positioned at 15 Langham Place just off Regent Street, has found a format where it does not have to choose.

Under chef James Hawley, the menu at The Wigmore is constructed around a clear hierarchy of occasion. A drinker who wants nothing more than a pint and something to eat alongside it is as well-served as a guest committing to three courses. That is not an accident of generous hospitality — it is the design logic of the menu itself, which moves from snacks and bar bites through the Stovetop Toastie and fat chips to main plates like roast cod with mussel chowder and braised venison with hispi cabbage. The result is a British pub menu that functions at multiple registers simultaneously, which is a harder thing to execute than it sounds.

What the Evolution of the British Pub Menu Looks Like Here

The trajectory of British pub food over the past two decades has run in one of two directions. The first is the gastropub route — white tablecloths kept out of view, tasting menus considered and then usually abandoned, a full commitment to the dining room at the expense of the bar. The second, and less common, is the dual-format approach: a menu and room that genuinely serve both communities without one subsidising the other. The Marksman in Hackney is one version of that. Llewelyn's in Herne Hill is another, though at a different price point and neighbourhood register.

The Wigmore sits in the dual-format category, but with an important qualification: its anchor is The Langham, one of London's older luxury hotel addresses, and its postcode places it among Marylebone and Mayfair-adjacent dining rather than neighbourhood-pub territory. That context changes how the evolution reads. Where a neighbourhood pub pivoting toward serious food has to bring its regulars along with it, The Wigmore started with a hotel clientele that expected quality and built outward from there. The Michelin Plate in both 2024 and 2025 , a recognition that signals kitchen consistency and cooking that exceeds the category average , suggests the kitchen has met that standard.

Comparison set for a Michelin Plate pub in central London is worth stating clearly. This is not the tier of The Fat Duck in Bray, L'Enclume in Cartmel, or Moor Hall in Aughton , all of which represent the multi-star end of British dining. Nor is it the urban fine-dining tier occupied by CORE by Clare Smyth or Dinner by Heston Blumenthal. The Wigmore prices at ££, which puts it in a segment where the Michelin recognition carries a different meaning: not that this is among the most technically ambitious kitchens in the country, but that within its format and price point, execution is reliable and the cooking has genuine character.

The Room and What It Asks of You

Architectural inheritance of the bank hall gives The Wigmore's main room a formality that the menu actively contradicts. High ceilings and broad sightlines suggest ceremony; the Stovetop Toastie and fat chips suggest otherwise. That productive tension is part of what the room offers , a sense of occasion without the obligation to perform for it. For those who want more containment, The Wigmore has a Green Room, worth requesting at booking, which delivers a more intimate setting within the same venue. The choice between them is a practical one: the main hall suits groups and the ambient noise of a full evening service; the Green Room suits conversation.

Early evening, the bar draws a crowd that is measurably distinct from the dinner service , people stopping in after work or before theatre, ordering pints and running a tab on snacks rather than committing to a table. That crowd starts to thin as service deepens into the evening, and the room shifts register accordingly. Knowing this rhythm matters for how you approach a visit. If the Wigmore's bar energy on a Tuesday at 6pm is what you are after, that is a different experience from a Saturday dinner in the Green Room, and neither is a compromise version of the other.

Traditional British at This Postcode

The Traditional British category at the ££ price point is better represented in neighbourhoods south of the river and in outer-London postcodes than it is in W1. Around Langham Place, the competitive comparison for a mid-price dinner shifts quickly toward 45 Jermyn St, Bob Bob Ricard Soho, and the hotel dining rooms that dominate the area. Against that peer set, The Wigmore's format , a pub that takes its food seriously without abandoning the pub premise , reads as a deliberate counter-position rather than a concession to the neighbourhood.

The British pub-dining tradition that The Wigmore connects to is long and well-documented, from the gastropub boom of the 1990s through to the current generation of chef-led pubs like the Hand and Flowers in Marlow and Pipe and Glass in South Dalton. Those venues sit at a different price tier and have accumulated different levels of recognition, but they share the same structural argument: that pub hospitality and serious cooking are not in conflict. The Wigmore makes that argument in a central London context, at a price point accessible to most visitors, which is a position that is harder to hold in W1 than it would be anywhere else.

For a broader picture of where The Wigmore sits within London dining, see our full London restaurants guide. If you are building an itinerary around this part of the city, our London hotels guide, bars guide, wineries guide, and experiences guide cover the full range of options. For Traditional British cooking at the upper end of the category across the UK, Gidleigh Park in Chagford, Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons in Great Milton, and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal in Dubai represent adjacent traditions at very different scales. For London bars worth pairing with an evening that starts or ends here, Goodbye Horses is worth the detour.

Planning a Visit

The Wigmore is at 15 Langham Place, W1B 3DE, a short walk from Oxford Circus. The ££ pricing means a full dinner with drinks sits comfortably below the threshold of the hotel dining rooms nearby. The Green Room is worth specifying when you book if you are coming for a meal rather than drinks. Opinionated About Dining's 2025 Casual Europe ranking at position 757 and a Google score of 4.7 from 1,449 reviews between them suggest the kitchen is consistent and the experience is repeatable , which is precisely what you want from a venue you intend to return to.