This article is part of FT Globetrotter’s guide to power dining
London
While the pull of the West End remains strong, the banks, law firms and other offices around the Square Mile are increasingly flocking to a reinvigorated Farringdon, where Mayfair’s asset managers can now blast in from Bond Street along the Elizabeth Line. A slew of new restaurant openings in recent years has transformed this area once famed for its historic meat market and 12th-century church into one of London’s most desirable places to dine. Choice spots include Brutto, the late Russell Norman’s Florentine affair, and the traditional French bistro Bouchon Racine, if one can get a table — a partner I know has their PA batch-book these restaurants whenever reservations open. Cloth, which opened in April this year, has become a fast favourite for its well-priced prix-fixe lunch, while Origin City, a new farm-to-fork joint on the edge of Smithfield Market, skilfully caters to carnivores. Longer-running establishments remain perennially popular too: St John, the nose-to-tail pioneer (it celebrates its 30th anniversary this year) might as well be one neighbouring law firm’s staff canteen; Quality Chop House (and its confit potatoes) needs no introduction; and Luca, with its Michelin-starred Italian fare and excellent wine list, offers ample temptation to test the limits of the company card.
— Niki Blasina, deputy editor, FT Globetrotter
Sydney
Sydney’s restaurant scene often takes a back seat to the foodie hub of Melbourne, but the Emerald City has plenty of hotspots for business lunches, including the burger and steak stalwart Rockpool Bar & Grill and newcomer Shell House, with its louche dining room and impressive terrace. Yet the “top end” of Sydney has started to show its more modish side in recent years, with places such as modern Cantonese-style restaurant Mr Wong providing an alternative to the leather-seated comfort of more traditional business hotspots. Mr Wong, hidden down an alleyway near Circular Quay, is a bustling two-storey affair and is the marque restaurant run by the Merivale company, a 1960s fashion house turned hospitality business, that has opened most of the trendiest places in town. Mr Wong is an energetic place with the kitchen operating in full view of the tables upstairs and Peking ducks artfully displayed in rows. Famed for its dumpling options and an impressive wine (and sake) list, Mr Wong has rapidly become a business lunch favourite for many.
— Nic Fildes, Australia and Pacific correspondent
Brussels
Time was, if you wanted a decent working lunch in the grey streets that hug the European Commission’s Berlaymont headquarters in Brussels, your options were limited to bog-standard Italian or Greek fare. But this summer’s favoured haunt of Eurocrat expense accounts has been Portuguese relative newcomer Puro, for cod and vinho verde to wash down the diplomatic gossip. Located in a space formerly inhabited by a dive bar of undistinguished reputation yards from the EU’s car-park-esque HQ, Puro leans heavily into seafood and Portuguese tradition (even if the caricature pen portraits of Cristiano Ronaldo and Eusébio on the walls are a bit much). Brussels’ Portuguese community is long-standing, and you can find their kitchens on every corner in some parts of the city’s now-hip St Gilles neighbourhood, but Puro is the first to take a stab at the EU bubble. Like most of its rivals, it understands that crowd’s penchant for a two-course, one-hour, half-a-bottle approach to lunch. But those with time to kill and a taxpayer-subsidised credit card should enjoy both octopus to start and pineapple carpaccio to finish.
— Henry Foy, Brussels bureau chief
Hong Kong
The Central district, where lots of the city’s bankers, lawyers and accountants are based, has remained for years the most buzzing location for business dining. Here corporate lunches can include one of the territory’s best Hainan chicken rice dishes at Mandarin Oriental’s Café Causette, or a memorable Japanese izakaya-style experience at the hotel’s The Aubrey.
Chinese fine-dining restaurant China Tang, which serves excellent dim sum, remains particularly popular for work lunches. The members-only China Club, an alternative nearby choice, offers a more exclusive environment in which to chat over exquisite traditional Cantonese cuisine that has received the stamp of approval from the city’s elite for years. As the day ends, Cardinal Point with its stunning view of the dazzling skyline is perfect for talking business over drinks — and to take in Hong Kong’s signature skyscrapers at night.
— Chan Ho-him, Hong Kong reporter
Milan
Langosteria is a buzzy seafood restaurant that locals, fashionistas and business people have long been obsessed with. The city is full of great high-end eateries, but some of the classic choices have lost traction or shut down, paving the way for Langosteria’s success. However, the venue — co-owned by founder Enrico Buonocore and the Moncler-controlling Ruffini family — has an extra ingredient that makes it particularly appealing to business people and big spenders: the cool factor, which is reflected in everything from the design and the bar to the endless wine list. It recently opened in Paris and has other locations in St Moritz and Portofino. But in Milan, where Langosteria first set up shop and where it currently has three locations serving similar menus, it continues to be the top choice for business diners, which can mean long waiting lists, especially at peak times on Thursday and Friday evenings.
— Silvia Sciorilli Borrelli, Milan correspondent
Lagos
Nigeria is experiencing its worst economic crisis in three decades. But you wouldn’t know it when you walk into Farfallino, a new Italian restaurant in the business district of Victoria Island whose popularity has soared since its April opening. Its menu offers the usual Italian fare and wine that would win a nonna’s approval. The pizzas are a must-have. In a city with limited high-quality dining options and a constant search for the next big thing, it’s no surprise the well-heeled throng to Farfallino. Reviews have been mixed, and the prices are eye-wateringly high, but there’s a consensus that it is the place to be.
— Aanu Adeoye, west and central Africa correspondent
Copenhagen
Set on the grounds of the massive former Carlsberg brewery, Copenhagen’s newest district has deliberately placed food at the heart of its offering and is drawing business diners (and many others) in droves. Carlsberg Byen, situated to the west of the city centre, is home to some of the biggest and buzziest names from the capital of Nordic cuisine, as well as still hosting the brewer’s headquarters and a new exhibition about the beer. Surt makes some of Copenhagen’s best pizzas, Hija de Sanchez does fabulous tacos and at Aamanns Genbo you’ll find innovative smørrebrød, the open-faced sandwiches that are a must for a business lunch. Hart Bageri, Københavns Bageri and Coffee Collective all offer delectable pastries and decent coffee.
— Richard Milne, Nordic and Baltic correspondent
Frankfurt
It is perhaps precisely because of Frankfurt’s gastronomical commitment to pork, potatoes, and apfelwein that it in recent years has become fertile ground for ambitious vegan restaurants. Trailblazers such as Michelin-starred Seven Swans, with its plant-based menu made from seasonal and regionally sourced roots and leaves (and chic neighbouring cocktail bar The Tiny Cup, located in the narrowest building in Frankfurt), set the stage for this shift more than a decade ago. Now, newcomers such as the hip, tapas-inspired Leuchtendroter and the (aesthetically at least) more traditionally German Hohenheim & Söhne are joining the scene, turning Frankfurt into an unexpected hotspot for inventive vegan cuisine — a vibrant counterpoint to its traditional culinary tapestry.
— Patricia Nilsson, Frankfurt correspondent
São Paulo
In Brazil’s financial capital, a gastronomic hub has emerged in the past few years on Rua Ferreira de Araújo, in the Pinheiros neighbourhood. The street is a 10-15 minute drive from the big banks and investment firms on Avenida Faria Lima, the nation’s version of Wall Street. Among its dozens of restaurants and bars, there’s Italian at Più, Modern Mamma Osteria (MOMA) and Tartuferia, which specialises in dishes with truffles. Canto do Picuí offers cuisine from the north-eastern Brazilian state of Alagoas. For Middle Eastern street food in a relaxed setting (and plenty of vegetarian options), try Shuk Falafel & Kebabs.
— Michael Pooler, Brazil correspondent
New York
New York’s love affair with Italian food has taken a more curated twist in recent years. Stuck in Midtown? Try the classic Casa Lever, a space-age cathedral with your choice of private booth or main-floor dining, which is best known for its crudos and osso bucco alla Milanese. Venturing downtown, dine at the recently opened Roscioli in SoHo. The tasting menu of Roman delights or cacio e pepe will bring you back to the restaurant’s origins in Campo dei Fiori in the heart of Italy’s capital. Seafood perhaps? Then Santi may be worth the wait. Michael White, the former executive chef of Marea (a longtime classic) is opening this new haunt this autumn, and it’s already being hyped as a hotspot for New York’s power brokers.
— Sophie Spiegelberger, US audience engagement journalist
Zürich
The Kronenhalle is that rarest of things: a restaurant as microcosm. This grand dame of the Zurich restaurant scene survives all attempts of flashier, more on-trend, more novel, more — frankly — delicious restaurants to unseat it. Perhaps because, with its starchy but friendly mix of formality and egalitarianism, its heavy röstis and cream sauces on the table, thick china plates below Mirós on the wall (and Braques and Chagalls and Bonnards), its intimacy and its openness (they’ll get you in if they can), not to mention its epic timelessness, it is as if this restaurant is mainlining Zürchers ur-conception of self and Swissness.
Everyone is here. (Everyone who has of course, vaulted the high financial bar of this most expensive to live in or visit of cities.) Eating here is like being on the Orient Express of old, in the Christie conception, only without the murder. The dark wood and brass and the booths of the downstairs “brasserie” room add to the sense of a wagon-lit. But what really does it is the cast of fellow diners: princesses and swindlers and bank CEOs and DJs and ruby-wedding celebrants down from the mountains and jobbing poets and you. “Ceci n’est pas un musée,” the restaurant declares on its website, paraphrasing Magritte with a wink. Of course it is (cliché incoming): a living one.
— Sam Jones, FT correspondent
Mumbai
Much of Mumbai’s business dining remains in the unimaginative confines of high-end hotels where you’ll see a mix of suited locals and foreign visitors at the often-excellent in-house Indian restaurant or less-exciting western equivalent. Others head to international Asian chains such as Hakkasan and Yauatcha. But more restaurants have drawn the after-work crowd with less-bloating modern takes on Indian or fusion-type cuisine. A powerful Mumbai corporate lawyer recommends the recently opened Ode in Worli, whose menu including pizza and spiced buffalo tenderloin draws on the Maharashtrian and European heritage of Rahul Akerkar, one of the city’s most renowned chefs. More established favourites include the nearby Bombay Canteen and its sibling restaurant O Pedro in the glitzy BKC district, known for their seasonal and Goan delicacies.
— Chris Kay, Mumbai correspondent
Madrid
The exquisite demands of Madrid’s power lunchers have helped make the city a global gastronomic hub, and today the business crowd flocks to Calle de Jorge Juan in the chichi Salamanca neighbourhood, a narrow thoroughfare of towering trees and whitewashed apartments, its terraces bubbling over with conviviality. Celebrity chef Dani García does seafood at Lobito de Mar. Amazónico is a jungle-themed place with a gonzo playfulness. The starched tablecloths of El Paraguas frame Asturian cuisine of classical refinement. Luxury shopping abounds too, including down the secluded Callejón de Puigcerdà, where there is Roman food at SottoSopra and thick-cut sushi at Robata. All told, says one veteran expat, the street is the centre of Madrid’s “CNBC scene”.
— Barney Jopson, Spain and Portugal correspondent
Paris
Head to Valois in the eighth arrondissement for classic French bistro fare adjacent to leafy Parc Monceau. It is stone’s throw from Lazard and Morgan Stanley, so bankers abound. Le Bristol for breakfast (the fruits rouges are a delight, if wildly pricey) and for drinks in the evening — the martinis are among the city’s best. Matsuhisa’s Japanese-Peruvian fusion in Le Royal Monceau-Raffles Paris is a welcome reprieve when you’ve had your fill of beef and butter, and the airy setting allows for privacy. Au Petit Riche (ninth arrondissement) is an institution for a reason, and everything you could wish for in a classic French restaurant. Across the river, Jaïs (seventh arrondissement) offers a lobster salad worth crossing the city for and is heavily frequented by Left Bank lawyers. Finally, if you want to impress with your cultural nous, Ogata’s immaculate Japanese set menus in the Marais should help you close the deal.
— Adrienne Klasa, Paris correspondent
Rome
Rome is beloved for its classic pastas, from amatriciana to cacio e pepe, but it can be rather hard to go back to work after partaking of such rich fare. Hence the popularity of Ginger Sapori e Saluti, with its health-conscious menu focusing on seasonal organic ingredients. Roman ladies who lunch and business diners flock here for its gourmet panini and generous salads laden with Italian treats such as Parma ham, fresh buffalo mozzarella and Parmigiano Reggiano; Ginger’s own take on more classic fare including pastas, grilled meats and burgers; and more unexpected offerings such as a quinoa or tuna poke bowl. Vegetarians and vegans are well catered for, while fresh fruit smoothies are an antidote to the typical Italian carb overdose. Don’t miss the amazing vegan raspberry cheesecake, even if you aren’t a vegan. Ginger has expanded to three prime sites in the historic centre, the latest of which opened a year ago in the courtyard of an 18th-century palazzo.
Those searching for greater tradition can opt for the old Roman favourite Ciampini — in the nearby Piazza di San Lorenzo in Lucina — where Italian political power brokers famously go to see and be seen, as much as for the food.
— Amy Kazmin, Rome correspondent
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