Hotori in Holborn can be hired for company lunches, client dinners and private parties of up to 60 guests. The Japanese restaurant at 1 New Fetter Lane, in the City of London, serves yakitori grilled over binchotan charcoal and Edomae sushi. It offers four ways to book: the whole ground floor, the chef's counter, a set team lunch, or the bar downstairs.
Seminars and company events
Hotori sells its dining room as a venue for corporate events. The team lunch format takes 5 to 45 guests on weekdays between 12:00 and 14:30. It is a set menu for the table, built to fit inside a working day, so a group can arrive, eat well and be back at the office on time. Dinner hire runs Monday to Saturday for larger or more formal groups.
When you take the room, the kitchen cooks for your party alone. The two counters become part of the room rather than seats for other guests. The official site lists no plenary room and no projection equipment, so the format suits client dinners, team celebrations, end-of-project lunches and board hospitality better than a full-day seminar.
In December, weekday lunches are offered as an alternative to the usual Christmas party dinner. Thursday and Friday evenings tend to go first, so the restaurant asks organisers to share their date early.
Rooms and capacities
The ground floor takes up to 45 guests seated or 60 standing, for lunch Monday to Friday and dinner Monday to Saturday. You get the room, the grill and both counters, with a menu set for the occasion.
The counter seats up to 8 guests facing the chef. It is reserved for your party at dinner and follows the chef's omakase course by course over the coals.
Brass Dove is the bar and lounge below the restaurant. It takes up to 30 seated or 40 standing and can be taken for your party alone, for a drinks reception before or after a dinner upstairs.
Catering
Catering is in-house. Menus are set for the table, or the chef's omakase is served at the counter. The kitchen cooks chicken beak to tail on bamboo skewers over Japanese binchotan, and sushi is cut to order in the Edomae style. Festive menus are available on request.
Guests' allergies and dietary requirements are recorded on the booking, and the kitchen works from that list. Tell the restaurant about every guest's needs when you enquire. You can also change your numbers after booking; the restaurant asks to be told as early as possible and confirms what is possible when it sends the quote.
History and setting
The restaurant occupies two floors of a building on New Fetter Lane, in Holborn. The ground floor holds the dining room with its yakitori grill and sushi counter, and the Brass Dove bar sits below. The setting is a working restaurant rather than a purpose-built conference space, which gives events a relaxed, hospitality-led feel.
Getting there
Hotori is two minutes from Chancery Lane station, in the legal and financial district of central London. The restaurant asks guests with access needs to say so when they enquire, so that the team can walk them through the room and the way in before booking.
