Dinner in London on December 24th?

[D Hound]

Are most restaurants closed on Dec 24th? Can people recommend a place where one can have dinner?

Requirements: great food.

ThingsI do not care for: stuffiness (black tie is a big no-no; suit and tie is my upper bound when it comes to formality, and if I can avoid it I will be happier). Also, I don't want to break the bank, so I don't think I'd like to pay more than, say, 50-75 pounds per person. But if you come up with a less expensive, more casual, homey, restaurant, that'd be fine too. (Atmosphere/service are not particularly important for us).

Thanks for your advice.

[KaCHing]

It's a family tradition to go out to a "fancy" dinner on Christmas Eve. Last year we ate at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon in Covent Garden, this year we're eating at Gordon Ramsay at Claridge's. GR will be a set menu, more expensive than usual b/c of Xmas eve, but Joel Robuchon was a standard menu last year.

We did find that many of the more mid-range nice restaurants were closed - The Wolsely, J Sheeky, Les Trois Garcons...none were serving when we called last year. This year we were set on GR, so no problems.

[ali patts]

Not about dinner so much... Wherever you go, make sure you can get home afterwards. I have (normally) to work on Christmas eve and trains are a nightmare, reduced/sunday service, people with christmas shopping. Pure hell. I can't tell you how glad I am to have the day off this year.
On the restaurant front, the ones I have looked at in the past have been open or closed to private functions. All that said, a couple of my normal haunts are closed on Mondays so I doubt they'll be open on Chrissy eve. I'd find a restaurant first then ring and ask. What sort of food do you like and what are convenient areas?

[D Hound]

I like literally every type of food (and we are open to being "adventurous", i.e. offal etc), so that's not a concern.

As to area: we live in W2, 5 mins away from Bayswater.