Two companions at one table, and why the pairing matters

Company for a table of three, essentially, and it is a different evening from company for a table of two. The conversation moves faster, nobody has to carry it, and the hour that usually goes into settling in does not happen because the two of them arrive already talking. Guests who find a first meeting hard work often find a duo considerably easier.

It is time and company, the same as every other booking on this site, and it is not anything further. Nothing else is offered on this page at any figure, and both women decide for themselves which evenings they accept.

Jasmin and Molly both live in Soho and both walk to bookings. They are the fastest pair on the list, they eat at counters rather than tables, and between them they know every late kitchen from Wardour Street to Charing Cross Road.

Karolina and Tina are both Covent Garden residents and both keep to a curtain time exactly. They are the pair to ask for when a show is involved. Cindy and Vanessa cover Piccadilly between them, one early and decisive, one comfortable with a late decision, and they suit an evening that starts at six and has not decided yet when it ends.

Not every table in this zone does, and a duo booked into a two seat corner is a poor evening for everybody. Counters are the reliable answer: three stools in a row, the kitchen doing the entertaining, and no awkward geometry. Soho is full of them and most will still seat three at half past ten.

For a proper dining room, book it as a three and say so. The Piccadilly and St James's rooms are used to it and the Covent Garden ones are used to everything. Tell the desk where the reservation is and either woman will say honestly whether that room works for three.

Name both women if you know who you want, or describe the evening and let the desk suggest a pair with a reason attached. Romilly checks both diaries before he answers, so the reply either confirms both women and one arrival time or it proposes a different pair. There is no version of this where one is confirmed and the other is hoped for.

They usually travel together and arrive together. The check before they set off is the same single one as always: the name on the reservation, the building, the room. Booking has the sequence in full, and every name on the list is on On The Books.

Two hours is the shortest that makes sense and three is better. An hour is genuinely too short for three people to get anywhere, and most duo evenings here are booked on the three hour line at £700 each or the four hour one at £900 each. Both women are on the same clock, starting and finishing together.

Each fee goes to the woman it belongs to, in person, in the first minutes she is in the room. Travelling inside Zones 1 and 2 is inside both figures, whichever postcode either of them sets off from. There is no arrangement charge anywhere on this site and no figure appears at the end of an evening that was not written down at the start of it. The full ladder, unchanged, is on rates.