Near the Apollo Theatre | Restaurants, Bars and Hotels

The Apollo sits between Piccadilly Circus and Chinatown, which is one of the densest few hundred yards of eating and drinking anywhere in London.

Restaurants

Preto, 73 Shaftesbury Avenue. Two minutes, a few doors along the same street. Brazilian rodizio, where the meat keeps coming until you turn the card over, so you set the pace rather than the kitchen. Good for a group with a curtain-up to make.

Wong Kei, Wardour Street. Six to eight minutes, in Chinatown. Cantonese, an enormous menu, famously quick and cheap. Four people and 45 minutes is exactly what it is for.

Bill's Soho, Brewer Street. Five to seven minutes. All-day British and European food with a pre-theatre menu, and the one that copes when everybody in the party wants something different.

Viet Food, Wardour Street. Six to eight minutes. Vietnamese, quick, and lighter than most of what is around here, which matters if you are sitting still for two hours afterwards.

Bars and pubs

Waxy O'Connor's, Rupert Street. Three minutes, and the closest pub of any real size. Six levels, four bars, built around a tree. Big enough to take a pre-theatre crowd, which most Soho pubs are not.

The Blue Posts, Rupert Street. Three to four minutes. A proper corner pub over several floors, quieter than its neighbours and easier to get a table in before a show.

Rupert Street (the bar), on Rupert Street. Three to four minutes. Glass-fronted, busy and central, and the easiest place to find each other in if the party is arriving separately.

Hotels

The Z Hotel Piccadilly. Six to eight minutes. Compact modern rooms at a sensible price, and the practical choice if you are out at the theatre all evening anyway.

W London, Leicester Square. Six to eight minutes. Bold and busy, and geared to a night that carries on after the show rather than one that ends with it.

The Londoner, Leicester Square. Five to six minutes. Large and modern with six restaurants and bars of its own and a rooftop, so the rest of the party has somewhere to be if they are not coming to the show.