Benihana Covent Garden

You're sat at a long communal counter on Maiden Lane, just off the Covent Garden piazza, watching a chef in white gear work their station like a conductor. The teppan grill hisses and pops as they carve prawns mid-air, stack onion volcanoes that ignite in flames, and turn your dinner into a proper show. It's interactive dining at its most theatrical—the sort of place where strangers become mates over shared plates of hibachi steak, chicken and seafood. Come hungry, come ready to laugh, and don't sit too close unless you fancy a light char on your eyebrows.