Rules

Thomas Rule opened it in 1798 on Maiden Lane by Covent Garden as an oyster bar, and it has had only three owning families since. Its rooms, with red velvet, panelling and drawings, cartoons and paintings to the ceiling, were frequented by Dickens, Thackeray and the future Edward VII.

It is known for game, much of it from its own estate in the Pennines, and for classic British cooking: meat pies and puddings, oysters, roast beef and puddings such as treacle sponge.