Café 22 and the Parisian neighbourhood dining test in W1

The Twenty Two, the 31-bedroom Grade II-listed hotel and private members' club on North Audley Street in Mayfair, has relaunched its in-house restaurant as Café 22, a 92-cover room that takes its cue from Parisian dining, according to The Caterer's report of 16 September 2026. Guests now enter through a new streetside door, and a roaming Martini trolley mixes cocktails tableside.

The interesting part sits a short way north, inside W1U and W1H. Marylebone has been trading this model for years without calling it a launch. Aubaine Marylebone runs from breakfast to dinner at 7 Moxon Street as a French restaurant in Marylebone with a bakery attached. What the trade coverage frames as a repositioning in Mayfair is, in this part of the City of Westminster, simply how the high street already eats.

What Café 22 actually is

Café 22 is the relaunched restaurant of The Twenty Two hotel on North Audley Street. It seats 92, serves French classics including canard a l'orange and foie gras terrine, and runs a roaming Martini trolley. Guillaume Glipa, previously of Chiltern Firehouse, Louie London and Annabel's, oversees the launch.

The menu is overseen by The Twenty Two's global culinary director Alan Christie, and Restaurant reports dishes such as poulet roti a la truffe and bar entier grille with crisp potatoes and sauce vierge, with brown butter madeleines, apple tarte tatin, creme brulee and profiteroles for dessert. Weekend brunch carries a warm lobster roll and French fries, croque monsieur and madame, and wagyu cote de boeuf with Cafe de Paris butter.

The Caterer describes the change as a move to a "buzzier, neighbourhood cafe style, echoing the spirit of Parisian inspired dining" inside a 42,500 sq ft listed building, replacing the hotel's previous food and drink offer.

Fun fact: The Twenty Two was founded in 2022 by the hospitality entrepreneur and technology investor Navid Mirtorabi, according to The Caterer.

Marylebone's three standing answers to the same brief

Set the Café 22 proposition against three addresses in Marylebone and the overlap is obvious. Aubaine at 7 Moxon Street is a French restaurant and all-day French bakery open from breakfast through to dinner, with private dining, and it belongs to the wider Aubaine group. 108 Brasserie at 108 Marylebone Lane brings continental dining on Marylebone Lane, its red awning marking the door.

The third is not French at all, which is why it matters. Twist Restaurant Marylebone, also trading as Twist Connubio, is an independent at 42 Crawford Street serving Spanish tapas and Mediterranean small plates dining in W1H. It delivers the informality that Café 22's naming promises, with an ownership model that no hotel restaurant can copy.

The structural difference is the front door. Café 22 sits inside a hotel that also contains a members' club, so the room serves residents, members and walk-in bookings at once. Aubaine, 108 Brasserie and Twist answer only to the pavement, in W1U and W1H, within the West End.

The hotel cafe is a format, not a discovery

The assumption in most coverage is that a neighbourhood cafe inside a luxury hotel is new thinking. Another London hotel took the same route in the same month. Hot Dinners reported on 17 September 2026 on Le Café LPM at The Lanesborough, Hyde Park Corner, a spin-off opened after 18 years of LPM in Mayfair, occupying a prefabricated space at the back of the hotel that had housed the cigar room and has been taken over for a year.

The pricing is the useful part. Hot Dinners, eating as guests, recorded crispy fried squid at £27, a sirloin steak sandwich with house-made crisps at £39, a Caesar salad at £28 and creme caramel at £18, with rose from £19 a glass and a tomato and olive oil sour at £24, prices correct at the time of writing. The verdict was potential in need of finessing, with the food noticeably pricey.

A cafe name signals informality; the bill does not always follow. That is the test any reader should apply to Parisian neighbourhood dining wherever it appears in W1.

Marylebone Lane, and why the mix holds

Two numbers on one street explain the district's dining economy better than any launch release. At 108 Marylebone Lane sits 108 Brasserie; at 88, The Coach Makers Arms keeps a traditional ground-floor pub serving ales, wines and British pub food. Round the corner at 2 Marylebone High Street, New Cavendish Jewellers has been family owned since 1982, and GAIL's Bakery, which opened its first neighbourhood shop in Hampstead in 2005, has traded in Marylebone since the mid 2010s, including at 35 Melcombe Street.

The counter-example is instructive. The Ham & High reports that at 82 Hampstead High Street, the site of Patara from 2016 to 2024 and earlier of the French bistro Cafe des Arts, a developer is converting first-floor commercial space into a flat, while the former Cote Brasserie next door at 83 closed in 2024.

Which Marylebone table comes closest

Aubaine on Moxon Street is the nearest match. It is a French restaurant and bakery running breakfast to dinner with private dining available, so the all-day rhythm and the French register both line up. 108 Brasserie carries the continental brasserie feel on Marylebone Lane, while Twist on Crawford Street matches the informality without the French carte.

For a reader choosing between them, the deciding factor is time of day rather than cuisine. A mid-morning table and a 9pm table are different requests, and only the all-day rooms answer both.

Practical notes before booking

• Café 22 access. The entrance is on North Audley Street, and the restaurant sits within a hotel that also runs a private members' club, so confirm booking terms directly when you reserve.

• Marylebone hours. Opening hours for Aubaine at 7 Moxon Street, 108 Brasserie at 108 Marylebone Lane, Twist at 42 Crawford Street and The Coach Makers Arms at 88 Marylebone Lane are held on their listings, and independents set their own Sunday and holiday patterns, so check before travelling.

• Price expectation. Café 22 prices have not been published. The Le Café LPM figures recorded by Hot Dinners in September 2026 give an indication of what a hotel cafe in this bracket charges.

• Two rooms, one street. 108 Brasserie and The Coach Makers Arms both sit on Marylebone Lane, which makes a drink before dinner a matter of walking a few doors.

Café 22 has given a familiar idea a new address and a Martini trolley, and the trade press has treated it as a repositioning rather than a reinvention, which is fair. The reader deciding where to eat this week gains more from knowing that Parisian neighbourhood dining is already a working pattern in W1U and W1H. Book Aubaine for the all-day French rhythm, 108 Brasserie for the continental room on Marylebone Lane, Twist for small plates with an independent owner behind them. If the Mayfair opening appeals, go for the trolley and the listed building, and confirm the access terms first.