Before the play or after it: a table on Upper Street and a curtain on Almeida Street

A small theatre on a long street

The Almeida stands a few steps along Almeida Street, just off Upper Street, roughly halfway between the tube at Angel and the station at Highbury and Islington. From either one it is a ten or twelve minute walk along the same long spine of restaurants, pubs and shops, and most people who go regularly have a firm opinion about which approach is better. The building began life in the 1830s as a literary and scientific institution, and has been a theatre since 1980; it holds one auditorium of a few hundred seats, with the stage close enough that the actors can see who has come back from the interval and who has not.

That closeness is the whole attraction and it has one practical consequence that shapes an evening more than anything else: the theatre does not always admit latecomers, and when it can, it may hold them until a suitable moment and seat them somewhere other than the seats they booked. Some productions here run straight through without an interval. Put those two facts together and the rule is plain. Whatever you eat before the play has to be finished, paid for and walked away from with time to spare, or it will cost you the first scene.

Why Upper Street makes eating afterwards easy

In much of London a play that comes down at a quarter to ten leaves you choosing between a bar snack and a hotel room. Islington does not work like that. Nine is an ordinary hour to sit down here and half past nine hardly raises an eyebrow, because the street is lived on as much as visited, and the people who live on it eat late. A kitchen that is still cooking properly after the curtain is the rule on Upper Street rather than the lucky exception.

So for most evenings the better plan is a drink before and dinner after. Meet somewhere near the theatre with half an hour to spare, have one glass and something small, go in with an appetite and come out with a subject. The play is then the thing you talk about over dinner rather than the thing you rushed towards, and a two hour production followed by a late table is a far more generous evening than a hurried meal followed by a two hour silence in the dark.

Eating first, for an early curtain

There are nights when eating first is right: a long production, a matinee that runs into the evening, or a guest who simply cannot sit through three hours of drama on an empty stomach. On those nights stay close. Ottolenghi has its Islington restaurant on Upper Street almost opposite the end of Almeida Street, a deli by day and a restaurant in the evening built around shared plates and long communal tables, and you can finish a meal there and be in your seat within five minutes. It is popular enough that a table in the evening should be reserved rather than hoped for.

Whatever you choose, book early, say at the table that you have a curtain to make, and order everything at once. A restaurant on this street has heard the request a thousand times and will pace the meal accordingly. What does not work is booking at the Angel end for an early curtain and trusting the walk; ten minutes up Upper Street on a busy evening has a habit of becoming fifteen, and the Almeida is not the kind of house that holds the lights for anyone.

Eating after, and which end of the street to walk to

For a late table, choose the end of the street by where the evening is meant to finish. Walk north and the street quietens as it rises towards Highbury Corner. Trullo sits just past the corner on St Paul's Road, an Italian dining room with pasta made by hand and a charcoal grill, and it is exactly the sort of place a play deserves afterwards: busy enough to feel alive at ten, calm enough to argue about the second act. From there the Victoria line and the Overground at Highbury and Islington are a couple of minutes away, and the quiet Georgian squares of Canonbury are a short walk east for anyone going home on foot.

Walk south and the street grows livelier towards Islington Green, the old antique shops and small restaurants of Camden Passage, and eventually the long escalator at Angel. This is the direction for a guest staying at the large hotel near the Angel end, or for anybody who wants a second drink somewhere with more noise in it. The walk from the theatre to the Green takes perhaps ten minutes, which on a dry night is the most pleasant part of the whole route.

Either way, reserve the late table before the play rather than hoping for one after it, and ask for a time about half an hour after the published running time ends. That margin covers curtain calls, the crush at the doors and the conversation you will have on the pavement whether you mean to or not.

Three hours or four

A night like this is the reason dinner up the hill exists on this site. Four hours at £900 covers the drink beforehand, the play, a proper late dinner and the walk down the street afterwards without anyone reaching for a watch. Three hours at £700 suits a shorter production with a table after it, or an early meal before one. A play alone, with a glass either side, fits comfortably into two hours at £500.

Send the desk the curtain time, the running time if you know it, and where you are staying. Say whether you already hold tickets for two, and whether the restaurant is booked. Verity, who runs the evening desk, will suggest a meeting point near the theatre and a start time that leaves room for everything, and she will say so if the plan is too tight. How a first message turns into a confirmed evening is set out on the booking page, and your companion's fee goes into her hand when you meet, before the evening starts.

Companions who know the Almeida

Bianka is anchored in Islington and builds her evenings around this theatre more than any other; she walks Upper Street slowly from the theatre end, likes a late table and will have read the reviews but not believed them. Milena, also based in N1, is at her best when the play has given her something to disagree with, and she is direct enough to say so over dinner without spoiling anybody's evening.

For guests who have asked about hair colour first, the auburn page carries three names, and Luna among them is two stops away at Euston on the Northern line, energetic, curious and fond of a production that takes a risk. Anyone flying in on the day of the play should read the Tottenham Hale route in from Stansted, since the Victoria line drops you at Highbury and Islington, a short walk from the theatre.