Why Fitzrovia works when the rest of London doesn't
London tube strikes are increasingly a fact of life. When RMT announces walkouts, most restaurants in central London become an expensive cab ride or a stressful walk through gridlocked streets. Arros QD is the exception.
Fitzrovia sits at the heart of Zone 1, but unlike Mayfair or Covent Garden, it's served directly by the Elizabeth line. Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road are both within a comfortable 7–10 minute walk of 64 Eastcastle Street, and both stations remain operational during most tube strikes because the Elizabeth line runs on a separate contract.
The result: on a day when most of London is queuing for buses or paying surge pricing for Ubers, you can step off the Elizabeth line and walk to one of the city's best Michelin-starred restaurants in under ten minutes.
Chef Quique Dacosta's Valencian paella, wood-fired, Cullera de Fusta certified, doesn't stop being extraordinary because the Central line is on strike. If anything, a disrupted day makes a great meal more valuable, not less.
Walk times from nearby stations
Address: 64 Eastcastle Street, Fitzrovia, London W1W 8NQ
Elizabeth line access. Reservations. Great food.
7 minutes from Bond Street or TCR
Both Bond Street and Tottenham Court Road on the Elizabeth line put you within a 7–10 minute walk of Arros QD in Fitzrovia. No taxi, no second train.
Open every day for lunch and dinner
Whether the strike hits a Tuesday or a Saturday, Arros QD is open from noon. Book ahead, strike days fill tables fast.
Fitzrovia is walkable from everywhere
Even if you're not on the Elizabeth line, Fitzrovia sits between Oxford Street and Soho, a 10–15 minute walk from most of Zone 1.
Reservations, no queue, no stress
Unlike some London restaurants, Arros QD takes reservations. Lock in your table the morning of the strike and guarantee your evening.
Worth the journey, strike or no strike
Arros QD is built around a single idea: the finest Valencian paella in London, cooked over live wood fire by chef Quique Dacosta. Dacosta holds three Michelin stars at his restaurant in Valencia, and the same obsessive attention to rice, fire, and ingredient sourcing underpins every dish at Arros QD.
The paella is cooked to order and served from the pan, Cullera de Fusta certified, which makes Arros QD one of a small number of restaurants outside Valencia authorised to serve it under that name. Alongside the rice, the wood-fire menu runs to charred octopus, Ibérico pork pluma, and seasonal dishes cooked on the six-metre open flame stove at the centre of the room.
It is the kind of restaurant you plan your evening around. On a tube strike day, it's also the kind of restaurant you can actually reach.
The Elizabeth line runs. We're open.
64 Eastcastle Street, Fitzrovia W1W 8NQ · 7 minutes from Bond Street or Tottenham Court Road.