Dinner by the dock: four hours, one table, no watch on the wrist

Canary Wharf eats far better than its office reputation suggests. Hawksmoor at Wood Wharf sits on the dock with water on most sides and a steak list that suits a long conversation. Roka, on the edge of Canada Square Park, puts the charcoal grill in full view of the room. Plateau looks down over the park from the fourth floor of Canada Place. For something lighter, the restaurants along West India Quay face the moored boats and the warehouse brick of the Museum of London Docklands. Most of these rooms are at their busiest on a Thursday and easiest on a Monday, so the night of the week matters as much as the name on the door.

Some of the best tables sit just off the estate. In Limehouse, The Grapes on Narrow Street has stood beside the Thames for about three hundred years, and its small rooms reward an early reservation. South of the river, Greenwich offers the Trafalgar Tavern beside the naval college, reached in minutes by river bus from Canary Wharf Pier, or on foot through the tunnel from Island Gardens. A dinner that starts on one bank and ends on the other is one of the quiet pleasures of this corner of London.

Half past seven, a drink at the bar or in your lobby. Eight, seated. By half past nine the plates are cleared and the evening has found its pace. The last hour belongs to you: the quay walk under the lit towers, a nightcap at the hotel, or simply the rest of the bottle. If the kitchen is slow, nothing suffers for it, because four hours leaves room for a slow kitchen.

Both work, and each has its advantages. Meeting in your hotel lobby means you walk into the restaurant together, which suits a formal room or a first booking. Meeting at the table suits a guest coming straight from the office: you arrive, she is already seated with a glass of water and the menu open, and the evening begins without a taxi ride in the middle of it. If the restaurant is new to her, she reads the menu before she leaves, which gives the conversation an easy first subject. Tell Philippa which you prefer. If the restaurant is on the estate and you cannot decide, the lobby is the easier choice, since the walk across the squares becomes part of the evening.

Samanta is a dinner companion first. Slim, 174 cm, with dark brown hair well past her shoulders, she likes the plan fixed by three in the afternoon and arrives with the evening already shaped. Bianka, curvy, with sun-streaked light brown hair, has firm views on fresh pasta and the kind of wine questions that get a sommelier talking. Luna, with long hair in deep auburn red, knows wine properly and books Monday to Thursday. Milena, 175 cm and direct, orders the steak and tells you exactly what she thinks of it. Three of the four are on the curvaceous page.

The £900 covers her time and company across the four hours. You settle the meal, the wine and any cab between the restaurant and the next bar, as any host would. Tell Philippa the restaurant, the time and whether you want to meet at the table or in your lobby. With a day of warning the whole roster is open to you; the same afternoon usually works too, from a shorter list. The script to paste is on the booking page.