Inside the Notting Hill spot where Taylor dined with her London Girls (2024)

The swanky restaurant where Taylor Swift wined and dined with her latest London girl squad on Tuesday night is known to be a favourite of British royal family members - and once landed Rita Ora in hot water over lockdown breaches.

Casa Cruz, located in the affluent Notting Hill neighbourhood, welcomed the singer and a flurry of celebrities including Kate Moss, Stella McCartney, Andrew Scott and Phoebe Waller Bridge earlier this week.

Meanwhile, old palsCara Delevingne and Lena Dunham- who both live in the city - also joined the party.

But theArgentinean bistro, where Princess Beatrice and Eugenie have been snapped, is used to an exclusive clientele.

According to Tatler, A-listers like the Beckhams and Prince Harryhave also enjoyed evenings out at the luxurious eatery.

Other famous visitors snapped there include Lady Violet Manners, Lottie Moss, Suki Waterhouse and even Madonna.

The interiors accentuate Casa Cruz's understated but opulent aesthetics, featuring mood lighting, floral imagery, and chic rustic décor - including a deer's head.

The exteriors are no less grand, complementing white stone arches with stylishly overgrown shrubbery.

'The core philosophy of Casa Cruz is to be a home-away-from-home for all,' its website reads.

'Dating back to the early Victorian era, the building Casa Cruz now calls home in London was first a pub that would have been popular with passing trades.

'Architecturally, the exterior still maintains most of its original details, including the tall, dual aspect window cornices and surrounds on the upper floors, which were spared during the Blitz.'

The menu includes £50 steaks - and a 1.2kgcôte de boeuf going for a whopping £140 - as well as £25 pasta dishes.

The bistro is also known for its co*cktails, offering up a £30 Martini and a £20 Margarita.

Casa Cruz weathered controversy in 2020, when Rita Ora threw a lavish 30th birthday bash that saw her and several celebrity friends break lockdown rules to 'party into the early hours' at the restaurant.

Pictures showed the pop star enjoying a glamorous night out surrounded by A-list friends - which was slammed as 'selfish' and 'irresponsible'.

Supermodel Cara, her sister Poppy and Rita's sister Elena were all spotted arriving at Casa Cruz. The dolled-up guests walked in through the back of the restaurant to avoid using the main entrance, with some wearing face masks and carrying in bottles of alcohol.

It was initially reported that she had invited 30 friends to party 'until the early hours', but sources close to her have said it just seven.

At one point around 9pm, Met officers were seen peering in the windows after being called to check out the venue, but could not gain access after knocking on the windows and doors.

Later on, the weary guests emerged a few at a time from the same side door, drifting off to chauffeur-driven cars waiting nearby.

Rita, who wore a sleek white satin dress and an oversized fur-lined coat to keep warm, wore a mask as she left. She was also seen enjoying an animated phone call as she got into a car with her sister.

The singer apologised for what she has called a 'serious and inexcusable error of judgment' in going to the party during national lockdown, where no social mixing is allowed indoors.

The pop star – whose mother returned to the NHS frontline when the pandemic broke out – said: 'I feel particularly embarrassed knowing first-hand how hard people have worked to combat this terrible illness. Even though this won’t make it right, I want to sincerely apologise.'

It was claimed she volunteered to pay a £10,000 fine, although any penalty issued would be against the owner of the premises, not the person hosting the party.

A source told The Sun: 'Rita and her sister came to the restaurant first, all dolled up and clearly looking forward to a good night.

'There were a number of guests, all dressed up very glamorously, and everyone entered the building through the back, with security watching the front to make sure no one else went in. It went on until the early hours.'

But following further information, police continued their investigation, but without success as staff inside the restaurant seemed oblivious to officers' efforts to get in this morning.

Nicholas Fallows, who was listed as the sole director of Casa Cruz London Ltd, insisted he was unaware of the event.

However it would appear that the controversy is behind Casa Cruz, which earlier this week hosted popstar Taylor and her pals as she took a few nights off the Eras tour.

The singer, 34, who is back on stage in Liverpool on Thursday night, let her hair down at the Argentinean restaurant alongside a new posse of girlfriends - which also includedHaim sisters Este and Danielle and music legend Chrissie Hynde.

Taylor looked gorgeous in a black corset layered under a tailored grey coat and accessorised with a choker necklace and towering heels to match her lipstick shade.

Kate, 50, wowed in a white satin pencil skirt and matching blazer for the plush dinner, finishing her look with fishnets and platform heels.

Stella MCartney was the designer of choice for the night out, with Taylor, Phoebe and Cara all sporting pricey looks from their mutual friend.

Taylor's moulded corset costs £1,150, while her pinstripe wool coat is £1,509.

Phoebe matched Taylor's style in a £2,065 camel coat from Stella layered over a head-to-toe black look, beaming as she left the restaurant in a black cab with her Fleabag co-star Andrew, who couldn't stop smiling after the fun night out.

Andrew is a good friend of Taylor's ex boyfriend Joe Alwyn with the two's Tortured Man Club group chat alongside Paul Mescal believed to have inspired the title of Taylor's latest record, The Tortured Poets Department, a claim which Andrew has since downplayed.

The actor has previously in a Variety interview revealed he texts Taylor, gushing recently that he messaged the star to congratulate her on TTPD, gushing: 'I think she is just a force of nature, just an extraordinary human, and this album is really, really amazing.'

The singer meanwhile is an outspoken fan of Andrew's pal Phoebe, having first met when Phoebe hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live in 2019 where Taylor was the musical guest.

While the others are new friends of Taylor's, Cara has been a close companion of the star in recent years.

Taylor and Cara are regularly seen out and about with mutual friends Selena Gomez and Blake Lively in the singer's home city of New York, but it appears Brit model Cara has introduced her old friend to a new London-based set of friends.

Last week Taylor made a secret dashvisit to watch Cara perform in her West End show Cabaret, beforeheading to Edinburgh for her first UK gigs.

In a montage of snaps on her social media, Cara shared a photo of herself and Taylor wrapping their arms around each other as they posed in her dressing room, with the singer showing her love for mutual pal Stella by wearing a £1,324 blue sweater from the designer.

Taylor and Cara are regularly seen hanging out together, most recently at a Kansas City Chiefs game in Buffalo, New York, where Taylor was supporting her boyfriend Travis Kelce.

Cara previously shared her support for Taylor and Travis, speaking at the Las Vegas Grand Prix last year, saying: 'I'm so so happy for her. There's definitely something very different about them. I'm always rooting for my girl.'