A dinner that turns into a play that turns into a full-blown disco? I’ll be honest. When a friend first described Mamma Mia! The Party to me, I nodded politely and quietly filed it under “gimmick.” A themed meal with some singing. How good could it actually be? Turns out I was wrong, and I want to walk you through exactly why – end to end, the whole evening, so you know what you’re signing up for before you book.
Here is the short version. This is not a theatre show you sit and watch. It’s an evening you live inside. You step off a London street and into a recreation of the Greek island of Skopelos, you eat a proper four-course meal, a story unfolds around your table, and then the band plays and nobody stays sitting down. So is it worth your night and your money? Let me take you through it.
What it actually is (and what it isn’t)
The setting is the heart of it. At The O2 in London, the team has built a full taverna – Nikos’ taverna – complete with whitewashed walls, warm bulb-strung terraces and that golden, late-afternoon-on-a-Greek-island glow. You don’t sit in rows. You sit at tables, you’re served, and the cast moves around and between you. That distinction matters more than it sounds. Most “dinner shows” plonk a stage at one end and a buffet at the other. This one wraps the performance around the diners, in the round, so the action is happening at the next table as often as in front of you.
The story has a proper author too. The English book was written by Sandi Toksvig – yes, the comedian and broadcaster – and it shows in the wit. There’s a plot, there are characters, there are jokes that land. It’s performed live, with an ABBA soundtrack threaded through it, which means the songs you already know arrive inside a narrative rather than as a random setlist. Want to grab tickets before reading on? You can check dates and book the experience here.
The food: a genuine four-course Greek feast
Here’s where my skepticism really cracked. I expected catering. Lukewarm, mass-produced, forgettable. What arrives instead is a four-course Greek menu served as sharing platters, which is exactly how you’d eat it on the island, passing plates and arguing over the last piece. You start with traditional mezze and a Greek salad with spanakopita. Then the mains land: braised lamb stifado and slow-cooked beef, with garlic-roasted potatoes and a roasted-vegetable briam alongside. Dessert is a poikilia glyko trio with baklava.
Are the dietary options an afterthought? They’re not, and that’s worth saying clearly. There are full vegetarian and vegan alternatives – moussaka, a Greek donut, coconut yoghurt – so nobody at your table is stuck pushing salad around a plate while everyone else feasts. If you’re booking for a mixed group with different needs, that alone makes Mamma Mia! The Party an easier sell than most group nights out.
One thing I’ll flag: you eat in courses, paced around the unfolding story, so this is a long, leisurely sit-down rather than a grab-and-go meal. If you’re short on time, that’s the wrong instinct – this is the kind of evening you let stretch out. Ready to lock in a table? Reserve your spot at Nikos’ taverna.
The live band and the soundtrack
There’s no backing track doing the heavy lifting here. A live band carries the music, and the difference between recorded and live ABBA in a packed taverna is the difference between hearing a song and feeling one. The musicians sit inside the world of the show, not off to one side, so the sound is everywhere. By the time the familiar opening bars of a big number start, the room is already leaning in.
The Times calls it “the very best escape.” The Daily Mirror puts it plainly: “the name of the game is fun.”
I don’t quote critics often, because a lot of theatre praise is professionally polite. But those two pulls actually match what I felt in the room. It’s an escape, and it’s fun-first – not clever-for-the-sake-of-clever. If you’ve been on the fence, those endorsements are a fair reason to book a night at Mamma Mia! The Party and judge for yourself.
The late-night ABBA disco finale
And then the tables clear. This is the peak, and it’s the bit people don’t expect. Once the story wraps, the taverna turns into a late-night ABBA disco, and the room you’ve been eating in becomes a dance floor. Strangers who shared a sharing platter an hour ago are now dancing to the songs everyone secretly knows every word to. Did I dance? I absolutely danced. So will you, and you’ll stop caring how you look about four minutes in.
This is why I keep saying experience, not show. A show ends and you go home. This builds – dinner, story, music, dance – so the energy climbs across the whole evening rather than peaking once and fading. If a big group celebration is what you’re after, the disco finale is the reason this London ABBA night works so well.
Who it’s for, and getting there
Quick planning notes
- Built for groups and occasions – dedicated group bookings, corporate bookings and gift vouchers.
- Ticket-plus-hotel packages make it a full night (or weekend) out.
- Easy O2 access, including arrival by Thames Clipper / Uber Boat – which leans nicely into the “Greek getaway in London” feeling.
- A sister production also runs in Stockholm, if you fancy the ABBA homeland version.
So who should book? Birthday groups. Hen and stag parties that want something better than another bar crawl. Work teams who actually want to enjoy the team night. Couples who’d rather dance than sit through a quiet two-hander. And honestly, anyone who has ever loudly denied liking ABBA and is lying. You can sort group bookings and vouchers in one place.
The honest verdict
I walked in expecting a gimmick and walked out a convert. The set sells the fantasy, the food is genuinely good, the live music gives it lift, and the disco is the kind of communal joy that’s hard to manufacture. The one flaw I’ll admit? It’s not a cheap night, and the full sit-down runs long, so if you want a quick bite before something else, this isn’t that – clear your whole evening for it. That single caveat aside, it delivered more than I expected on every front. If you want a London night that you’ll still be grinning about on the train home, go and book it.
