Definitely go with bench seating! You might even want to consider taking the bench seating across two walls, or having the bench and table come straight out the kitchen units like a peninsula. Consider fitting a sliding door if you need more room. You may need to sacrifice tall cabinets (like the oven) to fit an American F-F so consider what your priorities are.

Is the door on the left perfectly centered? And what is the sill height on the bottom window?

With 7 people a peninsula might prevent proper flow.. And an am.ff requires a lot of space, I'd suggest a fridge and freezer built in. Both with storage above. Two corner cabinets (of which at least one Lemans) will store your pots and pans. A 80cm drawer unit is great for plates, bowls and cutlery (near table). Dishwasher next to the sink, trash under the sink. Plenty of cabinets, but not too packed (no upper corner units for example, to keep it somewhat light).

I'm not a fan of storage benches in a dining room. What's your ceiling height?

The door on the long wall is centered yes. I feel flipping it on its hinges would help perhaps.

The height of the sill on the small window is about 70cm though am not about to measure at the mo.

Ceilings are not high, 2.2 mM if iI remember correctly. Current wall cupboards go right to the ceiling.

Love the idea of less or no wall cupboards to open the space.

2.2 metres not mm!

If you could replace/move the window up that would make a lot of difference!

If moving the window is impossible (listed house for example), you might want to add some lower units under the sill (imagine the worktop replacing the sill). Still room for a corner unit (to place coffee machine and such), a large upper unit and two tall units. Sink 50cm unit, dishwasher, cooktop/oven, 80cm drawers.

Again no peninsula, as you'd rather place items in the niche on the left, than on the peninsula or next to your cooktop.

Thanks so much for comments, really appreciate it.

Do you think units running further down the long wall (opposite the door} could work? Maybe too cluttered with the table and chairs?

With shallow (37cm) units, a bench and a 70cm deep table, it's possible. Make sure the unit doors are no wider as 45cms as the aisle in this layout is just 65cm (a little more with the chairs tucked under the table). Like this?

Kitchen on left side= 100cm drawers, 2x 60cm tall unit with fridge and freezer.

On right= filler panel, dishwasher 60, sink 60, oven/cooktop 60, pullout 30, panel, plus 3x 90cm (tall?) units.

Thank you! There definitely needs to be a path from the door at the side to the large patio doors as this is our most used access to the garden. So the dining table would have to be off set to one side.

If so, perhaps flip my last layout, so the kitchen is near the doors and the table near the window? The space inbetween cabinets already is a walkway. Double function. And instead of shallow units along the side, you could add a bench full width?

Yesterday I was looking around the Murdoch Troon handmade kitchens and came across these kitchen units

You can just put chairs around that kitchen table. This way you'll have lots of kitchen cabinets to store whatever you need and a huge table around which seven people can easily be seated.

But there is no room for an island like above?

That kitchen island can be made shorter but wider to fit into the kitchen

How about...

Oh, duh... forgot a fridge. It's good that I'm not a pro. Hold on...

Here we go. I would go for a built in tall fridge and freezer. I've had an American fridge freezer and now have separate fridge and freezer built in and that gives loads more fridge and freezer space while they take up less space. I'm clearly not a pro, this is just to give you an idea.