Of all the neighbourhoods in London, Soho might just hold the title of the foodiest of them all. The windy streets that surround Soho Square have been home to a diverse mix of communities since the 17th century, when it was developed from a hunting ground for aristocracy into a buzzy residential area. This corner of central London has gone through many iterations in its time: as a leafy suburb for the upper classes; as a thriving nightlife district with a seedy reputation; as a haven for bohemians and creatives. But in the past few years, it's first and foremost renowned as a place for hungry Londoners in the know to head for a good feed.
Here, you can choose from a dizzying variety of cuisines. You could eat Turkish food for breakfast, plates of steaming bao buns for lunch and perfectly pink beef wellington for supper. You could drink pints of creamy Guinness outside The Devonshire; choose between Basque cooking at Alta or Filipino dishes at Donia; try Sri Lankan hoppers from, well, Hoppers; dine on Cambodian, Thai, Japanese or French dishes. You could squeeze up to the bar to eat solo, check out a new spot, you could hire out a private dining room for your nearest and dearest, grab an early bite and be in bed by 9 pm or stay out dancing until the wee hours. Soho really is a choose-your-own-adventure. So below, we list our best restaurants in Soho.
The best restaurants in Soho
Nini Karelidze
Kid
There’s something ever so cool about anonymity, and as I walked straight past the door of Kid in Soho, I had to remind myself of this. There are no signs, bells or whistles here, just a rusty brown door with an almost imperceptible goat symbol marked on it. Kid holds a quiet, understated vibe that oozes confidence – and rightly so. The hotly anticipated restaurant is the latest project from former Mangal II chef Sertaç Dirik, who’s teamed up with David Carter of London mainstays Oma, Agora and Smokestak, making it quite the force to be reckoned with. Inside, the vibe is dimly lit, with exposed brick and a bustling open kitchen, reaching far beyond what the subtle exterior might at first suggest.
The menu, meanwhile, is Turkish-inspired but with plenty of twists, blending a lovely mix of soul-soothing, comforting classics with an elevated execution. Highlights included the balloon-like tombik pide (worth visiting for alone), a smoked aubergine dip topped with whisker-thin grains, and the İçli Köfte – the most sumptuous ball of dry-aged beef, juicy and flavoursome, that will be living in my mind rent-free for a while. Of course, most customers opt for the namesake shoulder of goat on the menu, served in a huge traditional clay pot and slow-cooked overnight for the ultimate fall-away meat. Interestingly, the wine list is ordered not just by region, but by when wine-making practices first began in each destination. We opted for a light Cypriot glass to match the restaurant's tone and offset some of the richer dishes. So, is the new kid on the block actually worth the hype? I’d say yes – and I’d even hazard a guess that this new dining address has some seriously long-standing appeal. Lucy Bruton
Address: Kid, 53-55 Frith Street, London W1D 4SJ
Website: kid.london
BENJAMIN MCMAHON
Impala
Breads from the wood oven, meats from the charcoal grill… you might be thinking that Soho's Impala is a little bit like the other trendy restaurants taking over London right now. But you'd be very mistaken – not least because said charcoal grill is being tempered by huge feathered fans as they do in Japan. Chef Meedu Saad (of Kiln) has fired up an incredibly unique mashup of North African and Mediterranean flavours with a global spin, drawing from childhood summers in Egypt and his time at Cypriot kebab houses of north London's Green Lanes.
You may well, like me, need a little Impala menu rundown from the highly knowledgable and friendly wait staff to help you decide from menu items like pastilla, kibbeh of white crab, barigoule – or a flavour that blew my mind – black lime bambalouni. But without a doubt every meal here should start with the perfectly puffed-up and crisp wood-fired aish baladi Egyptian bread with a hummus-esque sauce made with pounded white beans for dipping. A ftira fried bread with hens egg, uchi kuri squash and graviera from naxos is a dish packed with heaps of flavour and personality and and the birds tongue pasta slowly braised with spiced oxtail is a must for warming up on a cold winter day. Tal Dekel Daks
Address: 13-14 Dean St, London W1D 3RS
Website: impalasoho.com
Milly Kenny-Ryder
Kumori
Slap-bang in the heart of Soho, Kumori is a 30-seat handroll bar where most of the action happens at the counter, creating an intimate, immersive feel. Inside, the space feels a little like stepping into a spaceship – all brushed-metal surfaces and iridescent pink and purple lighting. From the plump made-to-order handrolls to the carefully curated soundtrack, everything about Kumori feels cool, fresh and considered.
Knees brush as we pore over the tick-box menu, leaving me spiralling as I weigh up how many of the handrolls I can reasonably fit in; there are simply too many good options. The cocktail list is an equally delicious debate, eventually landing on a yuzu mezcal margarita and sitting back to settle in for the show.
Behind the counter, chefs move with speed and precision through a menu curated by head chef John Randy De Guzman (formerly Nobu, Tobi Masa and Katsuya). Each roll is served from chef to patron the moment it’s made, turning dinner into a kind of live theatre. Lucy Bruton
Address: Kumori, 26 Denman Street, London W1D 7HX
Website: kumorirestaurant.com
Forza Wine
Since opening their Peckham outpost in 2019, followed by a spot inside the historic National Theatre, Forza has steadily established itself as the “it-girl” of small-plates-slash-wine-bars across the capital. Now, their largest site to date has opened in the middle of Soho. I stopped by during the restaurant’s buzzy opening week to see how the brand was holding up north of the river.
Buzzy, it certainly was. The 100-cover restaurant was packed to the brim with trendy diners seeking their Italian-coded fix. In keeping with its sister sites, the interiors lean towards an industrial aesthetic, with polished metals and rustic woods combining for an effortlessly cool finish. Plus, come the warmer months, the crown jewel will undoubtedly be the expansive outdoor terrace here – prime real estate in this part of town.
Wine may be in the title, but it would be rude not to start with a cocktail or two. We kicked things off with a fiery chilli mezcal martini that packed a serious punch, the smoky mezcal offering a welcome departure from the usual vodka or gin base. On the food front, an enormous mound of burrata with anchovies and chargrilled leeks made a pleasing opener, followed by juicy cod and winter tomatoes. The real show-stopper, however, was a generous tangle of Genovese ragù that practically melted in the mouth. A chilled French Tavel, recommended to accompany it, proved dangerously drinkable too. To finish, my sweet tooth was satisfied with a pistachio-and-olive-oil cake. That said, Forza's trademark Custardo was also mighty tempting – an ideal pick-me-up before heading off into the glittering streets of Soho. Lucy Bruton
Address: Unit 1, Ilona Rose House, Manette Street, London, W1D 4AL
Website: forzawine.com
Jason Lowe
Osteria Vibrato
Soho is no stranger to an unexpected hideaway on its streets, and the latest addition on Greek Street is no exception. Osteria Vibrato, brings a contemporary, yet bespoke Italian dining experience. Charmingly, nestled behind unassuming latticed windows and a pullout brick-red canopy, the candlelit atmosphere is perfect for an intimate date night or a quick spot of solace away from the bustle of central London nightlife. The menu had been thoughtfully and seasonally put together to offer diners the opportunity to craft their own meal experience, with half portions of pasta and the flexibility to amend dishes to suit dietary requirements. We recommend starting with the Crostino of bagna cauda, roasted pepper and parsley, alongside shaved artichokes, pecorino romano, olive oil and the aged ricotta, served with Sarawak black pepper, doused in Bosana olive oil, produced 10 minutes away from the cheese. Another menu standout is the tagliatelle with white courtyard ragù and deliciously grilled sole with Pantelleria capers. All to be washed down with a freshly made sicilian lemonade, or a glass of nebbiolo red wine. Then end things with a surprisingly fiery palette cleanser of Kiwi sorbet. Alice Morey
Address: Osteria Vibrato, 6 Greek St, London W1D 4DE
Website: osteriavibrato.co.uk
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MOI
An English chef making high-end Japanese cuisine? It’s a gutsy move in a city increasingly filled with bona fide sushi masters, but MOI’s executive chef Andy Cook is confident he can meet the challenge. A protégé of Gordon Ramsay, he spent five years at Ramsay’s outpost at the Conrad Tokyo before joining head chef Nick Tannett at this buzzy Soho eatery, where they are creating Japanese-inspired small- and medium-plate dishes using mostly British ingredients. Things got off to a flying start with the skewer of red mullet, which was supersoft and jazzed up with green mandarin and a daub of fennel marmalade. A few chunks of the tempura octopus had a rubbery texture, yet they were so flavoursome it was like chomping on a delicious everlasting gobstopper. The seasonal sashimi selection tasted far more delicate than it looked, and went down very well with Kenbishi's sensational Sword & Diamond Yamahai Futsushu sake; warm, light and faintly sweet, we could’ve necked a bottle of the stuff in one go. The bluefin tuna tataki topped with grapefruit was a burst of bittersweet freshness that divided opinion on our table, but we were unanimous in our love for the baked rice with mushrooms (girolle, not shiitake, to keep things seasonal and British). It made the perfect companion to joyously tender pork slices and wagyu skewers delivered straight from the open kitchen’s wood-fired grill. The few specks of ash floating in the air added to the interiors’ ambience: the dim lighting and walls clad in louvre-style wood panels are a vibe, and highly Instagrammable. This is the kind of high-end sushi restaurant that Wardour Street needs. Noo Saro-Wiwa
Address: 84 Wardour St, London, W1F 0TQ
Website: moirestaurant.com
Donia
Florence Mae Maglanoc and Omar Shah are on a mission to put Filipino cuisine on the map. Their Maginhawa Group (behind some of London’s popular Filipino and Southeast Asian restaurants, including Mamasons Dirty Ice Cream) has grown exponentially in just six years. If world domination is their plan, then we won’t stand in their way, especially when their latest venture, Donia, is serving some of the best food in London right now. Reassuringly frequented by Filipino diners, this Kingly Court eatery combines Filipino street food concepts with British cooking techniques. The small-plate starters include crunchy croquetas stuffed with pickled mushrooms that are so delicious they had us chomping in silence. Chicken offal skewers (a Filipino street food staple), come with a sweet barbecue glaze and cucumber vinegar dip.
Donia’s short menu descriptions undersell the intricacy of dishes such as the prawn and pork dumplings with white crab, which sit on a lovely, surprise pool of brown butter lime sauce sprinkled with divine roe. Diners can’t get enough of the lamb shoulder Caldereta pie, classic Filipino meat stew encased in British-style latticed puff pastry. Another crowd pleaser, the crispy skinned pork belly, is roasted Léchon-style and accompanied with a sweet peppercorn liver sauce. Equally satisfying is the chicken Inasal – fabulously moist, tender and topped with calamansi pickles For seafood lovers, the sea bream with pickled lime, chive and mustard dressing, red chilli slices and dollops of Avocado purée is a treat. And finally, the choux filled with Ube praliné, coconut chantilly and Ube cream seals Maginhawa Group’s reputation for tasty and innovative desserts. A repeat visit feels already overdue. Noo Saro-Wiwa
Address: 2.14 (Top Floor) Kingly Court, Carnaby Street, London, W1B 5PW
Website: doniarestaurant.com
The Devonshire
Recently, I was in a small village in northern Sweden, all lakes and forest and red-roofed houses, and asked a young local where people met up. He thought for a moment then, a little downcast, said, ‘In the garage when we’re getting petrol,’ then, a little wistfully: ‘I hear you have some nice pubs in England?’ Yes, we do. And while some have closed, there are reasons to be cheerful. We’ve seen a flurry of London boozers reopening recently that have kept all the atmosphere intact but woven in excellent restaurants, such as Ben Tish at The Barley Mow, Hauser & Wirth’s The Audley and, best of all, Henry Harris’s Racine 2.0 at Clerkenwell’s The Three Compasses. A pint and packet of crisps downstairs; three courses and good wine upstairs. Now we have The Devonshire, just off Piccadilly Circus. It’s the passion project of Oisin Rogers, who has been steering London and Dublin pubs for three decades – most notably and most recently at The Guinea Grill – and Charlie Carroll, founder of Flat Iron steakhouses.
They’ve assembled something of a crack team, with Ashley Palmer-Watts of Fat Duck and Dinner by Heston fame in the kitchen, front-of-house staff from St John’s and head butcher George Donnelly. But another star of the show is the centrepiece wood-burning grill and oven at the far end of the dining room. The closer to the grill you get, the more you may want to consider wearing shorts and a T-shirt – it’s intense, almost like being on the boiler plate of The Flying Scotsman as it chugs up to the Highlands. Talking of which, most of the meat on the menu is sourced from Scottish estates, though butchered and aged in the meat room downstairs. ‘I wanted to celebrate English food, British food,’ Rogers tells me, passing our table. ‘Pies and fish and chips, all those wonderful local ingredients such as langoustines and scallops; to make a lamb hotpot using the best possible produce.’ We order a few of those Oban scallops, served on the shell and doused in a chippie-style bacon-and-malt-vinegar sauce, best mopped up with the bread roll; and a rare brawn toast – despite the name, pretty as a French eclair. Mains were a beef fillet so tender and perfectly seared it could have easily stood alone, though duck-fat chips and buttered leeks helped it along; and a beef suet and Guinness pudding straight out of Dickens. We shared a soufflé and raised a glass of Sauternes to this new West End show. No wonder it’s been drawing in Michelin chefs and curious tourists alike since it opened in November 2023. Much better, you’ll agree, than meeting in a garage forecourt. Rick Jordan
Address: The Devonshire, 17 Denman Street, London W1D 7HW
Website: devonshiresoho.co.uk
Alta
Kingly Court is the kind of place that reminds me of the festive season just by default, and visiting its newest – and coolest – restaurant, Alta, in October sparked that cosy nostalgia for the first time this year. Despite being surrounded by easy-breezy eateries that don’t require a booking, Alta is rewriting the Kingly Court narrative. This is a place to look forward to in advance. It’s inconspicuous from the street, and inside is a dimly lit, clay-coloured interior with simple wooden tables and mellow yellow lighting. The open kitchen and grid-like wall of wines replace the need for striking design installations, and the menu is inspired by the Spanish Basque Country. I’m sold. We start with oysters and cava while we pore over the menu, struggling to narrow down our choices to the right amount for only two people. The sardine empanada is the Instagram frontman because of its characterful visuals, but when it arrives, I realise it’s also a flavoursome work of art. We order the courgettes and squid, which almost resemble pasta, and the mullet (which is boned before it arrives). Cocktails are refreshingly inventive, and the wine list comes in a leather book, but I don’t even need to look. The staff here are so clued up on their menus that I trust every recommendation they make. Obviously, we’re full after fishing every last scrap, but in dedication to the cause, we recruit our desert stomachs, and it’s wholly worthwhile. Glossy chocolate mousse sits on a pool of olive oil and comes topped with a blow-torch-burnished marshmallow. It's essentially the poshest s’more I’ve ever had in my life, and needless to say, I’m still thinking about it now. Sarah Leigh Bannerman
Address: Alta, 9 Kingly Court, Soho, London
Website: alta-restaurant.com
Speedboat Bar
You know that feeling when you find a new hidden gem that you can't wait to tell your friends all about? This is one of those gems. It isn’t just regular Thai food, nor is this just another restaurant to have recently hit the Soho scene. This is Speedboat Bar. Where authenticity punctuates throughout the neon-lit walls – clippings of Thai royals, Singha beer on tap and laminated menus paired with classic street food cutlery capture the true essence of Bangkok’s Chinatown. It’s also easy to see that Speedboat Bar is the eponym for the boats whizzing through the Bangkok canals, especially when portraits of speedboat racers are proudly displayed across the two-floor space.
Chef Luke Farrell, who also heads Plaza Khao Gaeng (another of our favourite new London restaurants), and JKS restaurants, the group behind some of London’s cult favourites (Bao, Berenjak, Gymkhana), serves up a wok-flamed fiery menu of Thai traditionals with a twist. The food here is so serious that they even grow their own Thai herbs in Dorset – think lemongrass, galangal, and fragrant basils. The drunkard’s seafood and beef noodles are on a runny-nose and teary-eyed spice level, while the ash melon and eggplant curry are welcoming to those who can’t take the heat, and the holy basil minced beef topped with crispy fried egg is best paired with good ol’ fluffy white rice. Finish with the pineapple pocket pie and a dollop of taro ice cream. Wash it all down with a whiskey soda or go for a tropical virgin colada with coconut, pineapple and guava. To cap off the night, staff kitted out in football jerseys will encourage you to head upstairs to the buzzing bar for more Singha beer and rounds of pool with Thai pop beats blasting through. Zahra Surya Darma
Address: 30 Rupert St, London W1D 6DL
Book online
BENJAMIN MCMAHON
Rita’s
Rita’s has been around for a while. The first iteration kicked off in 2012, when chef Gabriel Pryce and restaurateur and drinks-lead Missy Flynn opened an American-meets-British spot in Hackney. A sandwich shop in Coal Drops Yard opened, then moved to Clerkenwell. Their first Soho restaurant opened in 2022. Order plates of fried chicken parmigiana, pork chops or salt fish taquitos. The wine list is mainly natural and organic, overseen by Flynn, as well as the kind of cocktails previous versions of Rita’s have been known for. And there’s also a private dining courtyard at the back, where a set menu can be dished up to groups of seven to 14. Sarah James
Address: 49 Lexington Street, Carnaby, London W1F 9AP
Book online
Benjamin McMahon
Mountain
The chalk sign outside reels in the punters: “Vermouth, spider crab, tripe, ensaimade, +500 wines…” reads the line-up. You had me at ensaimade. Anglesey-born Tomos Parry certainly knows how to pick a location. Brat, his first restaurant, opened in 2018 in a former pole-dancing bar in Shoreditch. This sequel occupies the same space as the fabulous and far more salubrious Murray’s Cabaret Club, where dancers tangoed in elaborately stitched costumes, Henry Kissinger, Princess Margaret, and Paul Getty rubbed shoulders, Ruth Ellis danced before killing her husband – and Christine Keeler met Stephen Ward before embarking on the Profumo Affair. Quite an act to follow, then, but Parry – fully clothed, youthful Dicaprio looks ablaze at the pass – has the chops. And the beef ribs and the langoustines. Mountain takes British ingredients and barbecues them Spanish-style, wafting shimmies of woodsmoke around this corner of Soho; but here he’s added a bakery – loaves are wood-fired using six different flours – and makes more fresh cheese. A headline act is the Balearic lobster caldereta (braised and grilled with a thick sauce). The supporting small plates were entertaining: pillowy bread like a puffer fish; a delicate ceviche of red mullet and scallops; fluffy spider-crab omelette with a smattering of seaweed, Menai Straits oysters wearing tiny carnations of fermented red gooseberry, and slow, slow-cooked beef sweetbreads. As for that ensaimade, it’s a Mallorcan pastry, similar to filo and filled with pork fat and almonds, then fire-cooked; but our favourite pudding – ‘almost criminal’, our waiter tells us (all the staff are top of their game, menu fluent and fun) – is the torrija, a rich, French toasty slab of brioche, blow-torched and accompanied by grilled strawberries. Downstairs is an equally atmospheric basement space for a pre-dinner Negroni while imagining life here in the Sixties (oh, if the walls could talk). It’s an obvious punchline to end with, but Mountain is smokin’ – this is Tomos Parry at the peak of his powers. Rick Jordan
Address: 16-18 Beak Street, London W1
Book online
Marjorie's
There’s little pomp and pageantry here; it’s the type of breezy, laid-back joint that keeps the focus smack bang on the dishes – and deservedly so. If you’re lucky, you’ll nab one of the 12 al fresco seats that open in summer, although it’s no real compromise to squirrel away in the cosy space downstairs and watch the chefs as they sling out plates from the open kitchen with comforting frequency. Owners Michael Searle and Josh Anderson have brought in head chef Giacomo Peretti for launch, who comes armed with a chunky résumé including London heavy-hitters such as Silo, Le Gavroche, Temper and the Culpeper. The results are predictably excellent. Each dish arrives like a gift to be unwrapped. A silky chicken liver parfait rolled in crunchy nuts reveals a sweet morello cherry centre – “think savoury Ferrero rocher”, says Michael, who provides the charismatic, knowledgeable kind of service only possible from a seasoned pro – that bursts in your mouth. A deep-fried courgette topped with a swirl of saffron rouille feels indulgent as a vegetable can ever be. The lamb tartare topped with radish shavings and jewel-bright peas made my dining partner and me both say “wow”. But the highlight is undoubtedly the poached chicken, cooked in butter not once or twice, but four times. It is sheer indulgence, evoking a conflicting, confusing mixture of simultaneous relief at the smaller portion sizes and considerable disappointment. Order wine by the glass, so that you can try a few – it’s worth it – and finish with the feather-light towering mille-fuille. The verdict? Très bon. Charley Ward
Address: 26 Foubert's Place, London W1F 7PP
Price: £££
Book now
Imad's
Syrian restaurateur Imad Alarnab fled his homeland in 2015 following the bombing of his three restaurants. Making his way through Europe, Imad shared his skills, cooking for other refugees and after finding refuge in the UK, it wasn’t long before he held his first supper club. It was an instant hit, and so spawned various pop-up kitchens across London. Now, at this first permanent Syrian Kitchen – £50,000 was crowdsourced to fund its opening – Alarnab has taken over Asma Khan’s spot at the top of Kingly Court. Order the falafel, obviously. The unique loops make for a great crispy surface-area-to-volume ratio. One standout is the halloumi noodles – cheese strings if you will – served on a rocket and watermelon salad. If you order one meat dish, make it the fattet macdous – a pile-up of minced lamb and aubergines on crispy flatbread triangles. A Mediterranean wine list and an interesting edit of beers – from Hoxton Hill Fin Lager to an alcohol-free pale ale from Pine Trail – does everything it should. You might go to support Alarnab, but you’ll keep going back for the (very reasonably priced) sensational small plates. Tabitha Joyce
Address: Imad’s Syrian Kitchen, Top Floor, Kingly Court, Carnaby Street, London W1B 5PW
Book online
Bocca di Lupo
There is surely no smarter setting in Soho to try all the flavours of Italy at once. Come to Bocca di Lupo as a couple and sit at the bar, sharing a bottle of crisp Grillo from Sicily and Calabrian orecchiette with spicy 'nudja. Or bring a whole gang, take over a round table at the back under the twinkling lights and work your way from classic Negroni cocktails to sharing plate after sharing plate: sea-bream carpaccio with orange and rosemary; truffled radish with pecorino; supplí stringy with buffalo mozzarella; kid-goat pappardelle; white-wine-braised lamb. And to finish? Blood-orange granita, as refreshing as a Roman mini-break.
Quo Vadis
Quo Vadis is one of Soho's original kingpins, opening in Karl Marx's former abode in 1926 to become a thriving part of Italian London, attracting celebs such as Max Beerbohm and Jimmy Durante, and has always been one of the best restaurants in London. It's been through several incarnations since, including a period in the Nineties under the combustible ownership of Marco Pierre White and Damian Hirst. But it really hit its stride in 2012 when owners Sam and Eddie Hart brought in the charismatic Jeremy Lee as head chef, who had built up quite a following at the Blueprint Café. Jeremy Lee's autumnal menu exudes a reassuring confidence with a slight swagger and several gamey dishes, including Victorian kickshaws – dinky pasties filled with wild rabbit – and a grouse salad with elderberries, apple and beetroot to rootle through. It's a bit of a Marmite ingredient, but the smoked-eel sandwich, a creamy dollop of horseradish and delicate fishiness bookended by fried bread, is a punchy way to start. Hake with red mullet and hide-and-seek mussels and cockles is another long-standing favourite. There's even retro pie and mash, and vol au vents, and oysters back on the menu. And even 'no pudding' types will pounce on the cloud-light profiteroles. And, go on, the pear-and-almond crumble tart with honey ice cream if you can manage it. Rick Jordan
Carol Sachs
Bao
Getting a table at this tiny Chinese restaurant hasn’t got any easier in the few years since it opened. There’s no bookings, and no option to pop your name down and head off to one of the brilliant bars in Soho for a drink – you have to queue on the street to get a space jostled at the busy counter. The fact that there’s nearly always a queue outside is the first indication of how delicious the food is here. Dishes of plump, pillowy bao buns from the short menu are packed with soft confit pork, golden fried chicken or rich lamb shoulder and slung out at speed. And Bao is home to one of our favourite puddings in London: the surprising, sweet Horlicks ice cream bao. Sarah James
Kiln
While southern Thai food (tom yum soup, green curries) is well-trodden territory the world over, it's more rare to find a place that specialises in food from the region where food from Thailand, Myanmar and China meet. The distinct flavour combinations and strong, exhilarating spicing at Kiln make it Soho's latest must-try restaurant, following in the footsteps of its hugely popular sister restaurant Smoking Goat on Denmark Street. Low lights, shoulder-to-shoulder seating at the bar counter (there are also tables downstairs for groups) and a fully open kitchen only adds to the buzziness. Sharing dishes make for intimate, exploratory dining, with generous portions and an informal approach to serving. Charcoal-grilled aged lamb and cumin skewers coupled with smoked sausage and turmeric are sharp and spicy openers. The Burmese wild ginger and beef short rib curry has a nice bang - order alongside the Tamworth pork belly and brown crab meat with clay pot-baked glass noodles. For the full experience, sit at the kitchen end of the bar - watching the chefs cook over flaming charcoal is riveting. Ananda Pellerin
The French House
Francis Bacon and Dylan Thomas used to be regulars at this Dean Street boozer known by most as just The French. Downstairs is a classic Soho pub, which draws plenty of the neighbourhood’s biggest characters, serving only half-pints that drinkers take outside for people-watching in the street. Upstairs, there’s a surprising restaurant – French-inspired, obviously – serving hearty food. We especially like the creamy goat’s cheese plastered on a slice of toast and topped with confit garlic and cheesy, stringy aligot – mashed potato with cheese, essentially. Upstairs, there’s a surprising restaurant – known as Upstairs at The French House – serving hearty and obviously French-inspired food. Sarah James
Joe Howard
Fatt Pundit
It takes something pretty special to make waves in London's Indian restaurant scene. But when Fatt Pundit first opened in 2019, it did just that. Fusing ingredients and flavours from Indian and Chinese recipes, the restaurant bases its menu on the cuisine of east Kolkata – an area where Chinese travellers settled hundreds of years ago. The region specialises in dishes that combine the rich, spiced tastes of India with the deep, umami hits of China. Try the Kolkata chilli duck for meat deep fried to perfect levels of crispiness, in a sweet sauce with caramelised onions and punchy green chillis, or the Malabar monkfish curry for a creamy blend of saffron, butter and coconut with melt-in-your-mouth fish. The restaurant itself is as bold as the food; compact and cosy, filled with the clattering sounds of the kitchen as the chefs whip up moreish dishes and impressive bites. There's another outpost in Covent Garden, too. Olivia Morelli
Address: Fatt Pundit, 77 Berwick St, London W1F 8TH
Book online
The Palomar
If a tourist were to chance upon The Palomar, (which they might, since it's on the wrong side of Shaftesbury Avenue, at the seedy end of Rupert Street) - they'd be in for a surprise. Perhaps more Piccadilly Circus restaurant than Soho, London's first outpost of Jerusalem's hottest restaurant, Machneyuda, stands head-and-shoulders above the surrounding competition. The restaurant is dark and the music is loud - which makes sense when you find out that the brother-and-sister founders have a background in night clubs. Book ahead for a table in the deep-blue boothed dining room, or risk it on the night when you might bag a backless stool at the bar overlooking the open kitchen, the best seat in the house. The menu takes inspiration from the fringes of the Mediterranean – not only mixing milk with meat, but serving shellfish, and pork aplenty – in what can only be described as an unorthodox take on Jewish dining. Everything's designed for sharing and the menu isn't huge which (if you're in a group) means you can try one of everything. A house favourite is the cured-beetroot carpaccio, served with burnt goat's cheese and a hazelnut brittle. While a zingy salmon 'tabulenia' tartar is mixed with bulgur and Turkish za'atar. And tender chicken thighs are marinated in sumac and served with orange and braised fennel. Another highlight is the stone bass, plated with octopus, burnt courgette and creamy labneh. But perhaps the most remarkable plate of all, is one we'd usually skip: polenta, transformed from a stodgy side into a star dish - whipped, dribbled in truffle oil, and topped with curls of Parmesan and a single asparagus spear. For pudding, good luck resisting the reverse chocolate fondue: a moist banana sponge spotted with marshmallows and peanut brittle, then heaped with molten chocolate before your eyes. Tabitha Joyce
Brasserie Zedel
This pre-theatre classic is big and bustling and glossy, like it’s been picked up from mid-century Paris and dropped in the nexus of the West End. Brasserie Zedel was dreamt up by the team behind sister London stalwarts The Wolseley and The Delaunay, taking inspiration from 19th-century European café culture. There’s a street level Parisian café (there are no reservations; go for breakfast, when you’re more likely to nab a table and can order plates of fluffy patisserie) and a cocktail den, Bar Américain. The main event is downstairs, where the ever-changing Prix-Fixe is astonishing value (£17.25 for three courses). And this spot has a coveted Bib Gourmand, guaranteeing top-notch grub. Sarah James
The Food Snobs
Bubala
You’d be surprised by how many people will happily have a vegetarian supper at 6:30pm. At least, I was surprised when I arrived at Bubala's new-ish Soho restaurant a little early, naively thinking I could just get a quiet drink by the bar while I waited. It wasn’t quiet, and there wasn’t a spare seat to be found around the turquoise tiled bar. The next table wasn’t available until 10pm. A restaurant serving Middle Eastern small plates is nothing new, and yet founder Marc Summers has tapped into a certain Yiddish magic that went from pop-up to a permanent spot in Spitalfields and now Soho, where there’s an a la carte option, as well as the signature Bubala Knows Best vegan and vegetarian set menu. Opt for the latter to get the full experience (and avoid having to make any decisions). 11 plates for £39 ain't bad either.
Order a drink – Bubie’s spicy Margarita is hard to resist – and the plates will start arriving before you’ve downed it. There are pillowy swirls of labneh with confit garlic, smokey skewers of meaty oyster mushrooms and a genius zingy tomato and mango salad with proper chunks of ripe mango. The crispy-herby potato latke slabs are great, but really it's hard not to rave about the halloumi and the halloumi alone – a whole block served in gooey chamomile and fennel honey crust. If you eat it all – and you will – it's worth taking a breather before pudding. Our waiter suggested a glass of orange wine, with the caveat that most orange wine is a bit strange, but Bott Frigyes’ Just Enjoy is a winner, and she was right. If there’s room, the baklava semifreddo is the dish to try, combining the most beautiful rosewater ice cream with a dollop of sticky caramel walnuts, topped with a flaky pastry hat and sprinkled with a magical sweet-yet-salty pixie dust, also known as cinnamon sherbet. Lauren Burvill
Justin De Souza
Nessa
An enviable location on Brewer Street and a distinctive facade meant Nessa Soho would never be a short-lived addition to the capital’s dining scene. However, the appointment of executive chef Tom Cenci (Loyal Tavern, Duck and Waffle), among other things, ensured a particular crowd fought each other for bookings when it first opened. Sneaky pics are allowed – the playful interiors are all part of the experience – but people are genuinely here to eat well and catch up with old friends. Tongue-in-cheek breakfast favourites include the ‘not avocado on toast’ made with crushed broad beans and a sausage and egg muffin that’s clearly an elevated take on a well-known fast food classic. Such dishes, plus great coffees and smoothies, draw in young professionals for dressed-down midweek meetings, while a similar menu appeals to fashionable brunchers on weekends.
The lunch and dinner menu is relatively concise, which ensures everything is executed to plate-licking perfection. Round up fellow foodies and decorate the table with colourful plates – expect Cornish cod with buttered cabbage, woodfired leeks and caramelised pecans, and gooey, truffle-scented celeriac carbonara. Best of all, Nessa’s open until 1am from Thursday to Saturday, leaving plenty of time for punchy post-supper concoctions in the cosy lounge – there’s no wrong choice on the carefully curated house cocktail list. Connor Sturges
Address: Nessa Soho, 86 Brewer Street, London W1F 9UB
Book online
Yeni
Now, the team have brought the hotspot to London, losing Lokanta (meaning restaurant) from the name and opening as just Yeni on Beak Street in Soho. Sandwiched between some of Soho's best restaurants and cafés (Russell Norman’s Venetian Italian restaurant Polpo is next door, with fancy-pants Bob Bob Ricard opposite and one of London’s best bars Cahoots around the corner), inside there’s a Middle Eastern café vibe: white-washed brick walls, deep blue leather seating against the walls and cute turquoise tiles dotted around for texture and colour. There are two floors, making the space pretty big in Soho terms. Downstairs, there’s an open bar where the chefs make the final, meticulous touches to the dishes before they’re swept onto trays in teams of two to be delivered to your table. The basic premise is refined Middle Eastern flavours. We tried the baked feta: served with a glazed honey on top that made a satisfying, creme-brulee style crust on a bed of sauteed samphire, and the snow pea salad – the chilli kick and crunch from the apple were brilliantly refreshing next to the rich, creaminess of the cheese. For mains, the vine leaves are roasted and filled with springy, salty halloumi, chickpeas and labneh, making for a much lighter supper than you might expect in a Turkish restaurant. The stand out, though, is the roasted beef ribs – pulled, melt-in-the-mouth beef with a deep, meaty flavour sitting on a hunk of sourdough that has become gloriously soggy with the juices. A part of Soho’s already heaving supper scene that isn't lost in the crowd, it’ll change what you think you know about Turkish food. Sarah James