Restaurants in Soho London
Our recommendations for the best restaurants in Soho
Soho has a great range of restaurants to satisfy any culinary craving. If you want to try a traditional British restaurant, try Dean Street Townhouse. If you're more in the mood for authentic tapas, there's Barrafina, and for sumptuous spicy Chinese, try Ba Shan. Check out the rest of the restaurant guide for our recommendations for the best restaurants in Soho. Do you agree with the choices? Use the comments box below or tweet your suggestions.
Social Eating House
- Rated as: 5/5
- Price band: 3/4
By Guy Dimond It’s not easy to open a spate of brand-new restaurants and maintain high standards, but chef-patron Jason Atherton has clearly moved on from being the sorcerer’s apprentice (under Gordon Ramsay) to being the sorcerer himself. His Little Social deluxe bistro only opened in March, right opposite his fine dining Pollen Street Social in Mayfair. He’s followed this up, weeks later, with an even more ambitious restaurant in Soho, by delegating the chef role to his buddy
- 58-59 Poland Street, W1F 7NR
- Main courses £12-£23.50. Set lunch £18 2...
Bocca di Lupo
- Rated as: 4/5
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
Bocca di Lupo’s menu takes you on a tour of Italy with a range of regional dishes and a few innovations. There’s no need to stick to the traditional Italian structure of primo and secondo courses; if you prefer, you can choose the portion size and make it more of a mix-and-match meal. From the grill, baby cuttlefish was tender and juicy, while honey-marinated pork neck was earthy with a hint of sweetness. Both were treated simply, but to great effect in the way that Italian
- 12 Archer Street, W1D 7BB
- Main courses £7-£25
Koya
- Rated as: 5/5
- Price band: 1/4
- Critics choice
You can easily spot London’s favourite Japanese noodle bar by the long queue regularly winding from its entrance. Fear not – there’s a fairly rapid turnover at the shared wooden tables, and the food (authentic Japanese preparations using fresh, locally sourced vegetables, meats and fish) is well worth the wait. The menu stars udon noodles (chewy, thick white noodles made of wheat flour imported from Japan) in all their glorious possibilities: hot in soup, cold and served with hot
- 49 Frith Street, W1D 4SG
- Main courses £6.70-£14.70
La Bodega Negra
- Rated as: 3/5
Beneath a lurid Soho shopfront, ablaze with neon signs screeching ‘sex shop’, is a new transatlantic import – the London outpost of the NYC-based La Esquina, an ultra-trendy downtown café-taqueria. As at La Esquina, La Bodega Negra is an upstairs-downstairs affair; the ground-level café (entrance on Moor Street) serves tacos, tostaditas and quesadillas, and mains such as huevos rancheros (ranch-style eggs) with black beans. The downstairs restaurant and bar (entrance in Old
- 16 Moor Street, W1D 5NH
- Main courses £12-£16. Meal for two with drinks...
Princi
- Rated as: 4/5
- Price band: 1/4
- Critics choice
Introduced to London by Alan Yau in 2008, this smart outpost of a Milanese bakery chain remains a popular all-day option. It’s an airy, good-looking room, with a sandstone interior, long black marble counters and a (slightly odd) water feature that runs the length of one wall. The food is varied enough to keep diners coming back for more: as well as cakes, pastries and breads, there’s a choice of filled focaccia (parma ham, say, or mortadella), hot dishes (lasagne, aubergine
- 135 Wardour Street, W1F 0UT
- Main courses £5-£12
Polpo Soho
- Rated as: 4/5
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
Owned by Russell Norman and Richard Beatty, with the kitchen headed by Tom Oldroyd, Polpo and its newer siblings Polpetto (now closed) and Da Polpo fuse the Venetian bacaro (wine-bar-cum-café) with hip New York West Village eateries. The decor, with peeling paint and battered wooden panelling, looks like something from the ‘before’ clips on Homes Under the Hammer. Brown paper menus and chunky tumblers for wine glasses underline the sense of squatter chic, as does sharing small
- 41 Beak Street, W1F 9SB
- Dishes £4.50-£9
Jamie Oliver’s Diner
- Rated as: 3/5
By Tania Ballantine Oh no, Saint Jamie. You haven’t... Oh yes, he has. Oliver has become the latest restaurateur to join the 2012 bandwagon – sorry, dining trend – that was US ‘dude food’. But before you stick the knife in, remember that this is a natural progression for the turkey twizzler slayer [and junk food derider]. He’s spent a huge amount of time Stateside, educating Yanks on matters of cooking and whatnot, and co-owns US-style grill Barbecoa with barbecue maestro Adam
- 19-23 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 7HA
- Around £40 for two with drinks
Dean Street Townhouse
- Rated as: 3/5
- Price band: 3/4
A hard-working, all-hours restaurant offering breakfast (plus brunch at weekends) and afternoon tea, as well as lunch and dinner, DST is part of the fashionable hotel of the same name. It’s housed in handsome Georgian buildings that once also held Soho legend the Gargoyle Club; the whole complex belongs to the Soho House group. The dining room has a classical look, pepped up with modern art. A seasonal, weekly changing menu might start with ham hock broth, Lancashire cheese and
- 69-71 Dean Street, W1D 4QJ
- Main courses £15-£24. Set dinner (5-7.30pm) £17...
Barrafina
- Rated as: 5/5
- Price band: 2/4
- Critics choice
If proof is needed that tapas is fashionable, the queues at Barrafina are it. And there will be a queue: bookings aren’t taken and hopeful diners can expect to wait at least an hour, any evening of the week. Yet seldom does anyone leave Barrafina disappointed. The place is part restaurant, part theatre, in which diners play a part. Your role begins the moment you join the line for one of the 20 or so stools around the L-shaped bar. Nibbles and drinks are served as you wait –
- 54 Frith Street, W1D 4SL
- Tapas £2-£18.50
Pitt Cue Co
- Rated as: 4/5
- Price band: 2/4
Not long after the peripatetic Meateasy laid down roots and moved into a West End restaurant, Pitt Cue Co did the same. After spending the summer of 2011 serving superlative US-inspired dishes such as pulled pork, ribs and smoked brisket from a van, it moved into a tiny space in Soho. The dining room has space for about 20 people, and there are also a few stools around the bar area – so if you don’t want to queue, avoid the busiest times. Many London restaurants take their cues
- 1 Newburgh Street, W1F 7RB
- Main courses £9.50-£16. Meal for two with...
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