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Chef Meedu Saad has Egyptian heritage, and the restaurant’s name comes from the Chevrolet that he sat as a child while being driven around Ismailia, the port city where he spent his summers. At Impala, Saad reads north African cuisines through the adopted grammar of French and Thai kitchens. He wouldn’t be the first to filter a cuisine through Gallic techniques, but the latter, after seven years spent running nearby Kiln’s kitchen, is where it gets interesting. Mastering it is about controlling intensity, integrating funk and heat without pushing it over the edge, balancing smoke and freshness, and using bitterness to counteract umami. It’s a colossal, ambitious menu best tackled with a group of greedy pals. 

Old Soho looms large at Quo Vadis. This elegantly bohemian members’ club heaves with history, despite the fact that its public dining room received a thorough makeover not that lonb ago. Previously a dark and moody mystery, with the restaurant’s floorspace doubled, this once rather poky room is now wonderfully welcoming. Eat alongside glamorous wine-swilling pals and oyster-slurping folk who look like artists – even if they’re not – who feasting on congenial chef Jeremy Lee’s indulgent takes on classic British food. 

Head to the top floor of this old-school boozer to the teeny dining room, which is decked out with black-and-white pictures of salty old Soho geezers. The daily-changing menu – cooked up by Neil Borthwick (ex-head chef of The Merchant’s Tavern) – is crammed with seasonal French and British fare. It all tastes brilliant – gutsy, stripped back and practically cutting-edge.

Evoking the traditional feel of a Japanese udon-ya, this casual eatery wouldn’t be out of place in Tokyo. A blond-wood counter dominates the long narrow space (chefs on one side, diners on the other) but it still feels spacious and airy. And there’s now a diddy table out the front, too. Koya classics such as udon with mushrooms and walnut miso (kinoko) are available here, as is breakfast – try the ‘English breakfast’ udon: an earthy broth topped with fried egg, bacon and shiitake mushrooms.

In 2025, the Shaston Arms was picked up by the same team behind Barnes’ bucolic Waterman Arms gastropub. It quickly became home to Soho’s biggest vertical drinking squad as well as Soho’s smallest dining room. Bag one of the five tables sunk into a mahogany-lined moat against the back wall of the pub and enjoy an excellent menu that’s a little bit French, a little bit Spainish and a little bit Italian. Come for onion rings dolloped on a rich liver mousse, crispy little shallot fritters topped with a large wodge of sardine and smokey cod’s roe and flaky monkfish in a creamy tandoori sauce.

This is a place to see and be seen. Interiors-wise it’s all super-cosy with diner-style red leather booths, wood furnishings, a rustic Mexican tiled bar and even a much-coveted central London enclosed garden space out back. If you’re looking for a place to catch-up with pals in central London and want to watch the world go by with some superior snacks and a corker of a cocktail, then this is the place to be.

Osteria Vibrato is a riotous Italian restaurant with an old-school appeal that matches the studied vintage buzz of Trisha’s across the road and Bar Italia a few streets over. The waiter might just get up and play piano as you dig into your pasta, and this pre-Lizzy Line energy is surely down to the restaurant’s driving force, Charlie Mellor. A decade ago he opened Hackney Road’s Laughing Heart, a small plates wine bar named after a rousing Charles Bukowski poem, with a 2am licence and a deeply devious energy. Of course, Hackney is now overrun with small plates wine bars, so Charlie’s done the only thing he could; bring his uproarious brand of hospitality to Soho. 

Found within the Radha-Krishna Temple on Soho Street, Govinda’s restaurant serves up what they describe as karma-free food. Vegetarian and vegan dishes with an Indian lean are the speciality here, with thalis starting at £7.95. Plus there are at least ten salads on the menu each day – think mango, celery and walnut or fried, marinated courgette and aubergine. It’s all offered to Lord Krishna before it hits the plate, too, so you're getting a free slice of Krishna’s mercy for good measure.

Ye Ye’s on Wardour Street leans into a homely, slightly weathered charm – offering genuinely tasty, bang-for-your-buck Chinese food inside what was once historic Soho goth pub The Intrepid Fox. In this economy, beef short rib the size of Mjölnir is practically a myth, but for Ye Ye’s ‘Golden Supreme Beef Rib Noodle’ delivers. A generous slab of meat, it’s sweet, tender, and easily slides off the bone into a rich, slow-cooked broth, allowing the thick chewy noodles to soak up all its goodness. Try also the grilled, juicy crab and pork dumplings, lightly sprinkled with sesame seeds.

This boho-chic Persian joint, from the group behind Bao and Hoppers, may be small but it still packs a punch. Take a seat with views of the open kitchen and plump for one of the innovative grills. Our favourite is the poussin: its charred, blackened edges offset its chilli, red pepper, sumac and garlic marinade. Berenjak is vibrant and atmospheric, with eager-to-please staff, and a bill that won’t kill.