Soho used to be full of places like this. Casually chaotic boltholes where you’d be plied with massive portions of perfectly serviceable food, before being booted back onto the street, very full, quite happy and a little bit pissed. From Lorelai to The Stockpot (ask your mum), this was what powered the neighbourhood until the fateful dawn of a sanitised Soho, which saw branches of Supreme and End Clothing replace the peep shows and smut shops.
In many ways, 27 Old Compton Street is a passport back to 1987. It’s walk-ins only (but in a how-convenient way rather than an that’s-annoying way) and their thing is mega dishes of pasta that are never more than £14, with most hovering around the £11 mark. A couple of hastily erected vintage Vermouth prints and brown leather banquette seating gives the place a tidy feel and service is jolly but a tad rushed. And frankly, that’s fine with us. 27 Old Compton Street’s thing isn’t Sophia Loren-style glamour, but about priding ludicrous value over interior design swag and a server incessantly folding your napkin every time you go to the loo.
In many ways, 27 Old Compton Street is a passport back to 1987
For just £3.50 there’s an overflowing bowl of crispy courgette fries that’s somewhere in between quintessential fritti and batter-heavy chip shop scraps, while two burly cacio e pepe arancini in a pool of parmesan soup feels a steal at £6.50. A massive mortadella flatbread doesn’t scrimp on pistachio, mozzarella or honey, and is, essentially, a huge, open-faced bacon sandwich. Price? £9.90.
Those huge plates of pasta may not have the grace of a dainty Trullo offering, but that’s not what we’re here for. We’re here for halls of residence-worthy bathtub-sized portions, and we get them. Neatly al dente conchiglie comes with perfectly cooked octopus in a thick and comforting tomato-based ragu. There is so much of it we cannot even comprehend finishing it all. And while the equally enormous dish of maccheroni vodka might lack a certain sharp boozy twang, places like this are about more than the finesse of the food, they’re about value and that long-lost old school allure. 27 Old Compton Street has plenty of both.
The vibe Rowdy mates and dates filling up on cheap, cheery pasta on Soho’s main drag.
The food Freshly made pasta, flatbreads and all kinds of Italian nibbly bits.
The drink A short but decent wine list and a couple of aperitivo-esque cocktails for good measure.
Time Out tip From Thursday to Saturday it’s open until 1am, so perfect for a post-pub feed-up.