The best restaurants in Soho

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 at the start of 2023. 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. 

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 little over a decade the French pleasure palace that is Brasserie Zédel has become a London landmark. Long gone is Zedel’s famed two courses for under a tenner deal, but the prix fixe menu remains, it’s just a little more prix-y than before. That said, two courses for £16.95 (or three for £19.75) remains decent value for a zingy mound of dijon-drizzled carottes râpées followed by the house speciality of steak haché – another mound, this time of chopped steak with peppercorn sauce and perfect fries. Slam a creme brulee on the end and you’ve got yourself a fabulous three course dinner for under £20, a real rarity in Soho. 

Home of the best prawn tempura hand roll in the city, this Winnett Street sushi joint is so humble you could walk past it and never realise it was there. When marking up the dishes you’d like on the paper menu, don’t hold back; as well as those hand rolls, there are street-food snacks, sushi and sashimi.

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.

The sequel to Thai barbecue joint Smoking Goat is a slam dunk. Sit up at the stainless-steel counter and watch the chefs stoke and tame the fires to produce authentic-tasting northern Thai dishes, baked in clay pots over the charcoal barbecue. It’s pure theatre for food lovers, and the dishes boast memorably intense flavours – from the dry spice rubs used on the fresher-than-fresh fish, to the lashings of ginger and spice in the beef-neck curry. 

This light-filled Dean Street branch of Barrafina serves up excellent tapas from a high marble counter, from which you can watch chefs dole out dazzlers such as oozing tortillas and milk-fed lamb sweetbreads. Pick from a knockout list of Spanish wines and sherries to go with.

A small ‘modern Filipino’ restaurant from the same group behind Kentish Town’s culty Panadera Bakery and Mamasons Dirty Ice Cream, Donia offer a brief but masterful menu of rousing, flavour-packed gastronomy. Think prawn and pork dumplings with white crab, thick-cut sea bream kinilaw, massive lobster ginataan with creamy coconut and pumpkin sauce and sensational lamb shoulder caldereta pie. 

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.

The London spin-off of one of Istanbul’s most celebrated restaurants, Yeni is deliciously atmospheric – all high ceilings and pretty patterned tiling in the open kitchen – plus the food is excellent. Try the snow peas with apple mint and chilli, or the dessert of kadajifi (bread pudding) fritters. It’s quite pricy, so ask for a basket of bread to fill you up (it’s not on the menu, but staff happily gave us one).

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.

One of those properly romantic Soho restaurant-wine bar hybrids, Ducksoup is pimped with candles, a few small tables along the wall and a bar that acts as a dining counter. The menu is seasonal and comprises quality European dishes. And there’s a truly lovely atmosphere.

London loves Sichuanese food. The central Chinese cooking style, famous for its copious use of dried chillies, show-stopping red broths, pungent garlic and mouth-numbing peppercorns. Barshu, opened in 2006, was one of the first well-known spots to offer this singular cuisine to Londoners. Recently, the two-story Soho venue has enjoyed an invigorating glow up and zhuzhed its menu with a few new dishes. But it’s very much business as usual. And business at Barshu is good.

Nopi’s chef-owner is Yotam Ottolenghi, who struck culinary gold with his game-changing Ottolenghi cafés. This is a more formal, more grown-up take on proceedings that shares the same look and ethos – right down to the inventive fusion of Middle Eastern cuisine with bold forays into the Mediterranean and Asia. As of April 2024, the talented Elaine Goad is head chef, intertwining her Filipino heritage with menu classics; expect the likes of rump cap with gochujang & coffee butter and runner beans with coconut brittle.

This modern Mediterranean spot will knock your socks off. To set the scene, the decor is inspired by the leafy, rustic courtyards of Italy, Spain and the like, so you’ll find golden-washed concrete walls and terracotta floor tiles. There are no beating rays overhead, but the sizzling, open-flame grill provides a somewhat balmy temperature. While the concept of using quality British produce to create sun-kissed, Southern European dishes is fairly standard stuff these days, Firebird’s flavour combinations and sheer finesse is a novel thing.

This second branch Middle Eastern small-plates restaurant Bubala is the place to come for meat-free delights of every kind, from the expected houmous and falafel to more leftfield creations, like intensely charred, mango-marinaded leek kebabs. 

Luxe, imaginative takes on Sri Lankan dishes, made with responsibly sourced British ingredients. Enjoy gigantic Ceylonese-spiced prawns, and a crab kothu roti with Devon white spider-crab meat. There are hoppers, too, delicate, lacy pancakes with a rich yolk nestled inside. Paradise is unquestionably cool, unquestionably innovative. If you want to immerse your tastebuds with sweet, buttery, complex flavours, it’s hard to beat.  

Kaneda Pen has set out to create the only dedicated Cambodian eatery in London, starting with this 12-month residency at the Sun & 13 Cantons pub in Soho. It’s long been hard to find Khmer food in the capital, but rather than offering super trad dishes, Kaneda has brought a few soulful twists to the table, such as braised beef tattie mince noodles, a bowl of endearingly sloppy, meaty noods given a Scottish makeover, then lavished with cucumber, a riot of spring onion and ribbons of red chilli. Charred carrot and lumencent chilli are the kings of the pickle platter, and dank and hefty hunks of pork neck and juicy, almost candied, mushroom skewers set the high bar. Sweetness hums through most, if not all, of Mamapen’s dishes. Personally, I’m a big fan of food with the palpable twang of candyfloss, but those with a more savoury tooth might not dig it quite as deeply. Which is a shame, because this is effortless, enticing cookery, done with a coy wink and a classy shimmy. 

Dating back to 1867, this French restaurant is said to be where King Edward VII wooed his mistress Lillie Langtry and over the years, the great (Oscar Wilde) and the good (Agatha Christie) and the absolutely despicable (Margaret Thatcher) have all dined here. It survived the Blitz, but not the 1980s, when it became a Pizza Express. It is now finally back to being a bistro, with souffle, steak frites and three course set menu for £29, which doesn’t seem crazy at all; especially when it includes their heady mousse au chocolat. After one of the prettiest dining rooms in London? Book a table here. 

Though based on Taiwanese street-food dishes, Bao’s kitchen really pushes those boundaries. The restaurant’s name derives from ‘gua bao’: fluffy white steamed buns, in this case filled with braised pork, sprinkled with peanut powder. Other sorts of bao are more slider-like. But buns are only half the story. Xiao chi (small eats) are given equal prominence, and the drinks list (well-matched beers, chilled foam tea, glorious peanut milk, and ten-year-aged oolong teas) is especially distinguished. 

Lavish, ostentatious, excessive: in other words, a whole lotta fun, Bob Bob Ricard is an outlandish one-off for those who want to impress hot dates (or ‘valued clients’). Louche roaring twenties decor sets the scene for an indulgent menu of international comfort food with a Russian slant – vareniki (potato dumplings), fish pie, chicken kiev etc. Just press the champagne buzzer if you’re running low on bubbly.

Gauthier Soho is all about sumptuous, rarified eating: go for cutting-edge French dishes, served in hushed surroundings. And although classic fine dining hasn't always welcomed vegans, its chef Alexis Gauthier is a bit of a pioneer on this front, with a long-established all-vegan menu available for plant-based diners.

A proper Soho institution that’s open seven days a week, 22 hours a day, from 7am to 5am. Established in 1949 by Lou and Caterina Polledri, this little neon-lit family-run Italian café has been passed down through generations and serves a damn fine cuppa joe. You’ll still find a lot of the original fixtures, from the red-and-white formica and tiled floor, to the Gaggia espresso machine. If you’re lucky, you might even catch a lively Italian football match blaring on the TV.

Already the undisputed south London boss of breezy Italian dining thanks to their original Peckham location and Deptford off-shoot Marcella, Artusi’s West End transfer offers hearty but classy pastas and fanfare-free rustic meat dishes upstairs in Underbelly Boulevard. Starters are impressive: plates of magatello di manzo beef curled like rose petals and dolloped with just-runny-enough gorgonzola and chunks of walnut, or an ox-heart spiedino skewer with tomato panzanella.

As elegant as a Korean BBQ opposite the Coach and Horses on Greek Street can be. The grill, operated by buttons at the side of the table, is the star attraction here, cooking up curled wafers of beef brisket, a marinated blanket of short rib and, best of all, a prime slab of rib eye. Each piece of meat was seared, fussed over, trimmed, flipped and lovingly squished. Everything is served with its own punchy dipping sauce. Nothing disappoints.

The latest offering from genial Scotsman Stephen Lironi, 1980s popstar (Lironi and his wife Clare Grogan remain members of cult new wave band Altered Images) and music producer, who heads up a coterie of Spanish-inspired seafood restaurants which pride themselves on using only fish from Lironi’s homeland. Maresco is the third, and his debut central London spot following Crouch End’s Bar Esteban and Stoke Newington’s Escocesa.

The buzz is as important as the food at Jacob Kenedy and Victor Hugo’s enduringly popular restaurant. Dine at the bar and you’re in for a fun time – especially if you sit by the window, where you can watch the occasional celeb swan into the dining room. The menu is a (slightly confusing) jumble of small and large plates celebrating the best of artisan regional Italian cooking – all supported by an enticing selection of cocktails and an impressive all-Italian wine list.

A small, unshowy restaurant that’s made a name for itself with a short but perfectly formed menu and easy-going conviviality. Dishes are seasonal and it’s excellent value for money. Adept, friendly staff are a further plus. It’s added ‘Roman style’ pizza to the menu, along with added outdoor seating as part of the area’s pedestrianisation, and tables can be booked in advance. 

Bebe Bob is the offspring of Bob Bob Ricard, and you’ll find it a mere skip away from the original’s Golden Square-adjacent location. Here rotisserie chicken in hyper elegant surroundings is the order of the day. ‘Any main course the customer wants as long as it is chicken or chicken’, says the menu, with the options being a whole Vendée bird from Western France, or one from Landes in Gascony. There’s a brief but well thought-out selection of sides, with a pungent sauteed kale with garlic, earthy truffled cauliflower cheese and golden french fries. Wash it all down with some champers and enjoy the glitzy surroundings. 

Three-quarters of a century after opening its deli, Soho’s Lina Stores has launched this proper restaurant. Go hard on the pasta: al dente handrolled pici pasta noodles, gnudi ricotta and semolina dumplings, squid-ink spaghetti and agnolotti filled pasta. The best seats in the house are at the street-level counter, or head downstairs to the intimate trattoria-esque space. Small portions make this the ideal place to grab a quick bite before moving on.

Like its sister restaurant Barrica, this is a place where you get proper tapas-sized dishes, so you can really get stuck into the menu. Copita sidesteps the usual clichés in favour of less familiar ideas such as smoked anchovies with pork crackling – no wonder it’s popular with the post-work crowd and can get fairly cacophonous. Thankfully, service is always fast and friendly, making this a real find in the heart of Soho. 

When the then-twenty-something head chef Angelo Sato opened Humble Chicken in the bones of the original Barrafina in 2021, people were tripping over themselves to sing the praises of his cosy Soho yakitori joint. A couple of years down the line and Sato has shifted his own goalposts. He's now moved on from acclaimed and juicy Japanese chicken skewers to Humble Chicken 2.0 which offers an omakase of 13 immaculate east Asian-rooted dishes for a not cheap, but not extortionate £115. It spans snacks, oysters, dumplings, sashimi, and, of course, chicken. Impressive stuff. 

Mountain – the first Soho restaurant from Brat's Tomos Parry – boasts an expansive, industrial-chic dining room and Basque-ish food which is big on narrative. The sobrasada is made on an organic farm in Mallorca. Meat, sourced somewhere equally lovely, is butchered on-site downstairs. The butter has a backstory more compelling than the protagonists of most Netflix dramas. When it’s good it’s excellent and Parry is an exceptional talent; his cooking is all about rusticity, simplicity and heritage. 

Here’s a delightful distraction in the heart of Soho – a French fantasy complete with stripped furniture, objects d’art and a menu that’s as Gallic as ‘La Marseillaise’. Whether you fancy the oozing camembert or a mighty helping of braised lamb shoulder with anchovies and soubise sauce (made from onions), the cooking is all about fine ingredients and bourgeois sensibilities. And the outdoor seating du jour only adds to the overall effect.

Escape Carnaby’s touristy throngs at this bubbly rendezvous from the Salt Yard Group. Everyone’s here for the hybrid Spanish/Italian tapas menu, which promises acorn-fed porcine treats galore, alongside artisan cheeses and creative morsels such as confit salt cod with chives and ’nduja. Iberian wines and sociable staff ensure an upbeat, uptown vibe. 

By anyone’s standards, it’s pretty punchy for a South Asian restaurant to open next door to a Dishoom. Truthfully though, Kolamba is a very different beast: smaller and more sophisticated. Sri Lankan signatures include fish cutlets – aka spiced mini fishcakes with deep-fried coats – fiery patties and monkfish curry. Best of all: the creamy and comforting cucumber curry. With serious atmosphere and style, this stands up to its neighbour for sure.

Out of the same stable as Salt Yard, Dehesa and Opera Tavern, Ember Yard builds on the strengths of its fellows, using Italian as well as Spanish tapas-style dishes and techniques as inspiration. What sets Ember Yard apart from its siblings is an even greater emphasis on the grill – if you’ve ever eaten in the Basque country (or even, er, Dalston), you’ll know what we mean. Get up close and smoky by sitting near the glowing coals. 

This Sri Lankan stunner may have a chilled aesthetic, with its vintage/modern interiors and focus on street-food dishes. However, it’s from the team behind Gymkhana, Bao and Bubbledogs, so you can bet your bottom rupee that a slick experience awaits. The eponymous savoury pancakes are crisp and chewy in all the right places, the karis are full of flavour, and starters such as goat roti are unmissable.

Whether you’re already hooked on the (not so cheap) thrills of super-premium kobe beef – or simply want to try it for size – this bijou Japanese eatery should do the trick. Inside, it looks the business (dig the ornate typographic chandelier), while the menu offers a range of elegant dishes best sampled via the full omakase menu. Lunchtime bento boxes also keep things serene ’n’ clean. 

It had to happen, didn’t it? We’ve had gourmet burgers, gourmet hot dogs and gourmet fried chicken. Now it’s the kebab’s turn. And the kebabs here are beauts. They have an almost Scandinavian look, served ‘open sandwich’-style, the contents painstakingly arranged over a thin, house-made flatbread. It almost seems a pity to roll them up. Fillings change with the seasons, with preserved, charred and fermented ingredients adding to the Nordic vibe.

The mighty tapas staple of croquetas now has a whole restaurant dedicated to it thanks to Spanish food folk Brindisa. An intimate northern-Spanish bar and miniature dining room on Beak Street, Bar Kroketa is rustic and informal, perfect for a quick bite or a more leisurely glass of Cava Brut Reserva after a long day of trawling around Soho.

You know what they say: practice makes perfect. And Harry Edmeades, aka Señor Ceviche, has had plenty of practice. In 2012, after a stint at Lima’s renowned ceviche restaurant El Mercado, the 25-year-old British chef came back to London and started Don Ceviche, a pop-up with just five ceviches (raw fish cured in citrus juice). Then he spent another two years perfecting and expanding the menu before launching this ‘proper’ restaurant. 

Pastaio on Ganton Street is like the Italian version of a large ramen joint, only serving pasta. The music is loud, there’s an open kitchen billowing steam and row upon row of communal tables. It’s all about the pasta, with lashings of butter and parmesan. Go for the carbonara made with bucatini (thick spaghetti) or the weekly-changing special of stuffed shapes.

Though its food certainly passes muster, it’s this restaurant’s concept that earns it bucket-list status (and you won’t hear us saying that very often). Hidden behind/beneath its sex-shop façade, La Bodega Negra continues to befuddle first-timers – especially as the ‘shop assistants’ play along even after you’ve worked up the courage to enter. The dining room is so dark, sultry and downright Mexican that you half-expect Salma Hayek to sashay past. Order some cocktails, ignore the prices and let the good times roll.

Yauatcha comes on like some gussied-up Taipei teahouse, offering all-day grazing, superior dim sum, petit gateaux and teas of exceptional quality and value. At the same time, the lighting and seating embody the atmosphere of a congenially vibrant ‘chatter shop’ – akin to traditional Hong Kong dim sum palaces during the wee small hours of the morning.

Hotel restaurants are tricky characters – some can be quite forgettable, while others manage to completely outshine the hotel. And somehow, Broadwick Soho's in-house spot Dear Jackie manages to do both. It’s pleasingly kitsch, flamboyant and fabulous, like a more sophisticated version of the Big Mamma restaurants, though the short Italian menu gets rather overshadowed by the highly memorable decor. That’s not to say that the flavours don’t pack a punch, they really do, but some swing a bit too hard. And let’s be real, this place isn’t really about the food; it’s all about the vibe and that it gets pitch perfect. 

This offshoot of the Borough Market original has atmosphere by the bucketload – and you can expect a properly effusive Spanish welcome too. Foodwise, Lobos is all about meat – or, more specifically, prime cuts of Ibérico pig, which might turn up as croquetas, meatballs, grills or sliders (with anchovy mayo and pickled cabbage). There are also plenty of non-porcine tapas on offer.

With a flaming charcoal grill at its centre and a menu offering a mish-mash of Asian creations, Inko Nito on Broadwick Street is the laidback Japanese fusion restaurant you need in your life. Breadcrumbed fried chicken comes with a yoghurt and peanut dip, and the maki rolls, like the one with Korean fried cauliflower (dubbed ‘The KFC’), are innovative.

Chef Kemal Demirasal opened the first branch of Turkish grill restaurant The Counter in 2022 in Notting Hill to much success. He’s taken much of the charm of the original joint (as well as its most popular recipes and excellent cocktails) and transported it to Kingly Street – and combined it with a series of new ideas, a lot of seafood and more of a Greek influence. Fresh is the operative word. The cocktails are infused with real fruit. The tomatoes have been imported from Turkey. There’s sort-of-caviar sprinkled on avocado-topped fish. If you close your eyes and just bite, you can almost feel the Istanbuli breeze flowing through your hair.

All-day dining at a sparkly, nautical Disneyland that's part West End glam, part cruise ship chaos. If you like fish and kitsch, then dive into this fancy seafood spot, where bisques, chowders, ceviches and moules rule the roost.