Where to eat in Soho
98 places
Planning a whole day here? Read the Soho area guide.
Algerian Coffee Stores
£Trading on Old Compton Street since 1887, selling beans over the counter with an espresso hatch and nowhere at all to sit.
ALTA
£££Basque live-fire cooking in Soho - everything routed through the grill, including the vegetables.
Assa
££The budae jjigae - army stew - is the order, and it is among the best in London in a room that spends nothing on looking the part.
Badiani
£The Florence gelateria that brought its Buontalenti - an egg-and-cream recipe with a protected name - to about a dozen London sites.
Bancone
££Watch the pasta being rolled at the counter, at prices well below the Michelin Guide average.
BaoziInn
££Northern Chinese street food tidied up for London, in a room done out in Communist-era poster kitsch.
Bar Crispin
£££A low-intervention list with food good enough that people book it as dinner rather than as drinks.
Bar Italia
£Open since 1949 and still on Frith Street. Coffee, a cannoli and a place to stand at the counter rather than a meal.
Long hours - the traditional Soho late stop. Counter service, minimal seating.
Bar Kroketa
££Built around the croqueta and not much else - a single-dish bar, done properly.
Bar Shu
£££The restaurant that introduced London to real Sichuan cooking in 2006 - numbing peppercorn, chilli oil and dry-fried beans, at a time when the city thought Chinese food meant Cantonese.
On the corner of Frith Street and Shaftesbury Avenue, on the edge of Chinatown rather than in it. Dishes are marked for heat and the marking is honest.
Bar Termini
£££Twenty-odd seats, negronis aged in the bottle, and an espresso counter by day - closer to Rome than to Soho.
Barrafina Dean Street
£££Counter only and a Michelin star - no tables, you sit where you are put, and the plancha is a foot away. Bookable, despite the reputation for queues.
Walk-in only. The queue is shortest at opening and after 2pm.
Bentley's Oyster Bar & Grill
££££Shucking since 1916 and now Richard Corrigan's. An oyster bar on the ground floor and a grill room above, which amount to two quite different evenings.
Berenjak
£££A Tehran hole-in-the-wall kabab house rebuilt in Soho - mahi, jujeh and torshi at a counter, from the JKS group.
Blacklock
££Chops pressed under a vintage Blacklock iron AND a proper dry-aged steak list from £16, at prices that undercut every other chophouse in central London.
Bob Bob Ricard
££££Booth-only, art deco throughout, and a Press for Champagne button at every table - the gimmick that launched a thousand photographs.
Bocca di Lupo
£££Regional cooking from across the whole of Italy, served trattoria-style in a buzzy Soho room. Counter seats face the kitchen.
Dishes labelled by region; small and large plate sizes of everything.
Bone Daddies
££Ramen with a deliberate Western slant and a soundtrack to match - the bowl that made ramen a night out in London rather than a quick lunch.
Breadstall
£Berwick Street pizza slice counter, on the Soho market street rather than in a dining room. Slow-fermented dough with a crisp bottom and a puffed, almost naan-like crust.
A second site trades in Battersea.
Bun House
£Steamed buns from a counter rather than a dining room, at a price that undercuts everything around it.
Cafe TPT
£A Wardour Street cha chaan teng - Hong Kong cafe food, late hours, and none of the tourist pricing of the main drag.
Cây Tre
££Hiếu Bùi is treated as the godfather of Vietnamese food in London, and the bone marrow phở is the bowl that argument rests on.
CheeMc
££Honey butter powder on double-fried chicken - the most-cited Korean fried chicken in central London.
Chinatown Bakery
£Egg tarts and bolo bao made in the window on Newport Place - the queue is usually visible from the gate.
Chinese Tapas House
££Northern Chinese cooking served as small plates, which is a rarer format here than the Cantonese banquet.
Chung'dam
££££Named for Seoul's Cheongdam-dong and priced accordingly - the three-tiered pyeonbaek steam box of prawns, mussels and brisket is the thing to order.
Copita
£££A narrow Soho bar built for standing, small plates and sherry by the copita it is named after.
Crunch
££Everything is built on a golden brioche loaf rather than bread, which is the whole proposition and the reason it divides people. The chicken katsu is the one to order.
Dehesa
£££A corner site off Carnaby Street running Spanish and Italian small plates side by side, which is rarer than it sounds.
Dishoom
££The Irani cafes of old Bombay recreated in careful detail, and the bacon naan roll that made it a breakfast destination as much as a dinner one.
Any party size can book before 6pm; after 6pm bookings are for groups of six or more only. Most tables are held back for walk-ins either way. Seven London branches; the Branches tab has six named.
Donia
£££Filipino sharing plates in Kingly Court with a European wine list behind them - the first Filipino room in London to take a Bib Gourmand.
Dumplings' Legend
££A glass-walled kitchen on Gerrard Street where the xiao long bao are folded in front of the queue.
Engawa
££££Built around certified Kobe beef, which very few London kitchens are licensed to serve - the sushi is good but the beef is the reason to book.
Flat Iron
£One cut, one price, no bookings - a 200g flat iron steak for £15, which is still the cheapest good steak in central London.
Four Seasons
££Roast duck hanging in the window and a queue outside for it - the most-cited Chinese restaurant in London across every guide read.
Gauthier Soho
££££Alexis Gauthier turned a classical French restaurant entirely vegan in 2021 - the same townhouse dining room, the same technique, no animal products at all. Very few kitchens at this level have made that switch.
Across several floors of a Soho townhouse, which makes it feel like eating in a private house. Tasting menus are the format.
Gelupo
£A side street off Piccadilly, opposite its own sibling restaurant, turning out gelato that changes with what is in season.
Golden Phoenix
££A Chinatown Cantonese room that both Time Out and The Hotel Journal single out from a very crowded street.
Golden Union Fish Bar
££The Soho option, and the one to know if you want fish and chips inside the theatre district.
Good Friend Chicken
£Taiwanese popcorn chicken fried to order in Chinatown - salt, pepper and fried basil, eaten standing up.
Govinda's
£A temple-run canteen serving rotating thalis in the middle of Soho since 1979, for less than anything else in W1 charges for a hot meal.
Haidilao
£££The Sichuan chain that turned hot pot into theatre - an apron, a hair tie and a bag for your coat on arrival, a sauce bar with recipe cards, and noodles pulled at the table.
Its own booking page states that tables are always held back for walk-ins. Two London sites, Piccadilly Circus and The O2.
Himi
£££The first solo restaurant from the team behind Roji, opened in January 2025 on Newburgh Street.
Hoppers
£££Hoppers, kothu and sambols from the JKS group - Sri Lankan and Tamil cooking that London had been filing under Indian for years.
Imad's Syrian Kitchen
£££Imad Alarnab cooked his way from Damascus to a Kingly Court balcony - the Syrian home cooking is the draw and the story is not decoration.
Impala
£££Meedu Saad left the top job at Kiln to cook his own history - Egyptian heritage crossed with the Cypriot kebab houses of north London he grew up around.
Japes
££Chicago deep dish, which almost nothing else in central London attempts - a pie built in a pan deep enough that the cheese pull becomes the point of it.
Also in Greenwich and Camden. Deep dish is slow to cook - expect a wait that a Neapolitan pizzeria would not ask of you.
Jixiang Baozi
£A counter turning out baozi from bamboo steamers, sold to eat standing up rather than sat down.
Joy King Lau
££Four floors off Leicester Square doing trolley-era dim sum the old way, largely unchanged while the street around it turned over.
Kiln
£££Everything comes off wood and charcoal along a single counter - sit at the bar and the short rib curry is cooked in front of you.
Counter seats are walk-in only and the wait is real. Tables can be booked.
Koya
££Udon made by hand at their own noodle workshop, served from breakfast onwards - the Frith Street counter has been doing it since 2010.
Opens for a Japanese breakfast service that almost nothing else in Soho offers.
Kricket
££Started in a Brixton shipping container and grew into several sites, doing Indian cooking as small plates rather than curries.
Kung Fu Burger
£Everything is built on a sourdough Chinese-style bun, drawing on street food from across East and South East Asia rather than one region.
Kung Fu Noodle
£Noodles pulled to order in the window - the cheapest proper cooked meal in Chinatown.
Le Bab
££Kebabs rebuilt with restaurant technique - the format is familiar and almost nothing else about it is.
Leong's Legend
££A Taiwanese snack house hung with Water Margin murals, where the all-you-can-eat hot pot runs around GBP 25 a head - among the cheapest sit-down pots in Chinatown.
Lina Stores
££The mint-green Brewer Street deli since 1944, now with restaurants attached.
Fresh pasta counter and deli; the restaurants came much later than the shop.
Lina Stores
££The mint-green Brewer Street deli since 1944, now with restaurants attached.
Fresh pasta counter and deli; the restaurants came much later than the shop.
Lina Stores
££The mint-green Brewer Street deli since 1944, now with restaurants attached.
Fresh pasta counter and deli; the restaurants came much later than the shop.
Manzi's
£££Oyster Hour runs 3pm to 7pm Tuesday to Saturday and all day Sunday, with Jersey and Poole rocks from GBP2. Lunch is GBP16 for two courses. A 2023 opening from the Wolseley group, not a continuation of the Chinatown original.
Maresco
£££Spanish technique applied to Scottish seafood, on a daily specials board that changes with what lands.
Mildreds
££Open on Lexington Street since 1988, which makes it the restaurant that made vegetarian food in London normal rather than worthy. Globally drawn menu, and it went fully vegan without losing the crowd.
Sites in Soho, Camden, Covent Garden, King's Cross and Victoria. Soho is the original and the one worth going out of your way for. It does not take bookings at every site - check before travelling.
Nan Hotpot
££Chongqing rather than generic Sichuan, with a half-and-half mushroom and tomato broth for people who want the format without the heat, and short rib rolls and prawn skewers on the order sheet.
The Infatuation says it runs to 3am - the latest-serving hot pot in Chinatown. HOURS NEED CONFIRMING against the venue's own site.
Napoli on the Road
££Named best pizzeria in Europe for the third year running. Michele Pascarella's Chiswick pizzeria, a long way from the tourist centre and worth the journey.
Ranked #1 in Europe by 50 Top Pizza three consecutive years to 2026. Began as a truck touring London's food markets. Now three sites: Chiswick (the original), Richmond, and Soho - where the basement runs a tasting menu and is filed separately as napoli-on-the-road-soho.
Napoli on the Road Soho
£££London's first pizza tasting menu, from the pizzaiolo whose Chiswick room has been named Europe's best three years running. Seven courses, four of them pizza, in a basement under the a la carte floor.
TWO FORMATS IN ONE BUILDING. Ground floor is a la carte and seasonal; the basement runs the tasting menu at around GBP 65 a head, with the wine pairing charged on top. Book the basement specifically - it is not the default.
Olle
£££Table grills in the middle of Soho, so the New Malden format without the forty-minute train.
Orient London
£££The smart end of Chinatown - several floors on Wardour Street where the room is doing as much work as the trolley.
Osteria Vibrato
£££A compact Soho osteria from Charlie Mellor with a 300-bin list of natural and biodynamic wine - Italian at its backbone, French alongside it.
Padella
£A short menu of hand-rolled pasta at low prices, which is why the queue exists.
Original site opened in Borough Market 2016; now also Shoreditch and Soho, where limited bookings are taken.
Plum Valley
£££A family-run Gerrard Street room in a black-fronted building, doing award-winning dim sum in a smarter setting than most of Chinatown.
Pochawa Grill
£££A neon-pink Korean pub format dropped into Chinatown - you grill at the table and the room is built for a night rather than a meal.
Pot Pot Malatang
£A basket, a chilled counter and a set of scales, on the Newport Court side of Chinatown - the cheapest way into the format for one person.
Quo Vadis
£££Karl Marx lived in the building. The dining room below has been feeding Soho since 1926.
Ramo Ramen
££Ramen run through Filipino cooking rather than beside it - the oxtail kare kare bowl is the dish the whole place is built around.
Randall & Aubin
£££The marble counters of the old butcher's shop are still in place and there is a disco ball over the dining room. Over twenty years on Brewer Street, and it takes no bookings at all.
Rasa Sayang
££Hainanese chicken rice and char kway teow in Chinatown, at the volume and price of a hawker centre.
Real Beijing
££A charcoal-fired copper pot with a chimney up the middle, a preserved cabbage broth and paper-thin lamb that cooks in seconds - instant-boiled lamb, the northern format, eaten with sesame sauce rather than chilli oil.
The clearest example in Chinatown of a tradition that has nothing to do with Sichuan.
Shoryu Ramen
££Hakata-style tonkotsu across a spread of central sites, which makes it the ramen you can actually get into when the single-site places have queues out the door.
Shu Xiang Ge
£££The jiugongge, or nine-grid pot: one broth divided into nine compartments so tripe, aorta and duck intestine each cook in the grid that suits them. A yuanyang split pot is the way out for anyone who cannot take the mala.
Claims to be London's first dedicated Sichuan hot pot restaurant. Moved from New Oxford Street to Gerrard Street; a White City branch is also named in the 2023 poll.
Speedboat Bar
£££Built to feel like a late-night Bangkok Chinatown canteen, with pool tables, and curries good enough that it was ranked the fourth best restaurant in London.
Sucre
£££A Soho basement lit by cut-glass chandeliers, over an open fire kitchen.
One source calls it impressive but just subdued enough not to feel gimmicky, which is the distinction this whole list turns on.
Swift
£££Quick drinks upstairs, a dark room and a long whisky list downstairs - built so you can use it either way.
Tao Tao Ju
£££Towering bamboo baskets of steamed and grilled dim sum, made fresh on site each day - the refined end of Lisle Street.
Tattu London
££££Contemporary Cantonese served under a cherry blossom canopy on the sixth floor of the Outernet, laid out as four rooms around an inner courtyard.
The Cherry Blossom dessert - a handmade chocolate tree that fogs when water is poured around it - is what most people book for. Sharing menu around 125 pounds a head.
The Devonshire
££Crowned the UK's number one gastropub in the 2026 Top 50, barely two years after opening. The Guinness pour is the reason half the queue is there.
Charlie Carroll, Ashley Palmer-Watts and Oisin Rogers - the same team behind the Crisp relaunch at The Marlborough. Expect to queue.
The Duck and Rice
£££Alan Yau put a Chinese kitchen inside a Berwick Street pub - copper tanks downstairs, dining room above. The format has no real equivalent.
The Eight
££A cha chaan teng - the Hong Kong cafe format, where condensed-milk toast and macaroni soup sit on the same menu as rice plates.
The French House
£££The Soho pub that was the Free French headquarters in the war, with a small dining room above it and beer served only in halves downstairs.
The Montagu Pyke
£Pyke's Cambridge Circus Cinematograph Theatre, built 1911 as the last of Montagu Pyke's sixteen cinemas - and the cheapest round anywhere near Soho or the West End theatres.
A Wetherspoon since December 1996. Two minutes from Cambridge Circus, which makes it a realistic pre-theatre option at a fraction of Soho prices.
The Palomar
£££The zinc counter, not the tables - sit at it and the cooking happens a foot from your plate, with the room loud enough to make it a night out.
The Seafood Bar
£££A Dutch import - the family were Volendam fishmongers from 1984 and opened the first Seafood Bar in Amsterdam in 2012. This is their only London site, and the fruits de mer is what the rest of the room is looking at.
Wong Kei
£A Wardour Street institution over several floors, famous for decades for brusque service and prices nothing central can match.
Cash was the rule for years and the service style is part of the legend. Fast, loud, and not a place to linger.
Xiong Qi Hot Pot
££A group option a minute from Leicester Square, with suggested cooking times posted on the wall and staff who will tell a beginner what goes in when.
Sixth in Red Scarf's 2023 UK readers' poll, and the only London placing in that poll outside the four best-known names.
Yangguofu Malatang
£Over a hundred things to put in the basket - sliced meat, fish, tofu, ramen noodles, mini youtiao - then a broth, condiments and a dipping sauce. The herbal beef bone broth is creamy, lightly spiced and not oily.
Opened in the old Wing Wing site in summer 2025. Part of a group with over 7,000 restaurants worldwide; the only other UK branch is in Hammersmith.
Yauatcha
£££All-day dim sum with a patisserie counter downstairs, from the Hakkasan founder - it held a star for fourteen years and still cooks like it.
If everything else is full
Reliable rather than remarkable. These are chains — worth knowing about when you need somewhere open, not worth a journey.
Franco Manca
£Sourdough pizza at a price nothing else central matches, from an operation that began on a Brixton Market stall in 2008.
Pizza Pilgrims
££Started as a Soho market cart in 2012 and now runs across London. Seventh in the 50 Top World Artisan Pizza Chains list.
Rudy's Pizza Napoletana
££Naples by way of Manchester, and AVPN-accredited - which means the dough, the flour and the oven all meet the Neapolitan association's own standard. The most reliable cheap Neapolitan pizza in central London.