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THE 24 BEST RESTAURANTS IN SOHO
We've eaten our way around W1 to bring you the very best in London food right now. Thank us later...
Shotgun
The theme of low, slow cooking from the southern USA continues at Brad and Molly McDonald's second London restaurant (after the Lockhart, above left), which opened to acclaim late in 2015. A long bar faces the dining room, decorated like a New Orleans-style cocktail lounge, where dishes include Boston butt (already a must-eat on foodies' bucket lists) and Dexter brisket, and the banana pudding is so darn good you could almost imagine going to (civil) war over it.
Hoppers
John Carey
Andalusian bodega (great tilework) meets tropical tiki hut (rattan, pineapple plants) is the look at this exciting new one from the Sethi (Gymkhana and Trishna) dream team. Hoppers are Sri Lankan rice bowls and they are the stars, but you'll want to order everything - this cooking is ace, with idli, fiery devilled shrimp, a rich duck curry and, of course, those soft/crisp hoppers. Vintage Ceylon tourism posters and Sri Lankan bop add to the fun.
The Palomar
The madcap, rule-defying Palomar - Tatler's Restaurant of the Year in 2015 - takes its inspiration from Jerusalem's celebrated Machneyuda restaurant. What's cooking? You name it. Kubaneh Yemeni bread with tomatoes, shakshukit kebabs, Jerusalem-style polenta, Persian oxtail stew and rose-scented milk pudding. Too good. And, yes, there's singing, there's dancing, and if that sounds like your idea of hell, stay away - there are plenty of people who would kill for your reservation.
Ember Yard
From the talented people behind Salt Yard and Dehesa, Ember Yard is pretty unprepossessing from the street - on our first visit we walked right past it. But on the other side of the door, in a warm and atmospheric space that feels like old Soho, lies a ferociously good small-plates restaurant with a Basque grill and a Spanish heart, even if it does take the odd foray into Tuscany. There's great charcuterie, sharp and stinky Spanish (and Italian) cheeses, roasted and chargrilled ribs with a seductive quince glaze and salt-marsh lamb chop with salsa verde.
L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon
After stints in New York and Taiwan, Xavier Boyer, who helped launch London's L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon in 2006, is back at the helm. Try the counter, where the cool folk hang, or head upstairs to La Cuisine, where everyone else squeezes in. Confit tuna and lemongrass seabass are the dishes to go for.
Morden & Lea
Named after the cartographers Morden & Lea, who first put Soho on the map in the 17th century, this brasserie from Mark Sargeant is bang in the middle of Chinatown. The menu is exciting without being outlandish, and dishes to look out for are the chicken-liver parfait with brioche and the gypsy tart with clotted cream, which goes back to Sargeant's days with Gordon Ramsay.
Chi Kitchen
In the unlikely surroundings of Debenhams, hidden away at the rear of the ground floor, this new all-day pan-Asian from Eddie Lim, the man behind Mango Tree, is justwhat the mean streets around Oxford Circus need. They do seabass with chilli and lime, a fiery chicken curry and, for breakfast, Chinese waffles with berries.
Shuang Shuang
Prawn heads with lemongrass, pork and black-fleshed chicken with Chinese berries are just three of the big-flavoured broths at London's first Chinese hotpot restaurant, a cross between the Stockpot of yore and Yo Sushi. Grab delicious extras from the conveyor belt to add to the sunken pot and Bob's your uncle.
Bocca Di Lupo
What Bocca di Lupo does so well is to remind us that Italian cooking is not generic but, (pace Garibaldi), a regional business. So not only is this wildly popular Soho Italian a social place (always busy and animated, particularly around the seats at the bar in the front), the menu is also an object lesson in regional Italian cooking. Lunch or dinner might comprise Piemontese bollito misto with salsa verde or a Roman veal saltimbocca, washed down with great wine from the all-Italian list.
Bao
London's first Taiwanese restaurant, which started life as a market stall in Hackney, has settled into its permanent home in Soho. Bao's USP is gua bao - steamed milk buns, made each day on the premises - with fillings such as braised pork with peanut powder, fermented greens and coriander (a variation on Mr Bao's version - see South East Asia). To drink, there's Taiwanese beer, sake or whisky, and you get change, almost, from £20. Terrific.
Yauatcha
Is it a patisserie? Is it a teahouse? Is it a dim sum restaurant? Turning 11 this year, Yauatcha is all three. On the ground , it serves what are very likely London's most exquisite dim sum at lunchtime, before the space morphs into a teashop mid-afternoon, with beautiful cakes and pastries, which you can eat on the premises or take away. At dinner, downstairs is the way to go, for those divine taro croquettes and venison puffs. A new Yauatcha opened in the City in May this year.
Blanchette
This bucolic little Frenchie tucked just inside Soho has bare brick walls, tables too close together and scarcely enough room to park even the tiniest derrière. But never mind. The food is heaven: ripe, runny cheese, crispy frog's legs in a paper cone and braised lamb with anchovy in a sauce soubise. The star of the show, though, is the triple-decker croque monsieur, one of the most delicious things we have eaten in the past year.
Nopi
Yotam Ottolenghi's 'brasserie with a twist' is decorated with cool white marble and brass, the more formal ground-floor dining room leading down to a basement with shared benches and communal tables. What do we love here? What don't we! Mixed-seed lavosh with avocado, golden and 'candy' beetroot with labneh and, of course, the famous twice-cooked baby chicken with lemon myrtle salt and chilli sauce.
Bone Daddies
If you thought the appetite for dirty food was on the wane, check out the Friday-night queue for a table at Bone Daddies, the tiny, no-res Soho ramen bar that punches above its weight. Now a new late-night menu, from 11pm, features chilli pork-belly buns and mazemen ramen - a soupless noodle dish best washed down with an Ume Shower cocktail (umeshu, amaretto and bitters), which is not just dirty, it's absolutely filthy.
Ham Yard
Those awfully clever Firmdale people (Soho and Covent Garden Hotels, the Crosby Street Hotel in New York) have done it again, with a gorgeous new property a stone's throw from Piccadilly Circus. And the restaurant's a humdinger. Think piping-hot eggs royale or pancakes for breakfast, and calf's liver with pancetta and capers for dinner under the stars - Ham Yard has a courtyard so divine that dinner reservations in summer are at a serious premium. Plus there are small plates, focaccia melts and ice-cream sandwiches all day alongside the vodka and gin martinis in the bar.
Jinjuu
'The kimchi bloody Mary is the best hangover cure in W1,' says former City trader and American Food Network personality Judy Joo. She opened her first London restaurant last year (she already has one in Hong Kong), and after teething problems - what new venture doesn't have those? - we would confidently say Jinjuu is now among the most exciting Korean restaurants in town, with barbecued meats, pork belly tacos and Korean fried chicken the dishes to go for.
L'Escargot
Its red walls and black-lacquered chairs may give L'Escargot the look of an upmarket Chinese restaurant, but this belies its credentials as an 88-year-old franglais restaurant in the best Mrs Beeton tradition. Acquired and reopened last year by the irrepressible Brian Clivaz (of Home House and Arts Club fame), this historic Soho resto does wonderful snails (of course), foie gras with kumquats and a rich coq au vin. Prices are considerate and there's one thing we especially love - the restaurant is DOG-FRIENDLY.
Quo Vadis
Urbane and sophisticated, with a great collection of Brit Art as well as a place in history (Karl Marx once lived above), Quo Vadis is so much more than a default for when you want a proper evening out without breaking the bank. It's fun and glamorous and self-effacing, full of friends and laughter - just what we want but so often don't get. Jeremy Lee's deeply British but unaffected menu and innately warm hospitality from the industrious Hart brothers are the components that make this nonpareil hum.
Social Eating House
From the first-rate cocktails in the upstairs bar (make ours a Rob Roy, the drink we're tipping for refound glory this year) to the confit duck leg in a jar and gutsy roast hake with black quinoa in the Michelin-starred restaurant below, the only thing keeping us away is the noise. We're talking decibels - lots of them. One way around this is to come very early or very late. The food will taste good any time but your eardrums, with luck, will be preserved.
Babaji
Alan 'Wagamama' Yau's new pide salonu, or Turkish pizzeria, is a beautiful space where as much attention has been given to the design as to the food: those World of Interiors-worthy exquisite blue-and-white-tiled walls, and the open kitchen around the central wood-burning oven. Meanwhile, topped with minced lamb, chicken or vegetables, the thin-crust pizzas, or pide, are a very clever take on what is essentially fast food, and there are also spanking-fresh meze and stews, as well as super-sweet puddings, all delivered with typical Yau pizzazz.
Belgo Soho
The new Soho branch of Belgo, set over two floors, is cheap and unremittingly cheerful, which makes it perfect for those awkward first-date moments. And mussels with a choice of sauces, double-cooked frites and beer - that's quite a sophisticated way to go. And not just any beer, obviously, but a choice of more than 60 Belgian brews, bottled or on tap - the perfect ice-breaker. Proost! as they say in Flanders, and you're away.
Bó Drake
If you're looking for somewhere cheerful, cheap and very hot - in terms of spice as well as scene - this six-month-old East Asian barbecue restaurant, from former Roka chef Jan Lee, is the place for you. It does smoked Bobo chicken with sriracha (the big new thing in hot sauce), pork belly with dan dan noodles, and oysters with kimchi - lots of kimchi (Lee's wife is Korean). Wash it down with delicious Korean beer, traditionally brewed from rice.
Dean Street Townhouse
Breakfast? Check. Lunch? Check. Afternoon tea? Check. Cocktails? Check. Cup of coffee at 11am or a martini at 11pm? No problem. Dean Street Townhouse, located in a pair of Georgian terraced houses, with a good-looking bar and a masculine dining room set back from the street, is not only very handsome, the guys here are also very obliging. The answer is always yes. The Townhouse is very comfortable too, and the food never misses a beat, be it fish, shellfish, meat or game. No corners are cut - we like that. One of the very best addresses in Soho.
Rosa's Thai Carnaby
Alex Maguire
This is the fourth Rosa's in the husband-and-wife-owned chain, which started life as a street stall on Brick Lane. These six small but cosy restaurants (Ganton Street is the largest) have a great vibrancy about them. Thai dishes like Pandan chicken and fried aubergine with yellow bean, garlic and Thai basil pack a real punch. Enamel plates, like monks use in Thailand, mean a lot of clattering, but add authenticity. Ice-cold Chang beer makes the perfect accompaniment.