The 18 Best Restaurants in Soho Right Now

The best restaurants in Soho are not the grandest ones. Half a square mile of Georgian and Victorian streets between Regent Street and Charing Cross Road holds more good rooms per acre than anywhere else in London, and most of them seat fewer than sixty people. That is the character of the place: counters rather than dining rooms, one idea done properly, and a turnover fast enough that a Tuesday walk-in is a real option.

This is an eighteen-strong list of the tables worth crossing town for, with the addresses and the booking rules, because in Soho the rules matter as much as the cooking. Two of them refuse reservations outright.

Photo for context: Brewer Street, Soho. Brewer Street, Soho - geograph.org.uk - 4777139 by Chris Whippet (CC BY-SA 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons.

The counters worth queueing for

Kiln, 58 Brewer Street

Thai. A corridor of a room with a counter facing clay pots and charcoal grills, and food that is fierce, cheap for what it is, and unlike anything else in W1. The counter is walk-in, so arrive early or late and expect to sit next to strangers. The reason it stays busy nearly a decade on is that it never softened the seasoning.

Barrafina Dean Street, 26-27 Dean Street

Spanish. The original Barrafina, and the only one in the group that refuses reservations. You queue on the pavement, take a stool at the marble counter and order from the specials board rather than the printed menu. Best eaten as a run of small plates with a glass of sherry while you watch the pass.

Bocca di Lupo, 12 Archer Street

Italian. Regional Italian cooking organised by province, served in small and large portions so a table can graze or commit. The counter seats face the kitchen and are the best in the house. Two minutes from Shaftesbury Avenue, which makes it Soho's most reliable pre and post theatre table.

Soho institutions

Quo Vadis, Dean Street

British. A private club upstairs, but the ground floor dining room is open to anyone and has been a Soho institution for decades. Stained glass, white tablecloths, and British cooking that does not try to surprise you. The right choice when the point of the evening is conversation.

Andrew Edmunds, Lexington Street

British and European. Candles, low ceilings, a handwritten menu and a wine list far better than the room suggests. It is the most romantic table in Soho and everybody knows it, so book properly ahead. Ask for downstairs if you want to be able to hear each other.

Blacklock Soho, 24 Great Windmill Street

Chops. A basement built on one idea done well: chops, cooked over coal, at prices that still make sense. The all-in set for a group is the version to order. The building's former life as a Soho club is part of the pitch and, unusually, actually shows in the room.

Noble Rot Soho, 2 Greek Street

Wine and British. The wine bar people took over the old Gay Hussar building and kept enough of its character to make the point. The list is the reason to come, and the kitchen is good enough that you will not resent ordering from it. One of the harder midweek bookings in Soho.

Small plates and short menus

BAO Soho, 3 Lexington Street

Taiwanese. Tiny, precise, and still the best value queue in the neighbourhood: steamed buns, small plates and a fried chicken chop that has outlived several food trends. Sit at the window counter and accept that you will order more than you planned.

Koya, Frith Street

Japanese. Hand-cut udon in a bowl of clean broth, eaten fast at a counter. It is the least showy restaurant on this list and the one Londoners return to most often, particularly for lunch. Good for eating alone without feeling like you are eating alone.

Kricket Soho, 12 Denman Street

Indian. Indian small plates that change often, in a narrow room with a counter over the kitchen. The cooking is confident rather than fusion-for-its-own-sake, and the bar downstairs is a decent place to wait. Handy for Piccadilly Circus without being a tourist restaurant.

Berenjak, Romilly Street

Persian. A modern take on a Tehran kebab house: flatbread from the oven, mezze, and skewers cooked over charcoal. It is generous food at a fair price in a part of Soho where neither is guaranteed.

Speedboat Bar, 30 Rupert Street

Thai-Chinese. Luke Farrell's homage to the Thai-Chinese cooking of Bangkok's Chinatown, with the boat racing on the screens and drinks to match. Loud, late and very good. Order more rice than you think you need.

Padella Soho, 2 Kingly Street

Pasta. The third Padella opened here on 21 April 2026, and it is the biggest of the three. The menu is a short page of pasta at prices that read like a misprint for central London, and the extra covers mean the queue moves. The pici cacio e pepe is the order people come back for.

Rooms that take a group

Alta, Kingly Court

Basque. Basque cooking over fire in Kingly Court, which is not where you would expect to find it. The grilling is the point, and the room is more comfortable than the courtyard setting suggests. A good option when half the table wants fish and the other half wants steak.

Brasserie Zédel, Sherwood Street, by Piccadilly Circus

French. A vast art deco basement doing straightforward French brasserie food at prices that have astonished visitors for years. Nobody claims it is the best cooking in Soho. It is comfortably the best value grand room in central London, and it takes large groups without complaint.

The French House, Dean Street

Pub and dining room. The pub is a Soho landmark with its own rules, including no pints downstairs. The small dining room above it is the part people forget, and it serves proper cooking in a space the size of a front room. Book it; there are barely any tables.

Cheap, and still worth the walk

Maison Bertaux, Greek Street

Patisserie. Open since the nineteenth century and still refusing to modernise, which is the entire appeal. Cakes, coffee, mismatched chairs and no Wi-Fi ceremony. The cheapest good half hour in Soho.

Govinda's, Soho Street

Vegetarian Indian. A canteen attached to the Hare Krishna temple, serving vegetarian Indian food at prices from another decade. It is not a night out, it is a very good lunch, and it is the answer whenever somebody says there is nowhere cheap left in Soho.

How to book Soho, practically

Three rules cover most of it. First, decide before you book whether you want a chair or a stool, because half the best rooms here are counters and that is not everybody's evening. Second, treat the walk-in places as an early or late proposition: before seven or after half past nine, and always a two rather than a four if you can. Third, book the theatre and the table in the same sitting, because Shaftesbury Avenue empties into these streets at ten past ten and every late slot goes at once.

If you want the other side of W1, the hotel dining rooms and the tasting menus, read our guide to the best restaurants in Mayfair. For the bottom of the price list, including Chinatown, see cheap eats in Soho and Chinatown, and our Soho area guide covers what else the district is for. Time Out keeps a longer running list of Soho restaurants if you want to go wider, and the rest of W1 London covers the postcode.

Frequently asked questions

Which Soho restaurants do not take bookings?

Barrafina on Dean Street is the best known: it is the only branch of the group that does not take reservations, so you queue for a seat at the counter. Kiln on Brewer Street runs the same way for its counter. The trick with both is to arrive either at opening or after about half past nine, and to accept that a table for two moves far faster than a table for four.

What is the newest good restaurant in Soho?

Padella, which opened its third London site at 2 Kingly Street on 21 April 2026 after a soft launch that weekend. It is the same short pasta menu and the same low prices as Borough and Shoreditch, in a much larger room, which has taken some of the sting out of the queue.

Where should I eat in Soho on a budget?

Padella on Kingly Street, Koya on Frith Street and BAO on Lexington Street all feed you properly for well under the Soho average, and Maison Bertaux on Greek Street is the cheapest good thing in the neighbourhood if pastry counts as dinner. Govinda's on Soho Street is the vegetarian option most people walk past without noticing. Our separate guide to cheap eats in Soho and Chinatown goes further down the price list.

What is the difference between eating in Soho and Mayfair?

Roughly ten minutes' walk and a great deal of formality. Mayfair concentrates the hotel dining rooms, the tasting menus and the dress codes; Soho concentrates counters, small rooms, walk-ins and turnover. If you want to be looked after for three hours, book Mayfair. If you want to eat something specific and be somewhere else by nine, Soho is the better bet.

Where can I get a good meal in Soho after a theatre?

Bocca di Lupo on Archer Street is the classic answer because it is two minutes from most of the Shaftesbury Avenue houses and serves late. Speedboat Bar on Rupert Street and Blacklock on Great Windmill Street both work for a post-show table, and Chinatown is a short walk south if everything in Soho is full. Book the late slot when you book the show, not afterwards.

How far ahead should I book a Soho restaurant?

Two to three weeks for a Friday or Saturday evening at the better-known rooms, and a few days for midweek. Andrew Edmunds on Lexington Street and Noble Rot on Greek Street are the ones people most often fail to get at short notice. For the walk-in places, ignore all of that and turn up early.