Jimi Famurewa's Guide to The Soho Food Scene

Read award-winning food writer and restaurant critic, Jimi Famurewa's guide to drinking and dining in Soho.

The Soho Food Scene

If London’s food and drink scene were a video game, then Soho would probably be its most diverting universe of surprises, secrets and side quests. Subterranean jazz bars cast in flickering candlelight. Spectacular hole-in-the-wall spots wedged between record shops and movie post-production studios. Creaking staircases that magically transport you to modern Bangkok, midcentury Mumbai or the faded glamour of a Venetian bacaro. For all that the West End’s cultural epicentre has a particular openness and hard-charging energy, one of its most abiding traits is, to my mind, its endless ability to serve up something completely unsuspected.

From the moments I first took a gawping walk through it as an impressionable teenager to my current life visiting as a restaurant writer, the thing I have most loved about Soho is this quality. There is always a new taste to discover, a new hush-hush location to be introduced to. This is doubly true of the area that unfurls conveniently from Carnaby Street – a dining-scene-within-a-dining-scene that seems to have absorbed some of the fashion-consciousness and cosmopolitan swing of its eternally modish surrounding environment. And it is triply true of Kingly Court, a wildly diverse concentration of new brands, landscape-shaping stalwarts and legitimate modern institutions that can still feel like the best of London hospitality in frenetic microcosm.

That Soho is both historically significant and ever-refreshing is part of its mischievous, pace-setting charm. Here, then, is a selection of some of my favourite legendary haunts, underrated spots and must-order menu items from many years uncovering what this famous neighbourhood has to offer. You can never actually complete Soho. But you can have a hell of a good time trying.

The Hidden Bars of Soho

Two Floors

Few things feel more Soho than a bar with an unofficial-sounding, if-you-know-you-know name. In other hands, that kind of self-consciously lo-fi move might be a reliable red flag. But when it comes to this grizzled survivor of Soho’s nightlife scene – first launched in 1995 and rebooted in expanded form in 2024 – it’s a heavy clue for what’s an enduring masterclass in a kind of understated and unshowy cool. Abundant wood; racked vinyl; low-slung, leather seating in the clubby basement. It’s genuinely heart-warming to see ‘The Bar With No Sign’ still offering a relaxed ‘out out’ option to Kingly Street’s hordes a good two decades after I first discovered its flatteringly dim-lit charms.

Nightjar

Some purveyors of a highly considered drinks programme – think a glinting library of housemade syrups and bar staff offering unsolicited monologues about small-batch soju distilleries – forget that cocktails should also be fun. That’s not a problem at this tucked-away, Kingly Court spin off of the multiple award-winning Shoreditch bar.

Yes, its dark 1930s design flourishes, chronologically formatted menu, and studious, nattily dressed mixologists suggest serious commitment to historical Prohibition-era accuracy. But the presentational drama of Nightjar’s impeccably balanced signature pours (notably the quintuple rum, barrel-aged zombie served with a flaming hunk of cake sponge) and the nightly live jazz and swing musicians on its spangly-curtained stage are the giveaway that this is a place that's about frivolity as much as craft. A great break-glass night out at a time when spontaneity is getting harder and harder.

Grind

Upstairs, this Beak Street espresso bar (the second of the Antipodean-inflected mini chain to open) is the perfect perch for a punchy long black and a bit of afternoon people-watching. But downstairs, it has one of Soho’s most enjoyable open secrets: a cosy, hidden cocktail bar where Grind’s signature cranked-up music plays late into the night, and well-mixed drinks are ferried to intimately spaced little tables. As you might expect, the espresso martini – concocted with Kiwi vodka brand 42 Below and priced at a nicely bargainous two for £14 during Wednesday to Saturday’s extended happy hour – is expertly done. But don’t sleep on the mango and coconut picante: a lip-scorching, unholy cross between a potent margarita and a Solero.

International Flavours of Soho

Speedboat Bar

Many central London postcodes now have an interesting, hyper-specific regional Chinese spot. Others still have a culturally faithful Thai equivalent. But a restaurant that riffs on both an aquatic drag racing bar and the fusion flavours of Bangkok’s traditional Chinatown district, Yaowarat Road? Well, that feels very Soho, and that is the unique lane that chef and grower Luke Farrell’s technicolour party palace has occupied since it first roared onto Rupert Street in late 2022. Uncompromising, moreish, and brimming with both technical rigour and high camp (did I mention the tabletop Singha beer towers and the deep-fried pineapple pie?), this singular, late-night hit exemplifies the confidence and specificity of London’s food scene.

Goldies

There’s a distinctly continental and Levantine waft to proceedings at this rosy-hued live fire restaurant from French siblings Yannis and Maxime Alary. And, of course, that’s to say nothing of the beckoning barbecue scent that drifts out towards the al fresco seating girding its ground floor berth on Kingly Court. Conceived as a chicly primal counterpoint to sibling Neo-bistro Blanchette, Goldies’ specialness lies in its commitment to giving wallet-friendly comfort foods – think slow-marinated baby chicken with smoked yoghurt or succulent ribs brushed in a lamb fat glaze – a nerdy, additional jolt of flavour. This especially applies to the restaurant’s titular frites: a golden, sharply burnished tumble of twice cooked hand-cut potatoes, either dunked in vegetable oil or pulled fresh from a roiling pool of beef dripping in a custom fryer, imported from the Netherlands. The whole thing is a distinctly London, entente cordiale of affordable indulgence.

Imad’s Syrian Kitchen

Damascus. Calais. Carnaby. That Imad Alarnab’s journey – which took him from life as a refugee to widespread acclaim in London, via a period as a fundraiser and supper club star – is a total inspiration should not detract from the fact he is also representing a criminally under appreciated food culture. Having opened his first restaurant in 2020 (in the same charmed site that had previously been home to Asma Khan’s Darjeeling Express), the entrepreneur and activist moved to a bigger location on the same floor of Kingly Court and let his vision grow accordingly. From towering shawarma Benedict at breakfast to zingy, crisp wheels of falafel and candy floss-garnished pistachio and mastic ice cream, this is food to warm the soul, lift the spirits and plant a vitally important culinary flag.

Soho Icons

Darjeeling Express

Though many of the flavours of her critically lauded restaurant are rooted in her royal Mughlai heritage and Calcutta childhood, Asma Khan’s rise is very much a Soho story. Having begun Darjeeling Express as a white-hot 2015 residency at Beak Street’s storied Sun & 13 Cantons pub, she migrated to her first Kingly Court site (subsequently home to both Imad’s Syrian Kitchen and Donia) before an emotional 2023 transfer to the business’ current, bumper location. That decade of history around Carnaby Street has made Darjeeling Express a mainstay of the neighbourhood and bucket list booking. Partly this is the lucid flavours, of course; the tangra prawns, methi chicken and triumphantly naughty keema toastie. But it is also Khan’s emanating warmth and the significant platform afforded to her trademark, all-female kitchen brigade.

Polpo

No reservations? Low light and exposed plasterwork? Wine served in suave little tumblers? So much of what we think of as the visual lingua franca of hip hospitality businesses was popularised by the late Russell Norman when he opened this quietly revolutionary, hugely influential Beak Street restaurant. Launched to much buzz in 2009, this first outpost of what would become a mini chain – essentially a canny splicing of Venice’s answer to the tapas bar and a grungy New York tavern – still crackles with that initial burst of life and innovation. ‘Nduja arancini; blistered pumpkin and gorgonzola pizzette; spiky negronis. As befits a concept partly inspired by an unsinkable city, Polpo is still standing. And it is still a sight to slap a smile on the face and implant a craving for some cicchetti and a cocktail.

KILN

Long before The Devonshire was causing G-splitting hordes to spill out onto the pavement, this singular Thai restaurant was ornamenting Brewer Street with a near-constant queue of eager, adventurous diners. The brainchild of Ben Chapman – a wildly gifted, self-taught chef who previously worked as a DJ and gallerist – Kiln is a walk-in only, predominantly counter establishment that seeks to celebrate the vivid freshness and immediacy of northern Thai cooking. Clay pots of baked glass noodles; curries made with fresh-pounded, brightly formulated pastes; greens stir-fried in an eyebrow-singeing column of flame. Operational since 2016 and increasingly a show-case for fresh, unexpected produce, there is nothing quite like Kiln’s definably Soho buzz and potency.

Jimi’s go-to Soho Desserts

BAO

Fried bao and Horlicks ice cream

Right from the moment that it first opened on Lexington Street in 2015, Bao’s take on contemporary Taiwanese cuisine has always balanced pristine design with messy, plate-licking culinary indulgence. The clean lines of the compact, wood-accented space. The white bus stop that sits outside the door and signals the start of an ever-present queue. The signature, sweet rush of a short rib gua bao. Nowhere is this tension more alive than in this unimpeachable pudding: a handsome, round flour dumpling, fried to golden brown and stuffed to bursting with a creamy, malted ice cream that is pure, surging nostalgia.

Donia

Ube choux

Few new wave Filipino restaurants and food businesses have felt as instantly scintillating as Florence Mae Maglanoc’s Donia. Operating out of a tiny space on the top floor of Kingly Court, it takes this south-east Asian nation’s distinct, strikingly vibrant, varied and vinegar-doused fusion cuisine and adds elements of breathtaking technique. The lamb caldereta pie is perhaps the most famous example of this – a glossy dome of pastry and spiced meat moated by a liver-enriched sauce. But the ube choux pudding may be the purest expression of Maglanoc’s baking abilities. Irresistible craquelin dough; spurting purple yam jam and ice cream. It is that rare dish that packs a taste bold enough to match its unforgettable phone-eats-first aesthetics.

Mountain

Ensaimada

Welsh chef and Brat founder Tomos Parry’s 2023 opening on Beak Street – inspired by the rugged stews and fresh seafood of the Basque country’s ‘mar y montaña’ eating traditions – could have easily been a difficult second album. Would it suffer through comparison with his Michelin-starred (and celebrity approved) live fire restaurant in Shoreditch? Might it feel a little bit too much like more of the same? Not a bit of it. Within just six months its deft, deeply flavoursome plates of crab-filled omelette, wood-fried rice and fresh stracciatella cheese toasts had won a star of its own, and announced itself as a sharply defined, separate entity. The hugely underrated ensaimada pudding – a looped, sugar-dusted Mallorcan delicacy, faintly sweet, ethereally light and almond nutty – is a lasting embodiment of its brilliance.

Jimi’s Favourite Soho Dishes

Rita's

Jalapeno Popper Gilda

In 2021, after years of youthful wandering through various east London pop ups and residencies, Gabriel Pryce and Missy Flynn’s pleasure-forward exploration of the food and drink of the Americas pitched up on Lexington Street. Almost half a decade later, Soho still looks good on them and has the feel of a forever home. Half the items on their menu could be among my favourite Soho dishes, but I’m going to go for the jalapeño popper gilda: a blue cheese-stuffed olive, fresh chilli and Cantabrian anchovy that is all the more impressive for the fact it features no actual cooking. Order one with a mini martini, take a bite and learn everything you need to know about the eclectic inventiveness of this special little restaurant.

Dishoom

Bacon Naan Roll

The unstoppable popularity of Dishoom – a family of all conquering restaurants and other spin offs inspired by the Irani cafe culture of Mumbai’s Parsi community – is double-edged. On the one hand, it’s clear that the business has had a positive impact on the variety of regional Indian food that Brits all across the country are familiar with. On the other, the meticuloulsly rendered formula – as at Dishoom’s swinging ‘60s influenced, especially cool Kingly Street branch – is so well known that we are almost numb to the abiding brilliance of it. Case in point: we probably don’t acknowledge the genius of the Dishoom bacon naan roll enough. The sweet bread and crackly pork; the contrasting slick of cream cheese and punchy tomato chilli jam. Few things make me as happy as a quiet moment with one of these and a bottomless house chai.

Pastaio

Beef & Porcini Bolognese + Mozzarella Fried Sandwich

Nowhere does a quick fix quite like Soho. From Bar Italia and Breadstall Pizza to the David Chipperfield-designed Wagamama (only its second outpost) that sat on Lexington Street, something about the area’s thrum, crackle and pace consistently supports canteen establishments that offer something delicious, quick and affordable for those with no time to wait. Right from the moment it opened in 2017, Stevie Parle’s Ganton Street pasta bar felt part of this continuum. And from the moment I sat in its clattering space at a terrazzo table, mopping up oil-dribbled burrata with focaccia, it spoke to me deeply. Naturally, dishes like whole lobster linguine and cacio e pepe tend to get most of the acclaim. But there is something about this ever-evolving, melty-middled starter toastie that has always enthralled me. Irreverent, creative, sinful – it could be a metaphor for Soho itself, squished happily between golden-crisped slices of bread.

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