Soho
Half a square mile of restaurants, bars, theatres, record shops and jazz cellars packed tighter than anywhere else in Britain. Scruffy, loud, queer, commercial and still the best eating district in London despite thirty years of predictions that it was finished.
Who it's for: Eaters and drinkers. Theatregoers who want dinner within five minutes' walk. LGBTQ+ travellers. Second-visit Londoners bored of monuments. Anyone who'd rather graze six small places than book one big one.
Things to know
- Soho is small — you can cross it in twelve minutes — so don't take a cab or the Tube inside it. Tottenham Court Road, Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Circus all put you on its edge.
- The best places are tiny and many refuse bookings outright (Kiln, Bao, Barrafina, Koya). Turn up at 5:30pm or after 9pm, or expect to queue 40+ minutes at 7:30pm.
- Pre-theatre is the crunch: 5:30–7pm every restaurant near Shaftesbury Avenue fills with people who have an 7:30 curtain. Eat before 5:30 or after 8 and it's a different neighbourhood.
- Old Compton Street is the centre of gay Soho and gets very busy on summer evenings, when drinkers spill into the road. It's welcoming, not exclusive — but it's a party street, not a quiet one.
- Kingly Court (off Carnaby Street) is a three-floor courtyard of restaurants that is genuinely good, not a mall food court — Donia and Alta are both there.
- Cash is rarely needed but a few holdouts have quirks: The French House famously serves beer only in half pints (except on 1 April), and doesn't do mobile phones.
- Staying in Soho means noise. If you want the location without the 3am shouting, stay in Fitzrovia or Covent Garden and walk in.
- Berwick Street Market runs Monday–Saturday roughly 8am–6pm and is mostly lunchtime street food now, not the fruit-and-veg market of legend. Go at 12:30pm or don't bother.