Soho, Fish & Seafood Restaurant Guide

“A glorious spot for a boozy seafood bite, watching Soho stroll past” – this “always busy” and “buzzy” venue was converted over 25 years ago from an atmospheric old butcher’s shop (est 1911) and oozes quirky Edwardian charm. Perch on a stool, and “exuberant staff” will serve you fizz and “expert fish dishes” (“simple, but cooked beautifully – fruits de mers, oysters, pints of prawns”). “It’s not the most comfortable time, but worth it for the quality of the food and general ambience”. “Long live R&A”.

This “clean and spare-looking seafood restaurant” from Amsterdam’s De Visscher family is a “super addition to Soho”, with “platters both raw and roasted that are generous, super-fresh, tasty and not exorbitantly pricey”. It’s also “a great place just to drop in for a martini and some oysters at the bar”.

“The lobster roll is just lovely” at this surf’n’turf-meets-burger chain, where you’ll find “plenty of very tasty grub”. “I was expecting to be disappointed, but the food was excellent”. A dozen years on from its launch, the group’s nine London venues tend to be “full of people done up for a big night out, taking lots of selfies for their Insta”.

Few openings are as long anticipated as this resurrection of a long-defunct, once-famous seafood destination. Conceived when its owning company was still run by Jeremy King and Christopher Corbin, the final debut is the first major test of the ability of its successor, The Wolseley Group, to launch a new site. The business that forms the inspiration for this debut was in Chinatown, just off Leicester Square, and shuttered in the early 1990s. This revivified version is in ‘Bateman’s Buildings’, tucked between Soho’s Greek and Frith Streets. Set over two floors, it’s an all-day operation with a large outdoor terrace. Dishes encompass everything from moules marinière to a wide range of crustacea, a ‘catch of the day’ and a classic Dover sole.

Adejoké ‘Joké’ Bakare moved in September 2023 to this new, 50-cover Fitzrovia location, having closed the SW9 site where she won the Brixton Kitchen competition in 2019 for her original supper club, offering the dishes of her Nigerian childhood but ‘given a London sensibility’. Open-fire cooking will be a feature as well as an extended pastry selection. It has been very highly PR’d though, so let’s hope it lives up to all the coverage – even in the former location there was the odd review along the lines of: “nice people, but disappointing after the hype”.

The “super-fresh fish” – “simply prepared” and “never overcooked” – “never disappoints” at this “good value” trio of West End seafood brasseries, in Covent Garden, Marylebone and Swallow Street, off Piccadilly.

2023 Review: From Cream Group (owners of Cirque le Soir, Restaurant Ours, Wild and The Windmill Soho), this July opening in Mayfair occupies the erstwhile 120-cover site of XO (RIP). Former Elystan Street head chef Toby Burrowes heads up an extravagant offering, which includes a £3,000 ‘sunken treasure’ caviar platter; and a cocktail listed at £5,000 (a rare 1950s gin and a bottle of 1970 Dom Perignon BTW). All good PR. Opening in mid-July 2022, this new spot calls itself a ‘clubstaurant’ – not a term we feel needs encouragement.