RestaurantsLondonSohoW1D

Harden's says

Opened in autumn 2023, this 'dream pub' off Piccadilly Circus in Soho combines the talents of ex-Guinea Grill landlord Oisin Rogers and Flat Iron founder Charlie Carroll. There's a classic bar downstairs and an ambitious dining room upstairs knocking out cuts of dry-aged Scottish beef on a wood-fired grill.

survey result

Summary

£79
 ££££
3
Good
4
Very Good
5
Exceptional
* Based on a three course dinner, half a bottle of wine, coffee, cover charge, service and VAT.

“What an addition!” – Just north of Piccadilly Circus, a “dream team” including Flat Iron founder Charlie Carroll and Guinea Grill ex-manager Oisin Rogers have created the most commented-on debut of the year in our annual diners’ poll, as well as London’s new No. 1 gastropub. “Downstairs: it’s a proper, bustling pub with excellent beer and creamy Guinness. Upstairs: it’s more a set of pub ‘dining rooms’ than a restaurant” and with “the backdrop of a real, open-fire grill”. When it comes to the “great quality food, simply cooked” it’s “more a case of ‘old time favourites’ than ‘cutting-edge’ cuisine… less Instagram and more ‘get it down you’, leaving little to be criticised”, albeit allowing for a certain amount of “hype”. “Full of laughter and happy punters”, “energetic” service is “brilliant from start to finish”. “What a cracking place!!”. Just one problem – “it’s impossible to get a reservation!”. Top Menu Tips – “steak, lobster, scallops, crab, soufflé are all brilliantly executed”; “Steak and Guinness suet pudding is gorgeously rich”; “particularly love the bread-and-butter pudding”; and “the fact there’s a good-value set menu”.

Summary

Fooderati favourite, Oisín Rogers – previously of The Guinea Grill – and Flat Iron founder Charlie Carroll created their dream pub in the heart of the West End at this refurbished boozer, just north of Piccadilly Circus (opposite Brasserie Zédel). Opened in Autumn 2023, it’s no surprise given their joint heritage that prime steak – dry aged and butchered on the premises – is intrinsic to the formula. But so, too, is just dropping in for a pint.

For 33 years we've been curating reviews of the UK's most notable restaurant. In a typical year, diners submit over 50,000 reviews to create the most authoritative restaurant guide in the UK. Each year, the guide is re-written from scratch based on this survey (although for the 2021 edition, reviews are little changed from 2020 as no survey could run for that year).

Have you eaten at The Devonshire?

17 Denman Street, London, W1D 7HW

The Devonshire Restaurant Diner Reviews

Reviews of The Devonshire Restaurant in W1D, London by users of Hardens.com. Also see the editors review of The Devonshire restaurant.
Martin B
Fabulous English fare. Savoury suet pudding...
Reviewed 27 days ago

"Fabulous English fare. Savoury suet pudding a joyous thing. I have to admit to a nostalgic tear. Side dishes a little of an afterthought. Service and surroundings on the terrace excellent. "

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Shawn M
A wonderful experience - superlative servic...
Reviewed 3 months, 24 days ago

"A wonderful experience - superlative service - probably the best I've ever had in the UK - and extremely good food. The venue is what it is - a nice upstairs room in a Georgian building, set off by a view of an open grill, However, the ambience was great, a result of good service and a (subsequently?) convivial crowd. The menu was full of good things, with an equally tempting selection of reliable, though not inexpensive, wines. Our rather old-fashioned lunch was somewhat lengthy as it was so tempting to linger ... we'd have probably stayed for dinner if we could have!"

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Colin C
Foot was very good and the service was exce...
Reviewed 5 months, 11 days ago

"Foot was very good and the service was excellent"

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Martin B
Another very fine meal at the Devonshire. ...
Reviewed 5 months, 12 days ago

"Another very fine meal at the Devonshire. Plain (this in a good way!) food cooked exceptionally well. Staff all lovely to a fault. "

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Ros H
A really lovely place - the setting of a Di...
Reviewed 7 months, 21 days ago

"A really lovely place - the setting of a Dickensian dining room with first class food and wine presented with energy and enthusiasm. "

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Clifford B
Downstairs - a bustling pub with excellent ...
Reviewed 8 months, 3 days ago

"Downstairs - a bustling pub with excellent beer at a price higher than most of the country. Upstairs, more a set of pub ‘dining rooms’ than a restaurant. It’s noisy, efficiently run and the cooking is sound. More ‘old time favourites’ than ‘cutting-edge cuisine and the better for that. Less instagram and more ‘get it down you’ it has little to be criticised. However, when there are empty tables all over the place and a single diner wanting a single seat is turned away then you have to question the hype …. Enjoyable, yes. As hyped? Not really."

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Phil B
Bustling pub and grill restaurant. Some dis...
Reviewed 8 months, 7 days ago

"Bustling pub and grill restaurant. Some dishes great, some fairly average."

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David W
Why the hype? It’s a mediocre gastropub -...
Reviewed 8 months, 25 days ago

"Why the hype? It’s a mediocre gastropub - both food and service."

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What the Newspaper Critics are saying

The Daily Telegraph

“The meat is exceptional, the wood-fired oven the largest such weapon I have ever seen, the decor classic and unobtrusive, the service skilled and smart and old-school,” he said, struggling to come up with something new to say. Then he had a brainwave: “even the loos are traditional, furnished with Thomas Crapper porcelain.”

William Sitwell - 2024-03-10

Tim Hayward rated the launch of this pub and dining room just off Piccadilly Circus as “the biggest opening since the pandemic” (take that, Arlington!), and added his name to the long list of critical thumbs-ups, pronouncing it “actually a very good pub”.

Tim Hayward - 0000-00-00

The Guardian

Grace Dent devoted her review to “elegant old-school boozer” The Devonshire, in the week leading up to the first anniversary of its launch – on the basis, perhaps, that it is always worth revisiting the most hyped of openings to check that they have delivered on their promise.

“It’s quite hard to remember that this is just a pub”, she pointed out. Its founding trio – landlord Oisin Rogers, Charlie (Flat Iron) Carroll and Ashley (Fat Duck and Dinner) Palmer-Watts – “are not reinventing the art of hostelry; instead, they’re leaning heavily on a yesteryear type of fun that wraps around punters like a comfort blanket.”

And, she made clear, they have succeeded in spades – not just with the “refined comfort food” they serve, but in the atmosphere they have created mixing boho Soho (Colony Room and Coach & Horses), 1980s Groucho Club ebullience and 1970s Kilburn Irishry.

All said, there’s only one thing Grace doesn’t like about it: “the main bar is usually so packed with testosterone-fuelled, braying men in gilets, all necking Guinness like there’s no tomorrow, that you may not wish to linger there long, or even at all.”

Grace Dent - 2024-10-27
17 Denman Street, London, W1D 7HW
Opening hours
Monday12 pm‑10 pm
Tuesday12 pm‑10 pm
Wednesday12 pm‑10 pm
Thursday12 pm‑10 pm
Friday12 pm‑10 pm
Saturday12 pm‑10 pm
Sunday12 pm‑5:30 pm

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