Soho, American Restaurant Guide

Can the arrival of Richard Turner – Meatopia founder and consultant to Hawksmoor, Blacklock and Pitt Cue – help turn around this sagging chain of US smokehouses, launched in 2002 and with 6-7 outlets at its height? His new menu was launched in March 2025 across the remaining Soho, Covent Garden, Camden Town (an all-day diner) and Tower Hill branches, with the focus on US-scale platters of ribs, pulled pork and other meaty cuts.

“Well worth the trip to Soho” – Victor Garvey’s California-inspired venue inspires high praise for modern American cuisine that’s “innovative, but without gimmicks”, centred around a ten-course tasting menu for £159 per person that provides “a brilliant balance of flavours”, all matched with “interesting” wines with splendid advice available (“had one of the tastiest wine flights and the sommelier adjusted it depending on our tastes, with some great American wines that I would never otherwise have tried”). And it’s a handsomely decorated place too. Just one thing: while acknowledging its all-round excellence, 1 in 5 reporters nevertheless considers it to be “overpriced”. Top Menu Tip – “the devilled egg is special”.