Sophie's Soho — Restaurant in London

Short version: come for cocktails, leave before dinner.

We got a table for two with reservation, although I think it would be possible to go without one. We ordered the pork ribs and the tuna steak. The ribs were nice but mostly bbq sauce, which is tasty but you could barely taste any meat. It came with a mountain of pickles and nothing else - no chips, no potatoes, nothing. The tuna steak was just okay. The waiter asked me to pick between rare or well done which I found to be a bit weird as I prefer my tuna medium, and that is normally not a problem. In the end, it wasn't overcooked just a little too much for my liking. The tuna portion was a bit small, and again, no chips included so I picked them as a side dish. However they also don't come with any mayonnaise or other condiment. There's a little side salad, but it's very minimal. The cocktails however were great! They were unfortunately out of lychee juice but still able to amend the cocktail to a delicious elderflower vodka combo.

As dessert we got the cheesecake and the crème brûlée. The cheesecake was really nice, the flavour of the day was caramel toffee. The crème brûlée was just really bad. No other way to put it. The top was soggy, probably because of the fruits placed on top of the sugar, which also tasted like they were just thawed out of the freezer. The pudding barely had any taste and I was mostly glad for the small portion because I really didn't want to it more of it.

The restaurant itself is beautiful, it is in a big industrial hall and attention is clearly paid to the furniture and lights. It is modern, trendy and even though it's all one big hall the seats feel rather cosy. They then fully forgot about acoustics. You wouldn't be able to understand someone if they were screaming in your ear right next to you, especially if it gets a bit later in the evening and this DJ comes out who just blares vague pop hits. It's like dining in a club. And maybe the 19yo liked it better than I did, but I generally like to converse with the people at my table.

The pricing fits with what you would expect from a trendy restaurant in the heart of Soho, but it would be great if the food was then also of a slightly better quality. In the end, great cocktails, trendy vibe, but leave here before dinner to eat at one of the endless amazing food options in...

Sophie's has just taken the top spot of all the steak houses I have been to in London.

We arrived half an hour early and, having called ahead that we would be, they were happy to seat us even during a time when the restaurant was visibly busy.

Our waitress, Hannah, came over and took our drinks order. I ordered an espresso martini. Unfortunately they had used syrup (this is a trick lots of bars do to make you drink more alcohol as it neutralises it) and I couldn't taste it until after a few sips. It was happily and quickly exchanged for another that had no syrup. Good service. Hannah was a delight to have as a waitress. Knowledgeable about the menu, prompt and checked in on us without being intrusive.

On to what we had:

Tuna Tartare, smashed avocado, smoked chilli, lime, sourdough crisp: I had to have this as this receipe frequency has egg in it which I'm allergic too. The tuna was extremely smooth and the chilli/lime combination is a fantastic, South American-esque combination.

Smoked Brisket Croquettes chilli mayo, sauerkraut: again, a smooth centre just as croquettes should be. The mayo was the perfect flavour accompaniment.

1kg Porterhouse steak. Order this. And do it medium rare. Wow, was this good! The meat has a flavour and quality difficult to come across. The filet side was extremely tender, and the sirloin side had a ton of flavour.

Fries - can't really go wrong with these. :-)

Wedge salad - what was particularly notable about this wedge salad was that the mayo was not overdone. Frequently restaurants will drown the wedge, but not here. Enough to get the flavour and sufficient to allow the bacon and black sesame flavours to come through.

Vanilla and salted caramel ice cream - this is where they could improve. It was tasty, but then so is ice cream from a supermarket.

Overall, a fantastic restaurant with premium quality steak that has bested those steak restaurants I have been to prior (check out my...

Set in a beautiful old building with exposed brickwork and a colonial era style island bar, you begin to anticipate something quite special. We were sat across from the open firepit up a small flight of stairs with an intimate view into the back of house operation, with an assortment of meats and vegetables hanging, or on grills, above glowing logs of oak & Birchwood. We ordered 4 bloody Mary's and took what I'm sure is a mandatory photo (or video) of the kitchen at work before studying the menu. We ordered the croquettes and veal butter, which surprisingly arrived well before the drinks. At which point we ordered mains, from the sunday roast menu with carafes of wine. Despite having a Rare rib eye off the bone (for one person) the mains were out in what seemed like 15 minutes, which was amazing. The wines however didn't arrive until we were half way through our mains and that was only because we had inquired about them. On two occasions going to the downstairs bathrooms I noticed that there wasn't a barperson actually in the bar. Perhaps that is only a sample size and not a broader view of the operation, however the beverage service left a lot to be desired and undoubtedly a lot of lost revenue on the floor which should concern any business and is the true intention of reviewing here. We would almost certainly have drank more, had we been offered the opportunity too. As pleasant as the floor staff were, there was also a distinct lack of urgency which exacerbated the growing frustration we experienced. I'm not sure how the service charge works here but on our observation, it does not seem to incentivise good service. The idea that tips are meritorious is lost. That said, would we come back here again?. I think the issues we witnessed are easily fixed and the venue and most certainly the food warrant it. Everyone has an off day. It may just have been one of those for us. I would certainly...