8.5
Great
Restaurants

Neil Frame 07/11/22


Social Eating House

Social Eating House | Moody Modern European Bistro in Soho

Teasingly perched next to Lucky Voice karaoke in Soho (which is already a good start for anyone who enjoys playing “Let’s Have Fun”) lie two heavy, wooden doors.

Look above the door to the left, and you’ll spot an old street sign which says “Social Eating House”. It says that because this place used to be a house, now it’s used for eating, and it’s for sociable people. Like you.

Walk under the sign and you’ll be greeted by Jason “Pollen Street Social” Atherton’s moody creation: a dimly lit beehive of bistro-esque activity, where wooden booths, copper-topped tables and leather banquettes are industrially cocooned by exposed brickwork and battered walls. Here a team of chefs led by Paul Hood – who you can watch hard at work by bagsying a stool at the “Employees Only” dining bar downstairs overlooking the vast basement kitchen – serves up high-end English bistro-style fare with the occasional international twist.

Choose from either the à la carte menu, designed to share, or the surprisingly reasonable prix fixe, and you’ll enjoy Social Eating House classics like the Cumbrian saddleback pork shoulder with green chilli and parmesan; roasted cod with cauliflower and ras el hanout; and 40 day-aged soy-glazed venison haunch with triple-cooked chips – all topped off by a salted maple syrup caramel and chocolate tart…

…but as you’re still thinking about that other door, let’s go outside again.

The first thing you’ll see on returning to the street is a rusty ‘OPTICIANS’ sign hanging above where the door on the right should be… but isn’t. Because this door’s set back from the street, having been sneakily hidden at the rear of a shadowy concrete enclave and curiously adorned with the blindfolded head of a golden pig.

Enter, climb the stairs, and you’ll emerge into the Social Eating House’s upstairs bar, The Blind Pig: a world of dark brown leather and concrete; of pork sliders and chipirones; of blues, barmen in braces and cocktails like the Cereal Killer, the Japanese Slipper and We Speak No Americano.

Also, Lucky Voice is open ‘til 3am.

Just saying.

 

NOTE: Social Eating House is open Tues-Sat for lunch (12-2.15pm) and dinner (5.45-10pm). You can book a table right HERE.

Social Eating House | 58 Poland Street, W1F 7NR


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Social Eating House


58 Poland Street, Soho, W1F 7NR

020 7993 3251

8.5 | Great