8.7
Great
Restaurants

Hattie Lloyd 29/09/23


Sussex

Sussex | Elegant British Dining in Soho

Soho’s Frith St – home to Ronnie Scott’s, Karaoke Box and Little Italy (which is fine as a restaurant, but better as a place to drink overpriced shots and dance to 1970s wedding music until 5am) – has just become our second favourite street in London.

And it’s all thanks to the affable & talented Gladwin brothers (a historically West London-based sibling team whose restaurants Rabbit and The Shed are all powered by organic veg, ethically-reared meat and wine produced at the family farm in Sussex), who have just brought a taste of the English countryside right into the heart of Soho.

sussex restaurant soho

Located on the site of what was once Antony Demetre’s Arbutus, Sussex feels like a refined and handsome country kitchen. The centrepiece of the horseshoe-shaped upstairs space is a butcher’s block-style counter, which essentially acts as a giant cheeseboard that you can pick and choose from after your meal. Surrounding it is a happy marriage of town and country, with unvarnished wooden tables and rolling blue banquette seating offset by glossy dark green tongue and groove wall panelling and artwork made from old wine labels.

The food – currently being rustled up by Oliver Gladwin and team – strikes the same balance, taking exciting seasonal British meat, veg and seafood from their farm (and neighbouring farms & producers) and applying a little fine dining flair. Elegantly presented and often quite beautiful, dishes that we tried included crispy artichoke and potato hash; partridge saltimbocca and monkfish carpaccio for starters; followed by crab ravioli with shellfish and quince bisque; BBQ pork loin with miso and chard; a mallard wellington to share between two.

And if you thought ‘wow, all that fresh produce and country-style dining probably makes for a fantastic Sunday roast’ then you’d be absolutely correct. Snappily titled ‘Sundays From The Farm’, the menu features their signature Sussex Beef Fillet Wellington, Rolled Dorset Leg of Lamb, Lyon’s Hill Beef Rib on the Bone (cooked in a charcoal oven and served with a horseradish caramel jus) and 90-day Saxon Chicken, pasture-raised in Somerset and cooked in a Bertha oven. Everything comes with trimmings, towering Yorkies, lashings of gravy, and more.

Sussex

If you’re really pushing the boat out (and have ten friends) then plump for the chef’s table – planted downstairs and essentially in the kitchen itself, where you’ll be invited to enjoy a wine-paired walk-through of their greatest hits, from Lulworth scallops with blood pudding and caviar, to those signature mushroom and marmite éclairs…

You’re going to love them or hate them.

 

NOTE: Sussex is open for lunch and dinner Tuesday – Friday, plus dinner on Monday & Saturday. You can make a booking, and find out more, HERE.

Sussex | 63-64 Frith Street, Soho, W1D 3JW


Looking for a nightcap spot? Peruse these excellent Soho bars


Sussex


63 Frith Street, Soho, W1D 3JW

0207 734 4545

8.7 | Great