Soho has the densest drinking in Britain packed into about half a square mile, which means the hard question here is never what is good. It is what you can get into at the hour you are standing there.
The neighbourhood divides cleanly in two: the rooms that take no bookings at all, and the rooms with booking rules so specific they are worth reading before you plan an evening. Get that the wrong way round and you will spend the night walking between doors.
This page is arranged by how you get in rather than by what they pour, because in Soho that is the only sorting that helps.
The ones that take no bookings
Arrive early or accept the queue. There is no third option and no amount of planning changes it.
The Coach and Horses, Greek Street
The Devonshire
- Address
- Denman Street, Soho
- Nearest
- Piccadilly Circus
- Hours
- 11.00 to 23.00, and 11.00 to 22.00 on a Sunday. Restaurant sittings run from 12.00, last sitting 22.00 and 21.00 on Sunday
- Booking
- The downstairs pub is walk in only. Bookings are for the restaurant only, and they take no drinks or bar snacks reservations at all
How to get in
The most asked about room in Soho, and the answer to the question everybody asks is that you cannot book it. The pub takes nobody. Turn up or do not go.
Read that booking line twice, because it is the whole thing. The Devonshire takes reservations for its restaurant upstairs and none whatsoever for the pub downstairs, which is the part people queue for and the part that pours the Guinness. There is no waiting list either: their own answer is that they are not running one. Walk ins are taken inside and on the roof terrace, subject to availability, which is a polite way of describing a scrum.
One rule that catches families. Children are welcome in the restaurant at any time, and not welcome in the pub after 5pm on a weekday or at any time over the weekend. If you are bringing a pram the house asks for advance notice in the booking notes so the host team can seat you properly.
Its Sunday roast is on our roast guide, where the timing problem is the same one that governs everything else in this postcode.
The Coach and Horses
- Address
- 29 Greek Street, Soho, W1D 5DH
- Nearest
- Leicester Square or Tottenham Court Road
- Booking
- No table bookings at all
- Standing
- Grade II listed, with a substantially intact 1937 Taylor Walker interior
How to get in
No table bookings of any kind, so it is first come and it fills from six. Check the street before you set off: there are three pubs of this name in W1 and one of them uses Soho in its web address while standing on Great Marlborough Street. Greek Street is the one.
The French House, Dean Street
The French House
- Address
- 49 Dean Street, Soho, W1D 5BG
- Nearest
- Leicester Square or Tottenham Court Road
- Hours
- Bar Monday to Friday 11.30am to 11pm, Sunday midday to 10.30pm. The upstairs restaurant room does lunch midday to 3pm and dinner 6pm to 9.30pm, Monday to Saturday
- Standing
- No music, no machines, no television and no mobile phones
How to get in
The house rules are real and still enforced: no music, no machines, no television and no telephones. Beer is served in halves only, with one exception a year at their spring fundraiser, and the 1 April date you will see quoted for that comes from other guides rather than from the pub. Note the Saturday oddity: the bar hours they publish run Monday to Friday and Sunday, while the restaurant runs Monday to Saturday. De Gaulle’s Free French used the upstairs room.
The Blue Posts, Rupert Street
The Blue Posts
- Address
- 28 Rupert Street, Soho, W1D 6DJ
- Nearest
- Piccadilly Circus or Leicester Square
- Hours
- Closed all day Sunday
- Booking
- No reservations
- Standing
- Three businesses stacked in one building
How to get in
Take the number with you: there are five pubs called the Blue Posts and all five are open. This is the Grade II listed one, at 28 Rupert Street. No reservations, no cask ale, and shut all day Sunday, which catches people out more than anything else in this postcode.
The ones with rules, and the rules are the point
Swift, Old Compton Street
Two bars on two floors running two different policies, which is the whole trick of the place and the reason people end up in the wrong one.
Swift Soho
- Nearest
- Tottenham Court Road or Leicester Square
- Booking
- Downstairs is reservations only, upstairs is mainly walk ins. No reservations by telephone or social media
- Price
- Over 21s at every Swift venue, and no stag or hen parties
- Standing
- A whisky list running past three hundred bottles downstairs
How to get in
Upstairs takes walk ins and is built for speed: one excellent drink before dinner and out. Downstairs is reservations only, in two hour slots starting on the hour from 5pm, or from 3pm in November and December. They keep some tables back for walk ins but recommend booking, and they take no telephone calls about reservations or lateness at all, only email. Most people never get past the ground floor, which is the mistake.
Bar Termini, Old Compton Street
Bar Termini
- Address
- 7 Old Compton Street, Soho, W1D 5JE
- Nearest
- Leicester Square or Tottenham Court Road
- Hours
- Reservations from 4pm Monday to Thursday and from 3pm Friday to Sunday, until closing
- Booking
- One hour slots, maximum five people. Walk ins welcome. 07860 945018
- Standing
- A counter bar on Old Compton Street
How to get in
The booking is an hour and the largest party is five, and they state plainly that booking two tables to get a group of more than six in is not acceptable, so a group of six has misread the room before it arrives. They will try to extend an hour if you ask in advance, and they hold a table for ten minutes. The negroni is batched and chilled ahead, which is how it reaches you in under a minute and why an hour is enough.
Bar Américain, Sherwood Street
Under Brasserie Zédel, in an art deco room that looks like the set of a film nobody made. It is the most reliable good drink in Soho at short notice.
Bar Américain
- Address
- 20 Sherwood Street, W1F 7ED
- Nearest
- Piccadilly Circus
- Hours
- Monday to Thursday 5pm to midnight, Friday 4pm to midnight, Saturday 3pm to 12.30am, Sunday 4pm to 11pm. Last orders at least 20 minutes before closing
- Booking
- A limited number of tables can be reserved, and they always keep room for walk ins
- Standing
- An art deco room beneath Brasserie Zédel
How to get in
Their own wording is that they always reserve room for walk ins, which in Soho at nine o’clock is worth a great deal. Last orders are taken at least twenty minutes before the closing time, so the midnight on the sign is 11.40pm in practice.
The hidden ones, and which of them earn it
The Little Scarlet Door
- Address
- 12 to 13 Greek Street, W1D 4DL
- Nearest
- Tottenham Court Road or Leicester Square
- Hours
- Monday and Tuesday 4pm to 1am. Wednesday 12pm to 1am. Thursday 12pm to 2am. Friday and Saturday 12pm to 3am. Sunday 12pm to 11pm
- Booking
- Their bookings team works 12pm to 5pm Monday to Friday only
How to get in
An unmarked scarlet door on Greek Street and a house party behind it. Three in the morning on a Friday and Saturday, which is later than almost anything else on this page.
The hours are the reason to know about it. Friday and Saturday run to 3am, Thursday to 2am, and Sunday to 11pm. That makes it one of the few Soho rooms still serving when the rest of the postcode has called it a night.
The catch is the other end of the week. Monday and Tuesday it does not open until 4pm, while Wednesday to Sunday it opens at noon. An early Monday drink here is not an option.
And the booking rule is a genuine trap: their own site says the bookings team is only there between 12pm and 5pm, Monday to Friday. So the hours you most want to book, a Friday night or a Saturday, are the hours nobody is answering. Sort it midweek and in the afternoon.
The Vault at Milroy’s, Greek Street
A whisky shop at street level with a bookcase in it. Through the bookcase is a candlelit cellar bar.
The Vault at Milroy’s
- Address
- 3 Greek Street, Soho, W1D 4NX
- Nearest
- Tottenham Court Road or Leicester Square
- Hours
- Monday to Saturday 10.30am to midnight, Sunday 2.30pm to 10.30pm
- Standing
- A whisky shop above, an underground candlelit bar below
How to get in
Step through the bookcase at street level and you are in the Vault, which is their own description of it and not a guide writer’s. The shop upstairs opens at half past ten in the morning, so this is also the only bookcase in Soho you can walk through before lunch. Sunday is short: half two until half ten.
Cahoots, Kingly Court
Cahoots
- Address
- Underground at 13 Kingly Court, W1B 5PW. Ticket Hall at 5 Kingly Street, W1B 5PF
- Nearest
- Oxford Circus or Piccadilly Circus
- Hours
- Underground 5pm to 1am Monday to Wednesday, 4pm to 2am Thursday and Friday, midday to 2am Saturday, 4pm to midnight Sunday. Ticket Hall midday to midnight Sunday to Wednesday and midday to 1am Thursday to Saturday
- Standing
- A replica 1940s Underground station, with a Bakerloo line carriage
How to get in
Two Soho addresses on the same street, and they are not the same evening. The Ticket Hall is a pub with a terrace, open from midday every day with lunch bookings to 3.45pm. The Underground is the themed bar and opens at five midweek, not at noon. Check which one you are heading for. It is a party venue rather than a drinking den.
Experimental Cocktail Club, Gerrard Street
Experimental Cocktail Club
- Address
- 13a Gerrard Street, W1D 5PS
- Nearest
- Leicester Square or Piccadilly Circus
- Standing
- A 1920s inspired room above a Chinatown shopfront
How to get in
An unmarked door on Gerrard Street with a doorman, in the middle of Chinatown, and the address is the only way to find it. They publish neither hours nor a door policy, which is part of the act and also means turning up on spec is a gamble. Go early in the week.
Practical notes
Six to eight is the worst window of the day. Every room in Soho fills with people finishing work at the same hour. Before six you will walk into any of these. After ten it is a different neighbourhood again, and a better one.
Sunday is the weak day and it is not close. The Blue Posts shuts entirely. The Vault runs half two until half ten. Cahoots closes at midnight rather than three. Plan Sunday around the pubs that do open rather than assuming the week applies.
Take the street name, not the pub name. There are five pubs called the Blue Posts and three called the Coach and Horses in W1 alone, and one of the latter uses “soho” in its web address while standing somewhere else entirely.
Covent Garden station is exit only at busy times, and Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus both fill. Tottenham Court Road is the quieter arrival for the Dean Street and Greek Street end.
Everything here was taken from each venue’s own published information and rechecked on 28 September 2026. Hours and door policies in this postcode change more often than most. Confirm before you travel.
Everything this guide has in Soho
67 places, gathered from every page on this site rather than just this one. Each was checked against the venue's own published information, and the link goes to wherever it is written up in full.
Restaurants
-
Honest Burgers Walk in
Honest Burgers -
Padella Soho Book
Padella London -
Coqfighter
The Best Fried Chicken in London -
Chotto Matte
Peruvian Restaurants in London -
Kolamba Soho
Sri Lankan Restaurants in London -
Paradise Soho Closed
Sri Lankan Restaurants in London -
Kiln
The Devonshire Takes No Bookings. Milk Beach Charges £25 to Cancel. Both Are in Soho. -
Barrafina Dean Street Walk in
The Devonshire Takes No Bookings. Milk Beach Charges £25 to Cancel. Both Are in Soho. -
Milk Beach Soho Book
The Devonshire Takes No Bookings. Milk Beach Charges £25 to Cancel. Both Are in Soho. -
temper Soho Book
The Devonshire Takes No Bookings. Milk Beach Charges £25 to Cancel. Both Are in Soho. -
Quo Vadis Book
The Devonshire Takes No Bookings. Milk Beach Charges £25 to Cancel. Both Are in Soho. -
Bocca di Lupo Walk in
The Devonshire Takes No Bookings. Milk Beach Charges £25 to Cancel. Both Are in Soho. -
Andrew Edmunds
The Devonshire Takes No Bookings. Milk Beach Charges £25 to Cancel. Both Are in Soho. -
Brasserie Zédel
The Devonshire Takes No Bookings. Milk Beach Charges £25 to Cancel. Both Are in Soho. -
Golden Union Book
The Best Fish and Chips in London, and the Rule Only One of Them Publishes -
Randall and Aubin Walk in
The Best Seafood Restaurants in London Keep Two Sets of Hours -
Cây Tre
The Best Vietnamese Restaurants in London Are Mostly on One Road -
Yalla Yalla Book
The Best Lebanese Restaurants in London, and the Two That Have Closed -
Speedboat Bar Walk in
Late Night Restaurants in London -
Plum Valley Book
Late Night Restaurants in London -
Eat Tokyo Soho
Late Night Restaurants in London -
Orient London Walk in
Late Night Restaurants in London -
El Pastor
The Best Mexican Restaurants in London, From a Michelin Star to Heirloom Corn Tortillas -
Albert’s Schloss Book
Bottomless Brunch in London -
The Piano Works Book
Bottomless Brunch in London -
Gauthier Soho Book
The Best Vegan Restaurants in London, Including the One With a Michelin Star -
Mildreds Soho
The Best Vegan Restaurants in London, Including the One With a Michelin Star -
Koya Soho Walk in
The Best Japanese Restaurants in London, and the Booking Rules Nobody Prints -
Four Seasons Chinatown Walk in
The Best Restaurants in Chinatown, London -
Bleecker Burger Walk in
The Best Burger in London -
Yauatcha Soho
The Best Chinese Restaurants in London Are Not in Chinatown -
Tattu London
The Best Chinese Restaurants in London Are Not in Chinatown
Pubs and bars
-
Cahoots Walk in
Cahoots London -
Boom Battle Bar London Oxford Street
Axe Throwing in London -
The Devonshire Walk in
The Devonshire Takes No Bookings. Milk Beach Charges £25 to Cancel. Both Are in Soho. -
Simmons Bar
Karaoke in London -
Lucky Voice Book
Karaoke in London -
The Coach and Horses Walk in
Written up above
-
The French House
Written up above
-
The Blue Posts Walk in
Written up above
-
Swift Soho Walk in
Written up above
-
Bar Termini Walk in
Written up above
-
Bar Américain Walk in
Written up above
-
The Little Scarlet Door Book
Written up above
-
The Vault at Milroy’s
Written up above
-
Experimental Cocktail Club
Written up above
-
The Little Violet Door Book
The Best Cocktail Bars in London
See and do
-
MJ the Musical Closed
MJ the Musical Has Closed in London -
Lyric Theatre
Lyric Theatre London -
The Crystal Maze LIVE Experience Book
Crystal Maze London -
The London Palladium
London Palladium -
Outernet London Walk in
Outernet London -
Kingly Court Walk in
Kingly Court -
ODEON Luxe Leicester Square
Odeon Leicester Square -
Picturehouse Central Book
Picturehouse Central -
Curzon Soho Book
Curzon London -
Prince Charles Cinema
Prince Charles Cinema -
The Book of Mormon at the Prince of Wales Theatre Book
The Book of Mormon London -
Moulin Rouge! The Musical at the Piccadilly Theatre Book
Moulin Rouge London -
Les Misérables at the Sondheim Theatre
Les Misérables London -
Carnaby Street
Carnaby Street -
Hamleys Regent Street
Hamleys -
Liberty London Book
Liberty London -
Escape Hunt London Oxford Street
Escape Rooms in London -
Murdock London Book
The Best Barbers in London Sell Minutes, Not Haircuts
Hotels
-
Ham Yard Hotel Book
Ham Yard Hotel
After dark
-
Cirque le Soir Walk in
The Best Clubs in London
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Where to go next
The best restaurants in Soho is the same neighbourhood sorted the same way, by what you can and cannot book. The Devonshire takes no reservations for its pub at all, and Brasserie Zédel does two courses for £16.95.
The full Soho guide covers the eating and the streets. The best cocktail bars in London and the best bars in London are the city-wide lists, and the hidden bars guide sorts the serious ones from the theatre.
For the pubs specifically, the best pubs in London and the oldest pubs. If dinner comes first, pre theatre dinner covers the timing.
Questions we get asked
What are the best bars in Soho?
Swift on Old Compton Street, where upstairs takes walk ins and downstairs is reservations only with a three hundred bottle whisky list, and Bar Termini a few doors along for a negroni in under a minute. For a room rather than a drink, the Vault beneath Milroy’s on Greek Street is a candlelit cellar reached through a bookcase. The French House is the pub, and it has rules.
Which Soho bars do not take bookings?
The Coach and Horses takes no table bookings at all, The Blue Posts takes no reservations, and the upstairs room at Swift is mainly walk ins. Bar Américain beneath Brasserie Zédel takes a limited number of bookings but states that it always keeps room for walk ins, which makes it the most reliable late option in the postcode.
What is open in Soho on a Sunday?
Fewer bars than you would expect. The Blue Posts closes all day Sunday. The Vault at Milroy’s runs a short day, half past two until half past ten. Cahoots closes at midnight rather than three in the morning. The French House and The Coach and Horses are the reliable Sunday rooms.
Are there speakeasies in Soho?
Several, and two of them earn it. The Vault at Milroy’s is genuinely behind a bookcase in a whisky shop at 3 Greek Street. Experimental Cocktail Club is an unmarked door with a doorman at 13a Gerrard Street and publishes neither hours nor a door policy. Cahoots is a replica 1940s Underground station and is a party venue rather than a hidden bar.
What time do Soho bars get busy?
Between six and eight, which is the worst window in London full stop, because the whole West End finishes work at the same hour. Before six you will walk into almost anything on this page. After ten the rooms turn over and it becomes a different and generally better neighbourhood.
Can you book a table in a Soho bar?
At some, and the rules are unusually specific. Bar Termini books in one hour slots for a maximum of five people. Swift books its downstairs room only, in two hour slots on the hour from 5pm, with six the largest party and over 21s only. Several of the best rooms take no bookings at all.
Written by Robert J Wills, no. 86 in the guide.
Last checked 28 September 2026 against the venues' own published information. Nobody pays to appear here and we take no bookings.
