Dinner in Soho, before the curtain or long after it
A dinner booking is four hours and £900, and in this postcode those four hours have a particular shape. Soho eats early for the theatres and then eats again at half past ten when the casts and the audiences spill back out onto Shaftesbury Avenue. Either half of that evening works. What you are booking is somebody who can hold a table for an entire evening without either of you reaching for your phone.
She meets you at the restaurant or comes to your hotel first and walks down with you, whichever you prefer. Say which when you write. The figure covers the whole four hours from the moment you sit down, travel inside Zones 1 and 2 included, and the rest of the ladder is printed openly on the card.
Suited to Dinner dates
Ladies the host suggests most often for this kind of evening. Any name on the list can be asked for.
How four hours usually fall
The common shape is a drink somewhere small at seven, a table at eight, and the last hour spent somewhere with a lower ceiling and a shorter wine list. A late booking inverts it, meeting at ten for supper when the kitchens that stay open are doing their best work and the room has thinned out. Nothing about the figure changes between those two versions. If the evening runs past its fourth hour the host agrees the extra time in the chat, and whether that is possible depends on what else her night holds.
The eight o'clock problem
Pre theatre dining in W1D is a genuine logistical puzzle, because every room within five minutes of a stage door is full between six and half past seven and then empty by eight. If you have tickets, book her for the earlier slot and tell the host the curtain time, and she will keep an eye on the clock so that you do not have to. The alternative, which regulars tend to prefer, is to skip the rush entirely and eat properly afterwards while the rest of the street queues for taxis.
Tables worth the walk
The house does not hold tables anywhere and claims no arrangement with any restaurant, but the hosts know the rooms and will tell you honestly which ones suit a long conversation. Andrew Edmunds on Lexington Street is candlelit and close together in a way that flatters. Bocca di Lupo near Archer Street is better at the counter than at the tables. Noble Rot on Greek Street rewards anybody who actually reads a wine list. Barrafina works when you want a fast, bright hour rather than a slow three. Ask and you will get an opinion rather than a brochure.
Dressing for a Soho room
This is not a jacket and tie postcode and pretending otherwise reads badly. Tell the host where the table is and she dresses to match it, which in practice means something simple and well cut rather than anything that announces itself. A basement room on Romilly Street and a first floor dining room on Regent Street ask for slightly different things, and she would rather be told than guess. If you are going on somewhere afterwards with a door policy, mention that too.
Names who are good across a table
Liana is unhurried company for a long dinner and genuinely interested in what the kitchen is doing. Nancy is thirty, golden blonde and completely at ease in a loud room. Thea has green eyes, a caramel blonde crop of hair worn long and the useful habit of drawing out the quieter person at the table. Karolina is 174 cm and reads a room quickly. Margo at thirty one is the name for a table where you would rather the conversation stayed adult and dry. Several of them also appear under late twenties on the styles pages.
Who books the table
You do, in your own name, exactly as you would for anybody else. The house does not ring restaurants on your behalf, partly because a booking in your name is simply cleaner and partly because no Soho room needs a third party involved. If you would rather not choose, say what kind of evening you want and the host will name three places and tell you which one is easiest to get into that week. The deposit for a dinner is the standard quarter by bank transfer, and the booking page has the sequence.
Dinner dates, asked at the door
Short, plain answers. Anything else, the host takes by message at any hour.
Yes, and many guests prefer it. Give the host the name of the room and the time, and she arrives a few minutes ahead of you so that nobody is left standing about in the doorway.
It is, at the ordinary ladder. Two hours at £500 covers a proper supper without a second venue afterwards. Four hours at £900 is simply the length most dinner evenings settle into once a bar is involved.
No. The figure is for her time and companionship only. Dinner, wine and anything else that evening are yours to settle with the restaurant in the usual way.
Message the host from the table. If her night is clear the extra hours are agreed there and then at the card rate, and if it is not she will say so kindly rather than simply standing up.
More occasions
- 01 · Hotel outcall companionshipRoom visitsThis is the plainest line the house writes and the one written most often. You give the hotel, the hour and how long you would like her to stay. The host gives you a name and a figure. She walks...Step inside
- 02 · Overnight companionshipOvernightsAn overnight is ten hours and £1,800. It usually begins somewhere between ten and midnight, which in Soho is not late at all, and runs through to the morning. It is the one booking the house asks...Step inside
- 03 · Girlfriend experience companionshipGirlfriend experienceThe phrase gets used loosely across this industry, so here is what it means at this door and nothing more. It is an evening with the formality taken out of it. She arrives as somebody pleased to...Step inside
- 04 · Travel companionshipTravel companionTwo different bookings share this page. The first is an airport run, a companion with you for the journey out to Heathrow or Gatwick or for the hours after you land, which carries a three hour...Step inside
- 05 · Business event companionshipBusiness eventsSoho works for a living, and its working evenings have a particular texture. Production companies on Wardour Street, agencies off Golden Square, post houses and record labels and the restaurants...Step inside
- 06 · Duo companionshipDuo bookingsA duo is two names on the same booking, arriving together at the same address at the same hour. It is asked for most often for a long night out, where a pair carries an evening more easily than...Step inside
- 07 · Companionship for couplesCouplesCouples book this house for an evening together with a third person in it, most often a dinner and a bar afterwards, sometimes a show, occasionally a quiet evening at their own address. It is a...Step inside
- 08 · Night out companionshipNights outThis is the occasion Soho was built for. Three hours at £700 is the usual shape, four at £900 if dinner is inside it, and the whole night if you would rather not decide in advance. She meets you...Step inside
- 09 · Extended booking companionshipExtended bookingsSome guests are in London for a week rather than an evening, and would rather write one arrangement than send eight separate messages. An extended booking is exactly that. Several nights, or a run...Step inside
Book Dinner dates
Share the date, the venue and the pace you have in mind. The host replies with names that fit.