Food Review: B-Soho, London

Sometimes there is so much choice in London it is impossible to know where to start. Especially if you’re a tourist, you could spend ages trawling the streets desperately in the hope you’re gonna stumble upon something special, to actually end up in a Nandos.

B-Soho is placed perfectly just off Oxford Street, a little down the road from the tube station, so if you’ve built up an appetite from pin-balling your way around the shops, B-Soho could be the perfect place to re-feed and rest your feet. It's also got offers live music every night, allowing that relaxation to kick up a gear at any second.

We arrived at half past six on a Friday night and the place was buzzing with people wanting to loosen their ties after a long week working - that’s exactly what we were doing.

It helped that B-Soho had an incredible happy hour deal; 2 cocktails, beer or wine for £10 or you could even get 4 for £15. These prices are ridiculously good for London and it’s clear to see why this place is so popular, although we felt really sorry for all the bar staff working tirelessly.

The décor was very relaxed with a mix of comfy armchairs for people just wanting a drink and proper tables for people who wanted food. They had the mix of bar/restaurant down to a tee – sometimes it can be awkward eating a 3-course meal in the same setting as a load of people half-cut, but this wasn’t.

Speaking of bevvies, we opted to try one of their sharer cocktails, Night At The Movies, which came in a huge, vintage-style popcorn box. The mix of dark rum, coconut and fruit were paired deliciously; but the curveball came with the blend of popcorn.

We can imagine this being the type of cocktail that people want to take pictures of, y’know to make their instagram friends jealous (clock us doing just that above).

For our first course we chose the Arancini B-Soho – mushroom risotto balls with white truffle, Grand Padano and mozzarella that oozed when you cut into them. Risotto and truffle can sometimes be way too overpowering but these were deliciously rich, we probably could have taken a bath in them.

As well as this, we shared Mini Polpette, which suggests these meatballs might have been small, but we were actually given a huge portion. Not that we were complaining as these were some of the nicest meatballs we’d ever tasted - so juicy with a divine, thick tomato sauce. At first, we were a little upset that it didn’t come with a crusty bread to mop up all the sauce, but actually, that would have been totally unnecessary.

For our mains, we opted for linguine pasta of prawns, shrimp, cherry tomatoes and courgette in a white wine sauce. There was so much flavour in this dish, but we felt there could have been a little more sauce.

We could tell the prawns were very fresh (this is always a good sign) and the chef was kind enough to take the heads off for our squeamish guest. We also wanted to try one of their pizzas as B-Soho has a traditional Neapolitan pizza oven, which always excites us when you’ve eaten years worth of Chicago Town oven pizzas (sad face).

We went for the Don Picante – spicy salami with mozerella and tomato. This was the only spicy pizza on the menu and we would have liked to have seen more choice as we like them to be bursting with toppings. You could however, add your own, so we put extra pepperoni and rocket on the top… cause erm, five a day keeps the doctor away…

The pizza itself was huge – they really aren’t shy with their portions here – and the traditional oven really makes a difference, giving it a glorious charcoal taste whilst still being gooey from the cheese. Our only qualm was that the crust could have done with being a little crispier – but this is totally down to preference.

It had gotten to that point in the night where the waitress asks if you’d like to see the dessert menu. Of course, we would have liked to see the menu but whether our stomachs needed to see it was a different issue. We think you always mentally save a little extra room for dessert even if there is no physical room and that’s exactly what happened here.

Tucking into our Salted Caramel Sundae and Chocolate and Hazelnut Cake, we probably looked like the stars of some voyeuristic TV programme about morbidly obese people who just can’t stop eating.

The salted caramel ice cream melted in your mouth whilst the chocolate cake had the rich taste and crunch of the nuts without being too sickly. Unsurprisingly, we finished the lot.

B-Soho is a great place for a pit stop if you’ve been battling the horrendous crowds on Oxford Street or for a cheap but well-made cocktail after work. With the atmosphere electric, a place like this is really what London is all about when you forget the touristy stuff – low-key, distinctive and vibrant.

More info on B-Soho here.