Soho

• Iconic Soho cafe Patisserie Valerie closes its doors on Old Compton Street

  

   It's not been a good week for Soho and Old Compton Street in particular. Five days ago, we heard that Ed's Easy Diner (on Old Compton Street since 1987) had closed its doors. And now it's the turn of Patisserie Valerie.

  It's all sounding very familiar. A company starts with a bit of gentle growth in the 80s. It's then taken over

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• Yosma is moving its Turkish tavern from Baker Street to Soho

  

  It's all change for Yosma. The Turkish meyhane, mangal and raki bar (essentially a Turkish tavern) opened in Marylebone in 2016 to acclaim - all inspired by the streets of Istanbul. We were also pretty impressed with the place ourselves. And now we hear that they're shutting up shop on Baker Street - but they'll be opening in central London

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• Ed's Easy Diner owner converts its original Soho spot to Slim Chickens

  

  London's restaurant scene is constantly in churn - with new restaurants replacing old. That's the nature of the beast. But even we admit to being a bit surprised at our emotional reaction to the news yesterday that Soho classic Ed's Easy Diner was no more.

  Reported in a tweet by The Guinea's GM Oisin Rogers, it transpires that the American diner on the corner of Old Compton Street and Moor Street has been taken over by another American import -

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• Swedish-style cafe Soderberg is opening in Soho's Berwick Street

  Popular Scottish chain Söderberg is expanding to London, bringing their cardamom buns and open sarnies to Soho's Berwick Street.

• Test Driving The French House in Soho with Neil Borthwick in command

   

  Neil Borthwick has taken over the kitchen at The French House and is getting rave reviews. We popped down to check out the menu. 

• Yeni in Soho will be top Turkish chef Civan Er's first London restaurant

  Acclaimed Turkish chef Civan Er is bringing a flavour of his Istanbul restaurant Yeni Lokanta to London's Soho.

• Bar Jaleo in Soho is the latest from Rambla's Victor Garvey and it's all about paella

  Victor Garvey launches his next restaurant. It's still Spanish but this time it's dedicated to paella. 

• Wild Rice and Mamasan comes to Brewer Street - a double-decker restaurant with two takes on Thai food

  London's love affair with Thai food continues as a young Thai pair open a pair of new restaurants serving up different takes on Thai food in the same building on Brewer Street.

• Bowls comes to Soho serving up, yes, bowl food

  This restaurant does what it says on the tin - it serves up bowl food. Those bowls will be inspired by worldwide cuisine, including the Caribbean, South America and South East Asia.

• Calcutta Canteen by Darjeeling Express is Asma Khan's new all-day cafe - updated

  Updated with a first look at the food. As Darjeeling Express goes from strength to strength, Asma Khan has a new venture ready. Calcutta Canteen is an all-day North Indian/Bengali-inspired cafe in Carnaby and the big focus will be on filled bread buns called Pau buns.

• Yamagoya ramen returns to Soho and there will be raindrop cakes

  Yamagoya ramen originally started as a pop-up upstairs at Shuang Shuang. Now they're back, taking over the main restaurant for good and are bringing their famed raindrop cake with them. 

• Test Driving Berenjak - Iranian kababs in Soho from the JKS group

  JKS Restaurants turn their superpowers to the humble kebab - inspired by Iranian hole in the wall spots. Seems like Soho's not all that far from Tehran after all. 

• Soho Wala Indian restaurant comes to the Courthouse Hotel

  The Courthouse Hotel in Soho is getting its own Indian restaurant from a chef with a background in Dinner by Heston and Nobu.

• Test of Time - we make a return visit to Polpetto

  Polpetto now has an ex River Cafe chef in the kitchen. We made a return visit to see how the arrival of Anthea Stephenson has changed things at this Soho spot. 

• Breddos revamp their Soho basement to create their new taco and margarita bar

  

  News reaches us of the transformation of Breddos' basement area into their brand new taco and margarita bar, Cocteleria. For all your Soho Margarita needs - this could be the place to be...

  The subterranean area has had something of a revamp and they're bringing in a new menu to go with that. Frozen margaritas will be on the menu, of course, and if you can tear yourselves away from those, other

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