Soho

• Arbutus launches new bar - Les Couilles du Chien

  

  This place is quite literally the dogs' bollocks. A Michelin starred restaurant with a sense of humour is opening a new bar - cheekily titled Les Couilles du Chien.

  Arbutus in Soho is already known for its keenly priced contemporary food and huge range of wines available by the carafe, under the direction of chef patron Anthony Demetre. Now, the new bar will offer a chance to enjoy a far more informal experience which, they

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• Zelman Meats replaces Rex & Mariano on St Anne's Court

  

  Twitter was all abuzz with the news that popular seafood restaurant Rex and Mariano was closing.

  Hot Dinners caught up with Dave Strauss from Goodman restaurants, owners of Rex and Mariano, to find out what was going on. First things first, he confirmed that R&M is indeed closing. The last service is expected to be on 17 October. "We got the formula wrong," he told us. "The restaurant was

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• A new look, menu and bookings for The Smoking Goat

  

  We're big fans of the Smoking Goat, but not big fans of queuing, we have to admit. But they've just made it much easier to score a table, so it'll be time to make another visit.

  They've opened a new "dining room" at the back of the building which will take another 35 people - so it'll be much easier to grab a seat and they'll be taking bookings for six or more too. Plus their feast menu has now grown - there's a regular

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• Little Bao from Hong Kong kicks off a week-long London pop-up

  

  Updated 9/9/15 with images and first-hand impressions

  Following our original story on Little Bao below, we were invited in to try everything at the Soho Kitchen pop-up - and we did indeed have almost everything. First things first, this seems very full-on for a pop-up, with the whole menu changed. temporary signage and lots more touches outside and inside. Indeed, having seen the effort they've been to,

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• Sunday Lunch with a "press for Champagne" button. We try the Sunday Roast at Bob Bob Ricard

  

  As our regular readers will know, we're big fans of Bob Bob Ricard. Following on from their recent foray into Saturday lunches, they've now expanded to offer the Bob Bob Ricard Sunday lunch.

  Now, everything's a little bit more special at BBR, and the Sunday lunch is no exception. While the main lunchtime menu is available, it's the "Traditional Roast"

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• French wine bar and brasserie Jean-Jacques comes to Soho

  

  A new French import to cross the channel is opening in Soho this month - and this one also has its roots in Russia. Jean-Jacques is a wine bar an brasserie that has originally had a home in Russia and St Petersburg and is now opening its latest outpost in London (taking over the spot from El Cantera).

  It'll have a classic French brasserie menu. So that will start with omelette with

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• Ribs, belly, quail and more - summer dishes preview at the Smoking Goat

  Summer changes are afoot at the Smoking Goat on Denmark Street. It's not that we think you will need much to attract you to the restaurant - which we still think has one of the best smoky aromas in town - but these pics by Paul Winch Furness will definitely do the job. 

  All of them are on the menu now and Ben Chapman tells us a little more about each of them...

  House of Ho launches Ho to Go in Soho

  

  That heading above may have gone a little overbaord on the rhyming - but the latest from House of Ho should be worth checking out from today. They'll be serving a new selection of Banh Mis from a hatch outside the restaurant offering takeaway Banh Mi sandwiches. On offer are chicken, beef, pork and vegetarian and they'll all be at £5 each, But to celebrate the first day - today, July 6th - a limited number will be given away at £2.50 each. So if

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• Hoppers is coming to Soho from the Sethis - the people behind Gymkhana

  

  When it was revealed that Koya was closing for good, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth, quickly followed by speculation as to what would take its place. Now that's been revealed as Hoppers, the latest from Karam, Jyotin and Sunaina Sethi - the siblings who are behind Trishna and Gymkhana. As well as those high

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• Pilau settles down with their Indian street wraps in Soho

  

  A short while ago, we reported on a new pop-up appearing at Leicester Square station called Pilau (following an earlier stint at Old Street). It proved very popular indeed, so much so that they've now settled down in Soho for a long-term residency. They've taken up a spot just beside the Berwick Street Market and

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• Blacklock launch the new pork chop sandwich and more besides

  

  A few months in and Blacklock is still doing very well indeed - but they're not resting on their laurels as new dishes have just hit the menu. The first is this wonderful looking pork chop sandwich that's now on the menu for lunch.

  As Blacklock's Gordon Ker says: "The sandwich is an ode to probably the best sandwich we’ve ever tasted, the Maxwell Street Pork Chop Sandwich in Chicago. We first tried that on

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• Duck and Rice Alan Yau's Chinese gastropub
• The Ivy gets a new lease of life - we Test Drive the revamp of one of London's oldest restaurants

  It's just undergone a huge revamp, so we decided it was time to put the nearly 100 year old London restaurant through its paces. 

• Smack Lobster opens second place on Soho's Dean Street

  

  Talk about sneaky! Smack Lobster has just opened its second restaurant and this one's in Soho on Dean Street. We haven't been down to the original for a few months, but a look at the menu tweeted by blogger MelissaFoodie today suggests there are some new dishes available here - mainly lobster salads.

  The salads cost the same as the lobster roll - £10 - and come in four

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• Mark Sargeant to open Morden & Lea brasserie on Wardour Street

  

  2015 is proving to be a busy old year for Mark Sargeant. Just weeks after his appointment as Chef Director at The Strand Dining Rooms was announced, comes news that the chef and restaurateur is in the last stages of opening a restaurant in Soho. Morden & Lea is described as a modern brasserie, named after 17th century cartographer Robert Morden and Philip Lea, who were the first to map out the area now

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