LDNGuide
Where To Go When You Can’t Get Into The Devonshire
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
The Devonshire is a flawless pub and restaurant, and it feels like you have to be a celebrity—or at the very least, exceptionally Type A—to get a reservation for The Devonshire’s upstairs dining room. You can’t get a booking. We can’t get a booking. And Soho’s pigeons are probably organising their own waitlist system for the alfresco terrace. And so, we bring you the very best alternatives.
Through blood, sweat, and an array of carefully scheduled alarms, we got a reservation at The Devonshire. Read the full review and find out why it’s one of the best restaurants in London.
THE SPOTS
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
There are over 2000 pubs in London but not all of them can sincerely claim that they make obtaining gout look chic. Much like The Pub That Shall Not Be Named, The George in nearby Fitzrovia certainly does. Its seductive upstairs dining room is exactly the kind of place where we picture ourselves eating one of London’s best steak tartares in the present, and marking our fourth divorce with our friends ‘foie’, ‘gras’, and ‘knickerbocker glory’ in the future.
photo credit: Jake Missing
Long before we all learnt the profound, Pavlovian agony of refreshing a booking website every six seconds, there was The French House. Or simply, ‘The French’, as it’s known in Maggie O’Farrell novels and by old-school Soho eccentrics. With a similar downstairs for drinking, upstairs for big meat dishes and little fishies on great toast mentality, it shares The Devonshire’s air of confident, refined comfort and their best-in-class potato expertise. Expect some of the best frites in London.
We once claimed that there isn’t a single dessert in London that could make us forget the supreme ’70s glamour and glory of The Cadogan Arms’ colossal fruit trifle. And now, as we stare longingly at a friend of friend’s blurry picture of The Devonshire’s sticky toffee pudding, we have to live with that. Still, thanks to its fancified—and satisfying—British classics and the velvet armchairs that will swallow you whole, this chandelier-clad Chelsea beauty is warm, decadent, and also offers just the right level of Victoriana.
Cast your mind back to 2021 and this Grade II-listed ode to the seductive powers of candlelight was probably causing you to spend a lot of quality time with SevenRooms. Now, you can get a same-week—sometimes, same-day—booking at Sessions Arts Club with relative ease. The dishes at this Clerkenwell looker are less ‘theatrical, steaming lamb hotpot’ and more ‘delicate little crab dish to keep your martini company’, but its secluded alfresco terrace and affair-primed booths make it just as perfect for people who aspire to that Dorian Gray school of luxury. And if you are struggling with a booking, we’ve got a guide to fill the gap too.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
The Devonshire’s salty, pillow-posing bread is hand-delivered with tongs. Alright, no need for tears, let’s move on, because The Tamil Prince’s dough staple is a huge, tearable, deep-fried channa bhatura that is probably responsible for 98% of the ‘UFO sightings’ in Islington. A buzzing union of fancy pub and great curry house, this sizzling lamb chop haven also has an equally dominating presence on our Instagram feed, so it’s a great stand-in if you primarily want to say the magic words, “oh yeah, I’ve been there”.
Soma is our favourite bar in Soho. It’s achingly cool, it serves some of London’s most lethally sippable martinis, and it’s directly opposite The Devonshire. We have drowned our sorrows in this moody basement more times than we care to disclose—and yes, believing that we might be able to get a last-minute table at its neighbour by just asking very, very nicely counts as ‘sorrows’. Be warned, there is sometimes a queue after dark but it tends to move quickly and the kumquat and mezcal verde margarita is entirely worth exhibiting a trait we’re desperately trying to acquire—patience.
photo credit: Aleksandra Boruch
Honestly, denial is just self-care without the yoga. But before you accuse us of being as confusing as that 7am like from a long-gone situationship, let us remind you that the issue here isn’t getting into The Devonshire. The issue is securing a booking for The Devonshire’s dining room. You can still access the downstairs pub, with their perfect pints of Guinness and bar snacks like Iberico pork sausages.
