Andrew Edmunds

A little gem hidden in plain sight in the middle of Soho, and one of those places I must have walked past a hundred times but never looked at directly. Not until the other night anyway, when a generous friend took me whisky-​and-​cheese-​tasting nearby and we emerged looking for sustenance. After abandoning Mildred’s having been told it was a 40 minute wait, we were wandering down the street when, just by chance, an old town-​house with no name above the door, but plenty of people inside, caught my eye. As I moved closer to peer through the window at the candlelit tables, a couple of women were just leaving, one of whom said, ‘Thinking of going here? Do. Definitely. It’s amazing.’ Thank you random lady, you were so right.
We went in uncertainly, given we had no idea what the food was nor what the place was even called, but the pretty setting (flowers, candles in wine bottles, white tablecloths, done) and busy tables looked promising. We were ushered downstairs to the little basement dining room and warmly greeted like old friends by the sole casually-​dressed waiter there. He seemed to be doing everything for all of the tables — taking orders, bringing food, clearing empties, the lot — whilst still somehow making time to chat and give recommendations. We got chatting to him later to find out more about the restaurant — only to find far from being new it’s been there over 25 years. Observation skills fail.
The setting is warm and intimate, with something that felt reminiscent of Paris for me — probably how close together the tables were! But with everyone happily chatting away amongst themselves it feels quite normal. Its endearingly quirky qualities continued with handwritten menus, as these change frequently so as to use the best ingredients. My friend is veggie and to be frank I wanted to share some of his food too so our choices were made for us — we ordered the 3 veg starters, of which the stand-​out was a wonderfully creamy burratini, and the 1 veg main (a pasta dish) all to share. It was the kind of food that’s comforting without being too heavy, and after some encouragement from the super-​waiter the chocolate brownie dessert to share went down a treat.
I think we were both enjoying the atmosphere so much that we pushed the boat out on the booze front too — they have a great wine list and after a relaxed bottle of red finished far too easily (particularly after the whisky tasters earlier that night!) we had a glass of muscat dessert wine each too. While it was nice to go with a close friend (and the most enjoyable meal I’d had in a while) I think we both agreed that we’d each like to take our significant others too. I think the atmosphere really is unlike anywhere else I’ve been in central London, managing to ooze romance and authenticity without even appearing to try, and keeping something of a bygone era about it without being stuffy. Whether you take your current lover, a potential lover or an illicit lover this is one worth saving for someone special ;)

I only stopped here briefly for a glass of champagne for a friends birthday and while it was fairly pricey, the place itself was lovely. The staff were very friendly and arranged for us to sit outside and informed us they were fully booked for dinner (it was Monday night). I’d like to come back and try dinner here as the menu looked amazing!

I was told that this was the most romantic restaurant in London. I’m not sure what that person was smoking because it’s not romantic at all. The food was just ok. We tried 5 – 6 small plates and weren’t impressed with any of them. The wine was a different story. We could not stop trying different wines because each one that was recommended was amazing, like some of the best sweet wine i’ve ever tasted next to Ice Wine. The desserts her deserve 4 – 5 stars as well as they are all homemade.

Good service and great value dining. I love the dark wood paneling and candle light, which gives this place an incredibly old charm. I would almost say it would be romantic, but because of the popularity, it is incredibly loud and very tightly packed.

I went to this place for two reasons: one that I had passed by outside a few times and thought it had a nice ambience. Two: the reviews here from other patrons.
But I was thoroughly underwhelmed. The ambience was good, but the food lacked punch. The menu’s scribbled in pencil were difficult to read. We ordered Asparagus, Walnut Salad, Duck and Cod. While the walnuts in the salad were fresh and roasted, the salad was a little dry, the asparagus lacked flavour, the cod was tasteless and the duck was not much to write home about. I was disappointed not to have given the place a better review. Alas, I can’t bring myself to compliment much.

If I was ever going to be the owner of a small restaurant, this is the type of place I would want. Just a simple restaurant with a dozen or so tables, uncomplicated, unrushed, unpretentious, excellent.
I won’t dwell on the menu, as it changes every day or week, which I love. I wish I could say I loved everything I had, but I didn’t. My starter sounded delicious but was underwhelming and the flavors did not blend well together. The beef main course I had, however, was delicious and tender. We wanted dessert but were too full.
This the restaurant for people who aren’t fooled by the lights and fanfare of the more expensive London restaurants. If this was any other place, it would have moved and expanded, but the allure would be lost. Make a reservation, with so few tables, it is hard to get in for primetime.

Good food in a more traditional style. 3.5 stars
Food: 3.5, Atmosphere: 3, Service: 3
Cost to worth it rating: 3 (starters ~£7, mains ~£17)
Return worthiness: maybe
Highlights:
— Clam bake type appetizer: very tasty and fun presentation in the large shell. Best item we had
— Fish: prepared well
— Dessert: tried sticky toffee pudding
— Menu: handwritten was a nice touch
— Wine: good French selections even though my boss thought he was ordering a red and hit a white ;-)
Lowlights:
— Tables downstairs: feel a bit hidden. Upstairs or outside is preferable
— Rushed us out cause they were trying to seat another table, so we had to finish one of our bottles of wine outside
Had a fine meal but I prefer more of a twist on traditional.

Sehr gutes Restaurant mit einem sehr guten Preis-​/​Leistungsverhältnis. Französische Küche. Unbedingt vorher reservieren.

This place is a combination of modern interior, welcoming atmosphere and delicious food. Do not miss any opportunity to go there.

Had a lovely night with my girlfriend. This is one of the best romantic restaurants I’ve ever been to. Quiet and relaxing atmosphere and nice staff making sure you are having great time. Would recommend it to all my friends.

I’ve only been here once but almost every time someone asks me where they should take a new date, I show them this place. It’s lovely romantic restaurant where you can have a nice night out. It isn’t pretentious, the food is nice and not expensive at all. Excellent staff, always making sure you get what you need.

Had dinner at Andrew Edmunds on Saturday. I’d forgotten what
a little gem this place was. From the outside it’s small and unassuming which means you may easily pass by without a
second glance, but locals like myself as
well as other food lovers know that if you want good, honest food cooked really
well then this is a winner every time. It’s been here for years and has an old
Soho feel to the place that I love with its faded front leading into a warm, familiar
ground floor with happy chattering tables enjoying a slice of Soho life. The old
scuffed wooden floors and little staircase
with its worn banister leading down to the basement offers a few more tables of various sizes and a more
subdued space ideal for catch ups between old friends or new lovers (I first
came here on a date– that later became my husband for a few years!).Note– good table
manners or very close friends are
essential as elbow room on some tables is limited (this made for lots of
footsie and diving onto other peoples plates to try what they were having easier for us). It all makes for a very cosy,
fun time out; I seem to always come here with my very dearest friends. It’s
reasonable (there were 6 of us and we paid about £50 each with starters, main,
very good puddings plus wine). Do try the black pudding with poached duck egg
on a herby fritter or the Cornish Brill, the haddock risotto was also extremely
good and the rabbit was very tasty and nice to see on the menu In fact it’s
all delicious whatever you pick. As it was a cold night this menu was perfect
with its winter fare feel to it (but lighter options like my Brill meant there
was something for everyone)

This was a great meal. A gem of a restaurant, kind of hidden within soho, tricky to find unless you know the way. It’s hard to get a table at last minute (but we picked up the final table for 4) and they only take reservations a week in advance. Things to keep in mind.
We were visiting friends in London and ended up here through the guidance of one of the members of the party. Menu changes daily and specials on the board are definitely things to consider. It’s spendy, so either be careful what you order or go in prepared to drop about 50 quid per person (with drinks).
Food was phenomenal, everything is quite well done. It can get loud due to the small space.

Say goodbye to your overcooked chicken, greige walls and blandly servile waiters. You’re not on Oxford Street now, my pretties. This isn’t your average bistro-​by-​numbers; there’s no uniformed staff, no regularity, no worries. The menu changes daily and it’s always fresh, inspired and delightfully hard to choose from. They have paper tablecloths and wildflowers in jugs on the tables. Chairs are mismatched and the ceilings are low. The windows are wonky and the walls are misshapen. If it were alive, the restaurant would be a slightly eccentric great-​aunt who came from money but now lives in an attic room above a theatre with cats and costume jewellery, who criticises the length of your hair so you’re wary of visiting but every time she gives you the most amazing present and then tells you that brilliant story about the time she went to a débutante ball with a European prince and vommed out the back of a Morris Minor.
It took three years of working a couple of doors down before I finally set foot in Andrew Edmunds. One might say it was worth the wait, but that would lend it a gravitas that is unbecoming of such an unstuffy establishment. They’ll happily amend your menu choice if necessary, and they know everything about each dish so ask away and you’ll know what you’re ordering. They don’t have skimmed milk («we’re not that sort of place» — direct quote) so no point in asking for a skinny cappucino. This is proper traditional British medialand; none of that shiny Hollywood rubbish, we’re talking old-​school shirtsleeved literary agents and their penniless writer clients with patched elbows escaping the rusty typewriter for a stiff drink and a generous meal (oh dear, I appear to have left my wallet at home — I couldn’t ask you to do that — no, I couldn’t possibly — well, if you insist, I’ll have the chocolate pudding and another glass of the Malbec).
I’ve only ever been with clients for work but I suspect it would be an ideal location for a date; rustic and quirky, romantic but not remotely cheesy. Come for the fish, stay for the flowers.

Sehr charmantes kleines Restaurant mit einem Koch, von dem man merkt, dass er seinen Job gerne macht. Tolle Beratung, wunderbar gegessen, guter Service, schöné Atmosphäre. Hingehen! (Aber bitte erst reservieren)

Dark, cosy and romantic. It’s a restaurant that wraps you up in a slightly sexy cuddle, like a beautiful older French lady wearing her lover’s jumper. Imagine a ramshackle and quaint bistro, with disarmingly efficient and yet laid back staff, a wine list curated by someone with a keen eye for a bargain and fantastically fresh, unstuffy fare prepared from whatever the chef feels is best at the market that week. The menu is handwritten before being photocopied, the wine list changes weekly. Paper cloths, mis-​matching furniture and spluttering wine bottle candlesticks certainly aren’t contrived, but certainly won’t help win them a star.
With such atmosphere, it’s all we can do to stop ourselves ripping our clothes off then and there, but I didn’t get the stomach I’ve got today by ignoring my basest food based desires at the exclusion of all others, so we dived into the menu instead. Firm fleshed smoked eel comes with beetroot chutney and horseradish cream, complex but perfectly balanced mix of sharp and milky smooth flavour and soft but crunchy texture. I also somewhat share my obliging guest’s cauliflower and cumin fritters. A firm patty fried and served with a delicate raita.
The mains follow a similar rustic tack. There’s nothing too challenging here, though the kitchen isn’t afraid of a little nose to tail eating, when appropriate. A muscular and resolutely unthreatened hunk of fresh cod wearing a cape of herbs reclines royally on a bed of wilted spinach and tomato coated broad beans. It’s not elegant, but my god does it taste good. And that’s what little I managed to scavenge from under my guest’s now watchful eyes.
An Angus beef shepherd’s pie on the lunchtime menu didn’t make it as far as the evening, I was smugly informed by our waiter it had wound up as the staff lunch. A shame, as I’d had my eye on it since walking past earlier and seeing it on the board outside. Um’ing and ah’ing between a seafood paella, heaving with langoustine and shellfish, and a lamb shank I was finally able to kick the menu Tourettes and dug into one of the best bits of throwaway lamb I can remember. Sinking into a quicksand of pureed potato, it bravely clung onto a thick branch of perfectly cooked cabbage. To no avail, I drowned it in a thick gamey gravy and slowly stripped the soft, succulent meat from the thick bone.
Sated, though with just enough room to share a treacle tart from the trencherman’s list, the end of the excellent rose Sancerre turned my thoughts to matters romantic once more. We gazed at each other over the drippy candle and sighed… deeply… There’s no doubt that the mood and the food provokes, but like Macbeth’s porter and his wine, while it provokes the desire its sheer volume takes away any possibility of the performance.
Reservations are only taken a week out, which is useful to know, and I find the upstairs a (tiny) bit more pleasant than the seating downstairs. Just don’t ask for my table, or I’ll really have to kill you.

This is a cosy charming inventive restaurant on a beautiful street in Soho, surrounded by history and. er great shopping.
I recommend booking a few days in advance. The food is invariably wonderful, new and inventive. The menu changes regularly, and the wine list is cleverly constructed and accessible.
I have never had bad service here and I was shocked by the low star reviews here, all based on what seems to be one member of staff. I hope Andrew Edmunds sorts this anomaly out. I want to bring friends here every time I come back to the UK.
Opposite is a wonderful restaurant called Aurora, also well worth a try and somewhere to decamp to if the service lets you down in Andrew edmunds.

Top Restaurant mit täglich wechselnder Karte.
Dazu ein sehr gutes Preis-​Leistungs-​Verhältnis.
Drei Personen, Vorspeisen, Hauptspeisen, Flasche Wasser und Rotwein — 120 GBP.
Ab und an ist das Essen auch mal etwas schwächer, aber nur minimal.
Bedienung aufmerksam, frisch und nett.
Toiletten sind leider, wie so oft in London, naja…
Trotzdem eine meiner Top-​Adressen in London, wenn man mal nett essen gehen will…

Despite several reviews citing unfriendly service, I had a great experience here with a group of five, and would say the service was above-​average.
The food is fantastic and quality of produce is amazing — if you like delicately prepared fresh vegetables and proteins, this place is for you.
Very romantic atmosphere, though I didn’t see the downstairs area. Would definitely go again.

Brits are famous for terrible service and I find this so frustrating. I’ve experienced some of the nicest and sweetest staff in this fair city and it really gets my goat when we get generalised like that. And then you go to Andrew Edmunds… Oh Andrew, what are you doing to me. All that hard work promoting ourselves as a foodie capital and you have a grumpy, rude and quite frankly, offensive staff member who seems to be working in your establishment on a regular basis.
Andrew Edmunds serves up some fabulous food, at reasonable prices. Our table of five enjoyed three courses and two bottles of rather wonderful wine at only £40 a head. There is a hand written menu and daily specials so you can expect something different each time you go. It’s proper British fare: roasted meats, grilled fish, everything cooked in cream and fat.
The food is its saving grace. I’ll explain why. The restaurant itself is small and getting a booking is hard enough as it is, but when you get there, if you’re greeted by the middle-​aged female server, you’ll think you’re an unwelcome guest. She dished out attitude better than wine recommendations and huffed and tutted past our perfectly civil table several times. Out waitress was actually a new girl who was a lot younger and she was wonderful, it was just the head woman who seemed to hate her job and made it very clear. It’s such a shame as I’d love to recommend this place, but with her front of house, it’s like sending a lamb into a lions den. She’s up for a fight — terrifying when all you’re looking for is a quite meal out with friends mid-​week. If I were you, I’d go somewhere else, unless of course you are desperate to try the food here. Andrew Edmunds, heed this advice, put this PMT-​infused woman back of shop, she obviously does not want to be here and makes walking into the establishment a below par experience.

Amazing. I’m getting hungry just recalling it.
I’m from the states but go to London fairly often and on my last trip I met a friend here for dinner per her recommendation. We made a reservation, but had to wait a bit as we were kind of early. We were promptly sat at the bar and served delicious wine while we waited, and when our table was ready, we headed downstairs to a dimly lit room full of lively people.
The menu was hand written and from what I was told, it changed quite often which is pretty great. I am going to be honest and say I don’t quite remember the name of what I ordered but I can say it was absolutely delicious and left me wanting more.
The waitstaff is great and attentive despite the business of the place, and it’s in a great location and easily accessible. I recommend it to anyone I know venturing to London and they all seem to come back with similarly stellar reviews. I can’t wait to go there again!

I was introduced to Andrew Edmunds on a date with a friend who suggested that after a day of shopping in Covent Garden and Neal’s Yard this Soho establishment might be the thing I was looking for.
He was right.
On a quiet side-​street from Soho, Andrew Edmunds is somewhat out of place with its old-​world European charm, cozy interior, and relaxed table seating. Quiet, relaxed, and comfortably paced would be great ways to describe the environment.
I chose an artichoke salad with goat’s cheese grotin with olive oil drizzle, and a grilled chicken breast with a reduction of white wine and juices, accompanied by a selection of vegetables. Both were delicious.
My friend doesn’t drink at all so I opted not to have any wine, but had I desired the list of French wine selections would have satisfied me I am certain.
While we were eating I noticed several people try and walk in to have a booking, and were politely turned away. Reservations are strongly suggested for this popular dinner spot in busy Soho.
Andrew Edmunds is a great place to bring or go on a date. Great food, cozy atmosphere, and relaxed ambience make this one to remember.

I’ve only been here once but almost every time anyone asks me where they should take a new date, I tell them here. It’s a romantic little joint in a cramped, big family at Christmas sort of way. It isn’t pretentious and the food is nice and not too expensive and they know that the best candles have always been burning for a while.
In general it’s modern European done in a relaxed sort of way. It won’t blow your mind but that’s not always the best thing — just ask the ghost of Kurt Cobain. The service can be a little slow but if you know what it’s like to love people for their flaws too it shouldn’t really get in the way.