Restaurant in London, United Kingdom

Bob Bob Ricard Soho

Name: Bob Bob Ricard Soho
Address: 1 Upper James St, London W1F 9DF, United Kingdom, London, GB
Telephone: +44 20 3145 1000
Price range: ££££

540Pearl Points

Press for Champagne. Book weeks ahead.

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Bob Bob Ricard Soho, Restaurant in London

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About Bob Bob Ricard Soho

Bob Bob Ricard Soho is one of London's most theatrical ££££ dinner venues, with Art Deco booths, champagne call buttons at every table, and a kitchen open until midnight seven days a week. It holds a Michelin Plate and a consistent Opinionated About Dining ranking. Book well ahead for weekend evenings and come prepared to spend on drinks as well as food.

The Verdict

Bob Bob Ricard Soho is one of London's most self-assured dining rooms, and coming back a second time only makes that clearer. The theatrics — marble-topped booths, Art Deco fittings, and those now-famous 'Press for Champagne' buttons — do not wear thin. What becomes more apparent on a return visit is how deliberately the kitchen supports the spectacle: the menu is not a prop. If you want a late-night dinner in Soho that feels genuinely grand without demanding three months of advance planning for a tasting menu, this is one of the strongest options in the city. It earns a Michelin Plate and a position in the Opinionated About Dining Casual Europe rankings (ranked #532 in 2025), which tells you it is taken seriously beyond its Instagram presence. Book it for a date, a celebration, or a Friday night when you want to eat well past 10 pm. It opens until midnight Monday through Sunday, with lunch available from Thursday to Sunday.

The Space

The room at 1 Upper James Street is compact but feels curated rather than cramped. Polished leather booths run along the walls, each topped with marble and fitted with those champagne call buttons. The Art Deco detailing , shiny trimmings, considered lighting, a general sense of gilded excess , creates a space that reads as intimate and theatrical at once. You are not seated in a cavernous dining room where energy dissipates; you are enclosed in a booth that makes every dinner feel like a private occasion. For first-timers, this spatial formula can be slightly disorienting: it is grander than a brasserie but more playful than a formal fine-dining room. That combination is the point, and it works. If seating configuration matters to your group, note that the booth layout suits parties of two to four most naturally. Larger groups should check arrangements at booking.

The Food and Drink

The menu reads as Anglo-French comfort cooking with a Russian accent, and that framing is accurate. Steak tartare, Caesar salad with smoked chicken, and egg classics are listed as house favourites. Beyond those, the kitchen offers truffle and potato vareniki dumplings, a Stinking Bishop soufflé, chicken and Champagne pie, and salmon en croûte. The chateaubriand and beef Wellington are the obvious choices for two. Desserts include tarte tatin and rum and raisin rice pudding, but the signature gilt chocolate glory with a 50ml pour of Château d'Yquem at £32 is worth noting as a finishing move if the occasion calls for it. The menu opens with vodka shots served at -18° and a caviar selection , signals about the register you are dining in before a single main course arrives. The wine list is steeply priced but reportedly navigable, with low margins that make it more accessible than the numbers suggest at first glance. The champagne program is central to the experience; this is not a venue where you skip the bubbles.

Late-Night at Bob Bob Ricard

This is where Bob Bob Ricard Soho has a genuine practical advantage over most of its ££££ London peers. The kitchen runs until midnight every night of the week. On Mondays through Wednesdays, dinner service begins at 5 pm , there is no lunch. Thursday through Sunday, doors open at noon. For anyone who eats late by preference or necessity, that midnight closing time is significant. Most comparable rooms in this price range close their kitchens by 10 or 10:30 pm. If you are arriving from a show, finishing a work dinner that ran long, or simply want to eat at 10:30 pm without the option being a pizza or a gastropub, Bob Bob Ricard is one of the few rooms in Soho that holds. The booth format also means a late-night dinner here does not feel like you are being tolerated by an emptying room , the space retains its energy because it is designed for exactly this kind of lingering, occasion-driven dining. For more late-night options across the city, see our full London bars guide and our full London restaurants guide.

Booking and Practical Details

Booking here is hard. This is not a venue where you call on Thursday for Saturday. Reservations should be made several weeks in advance, particularly for weekend evenings and for booth seating. The address is 1 Upper James Street, W1F 9DF, in Soho, which is walkable from Oxford Circus, Piccadilly Circus, and Tottenham Court Road stations. Price range is ££££, and the bill will reflect that , expect champagne, caviar, and the occasional Château d'Yquem to push the total well north of what the food alone would cost. This is a venue where the drink spend is part of the experience, not an optional add-on. If you are budget-conscious within the ££££ tier, it is worth knowing going in that the champagne buttons are an invitation, not a formality.

If You Are Exploring Further

Bob Bob Ricard is a Soho venue, but London's restaurant offer extends well beyond the centre. For traditional British cooking in different registers, Marksman in Hackney and The Devonshire in Soho represent strong alternatives at a lower price point. For late-night drinking and dining with a different sensibility, Goodbye Horses is worth considering. If you are looking for something more neighbourhood-driven and lower-key, Llewelyn's in Herne Hill or 45 Jermyn St in St James's offer a change of register. For traditional British cooking beyond London, Waterside Inn in Bray, Hand and Flowers in Marlow, and Pipe and Glass in South Dalton each offer a fundamentally different kind of occasion. Further afield, L'Enclume in Cartmel, Moor Hall in Aughton, and Gidleigh Park in Chagford sit at the serious end of the British dining spectrum. If the Bob Bob format appeals but you are curious about how Dinner by Heston Blumenthal compares in a different city, that is worth a look too. For everything else in the capital, our full London hotels guide, London wineries guide, and London experiences guide cover the wider picture. The hide and fox in Saltwood is also worth a look if you are travelling through Kent.

Ratings at a Glance

Google: 4.4 from 3,064 reviews
Michelin Plate: 2024 and 2025
Opinionated About Dining Casual Europe: #532 (2025), #574 (2024), Recommended (2023)

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I eat at the bar at Bob Bob Ricard Soho?

Bob Bob Ricard Soho is a booth-format restaurant rather than a bar-dining operation. The room runs on polished leather booths with marble tops, each fitted with the signature Champagne buttons — there is no traditional bar counter for walk-in dining. If you want a seat, you need a reservation, and given how hard bookings are to come by at this ££££ Soho address, that means planning several weeks out.

Is Bob Bob Ricard Soho good for a special occasion?

Yes, and it is probably the most theatrically committed special-occasion restaurant in Soho at this price point. The Champagne buttons, Art Deco booth layout, caviar list, and dishes like beef Wellington and the gilt chocolate glory are all calibrated for celebration. For a more food-forward milestone dinner, CORE by Clare Smyth or The Ledbury offer greater culinary precision — but neither delivers the same showmanship per pound. Michelin Plate recognition in 2024 and 2025 confirms the kitchen is not just decoration.

Is Bob Bob Ricard Soho good for solo dining?

It is not the obvious choice for solo diners. The booth format and sharing dishes — chateaubriand, beef Wellington — are built around groups of two or more, and the atmosphere skews towards couples and small celebratory parties. A solo diner can technically book, but the room's energy and menu structure will feel more natural with company. If you are eating alone in Soho and want ££££ cooking, a counter-seat omakase or chef's table format will suit you better.

What should a first-timer know about Bob Bob Ricard Soho?

Book well in advance — several weeks minimum for weekend evenings — and arrive knowing the menu spans steak tartare and Caesar salad through to caviar, beef Wellington, and lobster mac and cheese, with a Russian accent running throughout. The kitchen operates until midnight every night of the week, which is a practical advantage over most London restaurants at this price level. The wine list is steeply priced but designed for accessibility, and the Champagne button at your table is not decorative: it is how you order.

What are alternatives to Bob Bob Ricard Soho in London?

For traditional British cooking with more culinary ambition, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal (££££, Knightsbridge) is the direct comparison. For occasion dining without the theatrical framing, The Ledbury in Notting Hill offers tighter technique at a similar price. Sketch's Lecture Room and Library covers the grand-room, high-spend bracket in Mayfair with more modernist cooking. Bob Bob Ricard has no close competitor on the specific combination of late-night hours, booth format, and Champagne-button theatrics.

Is lunch or dinner better at Bob Bob Ricard Soho?

Dinner is the better fit for what Bob Bob Ricard does well. The Art Deco room, Champagne-forward drinks list, and celebratory menu all read more naturally at night. Lunch service (Thursday through Sunday, from noon) is worth knowing about for booking purposes — it is easier to secure a table and the full menu is available — but the atmosphere that defines this restaurant operates at full intensity once the evening crowd arrives. If flexibility is your priority, lunch is the practical option; if atmosphere is, go for dinner.

Location

1 Upper James St, London W1F 9DF, United Kingdom

London, United Kingdom

Compare Bob Bob Ricard Soho

Comparing Bob Bob Ricard Soho to Alternatives

Venue	Cuisine	Price	Awards	Booking Difficulty	Value
Bob Bob Ricard Soho	Traditional British	££££	Any restaurant known for its tableside 'Press for Champagne' buttons is bound to exude a certain glamorous exclusivity. So it is with Bob Bob Ricard, a compact yet nevertheless grand restaurant that's classic to its core and all the more appealing for it; this is the place to come if you're looking to impress a date in the old-school manner. The menu opens with vodka shots at -18° along with a choice of caviars – a clue as to the owner’s nationality – then moves on to a roll-call of well-loved dishes from sole meunière to beef Wellington to share.; ‘Bob Bob Ricard confused me at first and I couldn’t really work out who it was for, but with a little distance and on reflection I think I rather like it. It says "have fun, don’t take life so seriously" which might be what we need right now.’ So ran the thoughts of one visitor. Fuelled by ice-cold Nemiroff vodka shots and a mighty contingent of classy bubbles (let your fingers do the walking towards the ‘Press for Champagne’ buzzers on each marble-topped table), this extravagant Soho hot spot offers luxurious decor and a fabulous welcome from the staff. Art Deco styling sets the scene – polished leather booths, swathes of marble, shiny trimmings and bling galore – while the indulgent menu promises Anglo-French comfort food with a Russian slant and lashings of caviar to boot. Steak tartare, Caesar salad with smoked chicken and egg classics every which way are listed as ‘favourites’, but the line-up also cheers and soothes with truffle and potato vareniki dumplings, Stinking Bishop soufflé, chicken and Champagne pie, salmon en croûte and a take on mac and cheese offered, luxuriously, with lobster (of course). Otherwise, share a chateaubriand or beef Wellington. To finish, it has to be tarte tatin, rum and raisin rice pudding or the signature gilt ‘chocolate glory’ with a glass of honeyed Château d’Yquem at £32 for a 50ml sip. Low margins and easy navigation make the steeply priced wine list surprisingly accessible – but who’s counting the pennies.; Opinionated About Dining Casual in Europe Ranked #532 (2025); Michelin Plate (2025); Opinionated About Dining Casual in Europe Ranked #574 (2024); Michelin Plate (2024); Opinionated About Dining Casual in Europe Recommended (2023)	Hard	,
Restaurant Gordon Ramsay	Contemporary European, French	££££	Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best	Unknown	,
CORE by Clare Smyth	Modern British	££££	Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best	Unknown	,
The Ledbury	Modern European, Modern Cuisine	££££	Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best	Unknown	,
Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library	Modern French	££££	Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best	Unknown	,
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal	Modern British, Traditional British	££££	Michelin 2 Star, World's 50 Best	Unknown	,

Comparing your options in London for this tier.

Also Consider

Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Contemporary European, French, ££££
CORE by Clare Smyth, Modern British, ££££
The Ledbury, Modern European, Modern Cuisine, ££££
Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library, Modern French, ££££
Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, Modern British, Traditional British, ££££

At ££££, Bob Bob Ricard Soho sits in the same price bracket as CORE by Clare Smyth and The Ledbury, but it is doing something fundamentally different. Those two are among London's most technically serious kitchens, with cooking that justifies the spend on its own terms. Bob Bob Ricard is a room where the experience, the booth, the champagne, the theatre, carries equal weight to the food. That is not a criticism; it is a description of the value proposition. If what you want is a dinner that feels like an event rather than a masterclass, Bob Bob Ricard delivers more reliably than most ££££ rooms in London.

Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library is the closest comparison in terms of theatrical ambition at this price point, though the cooking there is more formally French and the experience is more overtly fine dining in its structure. Restaurant Gordon Ramsay and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal both sit at ££££ with stronger technical credentials but less of the room-as-spectacle quality that Bob Bob Ricard prioritises. If the kitchen's cooking philosophy matters more than the setting, those rooms are better fits. If you are deciding between them purely on occasion-dining terms, Bob Bob Ricard's booth format and midnight kitchen give it a practical edge for late-evening celebrations.

On booking difficulty, all of these venues are competitive. Bob Bob Ricard is hard to get into on short notice for weekends, but it is generally more accessible than CORE or The Ledbury, both of which require significant advance planning and operate at higher demand. For value within the ££££ bracket, Bob Bob Ricard's champagne-heavy bill can escalate quickly, so arrive with a clear budget. The food alone, without the drinks program, represents reasonable value for Soho at this price level, the question is whether you can resist the buttons.