Restaurant in London, United Kingdom
Book early. Fifteen courses, zero printed menus.

Aulis London is a 12-seat chef's table in a Soho alleyway running a 15-course tasting menu at £195 per person under the Simon Rogan group. Ranked #151 in Opinionated About Dining's Top European Restaurants (2024) and holding a 4.9 on Google, it is one of London's hardest bookings and one of its most precise ingredient-led experiences. Book weeks ahead and arrive with no other plans for the evening.
Twelve seats. Fifteen courses. £195 per person. Aulis London is among the hardest-to-book chef's table experiences in the capital, and for serious food enthusiasts, it earns that difficulty. Ranked #151 in Opinionated About Dining's Leading Restaurants in Europe in 2024 and climbing to #231 in 2025 (a rank shift that reflects increased competition more than any drop in quality), this Soho alleyway counter delivers a level of ingredient-led precision that few London tasting menus can match at this price. Book it if you want a genuinely intimate kitchen experience with a clear point of view. Skip it if you need a conversation-friendly dining room or flexibility on arrival time.
Aulis occupies a discreet address at 16 St Anne's Court, a pedestrianised alley running between Wardour Street and Dean Street in Soho. The frontage is deliberately understated: a plaque and black-painted facade are the only signals from the street. Inside, the format is a 12-seat Italian slate counter facing an open kitchen, preceded by a compact bar-lounge where pre-meal snacks and drinks are served before you take your stool. There is no printed menu. Dishes are passed over the counter and explained by the chefs as they go.
Head chef Charlie Tayler runs the kitchen with what multiple sources describe as relaxed warmth and technical assurance. The supply chain is a genuine differentiator: regular deliveries from Simon Rogan's certified organic farm in Cartmel — known as 'Our Farm' — underpin the menu's seasonal character, supplemented by produce from elsewhere across the UK. The result is a cooking style built around inherent simplicity, fermentation, and precise balance rather than theatrical complexity for its own sake.
Dishes verified from source give a clear sense of the register: a mini truffle pudding caramelised in birch sap with fermented black garlic and shaved Welsh black truffle; Launceston lamb belly glazed in house miso with perilla and pickled green elderberries standing in for capers; Newlyn crab custard with rosehip vinegar sauce and marinated trout roe; raw Orkney scallop with wild chamomile, buttermilk, and smoked pike roe; turbot with a sauce built from smoked turbot bone stock and lovage oil; 45-day dry-aged Hereford beef accompanied by Parker House rolls made with 100% beef fat. Desserts follow the same seasonal logic: frozen Tunworth cheese ice cream with London borage honey; strawberry with buttermilk custard and apple marigold. This is cooking that uses British ingredients as the argument, not the decoration.
Sommelier Charles Brown manages wine without a printed list. His recommendations are reported to be consistently well-matched and worth engaging with, whether you want guidance or a full flight. A non-alcoholic pairing is also available and has drawn positive attention in its own right.
Aulis is one of the few serious tasting-menu venues in London that runs late on weeknights. Tuesday through Thursday service begins at 7 PM and runs to 11 PM. Friday and Saturday offer both a lunch sitting (12:30 PM to 3:30 PM) and an evening sitting that again runs to 11 PM. Monday and Sunday are closed. For food enthusiasts who prefer dining late , or who want a post-theatre tasting menu format without a strict early-finish , Aulis's 7 PM start and 11 PM close gives genuine flexibility that venues like CORE by Clare Smyth and The Ledbury don't always match. The pacing of a 15-course menu over a full evening also means there's no pressure to rush, which suits the format well.
This is a hard booking. Twelve covers across two or three sittings per week means availability is genuinely limited, and demand reflects the venue's reputation. Book as far ahead as you can , several weeks minimum is a reasonable baseline for most diary windows, and peak periods (autumn, pre-Christmas, Valentine's) will require more lead time. The venue's original approach of only revealing the address after booking has been retired; you can now find the address publicly. That said, the experience retains a deliberately private feel once inside.
The format is fixed: a single tasting menu at £195 per person, no alternatives. If you need dietary flexibility, confirm in advance , the kitchen's approach to seasonal, ingredient-led cooking is not easily adapted on the night. Group bookings are constrained by the 12-seat capacity; the entire room seats 12, so private hire of the full counter is possible in principle, but standard bookings for parties of more than four or five will be tight to accommodate without a dedicated arrangement.
| Detail | Aulis London | CORE by Clare Smyth | The Ledbury |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price per head | £195 (menu) | ££££ | ££££ |
| Covers | 12 (counter only) | Larger dining room | Larger dining room |
| Format | Chef's table, no printed menu | Tasting menu | Tasting menu |
| Late service (eve) | Until 11 PM Tue–Sat | Standard hours | Standard hours |
| Booking difficulty | Hard | Hard | Hard |
| Lunch available | Fri–Sat only | Yes | Yes |
| Closed | Mon, Sun | Varies | Varies |
Aulis is in Soho, which puts you within easy reach of Casa Fofò, 10 Greek Street, and Clipstone for less formal meals on other nights. If you want to extend the Simon Rogan thread, the original source is L'Enclume in Cartmel, the three-Michelin-star benchmark against which Aulis London is leading understood. For comparable precision-led British cooking outside London, Moor Hall in Aughton and Gidleigh Park in Chagford are worth planning around. Within the capital, Chiltern Firehouse and Bill's offer entirely different registers for days when you want something lower-key. For country-house comparison in the UK, consider Hand and Flowers in Marlow or hide and fox in Saltwood. If you're building a broader tasting-menu itinerary across Europe, La Rei Natura by Michelangelo Mammoliti in Serralunga d'Alba and Oak in Gent operate in a comparable register. See our full London restaurants guide, London hotels guide, London bars guide, London wineries guide, and London experiences guide for further planning.
| Venue | Cuisine | Price | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aulis London | Modern European | ££££ | “One word… phenomenal!” – the unanimous verdict again this year on the small London outpost of acclaimed Lakeland chef, Simon Rogan’s empire. When it first opened, they only told you the address after you booked: nowadays, a discreet plaque and black-painted frontage advertises the presence of this 12-seat chef’s table (expanded from 8 covers in 2023) and development kitchen in a cute pedestrianised Soho alleyway between Wardour Street and Dean Street. Chef Charlie Tayler provides a 15-course tasting menu for £195 per person that’s some of the best-rated European cuisine in the capital. Supplied in part by Rogan’s organic farm in Cartmel (‘Our Farm’) and overseen by the group’s executive chef Oli Marlow, the focus is on the theatrical ingredient-led seasonal British cuisine for which L’Enclume has won such renown.; Aulis London is a restaurant in London, UK. It was published on Star Wine List on February 4, 2025 and is a White Star.; Opened in December 2023, Simon Rogan's first Thailand venture, Aulis, is based on a 'chef's table' concept. The multi-course tasting menu presents native ingredients, many sourced from Thailand and local grower collaborations. Begin with an amuse-bouche over drinks in the lounge, then take a seat in front of the open kitchen to watch the chefs precisely plate farm-to-table fare imbued with Rogan's signature flair. The non-alcoholic pairing is also worth trying.; Tucked in an alleyway linking Wardour Street and Dean Street, this offshoot of Simon Rogan’s Aulis in Cartmel (home to L’Enclume) has undergone a thoroughgoing makeover. Expansion into the small shop next door has created a proper entrance leading straight into a tiny bar-lounge where pre-meal drinks and snacks are served. The reconfigured kitchen continues to offer high-stool counter dining, although the seats themselves (now 12 in number) are better spaced and more comfortable. The style remains the same, an astonishing, multi-course tasting experience prepared and explained in front of you (there’s is no printed menu), with dishes passed over the counter. Unfussy, serene and slightly spartan, it’s run with relaxing warmth by charismatic head chef Charlie Tayler and sommelier Charles Brown. Regular deliveries from Rogan’s Cartmel-based farm are supplemented by tip-top produce from elsewhere in the UK, and Tayler's supremely assured culinary approach is all about inherent simplicity, clever balance and pinpoint precision. Snacks are bijou masterpieces of the genre, from a brilliant mini truffle pudding caramelised in birch sap with fermented black garlic and a heap of shaved Welsh black truffle on top to a nugget of Launceston lamb belly glazed in ‘our miso’ with perilla and ‘capers’ (a clever riff employing pickled green elderberries). To follow, Newlyn crab custard is a deft conceit involving a sauce infused with rosehip vinegar, plus dabs of marinated trout roe adding pops of saltiness, while a raw, sliced Orkney scallop surprises with its rich, buttery, smoky sauce of wild chamomile, buttermilk and smoked pike roe. And then there is the turbot, served with a wondrous sauce created from a stock of smoked turbot bones and swirled with lovage oil. On the side is a tiny English muffin to mop up juices, while heavenly oven-fresh Parker House rolls (made with 100% beef fat) accompany a piece of 45-day dry-aged Hereford Breed beef garlanded with kale leaves. Like everything else on offer here, desserts are seasonal, clever and innovative – standouts at our last visit being frozen Tunworth cheese ice cream drizzled with London borage honey (so simple yet so satisfying), as well as a joyous summertime assembly of strawberry (fruit and sorbet) with buttermilk custard and apple marigold. With no menu to consult, knowledgeable wine advice comes as standard. Charles Brown’s recommendations are always fascinating, whether you are seeking guidance or opting for one of his suggested wine flights.; Aulis, a Simon Rogan project, is also a worthy vegetable restaurant. It is probably the smallest restaurant in London with its eight places. Details about the location, the menu and the timing will only be announced after the reservation. The kitchen is slightly more artificial than its L'Enclume restaurant in Grange over Sands, but the vegetables & co stay in the lead. Especially the own garden remains the great source of inspiration. Glad that London can enjoy his vision.; Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in Europe Ranked #231 (2025); Simon Rogan is certainly not one for standing still and here, in a narrow alley in Soho, his Aulis restaurant is almost unrecognisable from before. After expanding into next door, there's now room for pre-dinner drinks, while the Italian slate counter – which seats 12 – is a thing of beauty. The impressive chef's table experience is made up of around 14 exquisite, creative dishes and the personable chefs explain in detail the make up of each one. The menu is informed by the seasonal produce of Simon's organic 'Our Farm' in the Lake District.; Opinionated About Dining Top Restaurants in Europe Ranked #151 (2024); Michelin 1 Star (2024); Opinionated About Dining Top New Restaurants in Europe Recommended (2023) | Hard | — |
| CORE by Clare Smyth | Modern British | ££££ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Restaurant Gordon Ramsay | Contemporary European, French | ££££ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library | Modern French | ££££ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| The Ledbury | Modern European, Modern Cuisine | ££££ | Michelin 3 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
| Dinner by Heston Blumenthal | Modern British, Traditional British | ££££ | Michelin 2 Star, World's 50 Best | Unknown | — |
Key differences to consider before you reserve.
Book at least 6–8 weeks out, ideally more. With only 12 seats and a limited weekly schedule — no service Monday or Sunday, and lunch only on Friday and Saturday — availability disappears fast. Aulis is ranked #231 in Opinionated About Dining's Top Restaurants in Europe for 2025, which means demand is sustained year-round, not just seasonal. Check for cancellations if your preferred date is full.
The setting is counter dining in a compact Soho alleyway kitchen — serene and unfussy rather than formal. Nothing in the venue data indicates a strict dress code, but at £195 per person for a 15-course tasting menu overseen by Simon Rogan's team, most guests dress well. Think polished casual: no need for black tie, but trainers and jeans would feel out of step with the room.
Groups are limited by the format: 12 seats total at a counter, with no private dining room mentioned in the venue data. That makes Aulis workable for small parties of 2–4 seated together at the counter, but not a realistic option for parties of 6 or more expecting to sit together in a conventional sense. If a dedicated private space is a requirement, The Ledbury or CORE by Clare Smyth are better-suited alternatives.
Lunch runs Friday and Saturday only (12:30–3:30 PM); dinner runs Tuesday through Saturday (7–11 PM). The menu is the same 15-course format at £195 per person regardless of sitting, so the decision is mainly about scheduling. Lunch is the easier booking to land if you have flexibility on day, and finishing a 15-course menu in the afternoon leaves your evening free — which matters in Soho.
There is no printed menu — dishes are presented and explained by the chefs as they plate in front of you at the counter. The format is 15 courses at £195 per person, with produce partly sourced from Simon Rogan's organic farm in Cartmel. Aulis expanded from 8 to 12 seats in 2023 and now includes a bar-lounge for pre-meal drinks, which is new. Come hungry, arrive on time, and treat the counter as the show: the whole point is watching the kitchen work.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.