Restaurant in London, United Kingdom
Michelin-recognised pub grill worth booking.
A Michelin Plate-recognised British grill in the heart of Soho, The Devonshire runs across three floors: a proper pub at ground level and a wood ember grill room above. At ££, it offers dry-aged Scottish beef and in-house butchery at a price point well below London's fine dining tier. Book ahead — it fills consistently.
Seats at The Devonshire move fast. This three-floor Soho pub at 17 Denman Street has earned a reputation as one of London's harder tables to secure at short notice, and the Michelin Plate recognition it received in both 2024 and 2025 has only sharpened demand. If you're planning a visit, book ahead rather than arriving on spec — the Grill Room fills, and the ground-floor bar is not a waiting area with menu access.
The building matters here, because your floor determines your evening. The ground floor is a working pub: wood panelling, a proper bar, pints of Guinness going out at pace, and the kind of ambient noise that tells you the room takes drinking seriously. This is where the bar program earns its reputation as a destination in its own right. The Devonshire's ground-floor operation is not a hotel lobby bar or a restaurant's afterthought , it functions as a standalone pub with real throughput, and it draws a crowd that's there specifically to drink rather than to wait for a table upstairs.
Head up to the first floor and you're in the Grill Room: white tablecloths, wood-panelled walls, period lighting, and a noticeably different register from the pub below. The contrast is deliberate. This is where food takes over from atmosphere as the primary reason to be there. Above that, the Claret Room on the leading floor offers a quieter setting , better for conversation, slightly more removed from the energy of the floors beneath it. First-timers should request the Grill Room rather than the Claret Room if this is a first visit; it's where the kitchen's identity is most legible.
The culinary direction comes from Ashley Palmer-Watts, whose previous work at The Fat Duck and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal has shaped a menu that takes British produce seriously without performing nostalgia. Day-to-day kitchen operations run through Head Chef Jamie Guy, formerly of Hix Restaurants. The combination produces cooking that is, as Michelin describes it, traditional in style and substantial in execution, with produce quality doing a lot of the work.
The centrepiece is a three-metre wood ember grill , not charcoal, wood embers, which requires more sustained attention and produces a different result in terms of smoke character. The beef is Scottish, dry-aged and butchered in-house under Head Butcher George Donnelly. The bone-in ribeye and the beef chop (which can reach 1.6kg) are the items most associated with the kitchen's identity. Sides like duck fat chips and creamed leeks are exactly what the format calls for. This is not a restaurant where you should be ordering around the grill , it's the reason to come.
Given the editorial angle for this page (PEA-R-13), it's worth being direct: the ground-floor bar at The Devonshire is worth a visit even if you're not eating. The pub trades on real British pub credentials , Guinness is the anchor, the space feels lived-in rather than designed, and the crowd on any given evening reflects the neighbourhood rather than a curated dining clientele. For those exploring London's bar scene, this is not a cocktail-forward destination in the mode of Attaboy or Lyaness, but it offers something those rooms don't: the credibility of a proper pub that happens to have a serious kitchen upstairs. If you're doing a drink before dinner, arrive early , the bar gets dense.
If you're comparing it to other Soho drinking options, venues like Bob Bob Ricard Soho offer a more theatrical drinks experience, and Goodbye Horses operates in a different register entirely. The Devonshire's ground floor is the option for people who want a real pub in the middle of Soho without compromise.
The Devonshire sits at ££ on Pearl's price scale, which makes it one of the more accessible entry points among London's Michelin-recognised restaurants. For context, the comparison set , CORE by Clare Smyth, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, The Ledbury , sits uniformly at ££££. You are not getting a comparable level of tasting-menu precision at The Devonshire, but you are getting quality produce, a distinctive grill technique, and genuine hospitality in a room that doesn't ask you to perform occasion dining. That trade-off works in its favour for most first-timers and for diners who want a proper meal rather than a production.
For other well-executed British pub dining at different price points across the UK, Hand and Flowers in Marlow, Pipe and Glass in South Dalton, and Marksman in London each take a different approach to the same format. Llewelyn's and 45 Jermyn St offer further reference points for British cooking in London at varying price levels.
The Devonshire works well for: diners who want Michelin-level produce without a tasting-menu commitment; groups who want a pub-to-restaurant evening in a single building; solo diners comfortable at a bar or counter; and anyone who wants a credible British grill rather than a French-leaning fine dining experience. It is less suited to diners expecting the precision of a multi-course progression or a quieter, more intimate room as a default.
For broader context on where The Devonshire sits in the wider British dining picture, L'Enclume in Cartmel, Moor Hall in Aughton, Gidleigh Park in Chagford, and hide and fox in Saltwood represent the destination-dining tier of British cooking if you're planning a wider trip. The Devonshire operates closer to the ground , a London restaurant with a pub at its base and a grill room above it, doing something with British beef that's harder to find at this price in this postcode.
Google rating: 4.4 across 1,884 reviews. Michelin Plate: 2024 and 2025.
Quick reference: 17 Denman St, Soho, London W1D 7HW. Price: ££. Booking: easy, but book ahead. Ground floor: pub/bar. First floor: Grill Room. Leading floor: Claret Room. Cuisine: Traditional British, wood ember grill.
Order from the grill. The bone-in ribeye and the beef chop are the kitchen's signature offerings , dry-aged Scottish beef, butchered in-house, cooked on a wood ember grill. Duck fat chips and creamed leeks are the natural accompaniments. This is not the venue to explore a wide-ranging menu; the grill program is the reason to come, and side-stepping it in favour of lighter dishes would miss the point of what the kitchen does well.
Yes, and the three-floor layout helps. Larger groups should request the Claret Room on the leading floor, which is quieter and better suited to table conversation than the Grill Room one floor below. The ground-floor pub works well for pre-dinner drinks for groups of any size. Call ahead or book directly to discuss room allocation , the venue's capacity and layout mean it can handle groups, but walk-in groups of six or more will struggle at peak times.
Yes. The ground-floor bar is a genuine solo option , arrive, get a Guinness, stay as long as you like. For the Grill Room upstairs, solo diners are fine at a table for one, though the format is built around sharing large cuts. If you're eating solo, the bone-in ribeye is more manageable than the 1.6kg beef chop. Soho's central location makes it easy to slot into a broader evening rather than committing to a full sit-down meal.
At ££, yes , it's one of the better value propositions among London's Michelin-recognised restaurants. You're getting in-house butchery, dry-aged Scottish beef, and a wood ember grill at a price point well below the ££££ tier that dominates the Michelin Plate comparison set. The trade-off is that you're not getting tasting-menu precision or multi-course progression. If you want those things, CORE by Clare Smyth or Dinner by Heston Blumenthal are better fits, at roughly double the spend.
It works for the right kind of special occasion. If you want warmth, quality food, and a lively room, the Grill Room delivers. If you need quiet intimacy, request the Claret Room on the leading floor , it's calmer and more conducive to a private dinner. The Devonshire is not a tasting-menu occasion restaurant; it's a special-occasion pub with a serious kitchen. If the occasion demands formal fine dining, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay or Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library are more aligned to that register.
The Devonshire does not operate a formal tasting menu in the traditional sense , the format is à la carte, centred on the grill. If you're looking for a tasting-menu experience from a chef with Ashley Palmer-Watts's background, The Fat Duck in Bray is the reference point. At The Devonshire, the value comes from ordering generously from the grill rather than through a set progression. Budget accordingly.
For similar British pub-dining ambition at different price points: Marksman in Hackney offers a more east London take on refined pub food. Llewelyn's in Herne Hill is a quieter option with comparable British produce focus. For a step up in formality and price, 45 Jermyn St covers similar traditional British territory in a more formal St James's setting. For the full Heston lineage, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal in London is the direct high-end counterpart.
| Venue | Price | Value |
|---|---|---|
| The Devonshire | ££ | — |
| CORE by Clare Smyth | ££££ | — |
| Restaurant Gordon Ramsay | ££££ | — |
| Sketch, The Lecture Room and Library | ££££ | — |
| The Ledbury | ££££ | — |
| Dinner by Heston Blumenthal | ££££ | — |
Key differences to consider before you reserve.
Go for the wood ember grill cuts — the dry-aged Scottish beef, including the bone-in ribeye and the beef chop (up to 1.6kg), are the reason this place earned a Michelin Plate in both 2024 and 2025. The kitchen runs an in-house butchery, so quality control on the meat is tighter than most London grill rooms. Classic sides like duck fat chips are the correct call alongside.
Yes, and the three-floor layout helps. Larger parties should aim for the first-floor Grill Room or the top-floor Claret Room, which offers a calmer atmosphere than the ground-floor pub. The ground floor suits groups happy with a pub-style setting and pints; the upper floors work better for a proper seated dinner. Book well ahead — this is one of London's harder tables to secure.
The ground-floor pub bar is a practical solo option — walk in, order a Guinness, and eat without a reservation. The Grill Room upstairs is also manageable solo, though the format there is more suited to pairs or small groups. For solo bar dining in Soho at this price point (££), The Devonshire is one of the more comfortable options.
At ££ on Pearl's scale, The Devonshire is one of the more accessible Michelin-recognised restaurants in London. You get dry-aged Scottish beef, a bespoke three-metre wood ember grill, and in-house butchery at a price point well below comparable Michelin-listed grill rooms. For the quality of produce and the credentials behind the kitchen — Ashley Palmer-Watts shaped the menu after his work at The Fat Duck and Dinner by Heston Blumenthal — this represents good value.
The upper-floor Claret Room is the right call for a special occasion: quieter, more considered, and a clear step up from the pub energy below. The white tablecloths, wood-panelled interior, and attentive service give it enough formality without tipping into stiff. For a low-key celebration where you want quality food over ceremony, it works well; if you need a full fine-dining occasion, Restaurant Gordon Ramsay or The Ledbury will feel more appropriate.
The Devonshire does not operate a tasting menu format — the kitchen runs a traditional à la carte grill menu, which is part of its appeal. If you want Michelin-level cooking without a multi-course commitment or a fixed price format, that is precisely the case for booking here. For tasting-menu-format dining in London, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal or The Ledbury are more relevant options.
For wood-fired British cooking at a similar price, The Devonshire has few direct competitors in Soho. If budget is flexible and occasion demands more, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal (where Ashley Palmer-Watts previously worked) is the natural step up. For a formal British fine-dining experience, The Ledbury and Restaurant Gordon Ramsay sit at a higher price point but offer a fundamentally different format. CORE by Clare Smyth is the option if produce-led tasting menus matter more than grill-room cooking.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
