Restaurant in London, United Kingdom
Soho hotel Italian that earns its price.
Dear Jackie earns a Michelin Plate (2025) with ingredient-led Italian cooking inside Broadwick Soho's basement restaurant. The room is intimate, design-forward, and well-suited to date night. At £££, it delivers more atmosphere and technical precision than most London Italian options at this price point, though it stops short of destination-dining ambition.
Dear Jackie sits in the lower ground floor of Broadwick Soho, one of Soho's more considered recent hotel openings, and securing a table here is a moderate ask rather than a three-month ordeal. If you can plan a week or two ahead, you should be fine. The question worth asking first is whether the format suits you: this is an intimate, design-forward Italian restaurant where the room itself is part of the proposition, and where ingredient-led cooking earns a Michelin Plate (2025) without crossing into the territory of a full-blown special-occasion blow-out. For first-timers, that calibration matters.
Being in a basement could easily count against Dear Jackie, but the design team has worked hard to neutralise that. Silk wall hangings, painted plates, and Murano glassware introduce colour and texture where natural light cannot reach. The result is a room that reads intimate and seductive rather than subterranean and airless. For a date-night booking, the atmosphere is well-judged: close enough for conversation, interesting enough to sustain attention between courses. First-timers should know that the scale is small, which means noise levels stay manageable and service tends to feel attentive rather than stretched. If you are accustomed to the sweep of a large dining room, the compressed footprint here is a deliberate choice, not a compromise.
The kitchen takes an ingredient-led approach to Italian cooking, which in practice means dishes are built around what is seasonal and sourced carefully rather than around regional Italian tradition for its own sake. The Michelin Plate recognition in 2025 signals that the cooking is technically sound and worth the price of entry, though it stops short of the star-level ambition you would encounter at, say, Luca in Clerkenwell. Scallop with champagne sauce and trout roe is cited in the awards notes as representative of the style: composed, visually precise, and built around good primary ingredients. Expect Italian structure with a lightness of touch that avoids the heaviness some London Italian rooms lean into.
The wine program at Dear Jackie sits within a hotel restaurant context, which usually means a list broad enough to satisfy guests at different price points rather than a deeply curated cellar with a specific editorial point of view. Given the Italian focus in the kitchen, expect a list that leans on Italian regions, with the kind of breadth that covers both accessible and more considered options. For a first-timer, the practical advice is to engage the sommelier or floor team directly: in a room this size, the wine service tends to be personal, and staff in well-run hotel restaurants at this level know their list. If Italian wine depth matters to you specifically, and you want the kind of obsessive regional focus you might find at Bocca di Lupo or Bancone, Dear Jackie is not primarily selling on that axis. It is selling on atmosphere and cooking quality first, with wine as a well-executed accompaniment.
Against the broader London Italian field, Dear Jackie occupies a specific band: below the price ceiling of destination dining, above the casual neighbourhood bracket. Artusi in Peckham and Archway operate at lower price points with a looser, more neighbourhood feel. Luca sits closer in price and ambition but leans more heavily on the Modern British-Italian crossover. Dear Jackie's edge is the room: the Broadwick Soho hotel context gives it a design quality that standalone restaurants at this price tier rarely match. If the occasion calls for somewhere that looks and feels considered without requiring a ££££ outlay, Dear Jackie makes a strong case.
Reservations: Book one to two weeks ahead for weekday tables; weekend evenings and prime date-night slots will require more lead time. A Google rating of 4.6 across 125 reviews suggests consistent delivery, which means demand is steady. Address: Lower Ground, 20 Broadwick St, London W1F 9NE, in the heart of Soho, well-served by Oxford Circus and Tottenham Court Road tube stations. Price range: £££ — expect a meal for two with wine to sit in the mid-range for Soho, meaningfully below the ££££ bracket of the comparison venues below. Cuisine: Italian, ingredient-led. Dress: Smart casual is appropriate given the hotel setting and room design; there is no indication of a formal dress code, but the space rewards dressing slightly up rather than down.
For more London dining options, see our full London restaurants guide. If you are staying nearby and want to combine a hotel stay with the meal, our London hotels guide covers the full range. For pre- or post-dinner drinks in Soho, our London bars guide is a practical starting point. If Italian cooking at this level interests you further afield, the benchmark internationally includes 8 1/2 Otto e Mezzo Bombana in Hong Kong and cenci in Kyoto. For destination dining outside London, The Fat Duck in Bray, L'Enclume in Cartmel, Moor Hall in Aughton, Gidleigh Park in Chagford, Hand and Flowers in Marlow, and hide and fox in Saltwood are worth knowing. You can also explore London wineries and London experiences through Pearl.
| Venue | Cuisine | Awards | Booking Difficulty | Value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dear Jackie | Italian | Broadwick Soho is one of the cooler hotels to have opened in recent years and its restaurant is no different. Named after the founder's mother, it's a stylish spot that, while located in the basement, benefits from plenty of pops of colour – from the silks on the wall to the painted plates and Murano glass – more than making up for any natural light deficiency. It’s also an intimate and seductive space, perfect for date night. The Italian fare is ingredient led, with dishes such as scallop with champagne sauce and trout roe proving to be as pretty as they are delicious.; Michelin Plate (2025) | Moderate | — |
| 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 | — |
How Dear Jackie stacks up against the competition.
At £££, Dear Jackie sits in a defensible band: above casual neighbourhood Italian, but below the cost of destination dining at places like The Ledbury or CORE by Clare Smyth. The Michelin Plate recognition in 2025 signals the kitchen is delivering at a standard that justifies the spend. If you want ingredient-led Italian in a considered hotel setting in central Soho, the pricing holds up.
The kitchen's strength is in ingredient-led dishes built around what is seasonal and sourced carefully, which suits a tasting menu format well. Specific menu details and pricing are not confirmed in available data, so verify the current offering when booking at 20 Broadwick St. If you prefer a la carte flexibility, Dear Jackie appears to accommodate that too, making it usable for both formats.
Specific dietary policy is not documented in available data. As a hotel restaurant within Broadwick Soho, kitchen flexibility is generally expected at this price tier. check the venue's official channels at the Lower Ground, 20 Broadwick St address to confirm before booking, particularly for allergen-critical requirements.
It is a basement space, but the design works: silk wall hangings, Murano glass, and painted plates give it warmth that compensates for the lack of natural light. The Michelin Plate (2025) confirms the food punches above hotel-restaurant expectations. Go with a clear understanding that this is an intimate, date-night-oriented room rather than a lively group venue.
Book one to two weeks ahead for weekday tables. Weekend evenings and prime date-night slots fill faster given the intimate scale of the room, so add extra lead time for Friday or Saturday. Being part of Broadwick Soho means some tables may be held for hotel guests, which can tighten availability at short notice.
The seductive, intimate atmosphere is designed primarily around couples and small groups rather than solo diners. There is no confirmed bar counter or solo-specific seating documented in available data. Solo visits are possible but the format skews toward twos; if solo dining flexibility matters, verify seating options directly with the restaurant before booking.
Keep this venue in your Pearl passport, rate it after you visit, and track it alongside every other place you collect.
